Millions made by Korean entertainers in Japan

“The important thing about cultural products is that they do not stop there. When Korean culture gains popularity, a wide variety of Korean products other than culture sell, in some cases four times as much as usual,” said Noh Jun-suk who is in charge of future strategies at the Korea Creative Contents Agency.

Cultural contents by themselves do not bring Korea an enormous amount of income but the effect they have on overall Korean exports is quite significant.

This brings up suggestions that Korea needs to develop better strategies to take advantage of cultural impact Korean entertainers are having on the world, such as the recent popularity of “Gangnam Style” by rapper Psy which broke all kinds of records, including the 1 billion mark for viewing on YouTube.

Even by themselves, Korean entertainers are making a huge amount of money. The popular boy group TVXQ, for instance, drew a total audience of 550,000 during their performances in Japan, leading to earnings of 90 billion won ($80 million)