How Netflix Plans Total Global Domination, One Korean Drama at a Time

They met in a Twentieth-floor convention room in Seoul named for one profitable challenge with Korean expertise — “Okja,” a 2017 movie of 1 lady’s devotion to a genetically modified tremendous pig — to debate what they hoped would grow to be one other hit.

Quickly, the gathering of Netflix’s South Korea workforce grew to become an sad focus group, with a barrage of nitpicks and critiques in regards to the script for a coming-of-age fantasy present.

One individual stated the story line pulled in too many fantastical — and international — parts as a substitute of specializing in character and plot. The inventive elements struck one other individual as too arduous to know, and out of contact.

Finally, the manager who was championing the challenge provided a prognosis: The author had watched an excessive amount of Netflix.

Inspired by the streaming service’s success in turning Korean-language reveals into worldwide hits, the author needed this present to go international, too, and thought extra far-fetched prospers would enchantment abroad.

The repair, the manager stated, was the other. The script wanted to “Koreanize” the present, floor it in native realism and switch some international characters into Korean roles.

It’s a turbulent time in Hollywood, with tv and film actors now on strike, becoming a member of the screenwriters who’ve picketing since May. Netflix has grow to be a focus of frustration for the methods streaming providers have upended the standard tv mannequin.

Amid this uncertainty, Netflix stays locked in its aim: It needs to dominate the leisure world, however it’s pursuing that ambition one nation at a time. Instead of making reveals and flicks that enchantment to all 190 international locations the place the service is offered, Netflix is specializing in content material that resonates with a single market’s viewers.

The abroad content material has taken on even larger significance with Hollywood successfully shut down. The comedies and dramas produced abroad, just like the concepts being selected in that Seoul convention room, could possibly be a number of the solely new content material on provide.

In April, earlier than the writers went on strike, Ted Sarandos, considered one of Netflix’s co-chief executives, stated he hoped it wouldn’t come to that — but additionally promised that viewers wouldn’t be with out choices. “We have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world,” he stated.

That massive base comes from all over the world, however is particular to every nation it comes from.

“When we’re making shows in Korea, we’re going to make sure it’s for Koreans,” stated Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s vice chairman of content material in Asia. “When we’re making shows in Japan, it is going to be for the Japanese. In Thailand, it’s going to be for Thai people. We are not trying to make everything global.”

Netflix’s 2023 Emmy nominations inform one story of its ambitions: It acquired nods Wednesday for its status drama “The Crown,” its comedy-drama “Beef” and its actuality reveals “Love Is Blind” and “Queer Eye.”

In addition to that extensive spectrum of English-language programming, Netflix’s ambition is to broaden in comparatively untapped areas like Asia and Latin America, past its saturated core markets within the United States and Europe, the place subscriber development is slowing. It is allocating extra of its $17 billion annual content material finances to increasing its international language programming and attracting clients overseas.

But the corporate can also be betting {that a} compelling story someplace is compelling in every single place, regardless of the language.

This yr, Netflix developed “The Glory,” a binge-worthy revenge saga a couple of lady hanging again in opposition to childhood bullies, which cracked the highest 5 most-watched non-English-language TV reveals ever on the service. Before that, at one level “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” a feel-good present a couple of lawyer with autism, was within the weekly Top 10 chart in 54 international locations. Last yr, 60 p.c of Netflix subscribers watched a Korean-language present or film.

In constructing an viewers overseas, Netflix has a head begin on different main streaming platforms, though Disney and Amazon have introduced plans to construct their catalogs of worldwide content material. In many Asian markets, Netflix can also be competing with an area streaming possibility — typically created by broadcasters cautious of ceding management to international media giants.

Asia, Netflix’s fastest-growing area, is a key battleground as a result of clients watch the next share of programming of their native tongues. Netflix already has reveals in additional than 30 Asian languages.

That’s the place Ms. Kim, 42, is available in.

