South Korea's pop culture boosts Netflix's growth

NEW YORK: A new report has stated that South Korea has become Netflix’s biggest source of growth in the international markets.

According to Netflix, 46% of its net new global paid customers in the third quarter came from the Asia Pacific region. Revenue rose 66% from last year, primarily in Japan and South Korea, the company reported.

Netflix’s South Korean business has played a major role in third-quarter growth. The world’s largest paid streaming video service now serves 3.3 million paid members in the region as of Sept. 30, the source said.

Overall, Netflix now serves more than 195 million paid subscribers. The company has helped fuel and is fueled by the global popularity of the pop culture machine of South Korea.

Since 2015, the world’s largest subscription streaming video platform has invested nearly $700 million in financing partnerships and co-productions, the source said.

More than 70 Korean-made shows from local creators have been released as Netflix-branded originals around the world and are available in 31 subtitled languages and more than 20 dubbed languages.

In October, Netflix released the original documentary Black Pink: Light Up the Sky about the highest charted female Korean act on the Billboard 100. The group’s recent music video for ‘How You Like That’ broke an all-time YouTube record as the most-watched video in a 24-hour period with 86.3 million views.