[Courtesy of Wavve]
According to South Korea's fair trade watchdog, the domestic over-the-top (OTT) service market, estimated to stand at $1.9 billion in 2022, was led by Netflix, the world's largest OTT service operator, with a market share of 38.2 percent. Wavve stood at the No. 3 spot with a market share of 14.3 percent.
Wavve said that the company issued 1,164,700 new shares worth 25 billion won during its board meeting held on May 19 and allocated them all to SK Square America. The OTT company plans to utilize the investment as additional funding for original content production and global market expansion.
SK Square, the largest shareholder of Wavve, holds a 100 percent stake in SK Square America. With this equity increase, SK Square America's stake in Wavve increased from 1.8 percent to 3.8 percent. SK Square's stake in the domestic OTT service operator increased from 39.3 percent to 40.5 percent.
While South Korean drama content such as "Squid Game," "The Glory," and "Kingdom" garnered worldwide popularity, the drama series was released through Netflix and other South Korean OTT services find it hard to capture the hearts of global audience. Wavve is preparing to release various content through collaborations with other foreign OTT services later this year.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
