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Korean content industry grows 2.7% in Q1: report

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By Yonhap
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Models pose with 'KPop Demon Hunters' merchandise in the theme zone at Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 26. Yonhap

Models pose with "KPop Demon Hunters" merchandise in the theme zone at Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 26. Yonhap

Korea's content industry expanded 2.7 percent in the first quarter, driven by strong growth in the music and animation sectors, a report showed Saturday.

According to a quarterly report by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), the industry's sales reached 38 trillion won ($27.2 billion) in the January to March period, up from 37 trillion won a year earlier.

The information technology sector led with 6.39 trillion won in sales, accounting for 16.8 percent of the total, followed by publishing with 6.1 trillion won in sales and gaming at 5.8 trillion won.

The music sector recorded the fastest growth, surging 41.2 percent year-on-year to 3.6 trillion won, while the animation sector rose 16.5 percent to 289.6 billion won.

By contrast, the film sector saw its quarterly sales decline 9.8 percent year-on-year to 1.3 trillion won, while gaming and broadcasting sales fell 8.3 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.

The KOCCA report also showed that Korea exported $3.1 billion worth of content in the first quarter amid rising demand for Korean TV titles and music.

Overseas sales of Korean TV content shot up 159 percent year-on-year to $294.3 million and those of music increased 73.9 percent to $564.3 million. Game exports edged up 1.1 percent to $1.6 billion.

On the other hand, exports of Korean animation and comics fell 37.1 percent and 15 percent to $9.9 million and $58.8 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, content firms listed on Korea's stock markets posted combined sales of 14.7 trillion won in the January-March period, up 3 percent from a year earlier, with their combined operating profit rising 12.3 percent to 1.5 trillion won.

IT firms led the group with a combined 4 trillion won in sales, followed by game publishers with 3.2 trillion won and broadcasters with 2.3 trillion won.

Content firms accounted for 0.29 percent of total sales and 1.09 percent of total operating profit among all listed firms in the first quarter.