The popular content streaming company, Netflix, is planning to expand its presence in South Korea, months after it has been launched in the country.
The service was first launched in South Korea in January as part of its global expansion efforts. In addition to expanding its presence, the company have also announced their plans or creating original Korean series until 2017, KPop Herald reported.
The announcements were made at a press conference on Thursday, and accordingly, the projects that are included are the film "Okja" and the Korean-English drama series, titled "Dramaworld." The film is said to be directed by Bong Joon-ho, while the drama series will be produced with the streaming service called Viki.
Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings said in a statement that this is just the beginning of the company veering towards the Korean market, adding that they are focused on expanding and calling South Korea as the pivotal market in Asia.
Meanwhile, Netflix is also currently filming a series in California titled "Ultimate Beastmaster." It has an entirely Korean cast and Korean comedians such as Seo Kyung-suk and Park Kyeong-rim. In addition, the hit series "Descendants of the Sun" will also start streaming on Netflix this summer and will be available to viewers in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, Korea Herald reported.
Hastings added that compared to other companies spreading American content to different countries, they are trying to export content from all over the world to the rest of the world. Hastings continued, "We started producing original programming in local languages in Mexico, Germany, France, Spain, Argentina and ... now Korea, starting a few years ago."
As for now, a few number of old Korean films are available on Netflix, but chief of content Ted Sarandos said that it will increase soon. He even stated, "When we launch into new territory, we use our time to learn the market and study what local viewers are seeing ... which helps us make better investments in local programming."
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