Cross-cultural understanding - Korean drama producer's success key in Indonesia

"Love Distance" is the first web drama series made jointly through investment from Indonesia and Korea. The series had more than 3.25 million views after it was released in Indonesia in 2018. / Courtesy of Blend Company

By Yi Whan-woo

Park Sung-soo, after spending his teenage years in Indonesia and going to college in Korea, developed the business acumen to produce the first web drama series made and jointly invested in by multiple companies of the two countries.

A co-CEO of Seoul-based content producer Blend Company, Park, 37, makes dramas, music videos and other contents that are a blend of cross-cultural traits and therefore can target Indonesia, a major ASEAN market for hallyu.

Blend Company co-CEOs Park Sung-soo, right, and Kang Moo-sung together produced web drama series "Love Distance." / Courtesy of Blend Company

In this light, "Love Distance," a seven-episode web drama, had more than 3.25 million views and became a hit after it was released in Indonesia in 2018.

The series is about romance between young Indonesians and Koreans working at the same cafe.

Park produced the drama together with Kang Moo-sung, another Blend Company co-CEO who has been Park's friend for more than 20 years from his early days in Indonesia.

The duo returned with Season 2 last year and has plans for Season 3 in 2021.

"Literally every production company we met in Indonesia after Season 1 underlined how successful the series was and wanted to learn from it," Park told The Korea Times in a recent telephone interview.

Park attributed the success partly to his early experience in Indonesia, where he witnessed firsthand Indonesians' fascination ― or as he put it "falling in love" ― with people from other countries.

Asked why he and Kang went for the over-the-top (OTT) format in terms of production, Park noted that 2018 was when the Indonesian business world was undergoing generational change and that the younger business leaders were more open to investment in digital content.

OTT refers to a range of streaming media services offered directly to viewers via the internet, instead of traditional means of cable, broadcast and satellite.

"We were still half in doubt whether the format being so new would be welcomed by the viewers, and our plan turned out to work fine," Park said. "In that sense, spending my youth in Indonesia and being familiar with its culture has been a plus factor in running a content business."

His company has been constantly receiving offers from OTT providers across Southeast Asia and Korea for joint production projects.

"We hope to see many joint productions with ASEAN follow in the future," Park added.

He picked hip hop as another area in which he capitalized on his cultural experience in Indonesia to develop a business model.

He got into hip hop when he attended to Hongik University, the neighborhood around the school campus being renowned for its diverse-by-Korean-standards music scene.

"Being aware of Indonesia being a nascent yet growing market for hip hop, I got in touch with my Indonesian friends who are hip hop fans, and was able to start a business accordingly," he said, referring to a rap battle contest and Allday Music, a YouTube channel.

With more young people having the chance to live abroad, including in ASESN countries, Park viewed their overseas experience may help in understanding cultural traits of their target markets.

"Still, blending in such traits for marketing and content creation can be a different story," he said, adding "the aspiring content producers must endure challenges."

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn