Two thirds of Koreans use OTT services; YouTube favored

Two out of every three Koreans used over-the-top (OTT) media last year, with YouTube the favored platform from which to watch videos and other streaming services, a government survey showed.

The country’s OTT usage rate stood at 66.3% in 2020, up 14.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) on Feb. 2.

A survey of 6,029 people aged 13 or older by the media regulator showed YouTube was the most popular OTT service with a usage rate of 62.3%, followed by Netflix at 16.3%.

Those who use OTT services at a fixed rate or pay extra fees for premium access accounted for 14.4%, up from 7.8% in 2019. Netflix topped the list of OTT services in this category with 7.7%, followed by YouTube (5.4%) and homegrown player Wavve (1.6%).

The OTT market has seen substantial growth in Korea and abroad during the global pandemic due to social distancing and shelter-in-place becoming the daily norm.

Stay-at-home practices apparently led to an increase in broadcast and video streaming viewership, with 32.1% of the respondents saying their viewing time increased during the pandemic.

The survey also found that smartphone ownership for the ages 10 to 59 neared the saturation point at over 98% last year, while the rates for those in their 60s and 70s stood at 91.7% and 50.8%, respectively.


OTT SPURS K-CONTENT GROWTH

As competition heats up among global OTT services, Korean dramas, pop music and other Korean content have enjoyed global popularity on the back of the Korean wave, or hallyu.

Last month, Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said it will provide 21.2 billion won ($19.3 million) to support the production of local broadcast content in a bid to boost next-generation media services.

The ministry said it will focus on OTT content, setting aside 5.1 billion won to support short-form videos and cross-media content.

According to market and consumer data service provider Statista, as of January 2020, there were 164 OTT subscriptions per 100 households in the US and 132 in Canada, making North America the largest OTT market worldwide, followed by China, which had 68 subscriptions per 100 homes.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.