Netflix Inc. plans to spend $500 million on original movies and TV shows in South Korea this year, boosting investment in content that’s been key to the streaming giant’s success in one of its fastest-growing markets.

Since entering the country in 2016, the U.S. company has invested $700 million in local content, creating about 80 original series and films in South Korea, co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said at a virtual event on Thursday. Disclosing the market’s user numbers for the first time, Netflix said it had 3.8 million paid subscribers in South Korea at the end of 2020. “Over the last two years, we’ve seen the world falling in love with the incredible Korean content,” Sarandos said. “Made in Korea and watched by the world on Netflix.”

The Los Gatos, California-based company has identified South Korea as one of the keys to its success in Asia, a vast region home to more than half of the world’s population. Asia is Netflix’s smallest region at the moment, trailing North America, Latin America and Europe. But Netflix has signed up more than half of the available customers in many of its largest markets. Adding customers in Asia is crucial in the years ahead if Netflix has to sustain its recent growth. Netflix, which just started to crack Asia over the past couple years, has created more than 200 original films and series in Asia, Sarandos said. The service added 9.2 million customers in the region last year, bringing its overall total to more than 25 million. Most of that growth has come from four territories: Australia, Japan, India and South Korea.