[Courtesy of Watcha ]
SEOUL -- In a highly competitive market dominated by big foreign players such as Netflix, the world's top over-the-top platform, Watcha, a home-grown plant in South Korea, presented a new survival strategy to become a comprehensive entertainment subscription platform by adding music and webtoon subscriptions to video content.
Unlike other OTT platforms that have grown based on new or big commercial movies, Watcha, which has increased subscribers' loyalty with diversity to reflect subscribers' tastes, is striving to increased its viability with an upgraded 2.0 platform that maximizes content value and diversity based on data.
"This year, we will make a big difference with Watcha 2.0, a comprehensive entertainment subscription platform that adds music and webtoons, and make a big leap forward to prepare for the next 10 or 20 years," Watch CEO Park Tae-hoon told reporters on February 22. He thinks Watcha 2.0 will be competitive in overseas markets.
The new subscription model recommends songs inserted in the movie, or webtoons and movies together. "Watcha 2.0 will be able to bring time that OTT has not occupied so far because users can spend spare time to enjoy music and webtoons while moving or working," chief operating officer Won Ji-hyun said, adding that Watcha 2.0 would provide a comprehensive and continuous content appreciation experience.
"Movies, dramas, webtoons, and music come together to break down the boundaries of content categories. After watching a movie, you can enjoy a music playlist or other works created by the main actor," Won said.
Watcha disclosed a scheme to push for globalization from 2023. "We aim to have 100 million subscribers worldwide by 2030," Park said. "Getting global data overseas by loading K-content on our platform is more valuable than making money."
Watcha would try to jump into a non-fungible token (NFT) market under a strategic partnership with South Korea's leading blockchain company Dunamu which has created a joint venture with Hybe, the agency of BTS, to turn the intellectual property of artists into digital assets that can be displayed and exchanged in fan communities.
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