Naver to invest W40 bil. in CJ's OTT service

By Kim Jae-heun

Tving's corporate logo / Courtesy of CJ ENM

Local IT giant Naver has decided to invest 40 billion won into CJ ENM's over-the-top (OTT) service Tving as part of its strategic partnership signed with the entertainment firm last year. This will make Naver the second-largest shareholder of Tving with a 15 percent stake.

“Naver plans to invest in Tving. We will continue to strengthen our cooperation for the growth of Tving,” a CJ ENM official said.

Naver and CJ ENM signed a stock-swap agreement last October. The two firms then launched an event utilizing Naver Plus membership and Tving in March as their first collaborative project.

The IT giant's investment in the OTT service can be seen as its commitment to bolster its profile in original content, which is key to success in that field.

CJ ENM has strengths in content planning and production, while Naver holds the rights to various intellectual properties of webtoons and web novels. The two companies believe their expertise in the respective fields can maximize the synergy effect in the local and global entertainment scenes.

Promotional poster of Tving's original content, “Girls' High School Mystery Class” / Courtesy of CJ ENM

“Through close cooperation with Naver, we will strengthen the original content of Tving with well-made pieces that can go viral not only domestically, but also in the global market,” Tving CEO Yang Ji-eul said. “We plan to diversify our content portfolio through aggressive investments and beef up television-specific services like providing personalized content.”

Tving was spun off from CJ ENM and became an independent corporation. The OTT service has been securing a variety of original content and expanding its business.

After revealing its first original piece, “Girls' High School Mystery Class,” in January, Tving has been producing various content in the fields of entertainment, drama, film and sports.

The OTT service plans to produce 100 pieces of original content by 2023, secure 8 million paid membership customers and boost its overseas project in 2022. Only this year, Tving will introduce some 30 original content works.

Meanwhile, Tving's monthly active users hit an all-time high of 3.34 million last month, according to Nielson Koreanclick. The May figure marked an increase of 1.1 million users from last October when the company established a joint venture with cable network JTBC.