Content export amount in high growth with 8%¡¦Economic growth in `set`
Kim Soo Yeon | newsnews@ | 2017-09-07 11:14:32

Issue analysis: Crisis content industry. Is it OK?

The reason why the Korean government should not ignore the contents industry is that the industry is an axis of our economic growth such as export and job creation. This is evidenced by objective indicators.

According to the contents industry on September 6, the Korean content industry has been supporting the downward trend of the Korean economy, which is highly dependent on exports. It is the content industry (publishing, comics, music, games, movies, animation, broadcasting, advertising, characters, knowledge information (portal £¿ other Internet information services, Content solutions, etc.).

It is advised by experts that Korea, which is called the ICT industry powerhouse, should pay more attention to the contents industry in the current trend of the hardware side in China and the software side in North America and Europe. In particular, it is necessary to have a long-term policy to promote the spread of Korean Wave through contents and the ripple effects to other industries, rather than a policy that is not subject to government regulation. It is time to take the lead in creating an environment where you can earn money by continuing to use content.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in 2016, the content industry survey shows that the domestic content industry has maintained its upward trend in sales for the past five years, reaching KRW 105.2 trillion, exceeding KRW 100 trillion for the first time in 2016.

Noteworthy is that the content industry`s sales have grown steadily at a CAGR of 4.7% over the past five years (2012-2016), despite the economic slowdown both at home and abroad. Especially, the content sales growth rate in 2016 was 5.3%, which is double the Korean economic growth rate of 2.7% last year.

Above all, our content industry is playing a role in the export market. Last year, the content industry exports increased 8.3% year-on-year to 6.31 billion dollars (about KRW 7.6 trillion), showing a CAGR of 8.0% over the next five years. This is in contrast to the two consecutive years of decline in Korea`s total exports, -8.0% in 2015 and -5.9% in 2016.

The importance of the contents industry becomes more evident when we look at the economic ripple effects such as the creation of jobs that are the main focus of the government. According to the Korea Foundation for Cultural Industries Exchange, the estimated value of cultural contents, consumer goods and tourism (hereinafter referred to as "Korean Wave") by Korean Wave in 2016 was USD 8,849 million (about KRW 9 trillion), up 8.4% from the previous year. The production, value added and employment inducement effects of the Korean Wave are KRW 18 trillion, KRW 7 trillion and 130 thousand, respectively. This is an increase of 10.5%, 12.5% and 13.6% respectively. The production, value-added, and employment inducement effects of the Korean cultural content section, excluding consumer goods and tourism products, is KRW 6 trillion, KRW 3 trillion and 56,000, respectively.

According to the Korea Contents Agency`s domestic contents industry survey, the number of workers in the industry is estimated at 620,000 (2016 estimate). In the last five years (2011-2015), about 17,000 new jobs have been created.

Nam Sang-hyun, director of the Korea Culture Industry Foundation, said, "The content industry is not significant in terms of absolute exports compared to conventional manufacturing. However, it is important in terms of attracting export of related industries such as consumer goods. As the point is the advantage of our contents, we must support and develop the industry by improving the circulation environment so that such contents can be continuously produced."

By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@


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