Korea Creative Content Agency Report Highlights Positive Trends in Music, Film, and Export Figures

Courtesy of Big Hit Music website

A report by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) on Wednesday revealed that South Korea's cultural content industries experienced a total of 69.3 trillion won ($52.8 billion) in sales during the first half of 2023. This marks a 2.5 percent increase compared to the same period the previous year, with data gathered from 1,500 businesses in 11 domestic cultural content industries. 

▲ Courtesy of Big Hit Music websiteThe music industry in South Korea showed the highest growth rate in terms of sales, reaching 6.1 trillion won, reflecting a 15.2 percent year-on-year increase. Following closely, the movie industry recorded a sales growth rate of 12.3 percent, totaling 1.9 trillion won. The animation industry demonstrated an 8.6 percent year-on-year sales growth with 406 billion won, while the cartoon industry showed a 6 percent growth, reaching 1.2 trillion won.

KOCCA attributed the success of Korea's music industry to the increasing popularity of K-pop, resulting in higher sales of albums and related items like photo cards and photo books.

During the first half of 2023, South Korea's cultural content industry exports reached an estimated $5.39 billion, marking a 1.3 percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year. The comics industry led in export growth with 71.3 percent, followed by the publishing industry at 31.7 percent, and the music industry at 29.2 percent.

Despite the overall growth, the number of employees in domestic cultural content industries slightly decreased by 0.5 percent, totaling 617,000. Notably, the animation and comics industries saw an increase in the number of employees by 6.9 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. However, the film and broadcasting industries experienced a decline of 4.9 percent and 3.2 percent in the number of employees, attributed to ongoing deficits in those sectors.

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Blue YIM, yimyoungseo1010@naver.com