“We are ultimately a distribution platform.”

MovieBloc is an online streaming platform for independent films and short films where you can pay through virtual money. As a new OTT, the company is trying to differentiate itself by lively curations and events to vote for the winner among movies. MovieBloc recently became a new sponsor of the Asiana International Short Film Festival (the name changed to 'GwangHwaMun International Short Film Festival') and attracted attention from the film industry by serving as an online screening platform for film festivals during the COVID-19 era, including the Seoul Eco Film Festival and the Seoul Guro International Kids Film Festival. To hear about the service they offer, I met Kang Yeonkyung, the CEO of MovieBloc, who advocates the first blockchain film platform in Korea.

I heard MovieBloc started its service at the end of August 2019.

We started beta service with only basic functions such as profile and membership. Since then, we have proven several functions such as whether uploading and playing of movies are okay around the world and whether it can revive the character of a community with comments. Finally, in late December 2019, it was officially launched by adding a payment function to the system. Domestic users can pay with credit cards or virtual assets MBL tokens through PAYCO, while overseas users can pay with credit cards and MBL tokens through PayPal. Since summer 2020, we have been focusing on adding online film festival platform functions and upgrading them.

How did you come up with the idea of the blockchain movie platform?

‘Pandora TV,’ Movie Block’s parent company, has had a long history in the field with large-scale video player software. It is a KM player that allows users to play videos when they download them. There were so many users at home and abroad, but in fact, there was no revenue source except for banner ads. Also, there were many video streaming viewers, but there was a trend gradually moving on to streaming. While thinking about how to find a new source of revenue, I saw blockchain begin to draw attention and thought of MovieBloc, a blockchain-based streaming service. I also thought that the thirst for distribution and screening opportunities was bigger in independent films and short films, so I took my course to it.

MovieBloc has various personalities such as an OTT or a blockchain platform. How do you define it yourself?

Rather than defining the word ‘platform’ as one thing, I feel it’s a kind of ecosystem. MovieBloc is described as a ‘distribution platform’ comprehensively, but from the user’s perspective, the function of OTT is  most noticeable and familiar. I think blockchain can be used for distribution and various places, not just for OTT.

It currently has about 250 to 300 movies. What are the differences in standards between free screening and paid screening?

The creators themselves decide it. Originally, when we were thinking about the free service, we seriously reviewed the advertising revenue model, but we didn’t think it would be very profitable. So, we let the creators set their prices for free or not and the amount charged. They also can change it from free to paid options.

I think paid movies will take up a large proportion.

Not really. Many creators want lots of viewers to watch their movies. Those creators upload their movies for free. Usually, 1~1.5 dollars are charged for each paid movie, and 2~2.5 dollars are paid for the slightly higher ones. Perhaps because it is still focused on short films, the price is not set higher than that.

You also provide subtitles. Are you pursuing global expansion?

Yes, we are thinking of global expansion because virtual money is available in any country. Subtitles are a primary means of global expansion. To provide subtitles for all movies with at least 3 languages in Korean, English, and Chinese, we produce them in our own system.

Do you consider a personalized service like WATCHA?

When I started developing the platform, I put the concept of a curator in the white paper, thinking short films could be the content enough to be seen through someone’s recommendation. However, at this moment, we recommend the content with the movies attracting attention for the home section or during a film festival. If our platform gets really bigger later, we can probably add the personalized recommendation or curating function to the system.

I think you should solve the content security problem.

We are utilizing all the levels of security systems that other companies use. We held about 17 film festivals in the past year, and fortunately, there has been no single case of leaks. Of course, it’s not easy to say that it's never going to happen, but I can say that we provide them safely because at least the system isn’t open enough to download a video right away with a link like YouTube or Vimeo.

Since anyone can upload content, quality control of the content must be essential.

In fact, we try not to control the quality as much as possible. This is because the creator thinks that such checking can prevent the right to screenings. Instead, we block experimental videos under the principle that only ‘movies’ can be uploaded. Sometimes, there are cases where individuals upload videos they own, and we also block such videos. Everyone can upload a movie, but we curate which movies should be exposed and recommended in the home section.

There are concerns about the uncertainty of virtual money.

Transparent settlement and fair chances to screen movies are critical issues in the industry. I think blockchain is the technology that can offer a solution to it.

You’ve become a new sponsor of the Asiana International Short Film Festival, which was uncertain due to the recent suspension of the corporate sponsorship. (Asiana International Short Film Festival will be held from October 14 to 19 under the new name ‘GwangHwaMun International Short Film Festival’).

Asiana International Short Film Festival has served as a gateway for short filmmakers for 18 years, so I thought it would be nice if we support it together. If the GwangHwaMun International Short Film Festival is reborn as a hybrid-type film festival that can expand online and take a step further on embracing blockchain later, it will be a cultural event with another source of revenue and sustainability.

MovieBloc also serves as a platform to screen works in place of film festivals, which has become hard to hold offline in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It covers from a relatively large film festival like the Seoul Eco Film Festival to a college graduation film festival.

Our film festival business began when Kaywon High School of Arts asked us to held their graduation film festival. Next was Gyeonggi Film School Festival. The number of cases has increased as the high schools and the universities that belong to the festival have paid attention to us. Among regular film festivals, we first participated in the DMZ International Short Film Festival as an industrial sponsor. It seems that various types of film festivals want to join MovieBloc after reading the news articles that came out earlier at many film festivals. We've never charged any films from festival films so far. Due to the nature of film festivals, free screening has been conducted by setting whether the movie will be fully released or not, first-come first-screening method, and hourly screening method, etc. Through the GwangHwaMun International Short Film Festival, I think we can try more various methods.

Do you think your love for movies became a driving force for the platform operation?

Yes, of course. I majored in Film Studies in the U. S. and studied film production, editing, and writing scenarios. If I were exceptionally talented, I would have directed a movie, but that wasn’t what happened. Instead, I applied to CJ because I wanted to work related to movies. At CJ, I worked in the movie department for a short time and learned another content business called advertising. I thought it was a good opportunity to start MovieBloc because I experienced the field comprehensively.