Number of Netflix users in S. Korea drops 30% in a year

The number of Netflix users in South Korea has decreased by more than 30% in the past year since the recovery from COVID-19.

According to Byun Jae-il (Democratic Party of Korea), a member of the Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee of the National Assembly on Monday, based on a report submitted by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the number of Netflix users in South Korea was 1.17 million as of the fourth quarter of 2022, a drop of 30.5% from the same period in the previous year.

All of the top-five companies in terms of Internet traffic, including Netflix (ranked 5th), saw a decrease in the number of users compared to the previous year, reflecting the aftermath of the pandemic.

During the same period, Google's user base fell by 8.3% to 47.23 million, while Kakao and Naver both saw a decline in user numbers, with 31.78 million (down 21.7%) and 33.06 million (down 18.0%) users respectively.

Meta's user base also shrank by 30.5% to 4.7 million in the fourth quarter of last year.

The ministry annually aggregates the number of users and traffic status of five value-added telecommunications service providers, including Google, Netflix, Meta Platforms, Naver and Kakao, which all have a daily average number of users of more than one million and a daily average traffic share of more than 1%, in the fourth quarter.

Write to Han-Gyeol Seon at always@hankyung.com