Sejong University institute selected for six-year global OTT database project

Sejong University’s Platform-Media Research Institute has been selected for a six-year project aimed at measuring how Korean content spreads and gains influence through global streaming services.

The Korea Research Foundation will support the project with 1.56 billion won, excluding indirect costs, from September 2026 to August 2032. The research will combine media communications, statistical physics and library and information science.

The team plans to create what the university describes as the world’s first global academic database bringing together OTT content, consumption and evaluation data. It intends to link the database with DataON, the Korea Research Foundation’s national research data platform, and make it available to researchers.

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To overcome the so-called ‘tragedy of the chosen,’ in which K-content is selected but fails to gain sufficient benefits, we need negotiating power based on scientific data.

The project will also develop the Global OTT Influence Index, or GOII. Rather than relying only on viewing rankings, the index will assess the international reach and influence of K-content through five measures: the country-level content influence index, cultural resonance index, consumption complexity index, cluster centrality index and localization index. Researchers plan to calculate the measures using technologies including graph neural networks and large language models.

The first three years will focus on building the database infrastructure and establishing the index model. The final three years will refine the index and pursue commercialization and international expansion. The institute also plans cooperation with South Korea’s culture ministry, the Korea Creative Content Agency and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, along with joint research involving the University of Nevada and the Education University of Hong Kong.

Institute director Lim Jong-soo said the project seeks to give K-content greater bargaining power within the OTT supply chain. “To overcome the so-called ‘tragedy of the chosen,’ in which K-content is selected but fails to gain sufficient benefits, we need negotiating power based on scientific data,” he said. The university said it will develop the institute as a strategic, university-wide research hub and connect it with a proposed AI Media department.

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Through this project, we will complete the ‘human geography of the Korean Wave’ and create a global-standard index that policy institutions and industry can use in practical ways.