**3.2 Piccoma as an archetypal transmedia**

In 2021, it was reported by market intelligence company Sensor Tower that in terms of revenue generated, the world's third largest non-gaming app (behind TikTok and YouTube) was the Japan-based webtoon app Piccoma [45], owned by the Korean IT giant Kakao, Inc. This was a remarkable achievement for an app virtually unknown outside of Japan, Korea and its spheres of Hallyu influence. Piccoma provides an archetypal embodiment of transmedia and media convergence, illustrating the ways in which all aspects of Hallyu as a digital wave feed into and reinforce one another. Piccoma has been credited with revitalizing Korea's once struggling webtoon industry, providing a revolutionary user experience tailored for digital comics to be read in the smartphone era via vertical scrolling [46]. The significance of this relates to the transmedia storytelling element of webtoons. Due to their relatively low-production costs and the availability of immediate feedback, webtoons have a long history in Korea of providing invaluable resources and inspiration to TV producers, game developers, and filmmakers. Instances of webtoon-inspired video content include numerous highly successful films and dramas, such as: *Misaeng* (2014); *Steel in the Rain* (2017); *Hell is Other People* (2019), and *All of Us Are Dead* (2022).

## **3.3 Netflix and pizza**

The unparalleled success of Korean media in outcompeting high-profile US content has arguably come full circle with US-based firms now strategically investing *Creative Industry Strategies in a Globalized and Digitized Media Landscape: The South Korean… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112902*

heavily in Korean productions. In 2017, the drama series *Love Alarm* (incidentally also based on a webtoon), was announced as Netflix's first ever Korean original series. This trend has grown exponentially since then, with a number of hit Korean films and drama series being produced by the American tech giant—e.g. *Okja* (2017); *Kingdom* (2019); *Extracurricular* (2020); *The School Nurse Files* (2020); and most famously, *Squid Game* (2021).

In April of 2023, it was announced that Netflix would be investing 2.5billion USD in South Korean film and television productions over the course of 4 years [47]. CEO Ted Sarandos made this announcement after meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol himself during a state visit to the United States, encapsulating the significance of Korea's creative economy in both national and international contexts.

It is somewhat both telling and ironic that Korea has been able to attract such substantial investment while successfully protecting its domestic markets and without kowtowing to international big tech platforms. For instance, in order to ensure fair competition and sustainability in the face of competition from global internet behemoths such as Google, Facebook and Netflix, Korean lawmakers have begun taking steps to level the playing field, with regulations being proposed to ensure that broadband network usage costs are adequately covered by both domestic and foreign content providers [4].

Netflix's collaboration with South Korea's creative industries is also a reminder of the highly internationalized nature of modern media, and the cutting-edge realities of national media marketplaces. Longer term, some will likely harbor concerns that greater involvement from platforms such as Netflix could potentially lead to a 'crowding out' of lesser-known or emerging production companies, artists, and creative entrepreneurs, while also impacting the 'authenticity' of Korean content trends and evolution. Short-term however, this convergence between national and international creators will inevitably serve to strengthen Hallyu both at home and abroad. The term 'pizza effect' in sociological studies refers to a process by which a culture is transformed or more fully embraced elsewhere, before being 're-exported' to its nation of origin. The term has its origins in the ways that the transformation of pizza in the US impacted how pizza was conceptualized and consumed in its birthplace of Italy [48]. Similar effects have been observed with the rejuvenation and transformation of Yoga in India following its popularity abroad [49]. In the Korean context, the global popularity of shows such as Netflix's *Squid Game* have directly impacted the perception and consumption of popular content in Korea itself and is a phenomenon likely to intensify in the coming years.