Ms. Kim joined Netflix in 2016. Her job is, primarily, to assist Netflix do one thing that has by no means been executed earlier than: construct a very international leisure service with reveals in each market, whereas promoting Americans on the enchantment of foreign-language content material. If she is daunted by the demand, she doesn’t present it.

She is chatty and direct, with an virtually encyclopedic information of Korean tv dramas. But maybe most significantly for her job, she is the girl who gave the Netflix-watching world “Squid Game.”

‘Don’t anticipate miracles’

In 2016, Netflix rented Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a Seoul landmark and futuristic exhibition area, for a red-carpet affair that includes the celebs of considered one of its greatest reveals on the time: “Orange Is the New Black.”

The hors d’oeuvres had been served, on theme with the present, on meals trays meant to imitate jail. Netflix was arriving in South Korea’s leisure trade with a giant splash. But the tongue-in-cheek humor felt inhospitable and culturally out of contact, based on trade individuals who attended. It left the impression of an American firm that didn’t perceive Korea.

It was a careless begin. Just a few months later, when Ms. Kim started in her position as Netflix’s first content material govt in Asia with a concentrate on South Korea, she warned the corporate’s executives: “Don’t expect miracles.”

Ms. Kim stated she wanted to make Netflix really feel much less international and promote creators on why they need to work with the corporate.

She traveled to go to producers at their workplaces as a substitute of summoning them to see her. She organized common boozy dinners with producers — the customized in South Korea — realizing that it was tough to realize their belief till they acquired drunk along with her.

Over lunch, the place she had a steaming bowl of beef offal soup, she described her technique.

“Here, you first have to build a relationship,” Ms. Kim stated. “At the time, I think the way we approached things felt very transactional and aggressive. When it comes to Asian partners, oftentimes it’s more than just the money we put on the table.”

Early in her tenure, she got here throughout a film script known as “Squid Game” by Hwang Dong-hyuk, a revered native filmmaker. He had written it a decade earlier and will by no means discover a studio to finance it. She stated she instantly cherished the irony of a gory “death game” thriller based mostly round conventional Korean youngsters’s video games. She thought the idea would possibly work higher as a TV present, permitting for extra character improvement than a two-hour movie.

But it appeared like an odd alternative for considered one of her first large bets. Similar titles had been within the young-adult style, resembling “The Hunger Games” or “Battle Royale,” a Japanese cult movie through which a bunch of scholars battle to the demise.

“Who wants to see a death game with poor old people?” she recalled being requested by a member of her workforce.

But after she noticed the set designs, she was satisfied that it might be a giant hit in South Korea. Netflix determined to vary the English title to “Round Six” to enchantment to a global viewers. Near the discharge date, Mr. Hwang requested to vary the title again as a result of he felt that “Squid Game” was nearer to the present’s essence.

Much to everybody’s shock, “Squid Game” garnered an infinite variety of views in South Korea and internationally. It was a sensation that broke into the cultural zeitgeist, full with a “Saturday Night Live” skit and Halloween costumes. And Netflix lastly threw the correct of get together for the present’s Korean solid: an after-party, after dominating final yr’s Emmy Awards.

“Squid Game” modified every thing. It grew to become the most-watched present ever on Netflix, and it spurred curiosity in different Korean content material. In April, to coincide with a go to to the United States by South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, Netflix stated it was planning to speculate $2.5 billion in Korean reveals and flicks within the subsequent 4 years, which is double its funding since 2016.

After many years of Hollywood’s delivering blockbusters to the world, Netflix is making an attempt to flip the mannequin. Mr. Sarandos stated that “Squid Game” proved {that a} hit present may emerge from anyplace and in any language and that the chances of success for a Hollywood present versus a global present weren’t that totally different.

“That’s really never been done before,” he stated at an investor convention in December. “Locally produced content can play big all over the world, so it’s not just America supplying the rest of world content.”

