Seoul to nurture 5 sectors to boost creative industry competitive

People watch the opening ceremony of the League of Legends World Championship final at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Nov. 19. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

Seoul designated extended reality (XR), video, media, webtoons, and games and esports as five key sectors, Wednesday, to boost its competitiveness in creative industries.

The initiative comes amid the capital’s growing influence in the global creative market. Earlier this month, global esports events such as the 2023 League of Legends (LOL) World Championship and the 2023 Worlds Fan Fest took place here, attracting over 150,000 global game fans to the capital.

Manufacturing business, meanwhile, accounts for a mere 10 percent of the city’s economy, according to the city government.

Thus, by 2028, Seoul aims to build infrastructure to lay the foundation for the growth of the creative industry across the city, while fostering a professional workforce of 2,000 people and creating 5,000 intellectual property rights.

For example, a creative industry hub will be launched at Mount Nam in 2027, which will be the control tower for the project.

Sangam-dong of western Seoul's Mapo District will see an XR center and creative industry story center, which will serve as a workspace for creators and producers of films, dramas, webtoons and animation and support production activities by small- and medium-sized companies.

Chungmuro, known as the birthplace and symbol of the Korean film industry, will have a Seoul movie center in 2025, where international film festivals, film markets and business networking will take place all year round.

Also, a new media venture hub will open in Mok-dong in southwestern Seoul where media, IT and broadcasting companies are concentrated. The center will feature an XR studio and will aim to support and foster the creative activities of independent and one-person media.

According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, Korea’s creative industry market was worth 148 trillion won ($114.9 billion) in 2022. The annual growth rate of the country’s content industry stands at 5 percent and grew to rank as the seventh biggest global market, following the United States, China, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and France.

In response, the city government seeks to attract investment and provide funding to nurture the rapidly growing industry.

In the next five years, Seoul will invest 200 billion won in research and development in integrating content with technology, such as artificial intelligence and XR. By 2026, the city will raise 600 billion won to invest in the creative industry.

The city will also focus on attracting foreign capital with a focus on the Middle East, which shows great interest in Korean culture and games.

Seoul is “leading global trends in fashion, movie and game industries,” with growing popularity among global companies as a test-bed to try out their growth potential, according to Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

“Seoul is a city less suitable for manufacturing and the city’s future vision is to attain a competitive edge in the creative industry based on a solid financial industry and become a globally attractive travel destination,” Oh said.