Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) is calling on Taiwan’s telecom companies to invest more in producing local content for entertainment. Shih’s call was in response to the news that South Korea's internet streaming service TVING will enter the Taiwan market in the second half of 2023.
TVING, a streaming platform owned by KT Telecom Group, has been very successful in South Korea, with market share second only to Netflix. The company has announced that it will invest NT$10 billion in Taiwan’s content industry. In contrast, the leading company in Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom, invested only NT$100 million in the domestic content industry last year.
Minister Shih said that investment figures from domestic telecoms are too low, and allowing such large Korean platforms to enter the Taiwan market will undoubtedly increase their influence.
Shih says that if Taiwan’s cultural content is something to be proud of, domestic telecoms should invest more in the local content industry.