Just another platform for television? The emerging web dramas as digital culture in South Korea

Abstract

Web dramas, which are original serialized dramas that are released primarily on online platforms, are a recent development of digital content in South Korea. As web dramas are intended for mobile viewing environments, this study examines how distribution influenced this emerging form. Particularly, it argues for the consideration of the power of distribution, which does not happen as an afterthought or separate from other areas, but can wield influence on the production, finances, and other business practices of web dramas. Audiences are envisioned as viewing web dramas on the go, so web dramas were only several minutes per episode with simple storylines to maintain the audiences’ attention. The insufficient revenue policy of the existing platforms have led web dramas to seek other alternatives within traditional media structures, where they are positioned primarily as another platform for television industries to explore or rely on the branded entertainment strategy, catering to the business sponsors’ demands. In the recent times, newer platforms and production companies specializing in web dramas have appeared, and this article concludes that there is still the potential for web dramas to independently establish themselves as a new digital form in the future.

Keywords

distribution Korea media industry television web drama web series

Mobile devices have increasingly become an important part of South Koreans’ everyday lives. The smartphone penetration rate has overtaken the PC as more people turn to smartphones for business, entertainment, and communication purposes in the recent years (Lee, 2014a). In pace with the popularization of smartphones and high-speed data packages, new forms of digital content started to be developed by industry professionals for the audiences to consume on mobile devices.

The latest development in digital content is web dramas, which refer to original serialized dramas that are professionally produced and released primarily through online platforms. Web dramas usually run for 5–15 minutes per episode, so they can be easily consumed on mobile devices. Short, original video clips on the Internet certainly existed in the past, but it is only in the past few years that the term web drama has been associated with such clips (Kim and Jang, 2015). Despite this short history, they have quickly become popular; for example, Aftermath gathered over 1 million hits within days of its release, and Infinite Power achieved over 4 million in a couple weeks (Keum, 2014; Yang, 2013). Moreover, the web drama industry is rapidly growing as the major portal sites, production companies, television stations, and even the government invest in this new form of digital content.

Web dramas operate as a culture site where multiple players engage in conceptualizing business practices, audiences, and cultural meanings. Existing media, in particular, television, are regulated and well-established institutional spaces where only certain players can participate. In contrast, web dramas do not have specific regulations yet, nor are the cultural norms firmly established which makes it easier for experimentations. Thus, web dramas offer an insight into how old and new players define an emerging form of content.

As this phenomenon is fairly new, there is not much critical discussion about web dramas – most of the surrounding discourse come from the mainstream press and industrial conversations. The few scholarly works about web dramas have focused on the aesthetic characteristics, particularly the narrative structures of web dramas (Kim, 2016; Kim and Jang, 2015; Lee, 2015a). The majority of the discussion on web drama industry takes place in the popular press and tends to be optimistic about this new form of digital content (Ahn, 2013; Keum, 2014; Sohn, 2014). Web dramas are praised for challenging existing television production cultures and for opening up new distribution channels for original content (Yang, 2013; Yoo, 2013).

However, are these web dramas as revolutionary as the press discourse surrounding web dramas claim to be? They usually praise web dramas of being different from television dramas and challenging the television production culture (Kim, 2014; Sohn, 2014). This article contributes to this discussion by offering a critical viewpoint of the rise of web dramas by looking at how web dramas can be considered a new form of digital content. Particularly, it focuses on 29 web dramas that were released during 2013–2014, which was when the term ‘web drama’ started to be associated with professionally produced video clips on the Internet. It examines newspaper articles, government reports, and trade publications discussing web dramas during this time period, which were gathered through KINDS (Korea Integrated News Database). It looks at the changing distribution practices and examines its influence on the current web drama landscape. It argues that the positive discourse about the Korean web dramas is overstated and that web dramas continue to operate within traditional media structures, which in turn has influenced the form and business practices. However, as the web drama industry is at the early stage, it concludes by highlighting web dramas’ potential to establish themselves as a new content form in digital Korea.

