Simply two days earlier than the third and remaining season of Squid Sport launches on Netflix, the streamer’s head of Korean content material, Don Kang, appeared on stage on the APOS media and leisure summit to debate the wide-ranging cultural influence of Korean exhibits, the Korean business’s manufacturing lull, in addition to Netflix’s advert tier efficiency within the nation.
Promotion efforts are in full swing for Squid Sport, with the solid making appearances in New York and Los Angeles just lately — and a large Squid Sport parade is about to happen in central Seoul on Saturday from Gwanghwamun to Seoul Plaza, co-hosted with the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities.
“At this level, I’m not targeted on any numbers or expectations or efficiency, however actually targeted on the delivering this nice finale for the followers, and delivering the superb work by the complete solid and crew,” stated Kang on the APOS summit, held in Bali, Indonesia. “I used to be simply in New York final week, for the New York premiere occasion, and hundreds of individuals confirmed up. It was simply actually thrilling to see the fervour.”
Kang has labored at Netflix for seven years, after beforehand working in worldwide distribution at Korean conglomerate CJ ENM.
He has shepherded the record-breaking sequence by three seasons, working with creator Hwang Dong-hyuk.
“My earlier job earlier than Netflix, I used to be doing worldwide distribution. I knew Korean content material was beloved outdoors Korea, however largely within the APAC area, and it was virtually inconceivable to increase additional than that market,” stated Kang. “However ever since I moved to Netflix, I actually noticed this surge of world fandom round Korean content material, particularly across the time of Squid Sport. For most individuals outdoors Korea, Squid Sport was the actual first Korean sequence that they actually watched. Ever since then, greater than 80% of Netflix members have all watched Korean content material and plenty of of them proceed to take action. It’s a testomony that an incredible present on Netflix can actually increase that viewers.
“From season one, it took us about three years to provide season two. That’s a comparatively very long time for a sequel,” added Kang. “There was a query of whether or not folks would present up. And what we noticed, the numbers had been unimaginable. The definition of views is drawn from the precise hours watched, and it was greater than 190 million views.”
In simply the premiere week, Squid Sport‘s second season obtained greater than 60 million views and have become Netflix’s largest present within the second half of 2024. Season 1 ranks as Netflix’s hottest present ever.
Nevertheless, the third season of Squid Sport is premiering amid a time of nice concern and anxiousness among the many Korean movie and tv business, with the business going through main points like excessive manufacturing prices and troubling theatrical figures. Korea’s field workplace to this point this 12 months has recorded its lowest attendance in twenty years.
When requested about these issues within the Korean content material business and the lull in manufacturing, Kang stated: “There was a time the place there have been wherever between like a 100-150 sequence per 12 months. That occurred throughout a part when a whole lot of sequence had been being exported to China and we noticed a whole lot of international gamers starting to take curiosity in Korean sequence. However I actually see this as a part as a result of we’ve seen a surge of manufacturing and rising manufacturing prices earlier than, when China was a extremely large marketplace for us. When it stopped, everybody thought everybody was actually in large bother.
“It’s a part. It goes up and it goes down, however I’m very assured sooner or later. I’ve many associates from the native business, sitting right here on this convention room. It’s a time the place we have to observe self-discipline when it comes to managing prices. But additionally I do know, we’ve finished it earlier than, and can come out of this stronger,” added Kang.
Wanting internally, Kang stated that he’s optimistic that the platform may even be capable of experience out this lull within the business.
“These manufacturing prices are decided by the manufacturing corporations, so once we discover one thing that’s attention-grabbing to fee, we expect lengthy and exhausting about what’s the applicable measurement of the funding,” stated Kang. “We talk about and issues get finalized by the negotiations. We attempt to right-size the finances and so long as we will all train that self-discipline collectively, I’m very assured in regards to the future well being.”
Kang added that apart from working with veteran administrators, additionally it is necessary to seek for new expertise and he goals for 20 to 25% of the streamer’s Korean titles to be works from new creators.
On the opposite aspect of price-related discussions, Kang shared that Korean audiences are taking over the streamer’s ad-supported tier at a charge “comparable” to Netflix’s international charge, with 50% of all new members signing as much as the advert tier.
“Our advert enterprise in Korea is monitoring much like what we’re seeing all over the world,” stated Kang. “It provides our audiences and members the selection of how a lot they need to pay for Netflix, and it additionally creates an incredible alternative for the manufacturers to hook up with the tales on Netflix.”
On the partnerships entrance, Netflix has solid partnerships with Naver in addition to Korean automobile producer Kia.
Naver and Netflix unveiled a partnership in September final 12 months, with Naver additionally providing Netflix’s ad-supported normal plan as a part of its Naver Plus membership since November.
“Our single most necessary measurement of success is engagement,” stated Kang. “With Naver, it was an progressive approach to actually discover and interact with a brand new sector of audiences in Korea.”
Netflix additionally just lately commissioned a third-party survey of over 11,500 folks all over the world about Korean content material, breaking down recognition and fandom, with a majority of those respondents coming from key markets just like the U.S., Brazil, France, India and Japan.
The report, titled “How Ok-Content material is Shaping International Perceptions of Korea,” discovered that Netflix members had been two instances extra more likely to be focused on Korean tradition, and Netflix members had been additionally twice as doubtless (63% of Netflix customers vs 36% of non-users) to indicate curiosity in watching Ok-Content material sooner or later.
Drama, adopted by romance after which motion, emerged because the most-liked style amongst Korean content material viewers outdoors of Korea.
Kang identified that there’s a optimistic impact from Netflix’s Korean exhibits and content material in producing curiosity about different points of Korean tradition.
“The good factor is that every one these exhibits have Korean parts — such as you get to look at Korean meals, you get to listen to the songs we sing, the locations that we go to,” stated Kang. “It actually impacts the way in which the world sees and understands Korean tradition. We have now a brand new research that exhibits Netflix members have a a lot larger affinity in the direction of Korean tradition and are extra prepared to discover Korean merchandise than non-members.”
