Will Disney Plus Entering Korea Dominate the Asian Market?

Rival to Netflix
Asia OTT Expected to Deliver a "Shockwave"

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] With the official launch of Walt Disney's online video service (OTT) 'Disney Plus' in Korea, significant shifts and changes in the Asian OTT market landscape are expected.

Although the initial launch countries were specified as Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, and Korea, it is interpreted that the expansion will extend to Asian countries including China.

On the 14th, foreign media such as the US Hollywood outlet Screen Rant projected that the Eastern European markets for Netflix's expansion would include Russia, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

The outlet also mentioned that negotiations might be underway for mainland China. Success in the Chinese market will not only determine success in the Asian market but also cannot be ignored due to China's large population and OTT growth potential despite strict censorship and regulations.

Screen Rant stated, "Mainland China is unlikely to be included in the 2021 Disney Plus launch, but Disney may have started negotiating ways to provide a large-scale streaming service."

In fact, Disney Plus began its service in the US and Canada and gradually expanded its regions. One week after the North American launch, it was released in Australia and New Zealand, followed by expansions into the UK, Central Europe, Western Europe, and North Africa.

Disney Plus subscribers have rapidly increased to 86.8 million (as of the 2nd), just one year after its launch. This is 44% of the global subscribers of Netflix, which has been operating for 10 years.

The strength of Disney Plus lies in its diverse content portfolio, including Marvel series such as Iron Man and Avengers, the Star Wars series, animations like Frozen and Toy Story, and documentaries from National Geographic.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.