APRIL 2019: Korean digital series, Wassup Man, has rewritten some of the rules for digital models. But, says the studio backing the series and its 50-year-old star, there’s a way to go before digital content providers across the board have sustainable business structures for the digital space in place.

Korean digital studio, Studio LuluLala, is about to hit 100 million views on YouTube. The studio’s highest-profile series, 2018 digital variety show Wassup Man, led by 50-year-old (yes, 50, no typo) rocker Joon Park of K-pop group G.O.D., had 65 videos up, all subtitled in English, and 1.8 million subscribers in 10 months. An episode on the hunt for spicy stir-fried chicken uploaded on 1 March had more than a million views (and 2,532 comments) 14 days later. A Nike-sponsored show from Feb had 1.7 million views by mid-March. All in all, the whole series, which celebrates its first anniversary on 30 May this year, is a phenomenon in Korea and creates something of a follow-up challenge for the JTBC-owned (but independently operated) studio.

Almost three years after the Seoul-based Studio LuluLala uploaded its first video onto YouTube, JTBC Content Hub’s digital business director, Ji Hyun Bang, says she believes “the biggest issue facing Korean as well as global digital content providers right now is creating sustainable business structures in the digital space”.

What do sustainable business structures look like? Bang says the model should be based on creating development pipeline opportunities. “Digital and mobile is disrupting the traditional TV market, but the TV market has still held onto its traditional profit models. That is not the case for the digital content market yet,” she says.

A hurdle for Korea-based content providers is that the market is small, and “they have to be creative and think outside of the box to create new business models”. Plus there’s the still-limited lifespan of viral sensations. “The nature of digital content makes it difficult to sustain its explosive popularity over a long period of time,” she says.

So far, Wassup Man, which has subscribers from all over the world, is proving to be an exception, and Studio LuluLala seems to be leveraging every last fan. There’s a Wassup Man spin-off in development for 2019, as well as plans to move the property beyond YouTube to include distribution on global OTT and TV platforms.

Not every show out of Studio LuluLala has Wassup Man’s global footprint. Bang says the primary target is Korean, but that audience location depends on the show. Signature series are subtitled in English two or three days after they are published. This language-customisation doubles average international audiences of 10%. “On average, 10% of Studio LuluLala’s viewers are international. On shows with English subtitles, 20% of the viewers are international,” she says, hoping that the new idol music programme will attract more than 20% of its total audience from outside of Korea. “Non-verbal formats are also being developed to grow our global audience,” Bang says.

Right now, “our most important task is to discover the next Wassup Man, the next big thing,” Bang says, adding that she’s “hoping to translate the buzz and excitement we found in the digital unscripted space to our scripted content this year”.

Given its millennial and Gen Z target audience and notwithstanding its middle-aged Wassup Man star, Studio LuluLala’s focus has been on global and music productions, including an idol music show in development and a co-production with a domestic telco.

The scripted challenge is, not unlike scripted on traditional platforms, based on the strength of the script development. “But we are also paying particular attention to how we can create a production pipeline that’s different from the traditional TV production model,” Bang says.

The aim is to align viewer feedback with live story line development. “We want to keep a close watch on viewer feedback as the episodes air, so we are considering filming the episodes on a week-by-week basis instead of finishing production on the entire show before airing the episodes,” she says.

“Everything starts with content,” Bang says in answer to a question on the “secret sauce” behind a video that gets upwards of 4.5 million views, like, for instance, the episode in “what if” romance-cam show where male friends are asked to put sun-tan lotion on bikini-clad female friends.

“There can be all kinds of hype from marketing or buzz from promotions, but at the end of the day it’s all back to content. The only way to create true synergy is if great marketing advertises great content, and then the strength of the content sustains the hype generated by the marketing,” she adds. Which is why she keeps such close watch on viewer feedback, and is unapologetic about redeveloping mid-stream. “We’re not afraid to cut out those parts and redevelop the show. This would be impossible in the traditional TV production process.”

Short-form web series production may be shorter than TV production, but none of the quality can be sacrificed, Bang insists. “The effort that goes into digital content and the quality that’s produced cannot be sacrificed just because it’s shorter,” she says. Ten minutes of reality programming on air requires about two to three hours of filming and four to five days of editing in order to create an unfolding story and a dynamic pace.

“The most important aspect in producing for a digital platform is being in tune with the viewers. It is amazing to see how fan culture can emerge through this process of communication and feedback. Moreover, while creating content in a space that’s not fully established can come with a set of challenges, I think it’s also incredibly meaningful.”

Published in April 2019 in ContentAsia print+online magazine for MIP TV 2019