SBA International Content Market SPP 2020, 'Ontact' Marketing Achievements

Business Cooperation Worth 79 Million USD Generated with Participation of 619 Companies from 34 Countries

Domestic content companies are conducting online consultations through the SPP business platform.
[Photo by Seoul Business Agency (SBA)]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The Seoul Business Agency (SBA), a support organization for small and medium enterprises that build the competitiveness of Seoul's cultural content industry, successfully concluded the international content market SPP (Seoul Promotion Plan) 2020, which ran from July 13 to August 14 for one month.

Marking its 20th edition, the international content market SPP is the largest domestic business platform in the content sector where various businesses such as distribution, co-production, licensing contracts, and investment attraction for animation, webtoons, character, and game content take place. This year, considering the COVID-19 situation, the event was held as an online biz-matching based on Ontact service.

Ontact is a concept that adds 'connection (On)' through online to 'Untact,' which means non-face-to-face. Accordingly, SBA highlighted the achievements of SPP 2020 with the keyword 'ONTact (O.N.T.A.C.T),' derived from the first letters of ▲Online (online biz-matching) ▲National (national representative-level buyers) ▲Top-class (K-content top-class companies) ▲Achievement (SPP's historical achievements) ▲Chance (opportunities for overseas expansion) ▲Trend (new trends in content business).

◆Online: SPP 2020 Provides Overseas Expansion Opportunities for K-Content Companies through Online Biz-Matching

Unlike previous years, SPP 2020 was held entirely online. Due to COVID-19 making it difficult for domestic and international content companies to meet, the event period was significantly extended to 33 days for participants' convenience. As a result, 619 companies from 34 countries conducted over 3,600 business consultations through the 'SPP Biz-Matching Platform.'

The new SPP Biz-Matching Platform played a major role in this achievement. Sellers and buyers checked each other's information through the platform and were matched with companies highly likely to be business partners via an automatic recommendation function. Additionally, SBA used the platform's 'Project Screening' feature to provide buyers with information on the most viewed content and promoted to sellers the enthusiastic buyers who participated most in the screening.

◆National: National Representative-Level Major Overseas Buyers such as The Walt Disney and Alibaba Youku Participated

Global major content buyers of national representative level, including The Walt Disney based in Singapore, Lion Forge Animation from the U.S., and Alibaba Group from China, participated in the SPP 2020 online biz-matching. Since all business consultations were conducted via online video systems, buyers mainly from Asia and ASEAN regions with similar time zones to Korea actively participated.

In particular, Indonesia's largest children's broadcasting channel RTV, which signed a distribution contract worth $13,000 for the animation 'The Secret Diary of the Ring' with domestic animation production company Soul Creative at SPP 2019, participated again this year. They signed a broadcasting contract for the animation 'Aerover,' featuring drones, with animation production company Pictionery Art Factory and confirmed airing in the second half of this year.

◆Top-class: Lineup of Top-Class Companies Representing the K-Content Industry Draws Attention

Despite difficulties in developing overseas markets due to COVID-19, K-animation is on a successful path. Especially, webtoons are gaining attention as a source leading the next generation of Hallyu. In April this year, the animation 'Tower of God,' based on a K-webtoon, ranked first in weekly popular anime on the famous U.S. community site Reddit, and Netflix is producing the Naver webtoon 'Sweet Home' as an original series.

SPP 2020 featured top-class companies representing the domestic animation, webtoon, and character industries, engaging in business consultations with domestic and overseas buyers. According to SBA, companies such as ▲CJ ENM Co., Ltd., leading the domestic media market (notable work: Shinbi Apartment) ▲Iconix, a domestic original animation production company (notable works: Pororo the Little Penguin, Tayo the Little Bus) ▲SmartStudy, a global content company (notable work: Pinkfong Baby Shark) ▲Young Toys Co., Ltd., a toy content specialist (notable works: Kongsuni, Secret Jouju) registered for online biz-matching to seek new overseas business opportunities.

◆Achievement: SPP 2020 Generated Business Cooperation Worth $79 Million

At SPP 2020, global major buyers and leading domestic content companies participated, achieving over 3,600 business consultations and approximately $79 million in business cooperation. The cooperation took various forms, including overseas distribution, co-production, licensing contracts, and memorandums of understanding.

Among these, the overseas distribution and investment attraction achievements of leading domestic animation production companies stood out. Hongdangmu Co., Ltd. signed distribution contracts for 'Animal Rescue' and 'Magic Adventure' in Asia and Oceania regions with Singapore's Bowman Bridge. Pictionery Art Factory, which signed a broadcasting contract for 'Aerover' with Indonesia's RTV, also signed distribution, licensing business, and a $3 million priority investment contract with U.S. Lion Forge. Studio Double W Baba signed distribution and investment contracts worth $1 million for 'B Family' and 'Synostone' with Malaysia's public broadcaster RTM.

◆Chance: SPP Proves Potential to Provide Overseas Expansion Opportunities for K-Content

Through SPP 2020 online biz-matching, domestic content companies gained opportunities to develop overseas markets by signing contracts for joint projects with overseas buyers. Edutech startup AceEdu signed an MOU for a $1 million 'K-POP ENGLISH' joint project with Chinese media company CTV. Animation production company Campfire Aniworks, game developer Klap, and game company Grampus signed an MOU worth $500,000 for joint development and co-investment of the game project 'Bigfoot Family.'

Michael Favelle, CEO of Australian company Odin’s Eye Animation, which participated as a buyer at SPP 2020, said, "It's hard to meet in person due to the current situation, but SPP seems to have taken a really important first step," adding, "Although we are on opposite sides of the globe, we are communicating online to find opportunities for co-production and collaboration."

◆Trend: Pioneering New Trends in the Content Business Market

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, Korea's global webtoon transaction amount surpassed 1 trillion won for the first time in history in 2019, with comic exports increasing by 13.6% compared to the previous year. The character sector recorded a 10.7% increase in exports compared to the previous year, led by the North American craze for 'Baby Shark.' The animation sector's sales also showed the highest growth rate of 11.2% among 11 content sectors compared to the previous year.

With growing demand for K-animation, webtoon, and character content, SPP 2020 was conducted in an online biz-matching format that matched overseas buyers seeking K-content supply with domestic companies aiming for overseas expansion, creating new business opportunities. SBA plans to lead the creation of new content business trends based on Ontact starting with the successful hosting of SPP 2020.

Park Bo-kyung, head of the SBA Seoul Animation Center, said, "SPP 2020, the largest domestic event in the content sector, became a venue for overseas business opportunities for small and medium content companies struggling with overseas exports due to COVID-19 and a place for overseas buyers to secure quality K-content," adding, "In preparation for the post-COVID era, we will enhance the accuracy of content recommendation and matching through learned artificial intelligence so that the SPP biz-matching 'platform' and the 'content' within the platform can synergize, and promote the international content market SPP through closer global cooperation with overseas media companies and OTT channel companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.