Have you seen Squid game on Netflix yet? It’s on track to become Netflix’s most popular show ever and this is the very reason a South Korean internet service provider has sued Netflix
Millions of viewers have been sucked into the terrifying world of Squid Game.
Released only a fortnight ago, the South Korean series has hit number one on Netflix in an incredible 90 countries.
In fact… this is the reason Netflix is in hot water with South Korea
A South Korean internet service provider is suing Netflix over the increased traffic thanks to its growing popularity in the country
SK Broadband claims that Netflix is South Korea’s second-largest traffic generator, after YouTube, and other streaming giants such as Facebook and Apple, who are paying network usage fees.
Google’s YouTube and Netflix the two are the only companies to not pay network usage fees.
What does Seoul want?
Essentially – SK Broadband’s lawsuit wants Netflix to pay for network access.
A Seoul court said Netflix should “reasonably” give something in return to the internet service provider for network usage.
Many South Korean politicians agree, and have spoke out against content providers who do not pay for network usage, despite the insane amount of viewers generating usage traffic.
SK Broadband says Netflix’s data traffic handled by the service had jumped 24 times from May 2018 to 1.2 trillion bits of data processed per second as of September – this stat is largely due to Squid Game.
In its court documents, SK estimated the network usage fee Netflix needed to pay was about 27.2 billion won ($31.55 million) in 2020 alone.
Will Netflix pay?
Well – they don’t want to.
Netflix said it would review SK Broadband’s claim for increased network traffic and maintenance work costs.
Reuters reported that Netflix had previously brought its own lawsuit on its obligation to pay SK Broadband network fees. The world’s largest streaming giant argued its obligation is to create the content and make it accessible.
Netflix has significantly increased its presence in South Korea and says its brought a lot of dollars to the Asian country.
In fact, Netflix said it had invested 770 billion won in South Korea’s TV and film production industry, adding an extra 16,000 jobs.
According to Bloomberg, Netflix committed to this year spending $US500 million in South Korea to capitalise on what was one of its fastest-growing markets.
