K-Drama After Netflix
Ten studies on what changed in industry, texts, audiences and translation around Squid Game
It has been ten years since Netflix launched in Korea in 2016. In that time Crash Landing on You travelled abroad as a 'Netflix Original' co-commissioned with tvN, and in 2021 Squid Game became a global hit. This feature reads the change across four layers: industry, texts, audiences and translation.
Industry studies focus on power. Dal Yong Jin warns that a global platform can reshape local production norms and genres and blur local specificity. Research on Netflix's early strategy shows that romance series, not only genre shows, grew into capital-rich 'romantic blockbusters', and a survey of production-company executives reports that development work now spans acquiring webtoon rights, raising investment and choosing platforms.
Textual analyses answer the locality question somewhat differently. A study of five Netflix Originals finds that alongside universal genre conventions, Korea's collective traumas and political-economic conditions still create difference; a Korean study of Squid Game argues that this very specificity is used as Netflix's point of product differentiation. Whether locality is lost or sold are two sides of one question.
Audience research mixes concern and evidence. One study found that watching Squid Game raised young adults' positive attitudes toward gambling, but highly involved viewers showed the opposite; another, analysing suicide rates in ten countries, concluded the series produced no Werther effect. An analysis of Netflix charts in 80 countries shows that K-drama is more popular where K-pop fandom is larger.
Finally, translation. The finding that Squid Game's Turkish subtitles were made via English reveals an English-centred workflow behind Netflix's simultaneous global releases. What gets lost—such as Korean speech levels—shows that K-drama's globalisation is still unfinished business.
Netflix’s effects on the Korean Wave: power relations between local cultural industries and global OTT platforms
A political-economy account of a global OTT platform's impact on Korea's cultural industries. Jin asks whether Netflix entered Korea on the back of the Korean Wave, whether local firms are adjusting production norms to Netflix's orientation, and whether the resulting genre shifts erase local specificity and identity. Its focus on shifting power between the platform and local creators and users makes it the opening piece on the industry side of this feature.
Romantic blockbusters: the co-commissioning of Korean network-developed K-dramas as ‘Netflix originals’
Analyses Netflix's main strategy after launching in Korea in 2016: co-commissioning series with local networks such as tvN and releasing locally developed K-dramas as 'Netflix Originals'. Focusing on Mr. Sunshine and Crash Landing on You, Noh traces the triangle of networks, production companies and Netflix, and calls the capital-enhanced romance series 'romantic blockbusters'. A useful complement to accounts that look for the Netflix effect only in genre shows.
Changes in perceptions on the development of executives of Korean drama production companies in the era of OTT platforms
A survey and in-depth interviews with executives of drama production companies examine how development work has changed in the OTT era. When broadcaster mini-series dominated, 'development' meant established writers producing scripts; it now spans buying webtoon and web-novel rights, scouting new writers, raising investment, casting directors and actors, and choosing platforms. The authors define development in three stages: sourcing and script development, packaging, and platform matching.
Genre in Transnational Television: A Case of Netflix Originals Korean Dramas
A textual analysis of five Netflix Original K-dramas—Sweet Home, My Name, Squid Game, Hellbound and All of Us Are Dead—arguing that genres in transnational television evolve toward homogenisation and heterogenisation at once. Universal values such as humanism, altruism and family solidarity follow existing conventions, while Korea's traumatic collective memories and political-economic conditions supply local difference. The authors also find that webtoons played a significant role in transnationalising the K-drama genre.
Netflix’s Transnational Strategy for 〈Squid Game〉 : A Confluence between Cultural Difference and Genre Convention
A narrative analysis of Squid Game exploring how Netflix reaches transnational audiences by way of the local. The series sits on the edge between indicting capitalist competition and commodifying it, and the authors conclude that Netflix combines national social, cultural and historical specificity with genre conventions as a commercial point of difference. They propose moving beyond geography-based 'cultural discount' toward genre-mediated empathy and the commodification of locality.
Binge Watching and the Role of Social Media Virality towards promoting Netflix’s Squid Game
A network analysis of Twitter on Squid Game's release day examining social media's role in the show's global success. It found 13,727 users tweeting or mentioned that day, and shows how 'seeding' and 'broadcasting' by Netflix and key influencers, together with group-based echo chambers, expanded word of mouth. A management-studies attempt to connect binge-watching with viral-marketing and echo-chamber theory.
More than just a fan: the influence of K-pop fandom on the popularity of K-drama on a global OTT platform
Uses FlixPatrol's daily Netflix Top 10 drama data for 80 countries from 1 January to 4 November 2021 to map the geography and cross-country flow of K-drama popularity. The higher a country's K-pop fandom, the more popular K-dramas were there. One of few studies to test the common claim that K-pop lifts K-drama with actual viewing-chart data.
Red Light or Green Light? Netflix Series’ Squid Game Influence on Young Adults’ Gambling-Related Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviors, and the Role of Audience Involvement
A pre-registered survey of 271 young adults aged 18 to 35 on whether watching Squid Game affected gambling beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. Watching raised subjective norms and positive attitudes toward gambling and gambling intention; yet more involved viewers perceived greater risk and saw gambling as less common, leading to lower intention. The same show can push in opposite directions depending on audience involvement.
Suicide rates in South Korea and internationally following release of the Netflix series ‘Squid Game’
An interrupted time-series analysis of whether season one of Squid Game (September 2021) produced a Werther effect. Using weekly suicide rates for South Korea (2013–2022) and monthly rates for nine comparator countries (2015–2022), it found no change in Korea in the four weeks after release and no change in eight of ten countries; Germany rose and the UK fell. The authors conclude the series did not produce Werther effects.
Pivot Subtitling on Netflix
Examines the Turkish subtitles of Squid Game, made via English as a pivot language rather than from Korean. Dallı argues pivot subtitling is a deliberate policy by streaming services to streamline non-English language pairs, not a response to a talent shortage, and shows that sociopragmatic layers such as Korea's hierarchical speech levels are not fully carried over. English, the study finds, also acts as a cultural filter that mediates Korean culture through an Anglo-American lens.
How papers were chosen
OpenAlex searches for articles from 2020-01-01 on 'netflix korean drama', 'squid game', 'korean drama global audience' and Korean-language equivalents, with titles and abstracts checked by hand. Only studies directly about Netflix/OTT and K-drama were kept, chosen to cover industry, texts, audience effects, circulation and translation, including two Korean-journal articles. Papers that use Squid Game merely as a teaching device or an algorithm name were excluded. Citation counts from OpenAlex as of 2026-10-09.
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