Good news! Good news! The Korean Herald reported that Netflix will spend the next 4 years investing $2.5 billion in new South Korean (K-Drama) TV Shows and Movies.

The Korean Herald quoted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Netflix co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, as saying about the deal:

    “The investment will be a significant opportunity for all Korean
     content businesses and creators, as well as for Netflix.”-South
     Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol

    “I have no doubt that our investment will strengthen our long-term
     partnership with Korea’s creative ecosystem. We are deepening
     our partnership with Korea’s creative industry which has produced
     such amazing hits as ‘Squid Game’, ‘The Glory’, ‘Physical 100’.”-
     Netflix co-CEO, Ted Sarandos.

According to the folks over at The Korean Herald , the first time Netflix began doing business with South Korean TV and movie makers was back in 2016.

During that time, Netflix wasn’t so sure how things would go. Folks were still watching HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime and DVDs. Netflix was something that everybody had, but really didn’t do much with.

Not wanting to end up in the deep end, Netflix decided they’d do a little splashing of the hands and feet in the pool. The amount they invested was $1.25 billion. After 5 years of splashing around in the pool, Netflix lucked up on Lady Luck Lady.

COVID-19 hit like an Atlantic hurricane, forcing everybody to quarantine in their houses on their couches with the remote in hand. Sick of all the shows they’ve watched over 1,000 times on HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and the DVDS, folks decided to try something new. And that something new was none other than Netflix.

Folks were watching so much K-Drama that during the third quarter of 2021 Netflix added twice as many subscribers as they had during the third quarter of 2020.

During the third quarter of 2021, Netflix added 4.4 million subscribers compared to the 2.2 million subscribers the company added during the third quarter of 2020. The 4.4 million increase in paid subscribers gave Netflix a boost of total subscribers from 209 million to 214 million.

Squid Game is the one K-Drama that gets a good portion of the credit for increasing the number of eyeballs tuning into Netflix. Squid Game first came out on the 17th of September in 2021. In less than two months of being on Netflix, there were 142 million eyeballs fixed on Squid Game. “…it has become our biggest TV show ever. A mind-boggling 142m member households globally have chosen to watch the title in its first four weeks. The breadth of Squid Game’s popularity is truly amazing; this show has been ranked as our #1 program in 94 countries (including the US),” is what the Netflix folks wrote in a letter to the company’s shareholders about the third quarter earnings.

Seeing how well the K-Dramas are doing on their platform, the folks over at Netflix know that their company’s competitors, like Disney+ and Amazon Prime, will surely be on the lookout for the next big thing coming out of South Korea. Therefore, Netflix is trying to get ahead in the game by diving in with an investment of $2.5 billion.

And I, for one, must say that I’m over the moon and in a honey barrel about it because it means that I will be able to continue binge watching my favorite K-Drama, Hotel del Luna!