South Korea’s content exports grew 14.7 percent last year from a year ago thanks to growing overseas demand for computer and mobile games, data showed Tuesday.

According to a report by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Creative Content Agency on Tuesday, Korea’s content revenue reached 110.5 trillion won ($102.9 billion) in 2017, up 4.8 percent from a year ago. Total sales volume of the industry grew at an annual average of 4.9 percent from 2012 to 2016, which is significantly higher than 1.5 percent, the average annual growth of revenue in the country’s entire industry.

Revenue growth was driven by growing demand for Korean content overseas.

Last year, Korea exported $6.89 billion worth of content to overseas markets, up 14.7 percent from a year ago, in line with the country’s robust exports that surged 15.8 percent to reach an all-time high last year, and amid efforts to enter into new markets of Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia.

Revenue from content exports increased in all segments except for films. Game sales jumped 19.2 percent on-year in 2017 to $630 million, becoming a major contributor to content exports last year.

The data also showed that content creating firms listed on the country’s stock exchanges generated 33.3 trillion won in sales last year, up 17.5 percent from a year ago. Their combined operating profit margin also grew by an average of 12.4 percent versus 8.9 percent from all listed companies.

Revenue growth was particularly high in the games sector whose sales jumped 77 percent during the cited period, followed by music (19.2 percent) and knowledge information (18.6 percent) sectors.

As of end-December, revenue of the entire content industry grew on-year except for book publication and films. Revenue generated by listed game creators more than doubled.

The latest report is based on a survey of 116 listed and 1,210 non-listed companies in the content industry and referred to industry statistics provided by Statistics Korea and Bank of Korea.

By Park Joon-hyung and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]