KB News Desk
By KTimes
Media consumption in Korea has shifted from traditional TV broadcasts like terrestrial channels to online video platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, and Tving. Notably, younger generations are increasingly favoring short-form videos like Shorts, Reels, and TikTok over longer content on online streaming services (OTT).
According to the “2024 Target Report” released by MezzoMedia, a digital marketing subsidiary of CJ ENM, this trend is based on an online survey of 1,000 men and women aged 15 to 59 living in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and five major metropolitan areas.
The survey showed that respondents spend an average of 88 minutes per day watching TV and 59 minutes on OTT services.
A significant percentage of teens (16 percent) and people in their 20s (19 percent) reported not using TV at all. While those in their 20s, who have more leisure time, spent an average of 70 minutes per day on OTT services, teens used OTT for only 53 minutes, with 30 percent stating they did not watch OTT at all.
However, the actual use of TV often involved apps available on smart TVs. Among 20-somethings, 54 percent of TV time was spent watching content on YouTube, Netflix, and TVING on a larger screen.
The focus of younger generations is primarily on video content centered around YouTube. Teens spent an average of 124 minutes per day on videos, while those in their 20s spent 127 minutes.
Among these, time spent on short-form content such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok was 64 minutes and 55 minutes, respectively — accounting for half of their total video viewing time.
In contrast, those aged 30 and above also spent more than an hour daily on video content, but time spent on short-form videos was between 35 and 41 minutes, confirming that the bite-sized clips are primarily a trend among those in their 20s and younger.
Instagram for teen girls, Facebook for men in their 50s
The use of messengers, social media, and online communities shows clear generational and gender differences. The only service with high usage rates across all age groups and genders was the messenger app KakaoTalk.
Teenage and 20-something females preferred Instagram Direct Messages (DMs), while males of the same age groups used Discord more frequently, often for voice chats in gaming.
Although Telegram, which has recently been in the spotlight for its role in distributing deepfake content, had low overall usage rates, it was relatively popular among men in their 20s, 40s, and 50s.
Among social media platforms, Instagram was the most popular, but its usage dropped significantly with increasing age.
Teen and 20-something females preferred X, while 30-something females favored Naver Blog. In contrast, men aged 30 to 50 were more inclined to use Facebook.
For online communities, Naver Cafe and local community-based secondhand trading platform Danggeun Market were popular across all age groups.
However, men in their teens and 20s leaned toward DC Inside and Everytime, while women in their 20s and 30s favored Nate Pann and Daum Cafe.
