As of August 2025 the gap in monthly active users (MAU) has narrowed to roughly 4%.
Tving leans on broadcaster-backed shows, while Coupang Play leans on sports rights and e‑commerce ties.
Going forward, content spending and membership strategy will likely decide the outcome.
Why is the fight for second place getting hotter now?
This is the core of the story.
Tving sits at about 7.56 million MAU while Coupang Play is closing in at roughly 7.29 million.
With Netflix firmly holding the top spot in Korea, Tving and Coupang Play are fighting over who comes next.
As of August 2025, Tving reports about 7.56 million monthly active users (MAU).
Meanwhile, Coupang Play recorded around 7.29 million MAU and has been growing at roughly 6% year over year.
These numbers matter beyond raw subscribers; they test a platform’s content mix, membership stickiness, and user loyalty.
What’s at stake.
Coupang Play offers differentiated value through live sports and e‑commerce integration.
The contest centers on three main points.
First, content quality and variety. Tving, backed by broadcaster libraries (channels like tvN and JTBC), performs strongly in Korean dramas and variety shows.
Second, platform integration and membership design. Coupang Play ties into Coupang’s shopping ecosystem and subscription perks, which helps attract and retain users.
Third, cost structure and investment priorities. Production budgets and rights purchases directly affect each platform’s financial health.
Tving’s advantages.
Tving’s role as a hub for domestic broadcaster content is its key strength.
Tving draws on CJ ENM’s content library (CJ ENM is a major Korean media and entertainment company) to dominate local drama and variety categories.
As a result, it matches Korean viewers’ tastes and viewing habits, which supports subscriber acquisition.
Tving’s mix of live broadcast and on‑demand services fits household viewing routines and makes it indispensable for certain audience segments.
Moreover, Tving has experience growing users through partnerships—most notably with Naver Plus (a past membership tie-up with a major Korean portal).
Such alliances can lift conversion rates and average revenue per user (ARPU).
When Tving reinvests in content, these structural benefits can create strong synergies.
Importantly, Tving prioritizes investment in Korea‑style originals.
It is deepening collaborations with local producers and expanding local intellectual property (IP) through spin‑offs and reworks.
This approach raises upfront costs but can strengthen long‑term user lock‑in (staying power).
On the stability front, close ties with broadcast channels make Tving’s content supply relatively dependable.
This stability helps retain existing viewers while still attracting new ones.
Coupang’s strengths.
Membership bundling is a core tool for lifting customer loyalty.
Coupang Play’s clearest edge is its connection to Coupang, South Korea’s large e‑commerce platform.
Linking the service with Rocket Wow (Coupang’s membership) turns signing up for streaming into a broader shopping benefit.
That link has measurable effects on conversion rates and churn.
Live sports are central to Coupang Play’s differentiation.
Real‑time sports create highly engaged audiences and open new revenue lines through advertising and partnerships.
Securing rights to popular sports—like soccer and baseball—helps bring in devoted fan bases.
Coupang’s data‑driven personalization and seamless checkout lower switching costs.
When shopping and streaming happen under one account, users tend to stay on the platform longer.
At the same time, Coupang Play competes on price to attract a broader audience.
In short, Coupang Play’s rapid growth is not just content power; it’s the result of ecosystem bundling.
That bundling shows up first as MAU gains and could later translate into more purchases and recurring payments.
Reasons for concern.
Overheating competition risks higher costs and weaker profitability.
If the OTT market overheats, production and rights costs will rise.
That pressure can squeeze margins and might force platforms to push price increases onto users.
Platforms focused on the domestic market—like Tving and Coupang Play—face limits to how much they can diversify revenue.
Coupang Play’s sports focus carries long‑term uncertainty.
Broadcast rights are costly, and bidding wars for marquee events can drive prices up.
Also, sports viewership often peaks in certain seasons, making steady year‑round revenue harder to achieve.
Tving has also faced partnership risks—past alliances such as the Naver Plus tie had an expiration risk.
Strategies that depend on external deals can be vulnerable if terms change.
Therefore, each platform must manage its structural risks despite its strengths.
Why this competition emerged.
How each side allocates capital and sets priorities will shape the market.
The battle stems from different strategic bets and where each company invests money.
Tving places weight on local content investment, aiming to build loyalty through differentiated shows.
By contrast, Coupang Play invests in platform links and event‑based programming to quickly grow its user base.
These two approaches carry different risks and rewards.
Heavy investment in local originals requires big upfront spending and long payback periods, but it can create durable loyalty if hits succeed.
Platform bundling and event content can generate fast growth, yet they need further business linkages to turn eyeballs into sustainable revenue.
Focusing on the domestic market also delays broader international expansion.
Without a differentiated global content slate or technical edge, long‑term growth may be capped.
So both players should design the next stage of investment and strategy from a stronger domestic footing.
Regulation also matters.
Broadcast and telecom rules, along with rights policy, can materially affect business models.
Strong strategic choices must therefore consider both platform capabilities and the regulatory landscape.
Overall assessment.
In the end, the winner will be the platform that balances content depth with ecosystem reach.
Tving defends its lead through deep, Korea‑style content; Coupang Play grows fast through ecosystem breadth.
However, neither approach alone guarantees long‑term victory.
Sustained content investment and membership‑driven ecosystem ties need to happen together to give consumers real choices.
Platforms must manage cost inflation and balance profitability with stability.
They need scale without sacrificing user experience.
To summarize, this rivalry tests how mature South Korea’s OTT market has become.
Viewers gain more choices, but platforms must invest and innovate more in return.
Regulators and industry players share responsibility for healthy competition.
So the fight between Tving and Coupang Play is not just numbers on a scoreboard.
It is about content investment, business model design, membership bundling, and capital allocation—factors that will shape the market’s future.
We’ll leave you with a question: If you pay a monthly fee, what matters most to you?
(Choose among content quality, price, added perks, or platform integration.)