TVING and Wavve CEOs Talk Regional Expansion Plans, Streaming Challenges in Korea

The international ambitions of South Korea’s leading local streaming platforms were given greater clarity during a keynote panel discussion held late last week at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF). The growth prospects of regional streamers in the face of fierce competition from global players like Netflix and Disney+ remained a top-of-mind issue at this year’s ATF (Dec. 7-9). The CEOs of Korea’s dominant two platforms — TVING’s Jay Yang and Wavve’s Lee Tae-hyun — were present at the event to share their perspectives on the current streaming landscape in Korea, as well as the future expansion plans for their platforms.  Both CEOs were unambiguous about their belief that regional expansion is a necessity and not merely a nice-to-have. “Global penetration is not an option for TVING.; it is a mandate, given the size of the Korea market,” Yang said. However, despite announcing plans to launch in Japan and Taiwan this year, Yang acknowledged that the process has taken longer than expected. “It comes with huge risk and heavy investment. We already declared that we want to go to Asia first. It just takes more time to thoroughly plan and execute great partnerships.” Similarly, Lee shared that pushing Wavve
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