K-Content Criteria as Seen by Consumers: "What It Contains" Over "Who Made It"

Girl group Black Swan.

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A recent survey has found that the key criterion for consumers when evaluating K-content is not the nationality of the creators or capital, but rather the uniquely Korean sentiment and narratives contained within the content itself.

On April 14, the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute released this analysis in its Content Industry Trend Brief, titled "Elements of K-Content as Perceived by Consumers." The survey was conducted in December of last year, targeting 2,000 Korean men and women aged 20 to 64 nationwide. Respondents were asked to rank, in order of importance, the elements that must be present for K-pop, drama/film, and animation to be recognized as K-content.

The results were similar across all three genres. For K-pop, the most frequently selected element was Korean sentiment, symbols, and messages (13.55%), followed by ownership of Korean intellectual property (IP) (12.90%), classification as K-pop (11.55%), and having major artists who are Korean (11.00%). In the drama and film category, the top factors were Korean culture, sentiment, and symbols (11.45%), ownership of Korean IP (9.30%), and classification as Korean content (8.70%), in that order.

In the animation category, ownership of Korean IP (12.40%) ranked first, but when the rankings were expanded to include the top three choices, the inclusion of Korean settings, characters, traditions, and symbols (11.72%) was the most prominent. The criterion traditionally considered most important for determining the nationality of content-"Korea as the main investor"-ranked low: 9th in K-pop, 11th in drama/film, and 10th in animation.

Still cut from the Apple TV+ drama "Pachinko".

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This trend was also confirmed through the analysis of actual content cases. A total of 61.65% of respondents recognized Black Swan, a girl group under a Korean management company composed of members from Belgium, India, Germany, and the United States, as K-content. The main reason given was Korean sentiment, symbols, and messages (14.84%). Conversely, those who did not consider it K-content cited the absence of major Korean artists (16.04%) as the main reason.

Despite its IP, capital, production, and distribution all being overseas-based, the Apple TV+ drama "Pachinko," which deals with the Japanese colonial era and the story of Koreans in Japan, was recognized as K-content by 71.30% of respondents. The primary reasons included Korean culture, sentiment, and symbols (12.13%), as well as the use of Korean as the main language (9.40%). Those who did not consider it K-content pointed to the absence of Korean IP ownership (12.02%) and Korean production company leadership (12.02%) as their standards.

For the Netflix drama "XO, Kitty," which is mainly set in Korea but is primarily in English, the rate of recognition as K-content was 40.65%, the lowest among the four cases. In contrast, "K-Pop Demon Hunters," an overseas-produced animation that highlights the K-pop universe and Korean setting, was regarded as K-content by 67.25% of respondents. The reasons most frequently cited were the Korean story, universe, and character foundation (13.46%), and the inclusion of Korean settings, characters, traditions, and symbols (12.34%).

Among respondents who considered nationality when selecting content (58.75%), there was a strong emphasis on human elements such as actors, artists, and production staff. On the other hand, those who did not consider nationality (41.25%) tended to use content elements-such as Korean culture, sentiment, and narrative-as their standards for K-content.

Movie still cut of K-Pop Demon Hunters

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The institute diagnosed that these results have twofold implications. Strategically incorporating Korean elements at the planning stage can provide an advantage in global reach. However, overseas creators and production companies can produce K-content in the same way. If consumers accept this as K-content, the position of domestic production companies may become weaker.

Accordingly, the institute proposed policy tasks such as expanding production cost support and tax benefits for domestic content producers, building a cultural source content archive that organizes Korea's traditional culture, history, and symbols, and creating refined datasets so that global AI models can accurately learn Korean culture without distortion.

Nam Yuwon, a researcher at the Content Research Division, stated, "Since it has been confirmed that consumers tend to determine the nationality of content based on Korean culture and identity, a strategic approach is needed at the planning stage to effectively incorporate these perceptual elements."

Lee Yonggwan, head of the Hallyu Economy Research Center, emphasized, "As the global environment for the production and distribution of content featuring Korea expands, it is necessary to clarify the origins and identity of Korean culture and to create institutional and industrial conditions that allow Korean culture to be utilized without distortion."

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