‘Green-light rigor’

Global growth requires a guideline. For Ms. Kim, that’s “green-light rigor,” a mind-set she dropped at Netflix’s workplace within the Roppongi district of Tokyo, the place she moved final yr to supervise the content material groups in Asia-Pacific apart from India.

In some Asian international locations, she defined, Netflix has a extra restricted finances, so the corporate has to pick solely the “must-haves” and go on “nice-to-haves.” Green-light rigor additionally means not pandering to what Netflix imagines viewers internationally need.

How that self-discipline performed out in observe was on show when the Japanese content material workforce met to debate whether or not to possibility a e-book for a present in late January.

The e-book in query was a love story set in a dystopian world with parts of science fiction. An information analyst stated that based mostly on the present’s projected “value,” he puzzled whether or not Netflix would recoup its funding due to the sizable budgets often required for science fiction.

Kaata Sakamoto, who heads the Japanese content material workforce, stated he anxious in regards to the mismatched expectations of viewers who would possibly come anticipating a romance drama after which discover themselves in hard-core science fiction.

“It’s like someone who goes into a restaurant and they are served food that is different from what they want to eat,” he stated. “If this is a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tale, do we need a big sci-fi world setting? It feels like mixed soup.”

The govt pitching the challenge stated the author watched “a lot of Netflix” and was conscious of what was fashionable. So as a substitute of a pure love story, he needed to infuse parts of dystopian science fiction — a preferred style on Netflix.

But Mr. Sakamoto, who performed an lively position in producing a few of Netflix’s hits from Japan, appeared unconvinced.

“My question is what is it about this project that is uniquely Japanese?” he requested.

Netflix’s Tokyo workplace exudes an American vibe, however little or no English is spoken within the inventive conferences. This was the case when Mr. Sakamoto met with Shinsuke Sato, creator of “Alice in Borderland,” a science-fiction survival thriller that was Netflix’s greatest hit in Japan, to debate a coming challenge.

It was a free-flowing dialogue that touched on minute particulars of the challenge, from character improvement to plot twists to which scary animals would work greatest in laptop graphics — reptiles could possibly be simpler than furry creatures, instructed Akira Mori, a producer who works with Mr. Sato. (“Maybe an alligator?”)

Later, Mr. Sakamoto stated that previously, numerous gifted Japanese who had been profitable in Japan had struggled to interrupt via in Hollywood as a result of they didn’t communicate English effectively.

“But what Netflix has allowed is that creators can make work in their own countries in their own language, and if the storytelling is good and the quality is there, they can reach a global audience,” he stated. “This is a major game changer.”

Vision come to life

The elevated expectations are obvious all through Netflix’s high-rise workplace in Seoul. The assembly rooms are named after its outstanding Korean films and reveals. In the canteen, a human-size duplicate of the doll from “Squid Game” looms over a number of Korean snacks and on the spot noodles.

Ms. Kim’s imaginative and prescient of making a various slate of Korean reveals has come to life. “Physical: 100,” a gladiator-style recreation present through which contestants battle for survival and a money prize, was within the Top 10 of non-English reveals for six weeks. This yr, at the least three Korean reveals have been among the many top-10 international language reveals each week.

“It’s exciting, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the pressure,” stated Don Kang, Netflix’s vice chairman of content material in South Korea, who has succeeded Ms. Kim in overseeing South Korea.

Mr. Kang, who’s soft-spoken with a child face, joined in 2018 after heading worldwide gross sales at CJ ENM, a Korean leisure conglomerate. When he began, Netflix was nonetheless working out of a WeWork workplace.

He stated that earlier than Netflix, he thought there wouldn’t be a lot worldwide curiosity in Korean actuality reveals or reveals that weren’t romantic comedies.

“I was very happy to be proven wrong,” Mr. Kang stated.

Netflix’s slate of Korean packages runs the gamut from romantic comedies to darkish reveals like “Hellbound,” an adaptation of a digital comedian e-book about supernatural beings condemning folks to hell. Yeon Sang-ho, the director of “Hellbound,” stated such area of interest content material wouldn’t be made by Korean broadcasters as a result of the viewers wasn’t large enough to justify the finances.

