With the Increase in OTT Viewers... Wireless Traffic for Video Exceeds 10,000TB

Increase in Smartphone Video Viewing
Growth in Music Streaming and Map Traffic
Decrease in Portal and SNS Usage

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Wireless traffic for videos transmitted over a month on online video services (OTT) such as Netflix has exceeded 10,000 terabytes (TB) for the first time.

According to the recently released "Wireless Data Traffic Statistics" by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 3rd, as of September this year, wireless traffic from video viewing in South Korea reached 10,464.2TB, an 8.3% increase compared to June. This is the first time that video wireless data traffic has surpassed 10,000TB in the quarterly (3-month) statistics compiled by the government.

Among content types classified as video, multimedia, web portals, SNS (social networking services), and market downloads, video accounted for the largest share of total traffic at 61.2%.

Wireless traffic for multimedia, such as music streaming services like Melon and Genie Music and map services, increased by 33.3% to 1,400.2TB.

Unlike video and multimedia, web portal and SNS traffic decreased by 7.5% and 1.2%, respectively, to 2,257TB and 1,931.3TB.

The increase in traffic used for video services is largely attributed to the popularization of OTT. Consumers watching two or more OTT services such as Netflix, domestic Wave, Watcha, and TVING on mobile devices are increasing. Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus will also launch in South Korea in November.

Conversely, the share of web portal and SNS traffic is believed to have decreased as viewers increasingly use video platforms like YouTube for searching or communicating.

Traffic refers to the amount of data flowing through network devices such as servers and switches within a certain period. Excessive traffic can overload servers, causing functional problems.

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