Korea's Game Industry
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The key to economic diversification KOREA'S GAME INDUSTRY Success Story SUZIE KIM Country Manager Unity Technologies Korea November 2019 Business News 02 Success Story 10 Invest Here 17 www.kotra.or.kr Industry 04 Special Report 13 The Seosan Marina www.investkorea.org Game Industry Experience Korea 14 Resort Project Economic Opinion 09 Mandu FAQ from Investors 18 BUSINESS NEWS Foreign Direct Investment WORLD’S Global beauty heavyweight, Sephora, opened Sephora, part of the French luxury goods LARGEST BEAUTY its first outlet in South Korea on Oct. 24. conglomerate LVMH Group, has nearly 3,000 STORE DEBUTS IN Sephora made its Korean debut at Parnas stores worldwide. The beauty conglomerate has S. KOREA Mall in the posh district of Gangnam in south- expanded aggressively in Asia, opening stores in ern Seoul, according to Sephora Korea. Spread Singapore, Thailand and India. across 547 square feet, the store features hun- Sephora plans to open six local stores and an of- dreds of cosmetics, skin care, body and fra- ficial online store by 2020, as well as 13 additional grance brands, along with its own private label. stores in the country by 2022, the company said. FOREIGN CAPITAL S. Korea continues to enjoy a significant in- vestors sold a net KRW 880.3 billion (USD 752 INFLOWS crease in foreign investment in its financial mar- million) worth of local stocks, becoming net sell- INDICATE ROOM kets that may suggest its economic fundamentals ers in 10 out of 13 trading sessions as of Oct. 21. FOR S. KOREAN remain strong, which in turn means it may still They also sold a net KRW 345.4 billion in MONETARY reserve room for additional monetary policy ma- three consecutive sessions following the latest POLICY neuvers, officials and analysts said Oct. 23. base rate reduction by the BOK monetary policy Since the beginning of this month, foreign in- board Oct. 23. FDI PLEDGES TO S. Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledged to As the volume reached USD 13.49 billion won KOREA UP 4.8 PCT S. Korea in the third quarter of 2019 moved up over the January-September period, the ministry IN Q3 4.8 percent from a year earlier, data showed Oct. said it is likely that S. Korea will meet its target 10. of USD 20 billion for the fifth consecutive year Asia's No. 4 economy received USD 3.61 in 2019. billion worth of FDI commitments over the Ju- Notably, in the third quarter, FDI pledges on ly-September period, according to the Ministry the so-called emerging industries, which cov- of Trade, Industry and Energy. It marked the first er materials, parts and artificial intelligence, on-year increase after the figure lost ground for reached USD 1.5 billion, doubling from a year the previous four quarters. earlier. Trade & Commerce S. KOREA-BRITAIN S. Korea expects the impact from Britain's de- ers. "We're making every effort so that there will FTA TO BUFFER parture from the European Union (EU), or Brex- be no confusion over Brexit." POST-BREXIT it, to be limited as a bilateral free trade agree- In late August, S. Korea and Britain signed IMPACT ment with London, once in effect, will cushion a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) to help the potential repercussions, a ministry official maintain the continuity of their trade and eco- said Oct. 23. nomic ties after Brexit. "We're preparing to ratify the Korea-Britain The FTA deal with Britain was unanimously FTA as swiftly as possible, taking into account a approved by the foreign and unification affairs no-deal Brexit scenario, although that is an un- committee at the National Assembly and is sub- likely prospect," a ministry official told report- ject to passage at the plenary session this month. TRUMP TOUTS U.S. President Donald Trump boasted of foreign trade deals the U.S. has clinched as he NEW FREE TRADE the revised free trade agreement (FTA) with stressed that the U.S. economy was doing well. DEAL WITH S. Korea as a "fantastic deal," branding it as one Seoul and Washington revised their bilater- S. KOREA AS of his administrations' key successes. al trade deal last year at the U.S. request, six 'FANTASTIC' "We've done S. Korea, which is a fantastic years after the pact went into effect. Trump had deal for us. It turned out even better than we slammed it as a bad deal that took away Ameri- thought," he said ahead of a Cabinet meeting at can jobs and widened the U.S. trade deficit with the White House on Oct. 21, while referring to S. Korea. 