The Rebellion of the 'OTT Underdog'... Watcha CEO Heads to Cannes

Entry into Cannes International Series Festival
Special OTT Presentation on Differentiation Strategy

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Park Tae-hoon, CEO of Watcha, which entered the French 'Cannes International Series Festival' with the original drama 'Jojjosso,' introduced Watcha's data-driven efficiency strategy as its competitive edge amid competition with global giants like Netflix and Disney.

According to Watcha on the 12th, CEO Park recently appeared as an invited speaker at the 'MIP TV Festival,' part of the Cannes International Series Festival held locally in France, where he explained trends in Korean online video service (OTT) content production and Watcha's service strategy. Due to increased interest and demand for Korean OTTs, the organizers specially requested CEO Park to give a presentation.

CEO Park said, "In Korea, 5 to 6 OTT platforms including global platforms, terrestrial broadcasters, large corporations, and Watcha are competing," adding, "The uniqueness of the Korean market lies in the fact that despite the entry of Netflix and Disney, local platforms continue to emerge and expand investments, creating a competitive environment that leads to the co-growth of production and distribution."

Regarding the background of Watcha's differentiated service among global media giants and large corporations, CEO Park pointed to big data. Since 2011, Watcha has operated the content recommendation platform 'WatchaPedia,' accumulating various big data. He explained, "Watcha, once the 'underdog' in the OTT market, was able to attempt new initiatives that competitors could not through consumer data and technology-based content strategies. The success of niche content such as the original works Jojjosso (Small and Medium Enterprises) and Semantic Error (BL) is thanks to the power of such data analysis." In the case of Semantic Error, it was mentioned more than 170,000 times on Twitter by hashtag (#) in the past three months alone. In the OTT market, Twitter is a measure of content success. Because sharing image files such as GIFs (moving images) is free, it is more suitable for judging content success than closed platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

CEO Park also expressed his intention to enter the global market through cooperation with global content providers. Watcha has officially announced plans for overseas expansion with the goal of attracting 100 million global subscribers by 2030. CEO Park said, "Following Korea and Japan, where services are currently offered, we plan to launch services in several countries including the United States and Europe next year," adding, "Through big data-based content strategies and K-drama production know-how, we will apply various collaboration and growth models such as co-production and investment with multiple local countries."