Tving recently became the first South Korean streaming platform to surpass 8 million monthly active users. The platform’s MAU reached a record 8.1 million in October, according to big data analytics firm MobileIndex on Dec. 3.
Starting with 6.5 million MAUs in January, the platform saw a boost in April with the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) League kickoff, exceeding 7 million MAUs, and rose to over 8 million in the second half of this year. The user gap with Netflix, the market leader, also nearly halved from 6.25 million at the beginning of the year to about 3.8 million in October. Subscriber growth boosted Tving’s earnings, with third-quarter revenue reaching 121.3 billion won ($86 million), up 55.6% year-on-year.
Experts credit Tving’s data-driven content strategies for its success, particularly the “completion rate,” a key metric the platform introduced four years ago. The completion rate measures viewer satisfaction by dividing the time an individual spends watching a program by its total runtime.
“With the rise of ‘subscription inflation,’ where users tend to unsubscribe after watching specific shows, ensuring high content satisfaction is crucial,” said Kwon Soon-mok, Head of Tving’s data division.
Content with a completion rate of 100% or higher indicates it has been watched more than once, while content with a completion rate above 70% is considered highly engaging. For instance, the romance drama “Lovely Runner” had a relatively high completion rate of 82%, while “Marry My Husband” recorded 73%.
Tving’s original content, such as dramas with unpredictable plots, ranked the highest in completion rates. “Work Later, Drink Now” season 1 took the top spot, followed by “Death’s Game,” “Work Later, Drink Now” season 2, and “Monstrous.”
In terms of attracting new subscribers, mystery and thriller dramas that revolve around solving cases or uncovering secrets boosted the “subscription contribution” metric, which tracks the number of new subscribers drawn to the platform by specific content. By genre, horror and thrillers ranked first, romance second, and comedy third.
“The average completion rate for top 10 content rose from 66% last year to 79.5% this year,” said Kwon. “This indicates that the number of shows viewers find satisfying enough to watch through to the end has increased.”
He added, “We plan to continue using these metrics in our content production, investment, and programming decisions.”
