Surfing the K-Wave

How the South Korean content gains momentum and re-engages Netflix audiences in Latin America, Europe, and English-speaking territories.

South Korean pop culture has made a visible impact on the international mainstream. Significant examples of globalization of South Korean exports include BTS sweeping Billboard Music Awards since 2017, Parasite winning Best Picture Academy Award in 2019, and Squid Game taking over Netflix and breaking all time viewing records in 2021. Most recently, The King’s Affection won an International Emmy Award for Best Telenovela, and legendary South Korean producer and media mogul Miky Lee has been recognized by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with the 2022 Directorate Award.

An annual report jointly released by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, revealed

consumption of Korean cultural contents rose in all categories - beauty, drama, fashion, entertainment shows, games, animation, and publication - in 2021.

The Korean government considers the entertainment and media industry as a key driver for the future national economy. “Online consumption of contents has become more common, which served as a major factor leading to global consumption of Korean contents, but this is a result that cannot be achieved

without the competitiveness of the content itself,” said Choi Kyung-hee, the head of the research team at the Korean Foundation for International Cultural

Exchange. (source: Korean Herald)

So while K-Wave is gaining strong momentum, we’ve decided to take a look at the performance of Korean productions on Netflix in selected countries in LatAm, Europe, and English-speaking territories. These are our findings.

Please keep in mind that we’re purposefully omitting Squid Game in our analysis. (You can check out our spotlight on Squid Game’s performance in the US and its impact on Asian content consumption – https://medium.com/@plumresearch/the-squid-game-effect-are-us-netflix-audiences-watching-more-asian-content-d3a0f92bbe68

First things first: How many Korean productions are available on Netflix?

Graph 1: An Estimated Number of Available Korean Productions & Co-productions per Country,

October 2021 - October 2022

The average number of Korean Productions (series and movies) available in the countries we’ve considered is around 350. The United States (426), Australia (403), and the United Kingdom (396) have the most Korean content available. Latam countries have the least.

What’s interesting, however, is the fact that the Argentinian and Mexican Netflix have added more Korean productions to their library since October 2021 (Graph 2.) than other countries we’ve looked into (with a small exception of the United States, which also added 85 new titles). That means there is a growing appetite and opportunities for K-Dramas in Latin America.

It goes without saying that the international focus on Korean content shifted in October 2021, so we’re talking Squid Game-Changer here.

Graph 2: An Estimated Number of New Korean Productions per Country,

October 2021 - October 2022

Consumption of different K-genres.

While we’re using the K-dramas term here, the demand for and popularity ofdifferent genres varies, depending on whether we’re looking at Unique Viewers (UV) or Total Hours Watched (THW).

Graph 3: The Most Popular Genre per Country and per Unique Viewers

Graph 4: The Most Popular Genre per Country and per Total Hours Watched (THW)

One can conclude that while a significant number of audiences are giving Animation a try, they will eventually spend the majority of their time watching Action & Adventure type of South Korean content.

You might also wonder how the consumption (THW) of Korean production fits amongst all available content on Netflix in those countries, please wonder no more.

Graph 5: Percentage of Korean Production in Monthly Total Hours Watched (THW)

An average for all those countries in the past 13 months was 6%, but you can very clearly see the Squid Game Effect in October 2021. At that time, the highest THW share was noted in France, reaching nearly 13.5%.

Millions of hours are spent on watching Korean content on Netflix. Each month (since October 2021), there’s an average of 68.3M THW in LatAm (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico), 82.1M THW in English Speaking Territories (Australia, Canada, UK, USA), and 33.4M in Europe (Germany, France, Poland).

The most popular titles, you ask? Here they are:

Table 1: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 - October 2022, LATAM: Argentina

Table 2: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, LATAM: Brazil

Table 3: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, LATAM: Mexico

Table 4: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, Europe: Poland

Table 5: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, Europe: France

Table 6: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, Europe: Germany

Table 7: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, English-Speaking Markets: the United States

Table 8: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, English-Speaking Markets: Canada

Table 9: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, English-Speaking Markets: Australia

Table 10: Top 10 Korean Titles by Total Hours Watched, October 2021 -October 2022, English-Speaking Markets: the United Kingdom

As you can see, The King’s Affection is present in the Top 10 in almost every listed country, meaning that industry experts voting in the International Emmy competition and the general public agree on the value of this Korean production.

Power & Influence.

Now let’s talk about how powerful and influential Korean productions are on Netflix. Using Showlabs, we were able to determine that some titles were significantly responsible for re-engaging Netflix subscribers that were inactive in the past 30 days.

Our Reactivation Points System awards a certain amount of points to the first 10 titles watched by each subscriber upon reactivation.

The most effective titles across all countries we’ve analyzed were: All of Us Are Dead, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and Business Proposal.

This is a particularly important insight showing the value of these productions and their creators to the platform they are available on. The reactivation points can be easily translated into monetary evaluation. Slightly less influential titles such as My name, Hellbound, Money Heist: Korea, Twenty Five Twenty One also had a significant impact on international audiences in terms of subscribers’ reactivation.

What happens in South Korea, doesn’t stay in South Korea.

Finally, let’s take a quick look at the demands of the South Korean audience in their domestic market. Here are the Top 10 Series and Top 10 Movies listed by the Unique Viewers (UV):

Table 11: Top 10 Series on Netflix in South Korea, October 2021 -October 2022

Table 12: Top 10 Movies on Netflix in South Korea, October 2021 -October 2022

Local audience demands local content, especially when it comes to the Series. Top 10 Movies is slightly more diverse, as 40% of the listed titles are USA hits.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo turned out to be a bullseye for Netflix. Not only is it a highly demanded and popular show amongst the local audience, but it has also stolen the hearts of international viewers. It lands in the TOP 3 in LatAm and English Speaking Territories, but most importantly, it has the power to re-engage the inactive subscriber base around the world.

Such high popularity of South Korean productions outside of their core market proves that international content travels well on Netflix, despite cultural, social or linguistic differences. At the end of the day what matters is a captivating story, quality of production and actors’ performances.

Hopefully, the commercial success of Squid Game, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, All of Us Are Dead or The King’s Affection will open doors to other Korean content creators, storytellers, producers and distributors. Our data leaves no doubt that opportunities are there, due to high demand for South Korean content and the influential power it possesses.

PlumResearch specializes in precise and granular data measurement from streaming platforms. It has the world’s largest online audience panel and provides its clients with data from over 75 markets worldwide.

Through Showlabs - the proprietary platform created by PlumResearch - the company’s clients can find out how shows and movies are performing worldwide and track what exactly contributes to their success. Showlabs provides clients with accurate data, in-depth insights, and a reliable customer support team.