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FSC wastes money on unengaging YouTube content

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A screen capture of Financial Services Commission's English-language YouTube channel / Screen capture from YouTube
A screen capture of Financial Services Commission's English-language YouTube channel / Screen capture from YouTube

By Lee Min-hyung

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) will spend 15 million won ($12,800) on creating new content to upload to its somewhat underwhelming English-language YouTube channel.

The financial authority started the channel in 2012 but since then has failed to attract much attention, with the channel having a mere 49 subscribers as of Thursday.

Despite the continued lukewarm response, the FSC plans to continue operating the channel. But it is still uncertain whether foreign investors and analysts will find the page and watch the textbook-like videos from beginning to the end simply to access information on financial policies here.

The authority uploaded only two English language videos this year ― one on an introduction of the FSC and one on its data-related policy drive dubbed MyData ― so any visitors to the page are unlikely to return regularly.

Uploading only a few new videos is unlikely to make much of a difference in terms of increasing video views and drawing more subscribers unless the authority keeps creating and posting more enticing content and posting it on a more regular basis.

But chances remain slim that the authority will be able to do so when it is spending millions of won on creating only a few videos. The authority also does not have any plans to make its own content, preferring to sign private contracts with third-party creators.

"We independently pick content creation firms which are mostly small due to our limited budget," a spokeswoman at the FSC said. "But it requires more money for us to create the content, as we need to find not just creators, but professional foreign voice actors."

The FSC spends about 7 million to 8 million won producing one English-language video clip whose running time is only around 2 minutes.

"We are still updating the YouTube channel to promote the nation's financial policies in English even when no other authorities are managing English-language communication channels," the official said. "It will take more time for us to activate the page, but we will keep working on it and turn it into a representative English-language communication channel."

The purpose, in itself, is a step in the right direction amid a growing foreign capital influx in Korea, but concerns are that such irregular content updates will end up being a waste of taxpayer money.

"Uploading content on a regular basis is one of the most effective and vital steps to activate a certain channel," a YouTuber said on condition of anonymity. "It is de facto impossible to develop an inactive page into one with steady growth if the authority uploads content at months-long intervals."

Target audience?

Another issue is that the website rarely receives any feedback or reactions from foreign visitors, raising concerns that the authority is throwing money away on unengaging content.

"Our target audience is foreign investors or analysts interested in Korea's financial policies," the spokeswoman said.

But it also raises doubts over whether non-Korean investors can understand nation's complex financial regulations and economic policy drives by simply watching the short video clips.

This is in contrast to the FSC's Korean-language YouTube channel that has drawn more than 12,000 subscribers by posting and uploading content on a weekly basis.

As the authority deals mostly with financial policies in Korea, it shares financial tips to household-level visitors and promotes the government's economic policies with more lively content than the ones on the English page.


Lee Min-hyung mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr


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