Monthly trade infographics

S.Korea's IP trade balance swings to black in H1 2021

Korean content boom on over-the-top services backs profit

Nov 10, 2021 (Gmt+09:00)

2 Min read

Success of Korean films on OTT platforms

South Korea posted a surplus in its intellectual property rights trade balance in the first half of 2021. The balance recorded an $850 million profit in the first six months, according to the Bank of Korea's preliminary report in September. Analysts say that exports of culture and art-related copyrights from Korean music and films drove the profit.

Source: Analysis of the OTT Industry and Export of K-content (issued in April 2021 by the Overseas Economic Research Institute at The Export-Import Bank of Korea), Korea’s Subtotal IP Trade Balance in H1 2021 (issued in September 2021 by the Bank of Korea)

Culture and art-related copyrights trade balance

The culture and art-related copyrights trade balance logged a yearly profit for the first time in 2020. The balance also posted a surplus in the first half of this year, backed by exports of K-drama and movies.

Culture and art-related copyrights trade balance

Unit: million dollars

Source: The Bank of Korea

Current OTT market trend

The global OTT market size in 2020 reached $110 billion, up about 18% from the previous year. It is expected to grow about 15% in 2021 to $126 billion. Although the Korean OTT market size was only 108.5 billion won ($91.7 million) in 2012, it continued to grow 28% annually and expanded to 780.1 billion won in 2020.

Global OTT market size

Unit: billion dollars

Source: Boston Consulting Group

Korea’s OTT market size

Unit: billion won

Source: Korea Communications Commission

Global OTT investment in K-content

Global OTT companies are competitively announcing their investment plan to secure K-content, aware that K-dramas and K-movies are indispensable for expansion in the Asian market. Particularly, Netflix has increased investment in K-content to 550 billion won in 2021, a 65% year-on-year increase. Global OTT investment in the production of K-dramas and K-movies is expected to grow for some time.

Netflix’s investment in K-content

Unit: billion won

Source: Netflix

Global OTT companies’ content investment in 2020

Unit: billion dollars

Source: STATISTA, Forbes

K-movies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, offline sales in movies significantly dropped as movie theaters were temporarily closed. However, digital sales were decent as the movies were released on global OTT channels. Even post-pandemic, OTTs' role in the movie industry is expected to be greater than in the past.

Sales in K-movies

Unit: billion won

Source: Korean Film Council

K-dramas

According to the global OTT content ranking website FlixPatrol, Squid Game was the most popular Netflix TV show globally as of October 21. Four of the top 10 Netflix shows were Korean dramas, including My Name (ranked third), Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (seventh) and The King’s Affection (10th) and on the top 10 list for the first time. Squid Game has been recorded as the most-watched drama by households subscribing to Netflix since the streaming giant’s inception.