Content Industry Recovery in the First Half of the Year... Both Sales and Export Amounts Increase

Sales of approximately 66.9 trillion won... 7.0% increase compared to the same period last year
Exports also rose 0.5% to 5.49 billion dollars... 650,000 employees

The movie 'The Outlaws 2' has surpassed 10 million cumulative viewers. It is the first time in three years since Bong Joon-ho's 'Parasite' in 2019, and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. On the 12th, Seoul CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall was bustling with citizens. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

The domestic content industry showed signs of recovery in the first half of this year. Both sales and export amounts increased compared to the same period last year. According to the '2022 First Half Content Industry Trend Analysis' report published on the 19th by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, the content industry sales in the first half of this year amounted to approximately 66.9 trillion KRW, a 7.0% increase from the same period last year. Exports also rose by 0.5% to about 5.49 billion USD (approximately 7.2 trillion KRW).

The sector with the most notable sales growth was the film industry, which was directly hit by COVID-19. The growth rate was 58.1%. Social changes such as the easing of social distancing measures led to an increase in audiences. Successful works included 'Crime City 2 (12,693,322 viewers)' and 'The Witch Part 2 (2,806,501 viewers)'. However, it is difficult to say that the industry has fully recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels. The report also explained that "the COVID-19 base effect has a significant impact." Other growing sectors included music (31.7%), comics (23.2%), and characters (10.0%). In terms of exports, film (51.8%), comics (27.9%), music (26.2%), and advertising (26.1%) saw gains. On the other hand, exports decreased in publishing (-34.2%), knowledge information (-4.7%), and games (-1.4%).

During the same period, the number of workers in the domestic content industry was approximately 652,000, a 1.6% increase compared to the same period last year. Increases were seen in comics (26.7%), film (9.1%), knowledge information (3.7%), and content solutions (3.7%). Conversely, characters (-0.8%) and publishing (-0.4%) saw declines. Other sectors showed little change. The report highlighted key issues in the first half as ▲ the overseas expansion of major domestic webtoon platforms ▲ the gaming industry's search for growth opportunities through diversification of content intellectual property (IP) ▲ the accelerating recovery of the film industry after the transition to With COVID-19 ▲ and new content consumption behaviors of the MZ generation. More detailed information can be found on the KOCCA website.

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