“Netflix has a worldwide audience, which means that we can try more genres and we can try more nonmainstream things, too,” Mr. Yeon stated. “Creators who work with Netflix can now try the risky things that they wanted to do but they weren’t able to.”

Netflix’s success has reshaped South Korea’s leisure trade. TV manufacturing budgets have elevated as a lot as tenfold per episode in the previous few years, stated Lee Young-lyoul, a professor on the Seoul Institute of the Arts, and there may be rising concern that home broadcasters will wrestle to compete.

Production corporations want Netflix’s investments to rent high writers, administrators and actors, making a “vicious cycle of dependency,” based on “Netflix and Platform Imperialism,” an instructional paper revealed in The International Journal of Communication this yr.

The extraordinary success of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” highlights the tensions.

AStory, the present’s manufacturing firm, rejected Netflix’s provide to finance all the second season, due to its earlier expertise with the service. AStory made “Kingdom,” a success Korean zombie interval present, as a Netflix authentic, that means Netflix owned all of the present’s mental property rights in alternate for paying the complete manufacturing prices.

“While it’s true that Netflix helped the series get popular, our company couldn’t do anything with that,” stated Lee Sang-baek, AStory’s chief govt. “There are lots of regrets there.”

Mr. Kang stated that Netflix had a very good relationship with AStory and that the scenario was complicated. He stated Netflix had been “very, very generous” in compensating creators and actors however emphasised the necessity to develop in a “sustainable” approach.

“You do sometimes hear those types of concerns: Is Netflix taking too much from our industry? But you can’t be in this business and operate that way,” Mr. Kang stated.

‘Too Hot to Handle’ all over the world

One by one, Ms. Kim rattled off the distinctive traits of audiences across the area. Korean audiences want pleased endings in romance. Japanese dramas are likely to painting emotion in an understated approach. Chinese-language viewers are extra accepting of a tragic love story. (“The Taiwanese staff always says a romance has to be sad. Somebody has to die.”)

Ms. Kim understands that native tales share common themes, however the important thing to Netflix’s work is to know these cultural variations.

When Netflix’s “Too Hot to Handle,” a tawdry actuality courting present with contestants from the United States and Britain, did effectively in South Korea and Japan, the corporate determined to make its personal reveals within the respective international locations. But as a substitute of packages replete with intercourse and hooking up, Netflix’s variations in South Korea (“Singles Inferno”) and Japan (“Terrace House”) had been extra suited to native sensibilities: solely hints of romance with minimal touching or flirting.

Storytelling also can differ. Impressions of the primary episode of “Physical: 100” had been divided by geography. Ms. Kim stated she discovered that usually, American audiences thought the in depth again tales in regards to the contestants slowed the present. Korean audiences preferred the again tales as a result of they needed to know extra in regards to the contestants.

Ms. Kim recalled how Netflix’s U.S. executives requested her why the primary Squid Game contest didn’t come till the final 20 minutes of the primary episode. She was puzzled, as a result of this was quick for Korean audiences — however not quick sufficient for American sensibilities. In South Korea, the motion typically doesn’t begin till the fourth episode as a result of reveals typically comply with the cadence of a narrative arc suited to a 16-episode broadcast TV schedule.

Ms. Kim stated she thought that audiences would tolerate work that defied their expectations or values when it was international, however that it have to be genuine when it was native.

So far, that philosophy has been profitable. “Squid Game” proves that. But it additionally reveals the brand new problem that awaits Netflix — as soon as one thing is a worldwide hit, there are international expectations.

Leonardo DiCaprio is a fan, and Mr. Hwang, the writer-director, even teased that the Hollywood A-lister may be part of the “games,” a lift that most individuals chasing international domination would possibly discover arduous to withstand. But Netflix did handle it — for now.

Last month, when the solid was introduced, it featured all Korean actors.