[New Wave] 2021: Challenges and Hopes in the Content Industry

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency announced the key words for next year's industry outlook at the '2020 Content Industry Review and 2021 Outlook' seminar held on the 17th. Professor Kim Nando of Seoul National University identified 'COWBOY HERO' as the trend to lead this year, meaning to maintain composure amid the pandemic, face reality, and not lose hope in the Year of the Ox, as in previous years. Based on this, we can find the main keywords and implications for the content industry outlook.

First, attention is drawn to the expansion of platforms and intellectual property (IP), changes in the value chain, and the organic relationship within the content industry. Centered around the keyword 'metaverse,' the popularization of communication culture within social platforms where virtual and reality coexist is emphasized. This highlights the importance of new business models in the economic environment (V-nomics) brought about by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Additionally, it is expected that the diversification of content IP expansion methods, which differ from the past, will deepen. Related to this, transmedia storytelling that unfolds various stories based on worldviews, genre diversification, hybridization, and newtro reinterpretations of new content are predicted to increase. An increase in various collaboration strategies in the content industry is also anticipated. Through examples like live commerce, the key will be how IP can evolve and how content and non-content fields can connect.

Second is how to welcome a new generation of consumers who have no prejudice about money and consumption and have strong self-assertion. Users who prefer safe consumption along with the stay-at-home phenomenon are expected to focus on enjoying content comfortably at home or in the car within a content environment where contactless (untact) and face-to-face coexist. The attempt to shift the game market from PC bangs to home console markets is also related to this. Furthermore, the intensified subscription economy emphasizes the variability of values and preferences. It is important to meet the rapidly changing and more discerning users' selection criteria like a rollercoaster and to satisfy users who desire enhanced self-expression and participation through content. Users' efforts to heal the COVID blue phenomenon through content are expected to increase. Referring to Professor Kim Nando's trend changes, it will be an era where so-called 'human touch' based on emotion becomes more important.

Third is how infrastructure, public support, and changes harmonize to produce concrete results. For example, the importance of so-called D.N.A (Data, Network, AI) is further highlighted to dominate future content, and the importance of innovative infrastructure related to the Digital New Deal and the resulting changes are anticipated. The issue is how the development of the content sector can be effective when linked to large-scale supplier-centered projects like the Digital New Deal. Interest in producing results and sustainability, such as the Korean Wave (Hallyu), is also significant. Changes in regions, genres, and distribution methods do not seem negative at first. For example, Korean content that discovered possibilities through online concerts will seek various collaborations with online video services (OTT) in the global market amid digital changes, as seen in examples like K-dramas.

The problem lies in the harmony of demand and supply and infrastructure related to environmental changes. The demands for content competitiveness and public interest implementation will change rapidly. It is important how to accommodate various keywords such as polarization of content industries, emergence of new-sensory cultural consumers, general public content production and participation, and complexity of ecosystem formation. Amid various changes, how the public sector cooperates with the private sector and creates synergy will be crucial. 2021 is a year that requires the challenging spirit like that of a cowboy.

Byungmin Lee, Professor, Department of Cultural Contents, Konkuk University

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