WATCHA

Other Name: 왓챠

Description:

WATCHA - Korea’s only video streaming ‘startup’

Korea’s video streaming market has experienced rapid growth in the last few years.

It’s a crowded market in which US giants Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube rank highly. Nevertheless a cohort of local companies have also established a strong presence. Most of them are subsidiaries of either broadcasters or telcos – with Wavve and TVING as the most high-profile examples.

WATCHA stands out as an exception. It’s the only startup in the space.

The company launched in 2011 as WATCHAPEDIA. As its name implies, WATCHAPEDIA launched with a crowdsourcing ethos. It gave TV and movie fans a database on which they could post or read ratings. As the company grew, so did its ability to crunch user data and offer personalized recommendations.

The inevitable next step was for the company to launch its own streaming video service. WATCHA PLAY opened in 2016. More recently, the company has also