The South Korean office of the global streaming giant Netflix is shown in this photo taken on Dec. 16, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 17 (Korea Bizwire) — U.S. streaming giant Netflix’s sales in South Korea rose 22 percent in 2022 from a year earlier thanks to a hike in subscription fees, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.
Netflix’s Korean sales came to 773.3 billion won (US$588.4 million) in 2022, up 141.6 billion won from 2021, Rep. Byun Jae-ill of the main opposition Democratic Party said, citing an analysis of Netflix’s financial report and an audit report.
The increase is apparently attributable to the company’s price increase across all of its subscription plans in South Korea at the end of 2021.
Its premium plan jumped 17.2 percent to 17,000 won and the standard plan rose 12.5 percent to 13,500 won, while the basic plan remained unchanged at 9,500 won.
It was the first price hike since Netflix launched its streaming service in South Korea in 2016.
Still, the average daily number of users of the video streaming platform in South Korea came to 1.17 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 30 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Netflix has dominated the South Korean streaming market since its Korean entry thanks to a string of global hit titles, including “Squid Game” (2021) and “The Glory” (2022).
Meanwhile, Tving, the nation’s largest streaming platform in terms of its subscriber base run by Korean media and entertainment giant CJ ENM, logged 247.6 billion won in sales last year but suffered an operating loss of 119 billion won.
Its rival Wavve, a homegrown platform owned by mobile carrier SK Telecom, as well as three broadcasters, KBS, MBC and SBS, saw its sales reach 273.5 billion won last year with an operating deficit of 121.7 billion won.
(Yonhap)
