Seoul: South Korea’s content industry expanded by 2.7 percent in the first quarter, primarily driven by significant growth in the music and animation sectors, as highlighted in a recent report.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the industry’s sales reached 38 trillion won (US$27.2 billion) from January to March, an increase from 37 trillion won during the same period the previous year. The information technology (IT) sector led the way with sales of 6.39 trillion won, comprising 16.8 percent of the total sales, followed by publishing with 6.1 trillion won and gaming at 5.8 trillion won.
The music sector experienced the fastest growth, surging 41.2 percent year-on-year to 3.6 trillion won, and the animation sector increased by 16.5 percent, reaching 289.6 billion won. Conversely, the film sector saw a decline in quarterly sales by 9.8 percent year-on-year to 1.3 trillion won, while gaming and broadcasting sales dropped by 8.3 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.
The KOCCA report further indicated that South Korea exported $3.1 billion worth of content in the first quarter, amid growing international demand for Korean TV shows and music. Overseas sales of Korean TV content increased by 159 percent year-on-year to $294.3 million, and music exports rose by 73.9 percent to $564.3 million. Game exports slightly increased by 1.1 percent, reaching $1.6 billion. However, exports of Korean animation and comics experienced declines of 37.1 percent and 15 percent, respectively, to $9.9 million and $58.8 million.
Additionally, content firms listed on South Korea’s stock markets reported combined sales of 14.7 trillion won in the January-March period, marking a 3 percent increase from the previous year. Their combined operating profit rose by 12.3 percent year-on-year to 1.5 trillion won. IT firms led with a combined 4 trillion won in sales, followed by game publishers with 3.2 trillion won, and broadcasters with 2.3 trillion won. Content firms constituted 0.29 percent of total sales and 1.09 percent of total operating profit among all listed firms in the first quarter.