Netflix announces plans to invest $2.5 billion in K-content in meeting with Yoon

WASHINGTON — Netflix announced plans to invest $2.5 billion in K-content over the next four years in a meeting between the company’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos and President Yoon Suk Yeol in Washington on Monday.

“We’re delighted to confirm our intent to invest $2.5 billion in Korean content, working with the creators from Korean series and films and scripted shows over the next four years,” Sarandos told Yoon. “This investment plan is twice the amount Netflix has invested in the Korean market since we started there in 2016.”

Yoon said he had a “very meaningful” meeting with Sarandos and other top executives at the Blair House in Washington, in his first public activity as he kicked off his weeklong state visit to the United States.

“We sincerely welcome Netflix’s bold investment decision,” Yoon said, noting that Netflix would invest about 3.3 trillion won in K-content over the next four years, which “will be a massive opportunity for Korea’s content industry, its creators, as well as Netflix.”

“I have no doubt that our investment will strengthen our long-term partnership with Korea and Korea’s creative ecosystem,” Sarandos said. “We are deepening our partnership with the Korean creative industry which has produced amazing hits such as ‘Squid Game,’ ‘the Glory,’ ‘Physical 100.’ With the partnership, we will continue to grow the global industry while sharing the joy of entertainment with Korean storytellers and their fans around the world.”

Sarandos said Netflix reached the investment decision because of its “great confidence in the Korean content industry,” adding it was also “inspired by the president’s love and strong support for the Korean entertainment industry.”

Noting the worldwide appeal of Korean shows, he said, “Thanks to the Korean creators, their compelling stories, these stories are now at the heart of the global cultural zestiest.”

More than 60 percent of 231 million Netflix subscribers in 190 countries around the world watch Korean content, according to the presidential office.

Yoon and Sarandos exchanged letters in the process of coming up with the investment plan, a presidential official said.

First lady Kim Keon-hee separately met with Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria to discuss promoting Korean content production and Korean culture overseas, according to the presidential office.

Kim asked Bajaria to help discover more new promising Korean actors, directors and writers with through Netflix’s investment.

Earlier Monday, Yoon and Kim arrived on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to begin their two-legged trip which will also take them to Boston.

They were greeted by officials from the U.S. State Department and White House National Security Council (NSC), including Kurt Campbell, NSC coordinator for the Indo-Pacific.

On Wednesday, Yoon is scheduled to hold a bilateral summit, with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House, followed by a joint press conference and state dinner.

The two leaders are expected to announce “major deliverables” on ways to strengthen the U.S.’s extended deterrence commitment to South Korea, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a press briefing Monday, amid the “evolving threat” posed by North Korea.

Yoon and Biden “will announce major deliverables on extended deterrence, on cyber cooperation, on climate mitigation, on foreign assistance, on investment and on strengthening our people-to-people ties,” Sullivan said.

The two leaders in a statement will indicate a “very clear and demonstrable signal of the United States’s credibility when it comes to its extended deterrence commitments” to South Korea, he said.

Sullivan however indicated that the United States opposes the idea of South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons.

He noted that economic and people-to-people ties will be “front and center” during Yoon’s visit, noting South Korea invested over $100 billion dollars in the United States in the past two years, “translating to jobs” across the United States, such as Samsung’s semiconductor fab in Texas, Hyundai’s electronic vehicle factory and new investments by SK in battery plants.

In turn, he noted that South Korea “has stood fast in support of Ukraine since Russia’s brutal invasion over a year ago” and committed to provide over $230 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and joined the international community in implementing sanctions and export controls on Russia.

Sullivan said that Ukraine “is going to be an important topic of conversation” during the summit, adding that the leaders “will have a chance to talk about the military situation on the ground there.”

He added that the summit “is going to meet the very high expectations that both publics have from it” as the two sides “are reaching a new level in strength of the U.S.-ROK alliance.”

But a Korean presidential official later told reporters that the issue of providing military aid to Ukraine was not on the agenda for the summit and that Sullivan’s remarks were more on a global scale.

The official confirmed that a separate statement on extended deterrence was in the works.

The first couple also attended a dinner banquet with overseas Korean compatriots later Monday.

During the meeting, Yoon highlighted the significance of the Korean community in America and their role in strengthening bilateral ties.

It was attended by some 200 people in the political, economic, media, cultural and art sectors, as well as representatives of major Korean organizations, veterans and descendants of independence activists.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]