South Korea's digital publishing industry South Korea's publishing industry
2017.8.18
Foreign publishing industry officials interested in South Korea should focus on digital publishing, where anyone can become an author and readers can access books anywhere at any time. In South Korea, the market for web novels and webtoons is growing at a fast pace due to these facts.
Firm growth in South Korea's digital publishing
In contrast to South Korea's lagging book sales, the country's digital publishing industry has been marking steady growth. According to a contents industry survey conducted by the country's culture ministry in 2016, production of digital publishing for the Internet and mobile phones recorded 255.5 billion won in profits and soared 12.4 percent over a year earlier. Services in digital publishing for the Internet and mobile phones also showed the same trend, jumping 17.3 percent on-year and showing a market size of an annual 181.6 billion won.
Web novels and webtoons reign
Completed e-books based on books that are already published in physical form by conventional publishers are usually sold through Internet bookstores but growth there has been slow. The popularity of paper books is directly connected to sales for e-books. On the other hand, web novels and other stories that are serially uploaded via Internet web portal operators or IT companies like Naver or Kakao have been massively collecting paying customers. The same goes for Munpia, a writer-based paid-for platform. Among paid-for contents online, romance novels and risque content for adults are most popular. The growth of the e-book industry also means the expansion of reader and writer bases. For example, Naver's web novel Challenge League, where anyone can participate, has nearly 190,000 participants.
Paper book publishers react to market change
The Achilles' heel for South Korea's digital publishing industry is that the link between it and conventional physical book publishers is weak. This is due to the failure of publishers in adapting to the fast changing pace of today's digital content environment, as well as their low capital and response tactics. Globally, entertaining content like romance novels and comics have been leading the e-book market rather than educational databases, but South Korean publishers have given up their lead to web platform companies. These new companies are now holding the reins in production and distribution of e-book content by providing a link between the content and readers. From the viewpoint of many conventional publishers, the recent digital publishing growth is a party with essentially nothing for them to enjoy.
South Korea's publishing industry is now expanding the reading environment while letting paid-for services take root, eventually leading to a bigger publishing market. Companies are achieving this by differentiating themselves from massive content platform firms while others are working together with them. Creating an attractive content platform in a digital network environment while securing diverse networks will be a good way to guarantee the survival of publishers.
Written by Won-keun Baek (President of Books & Society Research Institute) Won-keun Baek (President of Books & Society Research Institute) |
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