[New Wave] Finding Clues for Recovery in the Content Industry in 2022

I remember having a lot of hope when writing the 2021 outlook column a year ago. Despite the COVID-19 situation, the content industry experienced ups and downs but will be remembered as a year with achievements beyond expectations. While BTS’s influence remains strong, it is actually leading the global market, and although based on Netflix, the power of Korean dramas like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Hellbound’ is also shaking the world. I predicted that Korean content would seek various collaborations with online video services (OTT) amid the digital transformation of the global market, as seen with K-dramas, and seeing this prediction come true is both very satisfying and evokes a strange feeling.

Looking back on this year, Korean content with competitiveness in the new economic environment is becoming increasingly powerful due to the expansion of platforms and intellectual property (IP). The content market, once led by the U.S. and Japan, is now naturally evolving in a phase of true globalization where the demands of diverse stakeholders are expressed on new platforms. Content with diverse worldviews, hybridity, themes emphasizing comfort and resilience during the COVID-19 situation have gained popularity, and users have become more accustomed to OTT in an environment mixing non-face-to-face and face-to-face interactions.

These keywords were also confirmed at the ‘2021 Content Industry Review and 2022 Outlook’ seminar held online on the 1st by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency. Although the recovery of offline content such as performances is slow, online content related to games and OTT is spreading its wings further, and the scale of the metaverse (extended virtual world) and non-fungible token (NFT) industries is expected to grow even more. The global NFT transaction volume has exceeded approximately 10.7 billion dollars, and domestically, its use is expanding in connection with various content in gaming, music, and platform sectors. It is also noteworthy that virtual humans have become prominent due to the COVID-19 situation; as of October this year, there are 186 virtual humans registered under ‘Virtual Humans,’ which is quite astonishing.

The issue is that the importance of IP grows even more with platform changes, because even if the media environment changes, if the core content holds its balance, its effectiveness increases in a transmedia environment. For example, the webtoon ‘Yumi’s Cells,’ famous as a webtoon, saw its original webtoon’s daily views increase more than 30 times after the drama aired, suggesting that the scalability of well-made quality content will grow further in the future.

The seminar used the term V-turn, meaning ‘recovery’ and ‘transition.’ In a virtual environment where viruses (virus) are rampant, through new ventures (venture), how to satisfy active and proactive users (VIP), improve the system (value-up), and further enhance the value of Korean content is the challenge. Measures to revitalize offline content such as performances, mismatches in jobs, training of personnel, and improvement of legal systems in response to the new environment remain issues that must be continuously addressed.

In the With-COVID era, a long and tedious battle is expected, but as the content industry has done so far, it will survive well and grow further in the new environment. I look forward to writing another column next year with positive predictions coming true and sharing good news.

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

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