S. Koreans' spending on Netflix doubles in 2020: data

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Koreans are estimated to have spent over 500 billion won (US$454 million) on global video streaming service Netflix last year, doubling the amount tallied the previous year, data showed Tuesday.

Local credit card payments on the video streaming service are estimated to have reached 517.3 billion won last year, compared to 248.3 billion won in 2019 and just 65.7 billion won in 2018, according to data tracker WiseApp.

Based on the data, WiseApp said paid subscribers to Netflix stood at 4.1 million as of December last year.

The data tracker added that Netflix's total users in South Korea likely reached 7.58 million as of the end of 2020 based on its survey of smartphone users, becoming the country's most popular video streaming service.

The U.S. streaming giant was followed by local rival Wavve with 2.69 million users and Tving with 2.37 million, according to the survey results.

Netflix's growing presence in the country is also backed by government data, which found that the company's service accounted for 4.8 percent of the country's average daily data traffic from October to December last year.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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