[Exclusive] 'Korea Love' Netflix to Hold Second Asia Open House

Domestic Special Effects Companies Collaborate
Joint VFX Technology Demonstration Planned
Squid Game and Now at Our School
Targeting Global Market with New Seasons

Toho Studio in Tokyo, Japan, where Netflix held Asia's first Virtual Production Open House event in April last year. Netflix plans to hold the second Open House event in Asia next month in Korea.

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] Netflix, which struggled with a decline in paid subscribers for the first time in over 11 years in the first quarter, is increasing its investment in South Korea. Alongside releasing new seasons of globally popular series such as "Squid Game" and "All of Us Are Dead," Netflix plans to strengthen close collaboration with domestic special effects companies to secure outstanding K-content in advance and differentiate its offerings.

Virtual Production Open House to be Held

According to industry sources on the 20th, Netflix will hold a Virtual Production Open House event in South Korea from July 11 to 14, lasting four days. This is the second event following the first one held last year at Toho Studios in Tokyo, Japan?the first of its kind in Asia. The event will invite industry professionals to showcase some of the virtual production technologies actually used in Netflix series. Since last year’s event at Toho Studios featured sets recreating vehicle driving scenes along with LED screens and systems, it is expected that VFX technology specialists will take the lead in joint demonstrations at the Korean event as well.

This move by Netflix is part of a plan announced during U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea in May to invest $100 million over six years in building special effects film production facilities in Korea. Through this investment, Netflix plans to release large-scale productions requiring special effects in the second half of this year, including "Money Heist: Korea ? Joint Economic Area" Part 2, "Deliveryman," and "Fool of the End." The production of Season 2 of "All of Us Are Dead," a Korean-style horror series that gained significant attention, has also been confirmed. Professor Jaewon Kang of Dongguk University commented, "This can be interpreted as Netflix showing confidence in its technology," adding, "Since Korea has low production costs and high effects, Netflix is expected to increase cooperation with Korean content creators."

Securing the Solution to the Crisis: ‘K-Content’

South Korea’s influence as a global content supplier is on the rise. "Squid Game," released in October last year and the highest-grossing Netflix series worldwide to date, is currently preparing for Season 2, targeting 2024. Netflix is producing a reality program based on the concept of a "Squid Game" tournament, where 456 participants compete for a prize of 6 billion KRW. This is a content work utilizing the intellectual property (IP) of "Squid Game."

As of the first quarter of this year, Netflix had 221.64 million members, down about 200,000 from 221.80 million in the fourth quarter of last year. This marks the first subscriber decline since 2011. The shock was intensified as the securities industry had predicted an increase of 2.7 million subscribers. The stock price also plummeted to around $175 as of the 18th (local time), falling to less than one-third of its value at the beginning of the year. Amid fierce competition in the global online video streaming service (OTT) market saturated with Disney+, Apple TV+, Paramount, Peacock, and others, it is anticipated that Korean virtual effects technology will become a key foothold determining content technological prowess.

A Netflix representative in Korea stated, "As we continue to invest in and collaborate with the Korean creative ecosystem, we plan to actively promote this technology exchange platform established to grow alongside the essential VFX and post-production industries for content creation."