Publishing industry sales revenue South Korea 2014-2020

In 2020, the sales revenue of the South Korean publishing industry amounted to around 21.7 trillion South Korean won. This was the highest sales revenue recorded for the industry, and continues a trend of annual increases. After a few years of decline, the number of businesses in the publishing industry started to increase again, standing at about 25 thousand in 2020.

Growing popularity overseas

With the rising popularity of South Korean content and products, the publishing industry saw an increasing trend in its export value. The highest figure was recorded in 2020, accounting for over 300 million U.S. dollars for the first time. According to a survey about the worldwide popularity of South Korean books and comics (manhwa), more than a third of the respondents answered that books and manhwa were very popular in their country. Although books and manhwa were less popular than dramas, movies, and entertainment shows, Korean comics were generally perceived as more known than music content from South Korea. Malaysia especially showed the most interest in manhwa compared to other countries. Generally, cultural contents were more prevalent in Asia than in other parts of the world.

Advantages and challenges for the e-book sector

Since 2015, e-books have gained popularity again. The leading reason for reading e-books was the convenience of storing and carrying them , closely followed by their availability to be read anywhere at any time. Despite that, more people preferred to buy a physical copy of a book than read an e-book. In particular, readers wanted e-publishing services to improve on their variety of offered content services for a better reading experience. In comparison to other e-publishing services, e-books seemed to be less popular. For example, the usage rate of digital comics showed a growing popularity over the years, reaching over 70 percent in 2021.