iQIYI expands Chinese drama push in Korea

China’s leading streaming platform iQIYI, often referred to as the "Netflix of China," is moving to expand the range of shows or "C-dramas" it distributes in Korea, signaling a shift away from the long-dominating costume romances.

Under the new strategy, more than 20 C-dramas will be rolled out in phases across four major Korean cable TV channels, including DramaCube and Cinef. According to iQIYI, 12 of the titles already have confirmed programming slots and are set to reach Korean audiences in the near term.

The slate spans four major genre categories. In the suspense segment, titles such as "Tell No One," "Justifiable Defense," "Breaking the Shadows," and "Let Wind Goes By" will lean into narratives centered on human nature and fate.

Urban dramas such as "The Storm of Roses" and "City of the City" will explore office politics, workplace power dynamics and career ambition amid rapid urbanization, while "Born to Run" and "For The Young Ones" will focus on life choices and the spirit of the rule of law.

The lineup also includes modern-era historical dramas. "In the Name of the Brother," "Lost Identity" and "A Lonely Hero’s Journey" draw on weighty historical backdrops to depict national sentiment and individual destiny.

"From a single-genre distribution pattern to a more complete 'suspense + urban + historical drama' lineup, iQIYI aims to showcase the genre richness of C-drama to Korean audiences and help build a broader pathway for premium Chinese-language storytelling to reach wider audiences," iQIYI International said in a press release last week.

The move comes amid sustained demand for C-dramas, which continue to rank among the most sought-after overseas series in the Korean market.

The Korea Creative Content Agency’s report titled "The current status of Chinese content’s entry into the Korean market and its implications," released last year, revealed that Chinese video content accounted for 3.6 percent of the domestic market in 2022, equivalent to 46.3 million viewing hours.

That made China the third-most popular source of foreign content, behind the United States at 13.8 percent (180 million viewing hours) and Japan at 4.4 percent (56.87 million viewing hours). Korean content continued to dominate overall, commanding 73.1 percent of total viewing.

Amid the strong demand, local streaming platforms have steadily expanded their acquisitions of Chinese dramas. In 2023, Tving and Wavve each carried 698 and 591 Chinese drama titles, the KOCCA report showed. Tving’s catalog nearly doubled compared with 2021, when it serviced 385 titles, while Wavve’s grew from 429 to 591 over the same period.

Genre data suggests that historical dramas still form the backbone of Chinese content consumption in Korea. According to KOCCA, historical dramas, including guzhuang (fantasy narratives rooted in Chinese mythology, Taoism and martial arts) and wuxia (martial arts epics), accounted for more than 60 percent of all Chinese dramas aired, generating strong audience response.

At the same time, KOCCA noted that rising production values have helped C-dramas gain ground across a wider range of genres. In recent years, contemporary titles such as youth romances and urban melodramas increasingly resonated with Korean viewers.