Chinese short-form drama platforms operating in South Korea are rapidly expanding their influence while remaining outside the telecommunications provider registration and management system. These platforms, which offer content with high levels of suggestiveness and violence, are in a regulatory gray area, leaving the government unable to track their domestic revenue or user numbers.
According to Lee Joo-hee, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party, an investigation into 11 Chinese short drama platforms, including DramaBox, LilShot, and TopShot, revealed that none had registered as telecommunications providers. However, this is not considered a violation of current laws.
Foreign firms providing services from abroad without a domestic entity are classified as 'cross-border service providers' and are exempt from registration requirements under the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and free trade agreements (FTAs).
While platforms like Netflix and Disney+ have registered local entities and are subject to regulatory oversight, Chinese short drama platforms operate directly through apps without a domestic presence, leading to differing regulatory treatment among foreign video platforms.
The concern lies in the content offered by these unregistered platforms. With inconsistent review standards and the ability to access 15+ rated content without logging in, there are growing worries, but the government lacks effective means to manage and supervise these services.
Lee Jong-kwan, a senior expert at law firm Sejong, noted, "If services are provided in a cross-border manner without a domestic entity, it may be difficult to apply domestic laws. If the telecommunications business survey does not capture these platforms, it will be hard to ascertain their revenue scale."
Under the Telecommunications Business Act, the obligation to designate a domestic agent applies only to providers with an average daily user count exceeding 1 million in the previous year or a domestic traffic share of over 1%. Since the scale of these platforms is unclear, it is uncertain whether they meet this criterion. Lee added, "Even if the government requests data submission or seeks to address user harm, the lack of administrative contact domestically may hinder enforcement efforts."
Amid this regulatory gap, Chinese short dramas are seeing a sharp increase in both viewing time and user numbers. According to Mobile Index, the average monthly usage time for ShortMax in June was 332 minutes, which is 88% of the time spent on Tving (376 minutes) and 72% of that on Wavve (464 minutes). DramaBox (260 minutes) and LilShot (201 minutes) also significantly outperformed Coupang Play (71 minutes).
The average usage time for the three platforms—DramaBox, LilShot, and ShortMax—rose from 248 minutes in January to 264 minutes in June, while the average for domestic OTT platforms Tving, Wavve, and Coupang Play decreased from 328 minutes to 304 minutes, narrowing the gap from 80 minutes to nearly 40 minutes. Monthly active users (MAU) for LilShot surged from 64,529 in January to 389,160 in July, nearly a sixfold increase (503%), while DramaBox approached 1 million users with 919,761.
This growth reflects a global trend. According to Sensor Tower, global downloads of short drama apps reached 850 million in the first quarter of this year, a 140% increase from the same period last year, with revenue from payments rising by 20% to approximately $750 million.
A survey by the Korea Information Society Agency found that short-form content usage rates reached 95% among teenagers and 94.8% among adults, marking increases of 10 percentage points and 17.3 percentage points, respectively, compared to 2023. The popularity of provocative themes, such as romances between step-siblings and affairs with ex-boyfriends' fathers, has also been noted as a factor in retaining users on LilShot.
Stability Chang, an adjunct professor at Chung-Ang University’s Graduate School of Communication, expressed concern, stating, "Provocative and sensational themes are driving repeat viewership among those in their 20s and 30s. If Chinese companies establish a comprehensive ecosystem encompassing content acquisition, platform operation, user data accumulation, and advertising and in-app payments, South Korea could lose not only its content consumption market but also platform leadership to foreign operators."
The growing presence of Chinese short dramas outside government oversight poses an increasing challenge to South Korea's media ecosystem.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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