022 BUSINESS NEWS S. KOREA, S. Korea's New Southern Policy, an ambitious nership (CEPA)," and signed a joint statement. INDONESIA goal that aims to better connect Korea to the The two countries started trade talks since REACH ASEAN community, showed its first accom- 2012 but suddenly suspended them after a 7th DE FACTO plishment. round in 2014. But last year's summit meeting AGREEMENT Yoo Myung-Hee, deputy minister for FTA with Indonesian President Joko Widodo opened WITH CEPA negotiations in Korea and her counterpart Eng- up a chance to get back to subsequent talks for gartiasto Lukita, made a public announcement CEPA, and finally this year in February, trade on bilateral trade negotiations, saying, "Korea representatives from both sides issued a formal and Indonesia have finally reached a de facto declaration of the resumption of the negotiation. agreement on the comprehensive economic part- Industry S. KOREA S. Korea's industry ministry said Oct. 22 it tive to fossil fuels as automobiles running on the TO INSTALL will install hydrogen charging stations through- resource only create water in the process of gen- HYDROGEN out the country without any delay in line with erating power. It can be produced by processing CHARGING its hydrogen policy vision that promotes the LNG or as a byproduct of industrial facilities, STATIONS cleanest energy for automobiles. including petrochemical plants. WITHOUT DELAY Under the plan, S. Korea will finish installa- S. Korea has been seeking to build a society tion of 310 charging stations for hydrogen fuel that harnesses hydrogen as the main source of cell cars by 2022, according to the Ministry of energy for vehicles and other daily uses. The Trade, Industry and Energy. The number will policy is considered one of the key projects pur- eventually reach 1,200 units in 2040. sued by the Moon Jae-in administration. Hydrogen is an environment-friendly alterna- KOREAN The S. Korean economy continued to grow at April-June period. However, from the same pe- ECONOMY a steady pace in the third quarter, partly helped riod last year, the local economy grew 2 percent GROWS 0.4 PCT by increased government spending and a slight in the third quarter, on par with the revised 2 ON-QUARTER IN rebound in exports from three months earlier, percent on-year growth in the previous quarter, Q3: BOK central bank data showed Oct. 24. according to the BOK. In the three months ended Sept. 30, the coun- The steady growth apparently offers some re- try's real gross domestic product (GDP) gained lief as it follows an unexpected 0.4 percent on- 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, according year contraction in the first quarter. Exports also to the advance data from the Bank of Korea contributed to growth despite a steady decline (BOK). in shipments, gaining 4.1 percent from three The Q3 estimate marks a slowdown from a months earlier or 1.3 percent from the same pe- revised 1 percent on-quarter expansion in the riod last year. Government & Policy SEOUL TARGETS S. Korea is aiming to more than double its Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. 10 PCT OF share of the world's all-electric and hydro- Domestically, the government aims to raise GLOBAL EV, gen-powered vehicle market to 10 percent by the ratio of electric and hydrogen cars to be sold HYDROGEN CAR 2030 as it strives to foster future mobility as its in the Korean passenger vehicle market to 33 MARKET BY 2030 new growth driver, government officials said percent in 2030 from 2.6 percent in 2009, the Oct. 22. statement said. Seoul currently accounts for 4 percent of the The goals are part of the broad future vehicles pure electric and hydrogen fuel-cell electric car roadmap outlined by the Seoul government to market, according to a joint statement by the secure unrivaled competitiveness in electric, hy- Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the drogen fuel-cell electric and autonomous vehicles. Source: www.investkorea.org, Yonhap News Agency, Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea 033 INDUSTRY / MARKET FOCUS Trends and Outlook of Korea’s Online Game Market Market size of gaming industry in Korea <Table 1> Annual Sales Figures of Video Game/ (unit: KRW 1 million) Contents Industry from 2016 to 2018 The total sales figure of the contents industry as of 2018 in Korea is estimated to be KRW 119.1 trillion, a 5.2% jump Annual sales figures compared to the previous year. Industrial The volume has gradually increased by an annual average 2016 2017 2018 category rate of 5.8% over the past five years (2014-2018). These Year on year Annual total Annual total Annual total numbers are quite remarkable, given that the national growth (YoY) rate has risen 2.7% from a year earlier with an annual gross sales increase in the entire industry, which has gone up by an Game 10,894,508 13,142,272 13,933,534 6.0% average of 3.3% for 5 years from 2013 to 2017.