Distribution changes and web content

Television has gone through various changes since it first became available to the public. What was presented as a domestic medium that offered limited program options has shifted to a medium that is not confined to the physical set and provides expansive program choices. If the old model of television is a period of stability that is exemplified by centralized production and distribution, the current stage of television represents the instability of the medium (Christian, 2012b). The proliferation of portable devices has enabled viewers to access content outside of the home, and the expansive number of cable channels targeting niche audiences has given viewers more choices in programs (Lotz, 2007). These changes in distribution have redefined the existing structures and practices so that television is no longer the centralized medium.

In television studies, distribution has become an increasingly important topic. In the past, due to the limited number of distribution channels – namely, the handful of broadcast network channels – distribution tended to be fairly simple. The windowing model, where programs first ran on television, then moved toward reruns, home video, and so on, became the norm in the early days of television (Lobato, 2012). The idea was to delay the release of content to platform in order to maximize revenues generated for each platform. However, distribution has taken on a more complicated meaning in recent years, as audiences gain more access to various platforms. Media companies can no longer count on mass audiences watching their content at a fixed time (Curtin, 2009). Rather than controlling the release of their content, the imperative is now to spread content throughout multiple platforms to maximize the audiences’ access to the content. New strategies, such as releasing all episodes of a television series online or producing web-only content, have emerged in today’s media landscape (Jurgensen, 2012). Thus, distribution is no longer the simple path where content travels according to plan, but the movement of media through time and space in a dispersed manner (Lobato, 2012).

The limited number of distribution channels was one of the reasons why existing players were able to have a strong hand in the television industry and the proliferation of online platforms has become a way of challenging this dominancy. As media professionals no longer had to compete for limited distribution, the Internet became a place for artistic freedom (Creeber, 2011; Lotz, 2007). Moreover, new players otherwise neglected in traditional media structures were able to partake in the production of popular culture content.

In particular, web series – known as web dramas in the Korean context – emerged as a possibility for producers, writers, and entrepreneurs to exist outside the dominant powers of networks (Christian, 2012a; Kim and Jang, 2015; Peirce, 2011). As web series are intended for the online platforms, they no longer have to rely on the broadcast networks’ limited distribution system and opportunities, which in turn opened up spaces for experimentation with original content. For example, Korean web dramas such as Vampire Flower and Another Parting are stories about the supernatural – vampires and aliens – which are topics not frequently seen on Korean television (Lee, 2015a). Also, web platforms, such as Korea’s top portal site Naver, have used binge watching habits to market their original content to the audience, which further differentiates web series from traditional television.

This article focuses on this shift in distribution practices and connects it to the rise of web dramas. It takes into consideration that there is a tendency in media industry studies to be focused on the powers in production and there is a need for a holistic consideration of how powers operate within other sectors, especially in distribution/channels (Winseck, 2011). Thus, it builds upon the argument of Lobato (2012), who asserts that distribution politics determine who gets access to which content, along with reflecting cultural and socioeconomic assumptions about audiences, and influence the content itself by providing certain viewing contexts. Distribution should not be thought as a step that happens after production is done, but as a power that can shape and add cultural meaning to media content.

The rise of Korean web dramas

The web drama market has taken off when Korea’s top portal site Naver started to invest in web dramas by starting a platform, TV Cast, to host professionally produced web videos (Kim and Jang, 2015; Lee, 2015a). Naver has built upon its leading position in the Internet search market and has popularized the term ‘web drama’ by creating a web drama category within TV Cast (Lim, 2015). Although Naver’s web drama platform was initially intended for Internet users in general, they have since shifted their attention toward the mobile audience, working to acquire content for these mobile audiences (Kim, 2015b). Naver’s push toward web dramas has certainly contributed to the growth of web dramas, but it also has created a market dominated by Naver. Other web drama platforms, operated by Daum Kakao, Pandora TV, or Gom TV, do exist, but they come nowhere near Naver’s influential presence. Reports have found that 48.4% of the viewers accessed web dramas through portal sites (Korea Communications Agency, 2014; Korea Creative Content Agency, 2015b). The content hosted on Naver gets exposure that cannot be matched by the other platforms, which leads to production companies preferring Naver for distribution, despite the fact that Naver does not give any payment for acquiring content (Lee, 2015b). The only pay comes from the pay-per-click advertisements placed in front of the content, and this is split between Naver and the production company. Many companies struggle financially as they receive only KRW 1–1.5 per click and it costs at least KRW 20 million to produce a single episode of web dramas (Yeom, 2015). Naver recently announced that they would change their policy to give all of the advertisement revenues to the production companies, but it is too early to tell whether this will improve the financial situation (Lee, 2016).

