Wavve Acquires US K-Content Platform 'Cocowa'

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[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Domestic online video service (OTT) Wave is expanding its global business by acquiring the North American K-content platform Cocowa.

Content Wave held a board meeting on the 22nd and resolved to acquire shares of Wave Americas, which operates Cocowa. It will acquire 40% of the shares held by the three major broadcasters and SK Square, the existing major shareholders, and incorporate it as a subsidiary. Cocowa currently provides K-content to more than 30 countries in the Americas, including the United States and Canada. In addition to its own service Cocowa+, it supplies K-content through partnerships with local OTT companies and cable TV providers such as Amazon Prime Video, Google TV, Rakuten Viki, Roku, Comcast Xfinity, Jumo, and Cox.

With this acquisition, Wave will be able to supply major broadcast content as well as original dramas, movies, entertainment shows, and documentaries not only domestically but also in the Americas. The original lineup includes titles such as "Weak Hero Class 1," and domestic dramas like "Love According to the Law" and "Cheer Up," as well as NCT’s reality entertainment shows. Utilizing English, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles and dubbing owned by Cocowa, the multi-subtitle service will be expanded alongside Korean subtitles currently provided for major domestic content.

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Wave plans to expand its global business area by leveraging the acquisition of Cocowa. It will strengthen strategic partnerships with global media groups to promote joint content investment and subscriber growth. Lee Tae-hyun, CEO of Content Wave, stated, “We are building a synergy system with Cocowa while also pursuing cooperation with global media partners. Although we are still at the challenging stage, our goal is to establish ourselves as the top K-content platform in the global market in a short period of time.”

Wave initially planned to enter overseas markets by launching services for Southeast Asian expatriates in the first half of last year, but shifted its overseas expansion direction to the North American market due to limited profitability. Other domestic OTT platforms such as TVING and Watcha are facing similar challenges. Watcha, the first domestic OTT to successfully expand overseas, has steadily increased subscribers since entering Japan in September 2020, leveraging original content competitiveness with titles like "Semantic Error" and "Jojo’s." TVING is also preparing for overseas expansion with various regions including the United States in mind. Although entry was initially expected within the year, the timing was postponed due to the challenging overseas OTT market conditions.

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