VOL.69/2024.04

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.
Also, according to another survey carried out by KPIPA in 2016, the 17 e-book distributors saw 125.8 billion won in profits, up 25.4 percent from a year earlier. Internet novels accounted for 33.3 billion won, or 26.5 percent of that, and genre literature excluding web novels (romances, fantasy, chivalry) accounted for 45.6 percent, or 57.4 billion won. Regular books accounted for 27.9 percent, or 35.1 billion won.The report from KPIPA said when including web portal operators like Naver and other companies who did not participate in the survey, South Korea's e-book marekt is estimated to be worth over 150 billion won. DNC Media was the first company to be listed on the country's stock exchange on Aug. 1 among web novel publishers. Their profits have been rising an average 44.2 percent every year. In 2014, the company recorded profits at 9.1 billion won, which grew to 18.9 billion won in 2016.

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.
A sector that has proved even more popular than web novels has been webtoons. A report from the KT Economics and Management Research Center showed the webtoon market in South Korea was worth 580 billion won in 2016 and was forecast to grow over 1 trillion won by the year 2020. South Korean companies like NHN Comico have already dominated the world's webtoon market through global platforms and Naver's webtoons see 6 million unique users log on for content viewing. Per month, 35 million people from around the world read Naver webtoons. Kakao Page's webtoons and web novels raked in roughly 100 billion won in profit last year with 9.5 million members. Naver's profits from webtoons and web novels stood at 46.7 billion won in 2016.

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.
Some publishers have responded to this change by creating their own platforms. Woongjin ThinkBig's 'Woongjin Book Club' and Changbi's 'Siyoil' are examples. Woongjin Book Club has combined all the content from Woongjin's respective imprints, including children's books, and is now providing a monthly paid-for service where readers can view books on tablet PCs. The latter has decided to play to its strengths, signaling growth by making poetry available online with the help of other publishers. They have decided to use a tactic where a shared platform can be used by readers who can choose from different subjects.

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)