As a fairly new area, there are almost no restrictions regarding web dramas, and this makes it easy for new players to jump into web drama production. Advertisement companies, entertainment management agencies, tech start-ups, and game companies have started to produce web dramas. For example, the Oasis Company, who produced the web drama Aftermath, started out as an advertisement agency before venturing into web drama production. However, legacy players have started to invest in web dramas as well. The famous production company iHQ has produced the web drama Love Cell, and broadcast networks KBS, SBS, and MBC have all produced their own web dramas. As the legacy players have access to larger budgets and well-known talent, the smaller, newer players struggle to compete against the legacy players’ content. As of 2015, more than half of the top 10 most streamed web dramas are produced by broadcast networks, cable channels, and well-established production companies (CONS TV, 2015).

Targeting the young and mobile

Distribution reflects the assumptions that industries have about certain demographics. It organizes audiences through distribution networks based on markers such as age, gender, class, and other criteria regarding identity and status (Lobato, 2012). As web dramas are intended to be viewed on mobile devices, particularly smartphones, the industry personnel rationalize their decision to target the younger generation – specified as people in their teens to 20s – because this is a population at ease with using digital technology (Hwang, 2013; Keum, 2014; Park, 2014). According to government reports, 81.6% of the web drama audiences watched web dramas through smartphones (Korea Creative Content Agency, 2015b), and other reports have also supported this industrial perception of web drama audiences being young and mobile (Chung, 2014; Lee, 2014b).

The web drama storylines reflected this perception in the sense that the main characters were young. For example, Aftermath is about a high school boy who gains supernatural powers, while Love for Ten, Twenty Years Old, and After School Bokbulbok are about college students’ romances. This age range of the main characters was deliberately set by the producers because they wanted the young audience to identify with the characters and possibly gather more streaming traffic for their content (Hwang, 2013). This contrasts with television primetime series because they tend to feature young professionals because their main audience is people in their 30s to 40s (Korea Creative Content Agency, 2015a). Also, web dramas featured topics that would be understandable to young adults, such as first loves and getting a job in the real world for the first time. Love for Ten is about a geeky college student who falls in love for the first time, and Twenty Years Old is about two friends who realize they love each other after a long separation. A Better Tomorrow and Infinite Power are both about young college graduate struggling to get their first jobs.

As Naver has released that the maximum duration time of audiences on TV Cast was researched to be 19 minutes, the length of the web dramas and the number of episodes per season were shortened to reflect this viewing pattern (Kim, 2015a). Web dramas are usually less than 20 minutes per episode, with anywhere from 2 to 11 episodes per season. Korean primetime television dramas generally have 16–20 episodes in a season, with each episode running for about an hour, so web dramas have considerably cut their length compared to television (Chung, 2009). Each web drama episode was a short segment of several minutes, with fairly simple storylines, so audiences could quickly grasp the narrative. For example, The Hungry Woman is about the ups and downs of a single woman and it connects the life of the lead protagonist with food in each episode, while Infinite Power traces the process of a college graduate finding his passion during each episode. Press interviews revealed that producers had consciously planned web dramas to be short because their perceived audience would not be giving their full attention to the web drama due to the viewing environment (Ahn, 2013; Park, 2014). They deemed that audiences watched web dramas on mobile devices when they are in transit, such as in the bus and on the subway. Thus, web dramas had to be short and simple so that this mobile audience could understand the story in such environments.

