Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- CJ ENM, a leading creator and distributor of Hallyu (Korean cultural wave), has partnered with NCSoft, a major game publisher in South Korea, to set up a joint venture that would combine their capabilities to roll out new digital content targeting the global market.

"We will lead the industry trend by merging CJ ENM's content production capability and NCSoft's IT platform capability," CJ ENM said on January 5. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a joint venture in 2021 by combining CJ ENM's business know-how and NCSoft's platform technology.

The global reputation of CJ ENM peaked in February 2020 as the distributor of "Parasite," a thriller film directed by Bong Jun-ho, that won four Oscar awards. The content creator was also credited with promoting Hallyu in the global scene by producing "Kingdom," a world-popular Netflix original drama series depicting the zombie-infested Joseon Dynasty.

CJ ENM has partnered with Big Hit Entertainment, the agency of K-pop wonder BTS, to create "I-LAND," a music audition show to create a new K-pop band. Bang Si-hyuk, the genius producer who created the world-popular seven-member band, led the show as the main producer. In an effort to expand its global influence, Studio Dragon, the drama-making wing of CJ ENM, has partnered with Netflix, the world's top over-the-top service, to create original content.

NCSoft, known for its massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) series "Lineage," made its foray into the K-pop market in November by developing "Universe," a social media for fans. The game publisher has benchmarked Weverse, an online fan community platform operated by Big Hit. Weverse changed the paradigm of concerts by holding two live concert sessions in 2020 to attract some two million fans worldwide.