K-Content Export Value Surpasses Home Appliances, Secondary Batteries, and Electric Vehicles

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Announces '2021 Content Industry Survey'
K-Content Export Value Hits Record High of 14.3 Trillion Won

[Image source=Yonhap News]

K-content has established itself as a representative export item of South Korea. According to the '2021 Content Industry Survey' announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 4th, the export value of the content industry in 2021 reached a record high of $12.45 billion (14.3 trillion KRW). This is a 4.4% increase from the previous year's $11.92 billion. With steady growth, it surpassed major export items such as home appliances ($8.67 billion), secondary batteries ($8.67 billion), electric vehicles ($6.99 billion), and display panels ($3.6 billion). The Ministry explained, "This result was achieved thanks to the global Hallyu wave, with over 150 million members in Hallyu fan clubs worldwide."

K-content also played a leading role in driving our exports. According to an analysis by the Export-Import Bank of Korea last year, when K-content exports increased by $100 million, exports of consumer goods such as cosmetics and food also increased by $180 million. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism predicted, "It is expected to continue to lead the co-growth and export of manufacturing and service industries."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

During the same period, the sales revenue of the content industry was surveyed at 137.5 trillion KRW, a 7.1% increase from the previous year's 128.3 trillion KRW. Despite the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic low-growth trend, it recorded a higher growth rate than the overall industry average (4.8%), emerging as a key industry to overcome the economic downturn. The number of businesses reached about 109,000, a 9.1% increase from the previous year. On the other hand, the number of employees was about 611,000, a 4.8% decrease.

Park Bo-gyun, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "Although the economic situation is expected to be difficult this year, we anticipate the content industry will maintain steady growth," and added, "Since promoting the content industry and expanding exports are major national policy tasks, we will nurture it with well-structured policies."

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism compiled these statistics by citing the results of surveys conducted on eight industry sectors?publishing, comics, music, animation, advertising, characters, knowledge information, and content solutions?as well as the results from three organizations: the Korea Creative Content Agency, the Korean Film Council, and the Korea Information Society Development Institute, which surveyed the game, film, and broadcasting industries respectively. Detailed figures by sector will be disclosed in a report published at the end of this month.