Looking to get Hulu in South Korea? Whether you are working in South Korea and simply can’t access your Hulu account or whether you are from South Korea and want to access the American shows and movies that aren’t available for you, whether that’s via Hulu or Hulu Live TV, that’s where this guide comes in with 2 key steps.
…But first let’s talk about why Hulu is not available in South Korea in the first place.
Hulu, whether before the acquisition by Disney or after it, has always been an American first platform. It’s target audience was the US. Why did it take such a model? There are several benefits to it. The primary one is that if you get rights to show content, if you only need to focus on one location, it is much more affordable to get quality content for your service. Otherwise you have to pay a lot more, while competing with other companies, some of which are only available on certain markets and more determined to get that specific content.
And secondly, if you own content or create content, if you only show it in one region, you can then sell the rights to that content to other regions, generating more income.
…But as a result of that, Hulu is not available outside of the US, or well, technically a anime focused version of it is available in Japan, but apart from that, that is it.
There are two steps to getting Hulu in South Korea whether you reading this in 2023 or later.
To get Hulu, you need to:
Now, let’s get into these steps.
Hulu like all other major streaming services, has a location verification in place to make sure only the people in the right regions access the service.
If you go into Hulu’s website, it might look like you are in the right region because you won’t see any messages like you might have in the past prior to Disney’s acquisition, yet if you actually try to use Hulu, you won’t be able to, if you are not in the supported region.
How do you get yourself into a supported region without going there?
By using a VPN service to change your location virtually.
In this case, PrivateVPN as a service has been able to unblock Hulu for many years with a focus on quality rather than quantity, meaning fewer servers, but instead servers with focus on quality. PrivateVPN also works with up 10 devices at the same time meaning you can hook up all of your devices to watch different things at the same time, simply by having one account.
As far as making Hulu think you are in the US, that is it, and if you previously lived in the US or have access to an American issued card, signing up will be super simple as you won’t have to deal with any card verification issues as your card is already issued in the right region.
…But if that is not the case, then that’s where step 2 will come in.
Hulu as a platform like many other platforms check if your card is issued in the “region you are in.”
This in a way can be problematic as even if you do live in the US, but for example are originally from Canada and don’t have an American card, you won’t be able to sign up for Hulu, yet for streaming platforms it is an extra layer of security, and something they have to enforce not to get in trouble for breaking agreements.
How do you solve this?
The easiest way is naturally to ask someone from the US or with the right card to simply help you. There is also the possibility of getting a prepaid card issued in the US, although that is not always successful.
But for many the easiest way to get past this block will be by signing up directly from a mobile device.
Why?
As while Hulu has a payment block on their website, on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, it is a lot easier as neither of these enforce such strict blocks.
The catch? You will need to change the region of your app store. Something we will go through now.
On Apple devices the steps are a little bit different, but can also be somewhat difficult.
In theory it is as simple as logging out of your iCloud account and creating a new account in the region that you need to be based in to get Hulu, but on the other hand, if you already have active subscriptions on your current account, unless you cancel them, you won’t be able to log out.
If you already have a subscription in place, but have several Apple devices, perhaps you could work around by logging out on one device.
The alternative solution to that is if you are not able to switch your iCloud account is to apply the Android version via an Android emulator like Bluestacks, on your computer device.
As far as the steps look like:
Oh, and we have made a guide on the best apps for iPhone for entertainment in the past if you are looking for other Apple apps worth getting in South Korea.
…But perhaps the best thing about this guide is that this also applies to many other streaming services whether that is Paramount+ or something like Voot, but you will find that out by trying PrivateVPN out.
Disclaimer: While PrivateVPN supports Hulu, it cannot guarantee non-stop support at all given times. No service can. Due to that we recommend you sign up on a monthly basis.