NAVER Premium Content: Monetization & Subscription UX for Content Creators
A subscription-based content platform that empowers creators to monetize their work while providing users with seamless access to premium content.
Project Overview
As a Lead Product Designer, I was responsible for improving the publishing flow and redesigning the creator analytics dashboard, essentially rethinking the overall workflow across the creator side.
The Product
Premium Contents
My Role
Product designer
Responsibilities
UX/UI Design
Project Duration
Nov. 2022 - Feb. 2023
The Problem
Independent content creators need a sustainable way to monetize their written content as user demand shifts toward video-based media, making it harder to generate revenue solely from text.
The Goal
Enable content creators to seamlessly integrate video into their monetization strategies, allowing them to reach a wider audience and increase engagement. NAVER Premium Content will support this by providing a scalable subscription model and analytics tools to help creators optimize their revenue.
Top 6 Key Metrics
Achievements
During my time as the product designer, NAVER PREMIUM CONTENT scaled to 6M+ MAUs with 100% YoY growth, while driving a 883% surge in transaction volume. Improved monetization models led to a 3X increase in content sales and tripled the number of ₩1M+ monthly earners. The creator ecosystem also expanded from 15 to over 950 active contributors.
Solution: Designing a Trusted Multi-Format Experience
For Creators: Added video-first workflow to dashboard
For Subscribers: Richer video-first experience
with hybrid context
When publishing video content, the platform provides an optimized viewing experience. Videos can be mapped to playlists, and once at least one video is added, a dedicated playlist tab is created for easy access.
A payment prompt appears based on the user’s subscription status, and creators can set preview points when uploading their videos.
Iterations
Empowering Creators with Visibility and Control
From overwhelming complexity to a decision-ready dashboard, this IA became the backbone of a scalable creator tool. Added traffic-source analytics to the creator dashboard to leverage NAVER’s broader ecosystem for growth.
Context & Motivation
Hybrid Demand in a Video-First World
NAVER Premium Content launched as a text-first platform and proved its value in beta, quickly attracting a loyal base of paid subscribers.
But as 65 % of global internet traffic shifted to video, we saw that 39 % of our high-value Economy & Business creators still preferred text for rapid market analysis.
Key Pain Points & Solution Directions
Redesigning for a Seamless Video Creation and Insights Experience
Based on user interviews, we identified three core pain points: text-first publishing made video creation difficult, video content was buried in a text-oriented experience, and analytics lacked clarity, making it hard for creators to understand what actually drove performance.
To address these issues, I proposed three solution directions: a unified multi-format publishing flow for text and video, a strengthened content experience optimized for video discovery and consumption, and clearer performance signals through improved analytics and traffic source insights.
Impact & Takeaways
Delivering clear signals in complex data strengthens the entire creator ecosystem.
What I really learned from this project is that even in a very complex data environment, users ultimately need one thing — clear, meaningful signals. And in a creator ecosystem, publishing, discovery, and performance only drive growth when they reinforce each other. Strengthening that connection through system design is what creates the real flywheel.
