Netflix Inc said on Tuesday (April 25) it plans to invest $2.5 billion in SouthKorea over the next four years to produce Korean TV series, movies and unscripted shows, doubling the amount the company has invested in the market since 2016.
The U.S. streaming service made the announcement after a meeting between Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol who arrived in Washington on Monday (April 24) for a six-day state visit.
President Yoon welcomed the investment as a “major opportunity” for South Korea‘s content industry and Netflix as the country seeks to increase cultural exports and soft power.
Known as the “Korean Wave” or Hallyu, South Korea‘s entertainment industry has enjoyed a global boom in recent years. “Squid Game”, a 2021 release, remainsNetflix‘s most-watched series of all-time, having racked up 1.65 billion hours of streaming in the first 28 days.
