This image from Walt Disney Company Korea shows the logo of Disney+, a content streaming service from Walt Disney Co.
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Disney+, a content streaming service from Walt Disney Co., will be launched in South Korea in November, heating up the competition in the local over-the-top (OTT) market, the U.S. entertainment titan has said in a conference call.
Disney+ on Thursday (U.S. time) said it will begin its service in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in November.
The streaming service is currently offered in 61 countries in 21 languages. In the Asia Pacific region, it is available in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
The service distributes various films and TV series from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and Star, showing their original content hits like “Loki” and “The Mandalorian.”
The addition of Disney+ will intensify the competition in the local paid video streaming market that is led by Netflix.
Netflix had 7.9 million monthly active users as of June, while Wavve, a homegrown streaming platform run by major broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS, logged 3.88 million users, according to recent data from market tracker Nielsen Koreanclick.
Another South Korean streaming service provider, Tving, owned by local entertainment titan CJ ENM, had 3.34 million users as of June.
Monthly active users refer to unique users who interacted with a service at least once a month.
South Korea’s video streaming services have been growing fast amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend.
According to a survey from the Korea Communications Commission, 66.3 percent of South Koreans answered they used OTT media, or content streaming services, in 2020.
(Yonhap)
