Samansa, a streaming platform that specializes in short films, has soft-launched operations in South Korea, becoming its second country of operations.

The service, founded in Japan in 2021, provides some 800 short films from around the world, with subtitle options including Japanese and Korean.

The platform claims 45,000 subscribers and 200,000 monthly active users in Japan, with numbers growing by 10 to 15 percent, monthly.

"There's rapid technological development in the way people watch movies, but ways to watch short films hasn't changed at all. That's because people are just sticking to this idea that shorts don't make money," said Takayuki Toyama, the CEO of Samansa during an online seminar Friday.

"No one is trying to take a lead to build the ecosystem (for short films). We believe the current ecosystem is a mess, and now we are stepping in the mess to organize the system," he said.

Samansa plans to add more Korean short films to its library, according to Yunah Jeong, vice president of content licensing and production at Samansa.

"Korean content is so popular and beloved. All the short films on Samansa have been licensed from individual filmmakers, short film distributors or film schools. We are so thrilled to have already licensed numerous shorts from incredibly talented Korean filmmakers both animation and live-action," said Jeong.

Samansa currently features Korean short films such as "Eve" by Alexander Shin, "My Father's Room" by Shin Ji-soo, and "Superpower Girl" by Kim Soo-young.

In addition to featuring completed films, Samansa is currently in the midst of creating original works, Jeong said.

"This year we commissioned four short films. All four are currently in post-production and we're very eager to release them on Samansa next year. Next year, our plan is to commission (a total of) 10 short films," she said.