S. Korea’s content industry exports surge to record high in 2022

South Korea’s content industry soared to new heights in 2022, reaching record levels in both exports and sales, a government report showed Friday, amid the global boom of Korean pop culture.

According to a 2022 research study on the cultural content industry conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the industry’s exports set a record of US$13.24 billion in 2022, a 6.3 percent increase from the previous year’s $12.45 billion.

The “content industry” encompasses 11 different sectors, including publishing, music, games, broadcasting, film and animation, that create and deliver copyrighted works to the public.

It outshines major manufacturing sectors in exports with figures surpassing those of secondary batteries ($9.99 billion), electric vehicles ($9.83 billion) and home appliances ($8 billion), according to the ministry.

The content industry’s revenue also hit an all-time high at 150 trillion won ($114 billion) in 2022, up from 137.5 trillion won in 2021. This 9.4 percent growth rate far outpaced the country’s overall industry growth of 3.3 percent, the ministry said, citing figures from Statistics Korea.

There was a 5.7 percent on-year rise in the number of businesses in the industry to about 115,000. The number of workers also increased 6 percent to about 651,000.

The study was based on surveys conducted by the ministry on businesses in the industry’s 11 subfields and two related state institutions. It will be published as a report late this month.