Posters for Coupang Play’s comedy show “SNL Korea” and Tving’s series "Work Later, Drink Now" / Courtesy of Coupang Play and Tving

The streaming market here is booming, and local over-the-top (OTT) services like Tving, Wavve and Coupang Play are working vigorously to gain a foothold in the competitive streaming war in Korea. How? By releasing killer content to attract subscribers and compete against the major player, Netflix.

Retail company Coupang’s streaming service, Coupang Play, which is one of the newest players in the market, tasted success with its original comedy show “SNL Korea.” The platform revived the Korean adaptation of the long-running U.S. show “Saturday Night Live” last September after local network tvN ended the show in 2017 after nine seasons.

“SNL Korea” created a huge buzz online with political satire that was well timed for the country’s presidential election. Its comedy sketches with celebrity hosts went viral on social media after each episode.

According to Mobile Index, a local mobile data analysis platform, Coupang Play has scored about 3.59 million monthly active users as of December 2021, a 590 percent increase from its January 2021 figures.

Wavve, the second-largest player in the market, unveiled its forthcoming lineup of original content last month. The list contained 30 series, films and variety shows and included A-lister Ju Ji-hoon’s film “Gentleman," Kim Hee-ae’s mystery series "Dead Man" and a music documentary from K-pop star Mamamoo.

Three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, SBS and MBC run the platform along with mobile carrier SK Telecom. Wavve gained popularity after releasing such original series as the black comedy "Going to the Blue House Like This" late last year and the action series “Tracer” early this year.

"Going to the Blue House Like This" became Wavve’s most popular series upon its release, attracting new subscribers.

The platform’s monthly active users in December increased by 13 percent to 4.74 million compared to January 2021.

Local entertainment giant CJ ENM’s streaming platform Tving has also been stepping up its game to compete with Wavve for the title of largest homegrown streaming platform. It had huge success with its original series "Work Later, Drink Now” and has been releasing strong reality shows like the mystery game show “Girls' High School Mystery Class” and K-pop singer Lee Hyo-ri’s “Seoul Check-In.”

The comedy "Work Later, Drink Now” premiered last October and helped Tving bring in the highest number of new subscribers since its launch. Surging on this popularity, the show earned a second season and a spin-off variety show, starring its three lead actresses, which aired last month on tvN, another CJENM channel.

Tving more than doubled its monthly active user figures throughout last year, reaching 4.17 million in December from 2.64 million in January.

**If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact us at kocis@korea.kr.**