Brightcove CMO Jeff Whatcott

By Cho Mu-hyun

A global marketing expert said that Korea has great potential to become a powerhouse in cloud computing services thanks to its extensive bandwidth and strong marketing culture.

In an interview with The Korea Times, Brightcove chief marketing officer (CMO) Jeff Whatcott, hinted that the Nasdaq-listed global provider of cloud content services is seeking to expand its presence in Korea.

The company has offered its services across the globe, and has been making progressive expansion into the Asian market, starting with Japan.

“Korea as a market is very blessed with a lot of bandwidth which is wonderful for video, (allowing easier high quality video experience). Korea has very strong brands, and a very strong marketing culture,” Whatcott said.

Video cloud computing is the latest trend in the rapidly developing visual-oriented digital media market, which bridges the gap between brands and consumers, according to Whatcott.

Korea is an undisputed pipeline and trendsetter in information technology worldwide. The majority of the population has ready access to the Internet using various high-tech platforms, therefore one of the largest customer bases. But cloud computing is yet to become mainstream in the domestic market.

While other overseas countries have a market ecosystem ready to accept online video, and are doing so, some experts have noted that Korea is yet to have proper investors, the mindset and a spearhead of the movement to wider use of an online video platform.

“Other than Korea, we see digital media first to adopt online video as a strong strategy for them, however in Korea is the opposite, we see digital market first and then digital media,” said Whatcott.

Brightcove expects that Korea will eventually follow the global trend, with more digital media seeking to use cloud computing to maximize cost efficiency.

With an already highly developed video infrastructure in place, more domestic media will use the video platform once they see the benefit of the service, according to Whatcott.

Since it made its debut in Korea in 2010, Brightcove has signed business alliances with multiple top brands here such as Samsung, KT and AhnLab.

“It used to be…companies would focus on advertising, PR, and in a limited way they would have a website,” he said. “But now organizations are finding that with the growth online and the number of PCs, mobile tabloids and smartphones, they can produce their own content, they can reach consumers directly and have them engage with their brand intensively,” the CMO said

Brightcove mainly serves two broad groups of consumers: digital media companies and digital marketers including consumer brands, business to business brands and nonprofit organizations.