Author | Lu Yue
One-two-three wooden figures, digging out sugar cakes, playing marbles...
Whether you open social media or short video platforms, several game clips in the Korean drama " Squid Game " always appear repeatedly, surrounding The topic of this drama also seems to have invaded the entire Internet in an instant. Up to now, the number of topic views of the drama on Weibo has exceeded 1.5 billion, and on Douyin , the total number of views of short videos with the title of the drama has exceeded 3 billion.
The popularity of this drama has spread not only in China but also around the world. Because it is produced by Netflix, this series has been promoted to more than 190 countries at the same time since its launch. According to data released by Netflix, the series has topped the list in many countries and regions in Asia and Europe, and also won TV No. 1 in the overall SHOWS ranking, becoming the first Korean drama to top the list.
Although Netflix still maintains the habit of never announcing ratings to the public, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has publicly stated that the show will become Netflix's most popular non-English series to date.
Looking back on the past, there is also a Korean drama called " kingdom " that gives you the illusion that "the whole world is watching it, and I will fall behind if I don't watch it." This Korean drama, also produced by Netflix, has become a hot topic since the first season aired in 2019. When the second season aired last year, 170,000 people on Douban gave it a high score of 8.3.
It is not uncommon for Netflix products to "take the world by storm", but before that most of them were European and American dramas such as "House of Cards". How has Netflix become the promoter of hit Korean dramas in overseas markets today? In the traditional concept, streaming media overseas basically only exports translated film and television works, but why is Netflix producing localized content overseas and successfully exporting it to the world?
Netflix’s global strategy and Asian model
The story of how Netflix became a huge success has been told too many times. In 2013, "House of Cards" became an instant hit, bringing 3 million new members to Netflix during the season it aired, and a year-on-year revenue increase of 18%. It also gained the status of leading the restructuring of the American television industry. At the same time, as a successful sample of streaming media , Netflix has also become the object of research and imitation by global streaming media players, including China.
is able to gain such influence at the public level thanks to Netflix's globalization strategy. Netflix, which launched its globalization strategy in 2016, was launched in 130 countries around the world at the same time, officially transforming from an American company into a global media company. In the third quarter of 2017, Netflix’s number of international paying users officially exceeded the number of U.S. paying users.
"Squid Game"
Since going overseas, Netflix has formed a common methodology and strategy for going overseas. In terms of operations,
first solves possible local bandwidth and network problems, determines appropriate local subscription fees and website functions, and cooperates with local mobile operators and TV brands, etc. Secondly, at the content level, the initial focus was on purchasing copyrighted content in large quantities and quickly adding local content for a cold start, followed by the development of local original dramas. Compared with
's more standardized strategy in terms of operations, it is obviously more complicated to produce "non-standard products" such as content, let alone go to overseas markets to produce content with different geographical and cultural backgrounds. After laborious production, it is very possible to produce a work that is “nondescript” and not recognized by the local audience.
In order to ensure the realization of localization, Netflix has adopted the method of directly investing in local content teams or cooperating with local content producers. While using excellent local production teams, we also emphasize giving each other a high degree of freedom in creative space. Screenwriter Kim Eun-hee, who wrote the script for "Kingdom", once said in an interview that "Kingdom" would not have been produced without Netflix. "They never said no to the script I sent, but they were very curious about how the story would develop next."
"Kingdom"
After several trials and errors, Netflix can gradually figure out local content consumption preferences, styles and cooperation processes, and then use more advantageous Hollywood production standards and higher levels of capital investment to improve content quality, and the final output is Works that bridge the gap with local content.Works that combine foreign culture and Hollywood standards allow Netflix to achieve content localization and internationalization of local content at the same time.
In the second quarter of this year, Netflix’s Asia-Pacific market achieved revenue of US$799 million, accounting for 11% of total revenue, and the number of paying users increased by 1.02 million to 27.88 million. Among the four major overseas markets divided by Netflix (North American market, Europe, Middle East and markets, Latin American market, and Asia-Pacific market), although the Asia-Pacific region accounts for the smallest revenue, it is the market with the fastest new number of paying users. .
In the Asia-Pacific market, South Korea can be said to be the place where Netflix invests the most. Kim Min-young, the director in charge of Netflix's Korean and Asian content, gave specific data at an event held by Netflix in March this year - Netflix has invested a total of 770 billion won in Korean content resources since entering South Korea, and plans to invest this year alone. $500 million to produce Korean content.
The reasons behind this are actually very clear: first, because Hallyu has laid a foundation of influence around the world; second, because South Korea’s own entertainment industry is developed and has sufficient talents and technology; third, because South Korea’s network construction is mature.
But Netflix’s success in the Korean market did not happen overnight. A large part of the huge investment was initially used for trial and error.
In 2017, Netflix's first self-made Korean drama " My Only Love Song " suffered a failure after it was aired. It was not until the series launched in 2019 that it gradually gained a good reputation. And after the drama "Kingdom" appeared, Netflix truly figured out how Korean dramas can satisfy the tastes of both local and global audiences.
"Cute, Lucky and Rilakkuma"
Similar to the situation in South Korea, Netflix entered Japan in 2015, but its first series "Underwear" did not make much splash. Afterwards, Netflix continued to experiment with content categories such as drama series and reality shows, and launched works such as "The Naked Director" that were popular in the global market, but at the same time it also focused more on animation. Original Japanese cartoons and comic-adapted live-action series not only take advantage of Japan’s two-dimensional culture, but also help Netflix accumulate differentiated animation content that is different from Disney’s family-friendly style.
