Hallyu Exports Led by Games, but Growth Driven by Music and Webtoons

KOCCA Releases "The Economic Impact of Hallyu Industry Exports"
"Cultural Proximity Drives Cosmetics and Food Exports"
K-pop Growth Rate Outpaces Global Market by Eightfold

K-pop and webtoons are reshaping the structure of Korean content exports.

In May, in front of the National Palace in Mexico City, where a meeting between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and BTS members was scheduled, the fan club ARMY gathered, and one fan was holding up a photo cutout of a BTS member. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News Agency

According to the report "The Economic Impact of Hallyu Industry Exports" published by the Korea Creative Content Agency on July 11, games have maintained an undisputed first place in Hallyu industry exports from 2006 to last year, accounting for 64.3%. However, the situation changes when looking at growth rates. During the same period, music exports grew at an average annual rate of 29.7%, the fastest among the eight categories, followed by comics at 26.3%. The growth rate for games was 15.1%, significantly lagging behind these two sectors.

This trend has accelerated in recent years. Music export volume surged from $17 million in 2006 to $1.801 billion last year, marking an increase of more than 100 times over 18 years. Even looking at just last year, music exports jumped by 32.4% from the previous year to reach $2.39 billion, setting the highest annual growth rate on record. Considering that the global music market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 3.35% between 2024 and 2029, Korea's long-term growth rate for music exports (29.7% per year) outpaces the global average by more than eightfold.

The story is similar for comics. While the global market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 7.02% from 2024 to 2029, Korean comic exports have expanded much faster, with an average annual growth rate of 26.3% since 2006. Isolating the most recent five-year period (2021–2025), exports increased more than threefold, from $80 million to $260 million. Although comics long held a negligible presence in Korean content exports, the global reach of webtoons has established a new engine for growth.

Thanks to the robust growth of music and comics, the Korean content industry is expanding its presence in the global market. This year, the global content market is forecast to grow 5.6% from the previous year to $2.4281 trillion. The United States ($1.0775 trillion) and China ($394.6 billion) together account for 60% of the total market, while Korea ranks eighth worldwide with a market size of $46.8 billion. However, Korea’s average annual growth rate is 3.46%, which is lower than in high-growth-potential markets such as India (9.33%), Indonesia (9.58%), and China (9.07%). This is why export diversification, rather than simply expanding market size, remains a future challenge.

'BTS World Tour in Goyang'现场.

The landscape of Hallyu exports varies by region. The largest market remains Greater China, accounting for 32.5%. However, due to Chinese restrictions on Korean content imports, export volumes for broadcasting and music are lower than those for Japan or Southeast Asia. Japan, which was previously the largest market, has seen its share fall to 15.9% due to a lower proportion of games, but it still remains the top export market for music, broadcasting, and comics.

Southeast Asia has shown the fastest growth since 2017, with the rise of K-pop and OTT platforms driving an average annual growth rate of 19.1% and boosting its market share to 19.2%. North America’s share also expanded to 18.5%, propelled by increased broadcasting exports through OTT and the influence of K-pop.

Kim Yoonji, president of the Korea Creative Content Agency and author of the report, attributed this trend to the theory of "cultural proximity." She explained that, rather than innate factors such as language, religion, or colonial experience, the shared consumption of films, music, and dramas fosters a sense of familiarity, which in turn influences the choice of preference-based consumer goods. Kim stated, "For verification, we applied the gravity model, which explains trade volume by inter-country distance and market size, and used Hallyu industry export volume as a proxy variable for cultural proximity in the analysis."

In fact, regions with higher consumption of Hallyu content also saw increased exports of preference-based consumer goods such as cosmetics and food. For cosmetics, exports were highest in Greater China (33%), followed by North America (20%), Southeast Asia (14%), and Europe (13.8%). Excluding the drop in demand from Chinese 'daigou' (personal shoppers) during the COVID-19 period, rising K-beauty purchases in North America and Europe have increased the share of these regions. Food exports also grew steadily, particularly for processed foods such as dumplings, ramen, and tteokbokki, in Greater China, Southeast Asia, and North America.

Last year's New York Comic Con Naver Webtoon cosplay event site.

In contrast, exports of IT devices such as mobile phones and laptops have shrunk to 11.4% of related industries, due to the expansion of overseas production by domestic companies. This divergence is also evident in the driving effect by item. When Hallyu industry exports increased by $100 million, IT device exports rose by $105 million, the strongest response among all sectors; however, this is a relative figure in the context of a shrinking market. Cosmetics ($73 million), apparel ($17 million), and food ($15 million) demonstrate increases that are accompanied by real market expansion. As for tourism, due to the lack of data during border closures caused by COVID-19, no significant impact was identified in single-year analysis.

The report concluded that these correlation effects align with the legislative intent behind the "Hallyu Industry Promotion Framework Act," which took effect in April last year. The law, which redefines the cultural industry stated in the 1999 "Culture Industry Promotion Framework Act" as the Hallyu industry and newly designates tourism, food, cosmetics, and traditional cultural products as related industries, reflects a shift in viewing Hallyu not just as a cultural phenomenon but as an economic driver. The government aims to provide integrated support through cross-ministerial master plans. Kim commented, "Given Korea's export structure, which is highly dependent on specific items like semiconductors, the Hallyu industry is expected to contribute to improving the economic structure by not only driving growth in content itself but also expanding exports of consumer goods and tourism."

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