Last Year, Content Industry Exports Surpassed 10 Billion Dollars for the First Time

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] Last year, the export value of the domestic content industry increased by 8.1%, surpassing 10 billion dollars for the first time in history.

According to the '2019 Second Half and Annual Content Industry Trend Analysis Report' published on the 7th by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, the estimated export value of the domestic content industry last year was 10.39 billion dollars (approximately 12.373 trillion KRW), an 8.1% increase from 9.61 billion dollars in 2018. Sales grew by 4.9% from the previous year to the 125 trillion KRW level, and the number of employees also increased by 2.2%.

◆ Game Industry Drives Export Growth= Among the 11 genres, the game industry, which accounts for the largest export share (67.2%), led growth by exporting 6.98183 billion dollars (approximately 8.3125 trillion KRW), an 8.9% increase from the previous year.

The music industry also recorded export sales of 639.65 million dollars, a 13.4% increase compared to the previous year. This is attributed to the strong performance of K-pop idol groups representing the Korean Wave, such as BTS, BLACKPINK, and SuperM, in the North American market following 2018.

Exports of comics reached 45.98 million dollars, a 13.6% increase from the previous year, marking the highest growth rate among the 11 genres. This was influenced by the successful overseas market expansion of webtoon platforms affiliated with Naver and Kakao, along with Korean webtoons surpassing 1 trillion KRW in global transaction value for the first time last year.

The character sector, ranked second in content industry export share (7.9%), recorded 824.92 million dollars, a 10.7% increase, driven by the North American craze for 'Baby Shark' and the popularity of various K-character collaboration products. However, three sectors?publishing (-13.8%), film (-9.0%), and advertising (-7.5%)?experienced a decline in exports last year.

The estimated sales of the domestic content industry last year totaled 125.4 trillion KRW, a 4.9% increase from the previous year. Considering that Korea's economic growth rate was 2.0% last year and the average annual growth rate of total industry sales over the past five years was 3.8%, this is regarded as a noteworthy figure.

◆ Sales Increased Across All Sectors Compared to Previous Year= Sales increased in all sectors of the content industry, with animation (11.2%), knowledge information (9.1%), and music (8.9%) industries recording high growth rates. Publishing had the highest sales among the 11 sectors at 21 trillion KRW last year but grew by only 0.6%. Broadcasting is expected to rank first with sales of 20.9 trillion KRW, a 6.1% increase.

The number of employees reached 682,131, a 2.2% increase from the previous year. By sector, knowledge information saw the highest increase at 4.6%, followed by character (4.4%), content solution (4.2%), broadcasting (4.0%), and comics (3.5%).

This report analyzed the major trends of 11 content industry genres in 2019 and estimated key industry scales such as sales and exports through a survey of 2,500 businesses and analysis of data from 122 listed companies.

The finalized scale of the content industry for 2019 will be announced through the '2020 Content Industry Statistical Survey,' an official statistics report approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to be published in the first half of next year.