86.5% of Citizens Use OTT... Monthly Subscription Fee 12,005 Won

Reasons for Subscription: 'Diverse Content' 69.6% Share Accounts
Generation 1030 Watches All at Once... Uses Playback Speed and Skip Features

86.5% of South Korean citizens were found to be OTT platform users. According to the '2023 OTT Usage Behavior Survey' published by the Korea Creative Content Agency on the 21st, 55.5% subscribed to paid services, and 77.9% subscribed to free services (YouTube).

The average number of subscribed platforms per paid user was 1.8. Usage rates were highest for Netflix (50%), TVING (13.2%), Coupang Play (10.9%), Disney+ (8.8%), Wavve (8.6%), and Watcha (3.0%). The average monthly subscription fee spent was 12,005 KRW, with a willingness to spend up to 15,995 KRW. The appropriate monthly fee was considered to be 7,006 KRW.

69.6% of users shared their accounts. The sharing rate was higher among those aged 70 and above (80.3%) and teenagers aged 13-19 (80.1%), while it was lower among people in their 30s (62.6%).

Among paid users, 71.2% cited "various video content" as the reason for subscribing. The most common criterion for content selection was "content theme and subject matter" (73.8%). The Korea Creative Content Agency explained, "This can be interpreted as OTT platform competitiveness stemming from the quality and quantity of content."

Users watched more Korean content (83.8%) than foreign content (61.8%). They preferred single-season series (71.4%) over seasonal series (65.7%), and binge-watching (67.8%) over episode-by-episode viewing (60.3%).

In terms of platform feature usage, the 10-30 age group stood out. They frequently binge-watched content and used playback speed and skip (section navigation) functions. Particularly, people in their 20s showed a tendency to prefer Korean subtitles when watching domestic content.

The 10-30 age group also had distinct and diverse content preferences. While generally welcoming family, detective/mystery, and youth/growth genres, they also favored genres such as superpowers/heroes, time travel, zombies/creatures/occult, and arts (music/visual arts).

This survey was conducted from July onwards, targeting 5,041 citizens aged 13 and above nationwide. The Korea Creative Content Agency stated, "This is the first case of analyzing the nation's OTT platform and content usage behavior through face-to-face interviews," and added, "The findings will be reflected in understanding OTT content industry trends and establishing promotion policies."