About 90% of South Koreans have fast World wide web connections at home — fast enough to download or stream high quality duplicates of almost any movie they want.
According to a new report in the Korea Times, Koreans are downloading so many movies — both legally and illegally — that DVD sales have fallen by more than 50% since 2002.
Sony’s decision is a milestone, not because it’s the first Hollywood studio to abandon Korea’s DVD market but because it’s the last.
Not surprisingly, the video store business is also dying:
The country had more than 10,000 video rental outlets in 2001, but had just 3,500 at the end of last year. The number of “video rooms,” where customers pay to watch a video or DVD title, stood at 800 last year, down from 2,400 in 2001.
Hollywood had better hope that Korea’s present doesn’t foretell America’s future.
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