This illustration provided by Yonhap News TV highlights the online streaming market.
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — One in 3 South Koreans users of online streaming services prefer subscription plans without advertisements, a survey showed Tuesday.
Local pollster Open Survey conducted a survey of 3,000 adults, with 32 percent of respondents expressing a preference against watching advertisements on streaming platforms, even if the subscription fee was cheaper.
Meanwhile, 42.5 percent indicated that their tolerance for ads would depend on the amount of the discount. Another 25.5 percent mentioned that they might tolerate ads if the subscription fee was sufficiently low.
A significant majority of respondents (90.3 percent) reported experiencing the desire to watch exclusive content on a streaming platform for which they were not subscribed.
In such cases, they turned to alternative sources, such as YouTube videos that provided reviews or summaries of the content. Only 30.1 percent expressed an intention to either subscribe or resubscribe to a streaming platform.
Regarding account sharing, 28 percent admitted to using a friend’s account to access a streaming platform, while 27.9 percent stated that they watched videos for free by searching for them on the internet.
When analyzing the frequency of access to streaming platforms, Netflix emerged as the leader, accounting for 49.6 percent of the total, followed by Tving (10.1 percent), Coupang Play (7.5 percent), Wavve (6.1 percent), and Disney+ (1.8 percent).
Open Survey highlighted various factors hindering customer loyalty.
Netflix, for example, faces the challenge of expensive subscription fees. Tving provides limited account sharing options, Coupang Play struggles with low publicity, and Disney+ lacks new content, according to the pollster.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
