In this episode of the Asia Tech Podcast, Michael Waitze is joined by Changseong Ho, the former Co-Founder, and Partner of Viki, a premier destination providing multicultural entertainment to millions of viewers on a variety of TV series, movies and more. They discussed the creation and conception of Viki, Changseong’s English phobia, and the secret to building a sustainable community. The Phobia of English Being born and raised in South Korea meant that the language Changseong Ho and his wife and co-Founder JiWon Moon predominantly spoke wasn’t English. So when it came to moving abroad to study for their Masters degrees in the United States, Changseong and jiWon struggled to feel comfortable and confident enough in their ability to speak and understand English like their peers. That’s when the concept and creation of ViKi began. This fear and anxiety that they experienced sparked JiWon’s inspiration to make a product that would help ease people into learning a different language while enjoying video content they loved. Changseong talked about the insight he gained on his journey to finding the best way to learn English, and it turns out that it was through watching movies and TV shows with English subtitles. The Creation and Concept of ViKi Just like Netflix and Hulu, the concept of ViKi was to stream premium licensed content, with the main difference being that the subtitles could be added by community volunteers similarly to YouTube. Changseong explained the way they have employed gamification within their product, providing credits to those who contribute to providing translated content. They discuss the advantages of having a software that inserts translated subtitles to videos in real-time, and how giving users the ability to collaborate created a successfully integrated platform that was community-based. Building a Sustainable Community Changseong then went on to explain in further detail how the process of gamifying the product or service could eventually lead to building incentive systems that yield monetary benefits. They discussed the endless possibilities or the potential of using cryptocurrency and micropayments and the secret to building a community that is not only strong, diverse, and engaged, but also sustainable. To learn more about Changseong Ho and how he overcame his phobia of English, and instead, conquered it whilst also building a community, listen to this episode of the Asia Tech podcast today. The audio on this episode was expertly edited and produced by the talented Alanis Braun. You can see her portfolio here and her LinkedIn profile here.

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