First Half Content Industry Revenue 61.2 Trillion KRW... 6.0% Increase

Strength in Non-Face-to-Face Consumption Areas Such as Advertising, Comics, Games, and Content Solutions

Domestic content industry sales in the first half of the year were recorded at 61.2 trillion won, a 6.0% increase compared to the same period last year.

However, this is not yet at the pre-COVID-19 levels. According to the "2021 First Half Content Industry Trend Analysis Report" published on the 21st by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, sales recovery varied by sector. Sectors that allow non-face-to-face consumption such as advertising (24.9%), manhwa (Korean comics) (22.9%), games (10.0%), and content solutions (6.2%) continued their upward trend from last year. Publishing (3.6%), music (3.6%), and animation (2.3%) also showed a rebound. However, the film sector (-36.1%) experienced poor sales compared to the first half of last year due to decreased theater revenue and investment restrictions.

Exports of the domestic content industry in the first half reached 5.28 billion USD, a 6.8% increase compared to the same period last year. Non-face-to-face sectors such as manhwa (45.5%), knowledge information (6.0%), and content solutions (5.6%) led the growth. Advertising (36.0%), film (13.1%), and character content (8.2%) also escaped the downward trend. However, film, character content, and animation have yet to recover to their 2019 export levels.

The number of workers in the content industry in the first half was approximately 665,000, a 1.1% increase compared to the same period last year. Non-face-to-face sectors such as manhwa (6.6%), knowledge information (5.5%), content solutions (4.8%), and games (2.3%) showed growth. Other sectors saw little change in workforce due to contraction caused by the spread of COVID-19. For more details, please refer to the Korea Creative Content Agency website.

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