Netflix Korea Chief Don Kang On Where The Streamer Is Spending Its $2.5 Billion In The ‘Squid Game’ Nation & Recent Industry Controversy – Mipcom Cannes Special
18.10.2023 - 06:07
/ deadline.com
When Netflix announced in April that it’s planning to spend $2.5 billion on Korean content across the next four years, on top of the more than $1 billion already spent since 2016, it made the world sit up and take notice.
In many ways, spending heavily in Korea is a no-brainer. Netflix has already had a global breakout Korean hit with Squid Game, followed by a slew of shows that may not have reached the same dizzy heights but are still international hits such as period zombie drama Kingdom, supernatural thriller Hellbound, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, about a female lawyer on the autism spectrum, revenge saga The Glory, and survival game show Physical: 100.
Of course, Netflix is not the only global streamer in the Korean content game, but it was arguably the first to spot its international potential. On a recent trip to Seoul, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that 60% of its global members have sampled Korean content and that Korean series and films have reached the Netflix Top 10 in more than 90 countries.
Speaking from Netflix’s offices in Seoul during a wide-ranging exclusive interview, Netflix’s Korean chief Don Kang says Korean dramas have long been loved by other Asian countries, but it wasn’t until Netflix entered the game that they found a large audience beyond the region.
“One of the main reasons I decided to join Netflix was because I believed it was a platform that could bring Korean content to the world, especially with its localization abilities of dubbing and subbing in more than 30 languages,” says Kang, who joined the streamer from local studio CJ ENM in 2018 and now holds the role of Vice President of Content for Korea.
“I knew that Netflix’s marketing and publicity muscle was powerful and would enable