Another strategy of catching the young and mobile audiences’ attention was to experiment with the aesthetics to optimize the mobile viewing experience. Close-ups were frequently used rather than long establishing shots because the viewers would not be able to see the characters’ faces in the long shots due to the small smartphone screens (Ku, 2013; Lee, 2015a). In the case of Twenty Years Old, the director purposely added in shots that showed the characters’ point of view. When the protagonist walks down the street and looks around, the camera shows what she is seeing and not a shot of her looking around. This was done in order to enhance the viewers’ immersion into the storyline (Son, 2013). Special effects were also often used to catch the audiences’ attention. To name a few, Love Cell, Orange Light, and Teleport Lovers had special effects to enhance the storyline. For example, in Love Cell, the male lead is incapable of love because his ‘love cell’ is dying, and when he holds conversations with his love cell, it is portrayed as a CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) pink glowing sphere. Other effects include split screens to show multiple perspectives of particular characters and to enhance texts of computer or smartphone screens (Son, 2013).

With TV in mind

While web dramas depart from conventional television in some ways, they still maintain ties to the existing television industry in others. The dominant platform, TV Cast, operates as a free-access platform, and their advertisement policy does not offer sufficient revenue to the production companies (Yeom, 2015). Thus, web dramas still operate in existing television industry structures, where there are more revenue sources available. However, investors are more likely to invest in web drama content produced by well-known players than newcomers, and the popular web dramas tend to be the ones that have access to various resources – as evidenced in the fact that most successful web dramas are affiliated with legacy players (CONS TV, 2015). The lack of a revenue model and competition with the legacy players has led web dramas to be positioned as a stepping stone toward mainstream television or as a testing ground for television to explore new possibilities because they have yet to be financially successful.

The cable channel tvN has used UHD (ultra-high-definition) technology to film the web drama Twenty Years Old. At the time, tvN was planning to launch a UHD-only channel and Twenty Years Old was the first drama that tvN had ever produced using UHD technology (Hwang, 2013; Son, 2013). Considering that Twenty Years Old was targeted toward viewers who watched web dramas on their smartphones and that UHD television does not have a high penetration rate, UHD technology does not offer any immediate benefits to the viewers (Kim, 2013). Thus, it can be assumed that Twenty Years Old was a testing platform to prepare tvN for their UHD channel.

Another key example would be the public broadcast network KBS’ attempts to test new talent. The Tale of the Bookworm was KBS’ first web drama and it was produced by rookie producer and writer. KBS had been debating to cancel Drama Special, which is a program where rookie talents get to produce a one-episode drama to test their talent because of low ratings (Bae, 2014). By moving the rookie talent dramas online, KBS would still be able to test new talent while scheduling popular programs on television. Here, web dramas were considered as a platform where rookies could fitness their talent before moving onto television production.

The positioning of web dramas as a testing platform influenced the onscreen talent as well. The actors featured on web dramas are Korean pop idols – young singers in girl groups and boy bands – or unknown actors trying to break into television series. For example, actor Seo Kang-joon debuted as the main character of After School Bokbulbok, and he has moved to television dramas afterward. Starting acting careers by appearing in web dramas is easier than breaking into the television drama industry (Baek, 2013; Yoo, 2013). For idols and actors who had already appeared in television dramas prior to web dramas, they were usually cast in supporting roles or cameos on television. However, in web dramas, they are usually the main character, showing that web dramas were positioned as having less cultural status than television dramas. Most of these talents have moved onto television acting careers, illustrating that web dramas are seen as a lesser form intended for exploration and then television as the ultimate goal.

Branding for businesses

Web dramas often were used as branded entertainment, an advertising strategy where the content serves as a promotional vehicle for the advertisers’ brand. (Lotz, 2007). Branded entertainment has become a common strategy on post-network television because of non-linear audience viewing patterns. It is difficult nowadays to catch the attention of fragmented audiences, so advertisements were integrated into entertainment content itself (Meyers, 2014). Many advertisers spend most of their budget on content creation, in the hopes that the audience will associate their brand with the content.

As web dramas do not have any regulations in place yet, it is easier for various players to participate in content production. Business corporations and government organizations could invest a relatively small budget and get content that was geared to promote their brands and identities, which would be much difficult on television due to the strict regulations and the broadcast networks’ power over distribution rights. Coupled with the needs of the web drama industry to find a sustainable revenue model, the branded entertainment strategy has become noticeable in many web dramas.

