Korea's top live streamers flocking to YouTube

Live streamer Daedoseogwan (Great Library in English) broadcasts on his YouTube channel. / Images captured from YouTube

Afreeca TV loses top stars to YouTube

By Baek Byung-yeul

Online streaming became common in popular culture for the young generation long ago.

Instead of watching TV, more people enjoy video content created by individual media producers using their smart devices, and terms like “multi-channel network” (MCN) or “live streamers” are no longer strangers to them. According to a February survey by Nielson Korea Click, Koreans spent 21 billion hours consuming media content via their mobile devices last year, a 30 percent increase from 2014.

At the center of the boom, there is Afreeca TV, a local peer-to-peer video streaming website.

This captured image shows the front page of popular live streamer Daedoseogwan’s YouTube channel.

Ever since the broadcasting service provider officially launched in 2006, Afreeca TV has been a leading platform for individual content creators.

Afreeca TV named its content creators broadcasting jockeys (BJ) and has provided them an opportunity to make money as viewers can donate a digital coin called a “star balloon” to their favorite BJs. With the donating system, people witnessed a slew of star BJs making fortunes with their video content. However, due to tightened policies, popular streamers began their exodus to other platforms, such as YouTube or Twitch.

The mass exodus of the top streamers of Afreeca TV was first led by “Daedoseogwan” (Great Library). Daedoseogwan whose real name is Na Dong-hyun has been considered a pioneer of one-person media for playing video games on Afreeca TV since 2011.

Live streamer Banzz broadcasts his eating show on YouTube.

But internal conflicts between Na and Afreeca TV came to the surface on Oct. 14 as Afreeca TV handed a seven-day suspension to the top video game streamer and his wife, also famous streamer Yum Dang.

The pair a few days earlier appeared on a commercial for the recently released mobile game “Acheron.” The video, featuring Japanese model Ai Shinozaki, received an explosive response but Afreeca TV suspended the two streamers for broadcasting a commercial advertisement without permission. Afreeca TV also drew strong opposition from streamers as the firm banned BJs from uploading content to Afreeca TV and other media platforms like YouTube at the same time.

Responding to the firm’s decision, Na declared his decision to broadcast on YouTube only.

Daedoseogwan recently left his long-running live broadcasting platform Afreeca TV to broadcast on YouTube only.

His exodus from Afreeca TV was possible as his YouTube channel already had more than 1 million subscribers while he only had around 650,000 on Afreeca TV.

Following Na, other popular Afreeca TV streamers such as Yum Dang and Banzz, who’s known for his eating show, began airing their content exclusively on YouTube. Afreeca TV’s famous video game streamer Poongwolryang also opened his new channel on Twitch, Wednesday.

In the aftermath of the exodus, Afreeca TV has been criticized by fans and the firm’s stock prices tumbled nearly 20 percent. Upon the huge blow to the company, Afreeca TV announced urgent measures in a move to build a co-existing partnership model with its streamers Wednesday.

The firm backed off a little and said it will no more longer BJs to share the revenue earned by airing commercial broadcasts once the streamers get permission from the firm. It also allowed streamers to upload their video content on other streaming sites at the same time, but it remains to be seen whether the local streaming website can survive in the face of stiff competition from overseas platforms backed by tech giants.

MCN industry soars in Korea

With the soaring popularity of one-person media, the MCN industry has become a new business model in the media industry.

CJ E&M, the country’s entertainment mogul, jumped into the MCN business two years ago and launched “DIA TV” last year, an acronym for Digital Influence & Artist TV.

DIA TV established partnerships with top-rated streamers, including Daedoseogwan and Banzz, and has provided management services ranging from marketing to a broadcasting studio in a bid to help them concentrate on content creation.

CJ E&M confirmed the rising presence of the MCN industry last August as it successfully co-hosted the DIA TV festival together with the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA). The two-day festival held at COEX in southeastern Seoul featured the company’s partner streamers and attracted some 30,000 participants.

Naver, the country’s largest portal operator, has also been running V Live, which allows K-pop stars to establish their own streaming channels to communicate with their fans around the world.