Chinese streaming giant Youku has been targeted on charges of plagiarizing the Netflix hit Squid Game, after promoting promotional material for a new variety show called … Squid’s Victory.
Like Squid Game, the show will see contestants compete in “large-scale children’s games”. His posters are also very similar to those of the Korean hit.
Netizens criticized the “shameless” platform for not being original anymore.
In response, Youku apologized and said it was just a “draft” of the poster.
“Due to a work mistake, the first draft of the new Game’s Victory show – which was shot down earlier – was mistakenly used in promotional activities at a fair,” wrote the streaming company on Twitter-like platform Weibo. along with a different poster for a show now titled Game’s Victory.
However, social media users weren’t convinced.
“It looks like such a lame cover-up. Obviously, they had been trying to rip off Squid Game because of how popular it is,” wrote a Weibo user.
Others said they were “tired” of how much Chinese producers have plagiarized Korean content. The popular rap music show The Rap Of China, for example, has been criticized in the past for being a copy of the South Korean program Show Me The Money.
“Why can’t our producers come up with our ideas? It’s so embarrassing,” reads a comment.
Squid Game, the globally successful show focusing on deadly games for children, has become very popular in China even though it hasn’t been officially released there.
Netflix is not available in China, and many people have watched the show on illegal streaming sites or by downloading torrents.
Youku, which has an estimated subscriber base between 90 and 100 million, is one of China’s most popular streaming platforms.
China and Korea have had a number of cultural squabbles in recent years.
Last year, for example, China was accused of “stealing Korean culture” when he claimed to lead the kimchi industry .
The controversy arose out of a language problem – while kimchi is often served in China under the name pao cai,
Also last year, the Chinese were also criticized for claiming that the Korean national dress hanbok originated there.
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