K-Content News

 

By. Lee Gyu-lee

The over-the-top (OTT) service has been a booming industry in recent years, especially with the COVID-19 outbreak pushing people to stay inside.

However, as the pandemic restrictions ease and competition intensifies in the OTT industry, platforms are seeking alternatives to diversify their business portfolios to secure their footing in the heated streaming war.

Local streaming service, Watcha, has made its way into the webtoon business, servicing a series of original webcomics on its platform.

The platform debuted eight original webcomics on Oct. 13, including the webtoon adaptation of its original reality series, "Join My Table." It will update new episodes of the digital comics each week for subscribers to enjoy along with other video content on the platform at no additional cost.

"Watcha has expanded its service to include webtoons and has initiated the process to develop into a multi-content platform beyond video streaming," the company said in a statement. "Watcha has been loved by its users through constant changes and innovations, and we seek to take another leap to become a platform that crosses over video and webtoon content."

Earlier this year, the homegrown platform announced a project to launch "Watcha 2.0," a new, innovative version of its platform, to expand into music and webtoons.

"Watcha will evolve from a video streaming service into 'Watcha 2.0' as a comprehensive entertainment subscription service that offers music and webtoons," the company's co-founder and COO Won Ji-hyun said during a media event in February. "We seek to break down the barriers between contents to incorporate movies, dramas, webtoons, and music together, which will all be available through Watcha."

Global streaming service, Netflix, a dominant player in the local streaming market, jumped into the gaming business in November of last year and introduced about 30 mobile games as of October, including ones based on the platform's franchises like "The Queen's Gambit" and "Too Hot To Handle."

The platform announced on Oct. 26 that it launched a game studio in Helsinki, Finland, adding to its three existing studios.

"This is another step in our vision to build a world-class game studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games ― with no ads and no in-app purchases ― to our hundreds of millions of members around the world," Amir Rahimi, vice president of Netflix's Game Studios, said on the company's blog post.

Netflix reportedly aims to grow the number of games to 50 by the end of this year, which will include ones adapting its hit original series.

Coupang Play, the streaming service of the online retail giant Coupang, and Tving have taken a different approach in their original content to offer exclusive concerts or sports games, along with their original series or shows.

Coupang Play has organized two exhibition games this July, inviting Tottenham Hotspur FC. It held two friendly games with the London-based Premier League team, against a team of the K-League's top players and the Spanish football team, Sevilla FC.

The exclusive live-streaming of the soccer games garnered a significant rise in the number of its subscribers, seeing about a 1.1 million jump in its monthly active user counts in that month.

Tving also saw a steep increase in its users by live streaming the concert of popular singer Lim Young-woong in August. Lim's first solo concert, held in Seoul, contributed to the highest number of newly subscribed users in the platform's history, according to Tving.

"We've made multiple contents related to the concert, from information, countdown video to interview streaming, for the fans who have waited for Lim's concert to enjoy the live streaming," Tving said in a statement.