Of course, Netflix will never give up on the two huge markets of India and Chinese.
Although it is not yet possible to enter the mainland Chinese market, Netflix has chosen to make a "curve breakthrough" with Taiwanese dramas. After the earliest launches of "The Marriage of the Other Side", " Sinner ", "The Ultimate Daughter" and "Chinese Trilogy" failed to succeed, last year's suspense-themed " Who is the Victim " finally gained a reputation. improvement.
Compared with the Chinese market, the resistance in the Indian market is relatively small.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also has high hopes for this market - in 2019, he publicly stated that Netflix's next 100 million users are likely to come from India. To this end, Netflix has also invested a lot in India. The number of planned productions in recent years has been in double digits, including film and television dramas such as " sacred game " that combine American drama styles and Indian stories. There are also a large number of original films.
In addition, several key countries in the Southeast Asian market are Singapore , Malaysia , Philippines and Thailand. Netflix has also launched series and movies in recent years. Ted Sarandos also said that Netflix has very specific measures for each country in the Asia-Pacific region.
localized content, we have to make
From Netflix’s exploration in the Asia-Pacific market in the past few years, it is not difficult to see that making original local content as an overseas strategy is definitely a "tired job" that is expensive and time-consuming:
Early investment capital Trial and error is a necessary process, and the process of "random generation of hot hits" is not short. No matter which country it is, it basically takes more than three years to figure out the idea. Even if the style and rhythm are found in the later stage, it is still necessary to maintain high investment and large-scale production for each work, so as to ensure the quality of the content and maintain its own advantages and differentiation among many local and overseas competitors.The entire process of
is indispensable for having enough capital to continue investing in original content production. So globally, apart from Netflix, only a few giants such as Disney have such capital strength.
Disney+
In the past, Disney’s localization left the public with the impression that it basically adapted overseas folklore and mythological stories into IP in a Hollywood way. The movie "Mulan " is one of the most typical cases. This method is essentially an internationalization of foreign culture, and strictly speaking it is not considered a true localization. After all, Disney’s huge number of IPs can already be spread globally, and there is also a theme park as a way to realize its globalization strategy.
But after the launch of Disney+ in 2019, this streaming media platform, like Netflix, has to face the problem of how to enter overseas markets. Disney has also chosen to produce overseas local content: At the 2020 investor conference, Disney announced that by 2024, Disney+ plans to develop 50 overseas homemade dramas. Even if
localizes content, it is time-consuming, laborious and expensive, but it seems to have become the only way to expand overseas.
The reason given by Disney is not difficult to understand: as a latecomer, Disney+ wants to open up several major markets in the world with demographic dividends but many competitors. The competitiveness gained by relying on old IP and purchasing local copyrighted dramas is no longer enough. It must It is necessary to produce overseas local original dramas to attract local users to become paying members.
From the perspective of the pioneer Netflix, there is actually another layer of necessity to produce overseas local content.
takes the initiative in content production in its own hands, which is the key to ensuring that the platform is not controlled by others. This is also a recognition that remains in Netflix's "gene". In the past, the six major media groups in North America controlled all mainstream public television networks, as well as content production companies and distribution channels. Other streaming media platforms had to wait for an extremely long window period to obtain content. At the same time, when TV stations have perceived the threat posed by streaming media, they will no longer be able to sell content to their competitors. Ted Sarandos once made it clear: "We need to break away from third-party content producers and establish our own content production chain and relationships."
In 2018, Netflix and South Korea's tvN co-produced "Mr. Sunshine"
In overseas markets, similar situations are actually there Increases rather than decreases. Local media companies or TV stations often strictly limit window periods and cooperation models in order to ensure their own advantages. From 2016 to 2018, several traditional TV media in South Korea refused to sell the first broadcast to Netflix, and the TV station only allowed Netflix to go online one month after the broadcast. Netflix can only choose to invest in cooperation first and obtain the first broadcast rights and exclusive broadcast rights within the period through co-production. Then in 2018, the window period for several series co-produced by Netflix and TV stations was quickly shortened to one hour.
In addition to the two giants in the United States, looking at Chinese streaming media overseas, localized content is also in their plans.
The first stop for Chinese overseas players has chosen the Southeast Asian market, which has geographical advantages and similar cultures. The strategy is to first export domestic original content and make full use of cultural proximity to maintain the advantage; and then localize it on this basis. content production to further open up the market. For now,
is still planning to produce localized content. The focus of iQiyi , Tencent Video 's overseas operations is still on the aggregation and output of Chinese content, and on winning more copyrights for localized content.
In addition, choosing to cooperate with local media and TV stations or directly acquiring local streaming media is also an "acceleration" strategy for Chinese players. For example, in 2019, iQiyi reached a cooperation with the Malaysian media brand Astro. iQiyi's iQIYI App can cooperate with Astro The account is opened directly; and the more "rich" Tencent directly acquired the Southeast Asian streaming media platform iflix last year.
Overall, Netflix’s globalization strategy is still a learning example for many peers. But as far as Chinese overseas players are concerned, Netflix’s gameplay is not suitable for complete replication.After all, considering that the accumulation of its global influence is still insufficient and that it has not yet achieved profitability in China, it is obvious that this "steady progress" strategy is the best choice for Chinese overseas players.
