[Young Journalist Ghahyeon Kim] There is more than enough content to play with, but users' time is limited. This is why global content platforms are accelerating their "seamless" strategy, connecting webtoons, animations, short forms, dramas, videos, and artificial intelligence (AI) services under one roof. They want to trap users in the platform and make them consume the next content naturally, so as to increase time spent and additional consumption.

In the past, the amount of popular content you had to secure determined how competitive your platform was. Now, the ability to continue the user’s flow of consumption smoothly has emerged as a new source of competitive strength.

Reading webtoons, watching anime
According to the industry, Naver Webtoon recently partnered with Japan’s largest animation OVS service 'd Anime Store' to introduce about 4,000 animation contents to the Japanese platform ‘LINE Manga.’

It is the first serious combination of animation content in the Japanese manga platform. Users can also watch related animations consecutively within the service without having to move to a different platform after watching webtoons. 

It appears that this is an increasing trend in Japan, taking into account the characteristics of the Japanese market, whose distribution of Webtoon and Animation users overlaps, to get users to spend more time and even consume more subsequent content.

The same trend is seen in OTT. Netflix said it will roll out a new feature called Clips, which will offer highlights from series, films, and specials in a vertical feed in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.

Users can discover new works as they scroll through the short videos, then head straight to watching full versions. It is a flow between finding a job and gaining experience. 

Elisabeth Stone, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Netflix, said, "Whether you're taking a break, looking for something new to watch, or just want to get a quick laugh, we wanted to create a tailored experience that offers moments like those."

It’s not just Netflix. HBOmax, Disneyplus and Amazon Prime Video are also working on or expanding on vertical video feeds to enable easier content browsing.

Seamless strategies are also being extended to AI services. AI chatting platform character.ai recently launched an AI-based original short-form drama ‘C.AI series,’ entering the micro drama market. After watching a drama, users can continue to chat with AI characters. Watching videos and having conversations are part of the same service.

character. AI said it aims to be "the number 1 AI entertainment platform" and will "create a space for chatting, watching, reading, listening, and creating with your favorite character and story in the center" were able to report. Forbes reports that character.ai users spend an average of 75 minutes a day.

Time spent matters more than content
The reason why platforms have poured a lot of resources into smooth strategies is that the content market has matured. Although content formats such as OTT, webtoon, and short-form video have been developing rapidly, a day in a user's life will not go beyond 24 hours. In addition, the cost to acquire new users continues to increase. Analysts say it's now much more important to hold on to current users and lead them to consume the next piece of content so they don't leave the service.

The target Platforms to connect with are no longer the content Format alone. They are working on linking wildly disparate content and services, such as webtoons to anime, short-form to long-form videos, and video watching to AI conversations.

An industry insider said, "You used to be able to lure users with just one popular piece of content." "But now, with so many content choices, it's hard to hold them for the longer term with one piece of work. A seamless flow that takes the user naturally from one content or service in the platform to the next is more and more important."

He added, “The more we link users who read a webtoon, watch its anime adaptation, and then come to use our AI services, the more like a loop consumption is on our platform.” He went on to say that, “In the future, the competitive advantage will no longer go to the platform that has an enormous content library, but the one that can create experiences with users staying longer and naturally leading to their next content consumption.”

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