Netflix has earned nearly $500 million from credit card users in South Korea last year amid fast proliferation in the pay TV and over-the-top market by the global streaming ace.

According to application and retail data provider WiseApp on Tuesday, local credit and debit card payments on the global video streaming platform totaled 517.3 billion won ($469.5 million) last year, jumping 108 percent from 2019. The figure has been on the surge from 65.7 billion won in 2018 and 248.3 billion won in 2019.

Covid-19 has been partly behind its spectacular growth last year. Monthly payment on the home entertainment giant in Korea hit a record high in December 2020 at 58.7 billion won when the number of daily new confirmed cases in the country had peaked at over 1,000 for a few days.

Netflix is expected to face increasing competition in Korea as Disney Plus and HBO Max are set to enter the country this year, but it is still leading the pack by a wide margin in the market. The number of Netflix subscribers in Korea is estimated at 7.58 million, tripling that of local content provide Wavve with 2.69 million and Tving with 2.37 million.

The actual number of Netflix subscribers may be more than that because it allows subscribers to share their accounts with up to four people. The payment volume is also likely to increase if it adds bills made via Apple iTunes and Android’s Google Play.

Despite its dominant presence in the country, the U.S. streaming platform has been accused of failing to pay fair dues.

According to data from the National Tax Service (NTS) last year disclosed to Park Hong-geun, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party, 134 IT multinationals based offshore including Google, Apple, Facebook and Netflix paid a combined 236.7 billion won ($205.1 million) in value-added tax (VAT) in 2019, far less than 450 billion won in corporate tax paid by the nation’s biggest tech firm Naver alone.

By Lee Yong-ik and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]