Watcha Achieves Break-Even Point in Q3... Strengthens New Business 'Short Drama'

Webtoon Individual Purchase Sales Up 1552% YoY
Strengthening Profitability with New Business Model
Seeking Efficiency in Marketing Aspects

Watcha announced on the 1st that it has reached the breakeven point for the third quarter. Watcha operates the online video service (OTT) Watcha and the content recommendation service WatchaPedia.

Watcha stated that after achieving the breakeven point (BEP) for the first time on a monthly basis in June, it has improved profitability and strengthened competitiveness to reach the breakeven point on a quarterly basis for the first time.

Watcha has strengthened profitability through new business models such as transactional video on demand (TVOD) and pay-per-view (PPV) for webtoons. As a result, TVOD and webtoon sales in the third quarter surged by 302% and 1552%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. For TVOD, users can watch not only the latest movies but also older works and series, and the number of webtoons available via PPV increased by about 300% compared to the previous year.

Cost efficiency was also pursued in marketing and operations. In marketing, with a limited budget, Watcha increased user engagement by conducting monthly events that encourage users to watch Watcha’s content in connection with WatchaPedia.

Since September, Watcha has launched a new business with the short drama platform "Shotcha." Currently, short dramas from various countries including Korea, China, the United States, and Japan are available to watch.

Since 2018, Watcha has been strengthening local services with a strategy to expand the K-content pool by entering overseas markets, the first among domestic OTTs.

A Watcha representative said, "Although there were limitations in operating funds due to intensified competition in the content market and contraction in the investment market, operating profit has turned positive."

Watcha is an online content streaming service where users can watch about 100,000 video and webtoon works. Based on over 710 million star rating data from WatchaPedia, it provides optimized content curation to users through a highly advanced personalized recommendation engine using machine learning and AI.