As the Netflix variety show "Culinary Class Wars: season 2" continues its global success, Chinese netizens' illegal viewing and unauthorized reviews are once again under scrutiny.
On the 23rd, Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University, said on social media that a review page for "Culinary Class Wars 2" had already been created on Douban, China's largest review platform, with dozens of posts uploaded.
Seo said, "Because Netflix is not officially available in China, the reviews appear to have been written after illegal viewing." During season 1, more than 9,500 reviews and star ratings from some 23,000 users were posted on Douban, sparking international controversy.
Seo noted, "Netflix has said it has never sold distribution rights in China," adding, "At this point, illegal viewing in China has become routine." Seo added, "Chinese authorities should launch a focused crackdown on domestic illegal activities that undermine the value of Korean content."
In particular, content theft in China is not limited to viewing and has spread to format plagiarism. Tencent Video, the online video service (OTT) platform of Chinese information technology (IT) corporation Tencent, released a cooking competition program titled "Yipan Fengsheng" that directly copied the format of "Culinary Class Wars," drawing strong criticism.