Netflix’s $2.5 billion funding in South Korea is an “opportunity” for native enterprise, the streaming large’s CEO mentioned Thursday, as he performed down a dispute with native web firms over community utilization.
South Korea is one in every of Netflix’s greatest suppliers of tv collection and movies, and CEO Ted Sarandos mentioned it was “investing for the long term” within the nation, which has given the corporate international hits Squid Game and The Glory.
Outlining how the $2.5 billion — introduced in April in Washington whereas Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was on a state go to — can be spent, Sarandos praised the “amazing partnership between the Korean creative community and Netflix”.
“But I believe we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible,” he added, vowing to speculate closely in coaching South Korea’s subsequent technology of storytellers, along with boosting funding for unique reveals.
“We have to invest in their talent collectively as an industry. Between 2022 and 2025, for example, one in five Netflix titles in Korea will have come from a first-time writer or director,” he mentioned.
But South Korea’s service suppliers have accused Netflix, which launched within the nation in 2016, of free-riding on their networks — paying the usual charge, regardless of the numerous visitors congestion it has triggered.
Netflix sued SK Broadband in 2020, asking the court docket to substantiate that it has no obligation to pay community utilization charges to SK Broadband.
However, the court docket dominated with the Korean agency, saying it was “reasonable” for Netflix to be “obligated to provide something in return”. Netflix has appealed.
SK Broadband filed a separate go well with towards Netflix in 2021 arguing it ought to must pay for prices from elevated community visitors and upkeep work due to a surge in viewers for its content material. The case is ongoing.
Sarandos mentioned he would not name the present authorized dispute a “conflict”.
“I would say that there’s opportunity as businesses evolve. There’s a clear, direct and symbiotic relationship between creative companies like ours and internet industries,” the instructed reporters in Seoul. “We’ve invested about a billion U.S. dollars in developing this open connect system which improves and reduces the cost of delivery of bits around the world.”
He harassed Netflix has about 18,000 servers throughout 6,000 places in 175 international locations that “make the internet move faster and more efficiently”, and the funding will solely proceed.
“I’d say that the opportunity to work together to create a better consumer experience for the internet, for content, for general joy of consumers is something we should be doing together.”
Over the previous few years, South Korean content material has taken the world by storm, with greater than 60 p.c of Netflix viewers watching a present from the nation in 2022, firm knowledge confirmed.
© 2023 AFP