Deputy Minister Jeon Byeong-geuk at CES: "K-Content Must Focus on North American Market"

"Securing Budget for Related Projects... Exploring Multifaceted Support"

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 14th that First Vice Minister Jeon Byeong-geuk visited the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, USA, from the 8th to the 11th (Korean time) to identify difficulties faced by K-content companies and discuss strategies for pioneering the North American market. Together with the Korea Creative Content Agency, they set up the 'KOCCA Joint Pavilion' for the first time at CES, where they also encouraged representatives from fifteen cultural technology companies and early-stage startups. Attendees suggested, "It is urgent to expand the Content Business Support Center tailored to content companies and to establish corporate support centers in major cities such as Los Angeles (LA)." Vice Minister Jeon responded, "To foster the content industry as a national strategic industry, expanding overseas advancement, especially into the U.S. market, is crucial, and we will do our best to secure the budget for related projects."

Vice Minister Jeon also visited exhibition halls of major conglomerates such as Samsung, LG, SK, Lotte, and Hyundai. He listened to explanations about innovative technologies and discussed ways to integrate advanced technologies with content, including autonomous vehicle entertainment, home entertainment, virtual production, metaverse, and digital human technologies. Vice Minister Jeon emphasized, "Content export revenue reached $13.24 billion in 2022, significantly surpassing home appliances, secondary batteries, and display panels," but added, "Growth in the Greater China and Japanese markets, which account for more than 50% of export revenue, has been modest, so targeting the North American market to diversify export regions is necessary." He pledged, "We will explore multifaceted measures to ensure sustainable growth of K-content."

Earlier, Vice Minister Jeon visited local companies to assess the market situation. On the 8th, he met with CEO Jung Woo-sung at CJ ENM America’s office in LA, along with representatives from Netmarble America, Pinkfong USA, Pearl Abyss America, CocoWa, and Entermedia. They exchanged views on Hollywood market entry status, local responses, and overseas expansion support measures. CEO Jung stated, "Last year, about fifteen Korean works ranked within the top 100 popular titles on Netflix USA. Korean is the most-watched language after English, showing the high interest in K-content in the Americas." Vice Minister Jeon said, "Please feel free to raise any difficulties in exports to the government at any time."

Vice Minister Jeon also visited Walt Disney Studios. He met with Park Ji-won, Vice President of ABC Signature, to discuss cooperation plans with Korean companies. Vice President Park said, "Disney+ is paying attention to Korea in the Asian market," and added, "We expect to continue developing a good cooperative relationship."

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