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The Korea Times

By Yi Whan-woo
After spending his teenage years in Indonesia and going to college in Korea, Park Sung-soo developed the business acumen to produce the first web drama series made and jointly invested in by multiple companies of the two countries.
A co-chief executive of Seoul-based content producer Blend Company, Park, 37, makes dramas, music videos and other productions that are a blend of Indonesian and Korean cross-cultural traits, targeting the market for hallyu or “Korean Wave” pop culture exports in Indonesia, a major Southeast Asian market for the content.
Love Distance, a seven-episode web drama, became a hit with more than 3.25 million views after it was released in Indonesia in 2018.

The series is about romance between young Indonesians and Koreans working at the same cafe.
Park produced the drama together with Kang Moo-sung, another Blend Company co-chief executive, who has been Park’s friend for more than 20 years from his early days in Indonesia. The duo returned with season two last year and have plans for season three in 2021.
Nam Joo-hyuk on Netflix series The School Nurse Files
“Literally every production company we met in Indonesia after season one underlined how successful the series was and wanted to learn from it,” Park told the Korea Times.
Park attributed the success partly to his early experience in Indonesia, where he witnessed first-hand Indonesians’ fascination, or as he put it, “falling in love”, with people from other countries.
Asked why he and Kang went for the over-the-top (OTT) format – referring to the range of streaming media services offered directly to viewers via the internet, instead of traditional means of cable, broadcast and satellite – in terms of production, Park noted that 2018 was when the Indonesian business world was undergoing generational change and that the younger business leaders were more open to investment in digital content.

“We were still half in doubt whether the format being so new would be welcomed by the viewers, and our plan turned out to work fine,” Park said. “In that sense, spending my youth in Indonesia and being familiar with its culture has been a plus factor in running a content business.”
His company has been constantly receiving offers from OTT providers across Southeast Asia and Korea for joint production projects. “We hope to see many joint productions with [other Asean countries] follow in the future,” Park added.

Hip hop is another area in which he capitalised on his cultural experience in Indonesia to develop a business model. He got into hip hop when he attended Hongik University in Seoul, the neighbourhood around the school campus being renowned for its diverse – by Korean standards – music scene.
“Being aware of Indonesia is a nascent, yet growing market for hip hop, I got in touch with my Indonesian friends who are hip hop fans, and was able to start a business accordingly,” he said, referring to a rap battle contest and Allday Music, a YouTube channel.

With more young people having the chance to live abroad, including in Southeast Asia, Park believes their overseas experience may help in understanding the cultural traits of their target markets.
“Still, blending in such traits for marketing and content creation can be a different story,” he said, adding that “aspiring content producers must endure challenges.”
Read the full story at the Korea Times.

For more great stories on Korean entertainment, artist profiles and the latest news, visit K-post, SCMP's K-pop hub.



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Web drama Love Distance, about young Indonesians and Koreans working at the same cafe, has run for two seasons already with a third planned for 2021
Creator Park Sung-soo’s understanding of both cultures also saw him capitalise on the growing market for hip hop in Indonesia



About romance between young Indonesians and Koreans working at the same cafe, K-drama ‘Love Distance’ is the result of its creator’s understanding of both cultures.


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