Content Industry Sales Reach 69.3 Trillion Won in the First Half of Last Year

2.5% Increase from Last Year... Export Amount Also Rises
Notable Sales Growth in Music and Film Sectors

In the first half of last year, the domestic content industry’s revenue trend was identified as recovering. According to the '2023 First Half Content Industry Trend Analysis Report' published on the 3rd by the Korea Creative Content Agency, revenue was recorded at 69.3009 trillion won, 2.5% higher than the same period the previous year. Exports also increased by 1.3% compared to the same period last year, reaching 5.39 billion dollars.

Content Industry Sales Reach 69.3 Trillion Won in the First Half of Last Year

The sectors with notable revenue growth were music (15.2%) and film (12.3%). Animation (8.6%), knowledge information (8.0%), advertising (7.6%), and comics (6.0%) followed. In music, growth centered on major agencies was prominent due to the activation of the physical album market based on the K-pop fandom and increased collection of related products such as photo cards and photo books. In film, the number of releases significantly increased compared to the same period last year. However, the scale did not recover to pre-COVID-19 levels.

In exports, webtoons led the growth in comics (71.3%), followed by knowledge information (39.8%), publishing (31.7%), and music (29.2%). Conversely, characters (-8.3%), animation (-7.1%), and games (-5.7%) showed a declining trend.

Meanwhile, the number of workers in the domestic content industry in the first half of last year was estimated at approximately 617,000, a 0.5% decrease compared to the same period last year. The number increased in animation (6.9%) and comics (5.1%) but decreased in film (-4.9%) and broadcasting (-3.2%). Other industries showed little change in the number of workers.

This report, which estimates the scale of key industries such as revenue, exports, and employment, was prepared based on a survey of about 1,500 businesses across eleven domestic content industry sectors and analysis of data from 159 listed companies. It can be downloaded from the KOCCA website.