In some cases, business corporations directly planned a web drama to have a storyline that reflected the corporate identity or culture. For example, the Love in Memory series were created by Kyobo Insurance, and all the seasons tell stories about love (Kim, 2014). The first season focuses on the memory of first love and the second is about familial love when the father discovers he is terminally ill. As Kyobo Insurance is an insurance company, they wanted to emphasize the importance of taking care of loved ones, which is their brand concept, through web dramas (Lim, 2014). Infinite Power was initiated by Samsung and is about a recent college graduate who goes through the process of getting a job at Samsung. The web drama follows the main character writing a resume, taking aptitude tests, and finally meeting the executives for an interview. Samsung wanted to show what values they were looking for in potential employees, which in turn was reflected in the web drama (Yoo, 2014). Similarly, the web drama Employment Wars is about the process of young college graduates getting their first job and it was initiated by Job Korea, an online job search website.

In others, web dramas purposely promoted a particular product or location. Someday was funded by the city of Gunsan and it focuses on showing the attractions of the city. The story is about a female college student who goes to Gunsan on vacation and falls in love with Chae Man-sik, a famous Gunsan-based writer from the 1930s, who has time-traveled to present-day Gunsan (Im, 2013). Many scenes take place in the landmarks of Gunsan, and the city hoped that Someday would encourage the Gunsan tourist industry. Other web dramas, such as Spicy Life or Longing for Spring, feature a particular location in their narrative – the former being a story taking place at the company Jaws Food and the latter featuring the workers from Korea Racing Authority.

Web dramas are generally distributed through TV Cast, a free-access web drama platform, and this makes it difficult to generate revenue from subscriptions. Although it is up to the production company to decide whether they want to require payments from the audience, they are hesitant because their viewership might decline if they change to a payment system. Business sponsors are an alternative way for production companies to have a sufficient budget to produce web dramas (Lee, 2015b). However, there are critiques that production companies sacrifice their creative freedom because they need to cater to the sponsors’ specific needs in branded web dramas.

Conclusion

Focusing on the new development of Korean web dramas, this article aimed to contribute to television studies by offering an in-depth examination of this form and bringing attention to the changing distribution environments. Distribution politics are crucial in shaping media forms, along with the finances or ownership power structures that constitute the media landscape. For web dramas, it found that the distribution environment for target audiences had a strong influence on this emerging digital content. The widespread use of smartphones, along with the easy access of wireless Internet, has changed the viewing patterns of audience. Web dramas have arose in the context of mobile viewing practices, which have shaped the narratives and aesthetics of web dramas to depart from traditional television.

Although this element of web dramas set them apart from the legacy practices of television, they still operated within existing television structures. The low entry barrier of the web drama industry not only enabled new players to participate in content production but allowed legacy players to be involved as well. The lack of a revenue model, along with the competition from legacy players, has led to the newer players to struggle for survival in the web drama industry. For the most part, web dramas are very much influenced by the legacy players and are positioned primarily as another platform for television industries to explore, rather than truly challenging the hegemony of the television industry. Moreover, the dominancy of Naver as the web drama distribution platform has a heavy hand in shaping web dramas as well – production companies are subject to Naver’s guidelines and policies if they want their content to get sufficient exposure to audiences.

While this article finds that web dramas have strong connections to the existing television industry, it remains that they are in the process of establishing themselves as a new form of digital content in Korea. The more recent web dramas have been drawing away from the legacy practices, and many newcomer companies that specialize in web dramas have appeared. For example, 72 Seconds Inc. has been praised for its innovative approach to web dramas by experimenting with narrative lengths, and Kirin Productions, an independent production company, has been noted for dealing with topics marginalized from mainstream media. New mobile platforms, such as Pikicast and Oksusu, have appeared, and some Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services have even started specialized web drama channels, which can become alternatives to Naver’s TV Cast platform. With more new players coming into the market, it is possible that web dramas can exist independently from television in the future as they become more established as new digital content.

Footnotes

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (KSPS) Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOE) (AKS-2011-BAA-2102).

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