South Korea’s content trade surplus reached $11.25 billion in 2021 and figures indicate that the sector has become a core service export.

To maintain the momentum of the sector’s growth, which grew at an annual average of 9 percent from 2017-2021, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism unveiled a plan to achieve 137 trillion won ($106 billion) in exports of content by 2027, up from $12.4 billion in 2021.

This goal will be achieved by supporting the overseas expansion of small and medium-sized content companies, the ministry said.

“We will focus on supporting some 100,000 content companies, which make up more than 90 percent of content companies,” Kim Jae-hyun, director general of the Content Policy Bureau, told The Korea Herald on Thursday.

A content industry survey showed 92.3 percent of content companies have fewer than 10 employees, and 88.3 percent have less than 1 billion won in sales.

To achieve the new vision, the government will create a fund worth 1 trillion won in 2024. The network of Korea Creative Content Agency centers abroad will increase to 50 by 2027 from the current 10 centers in nine countries.

The country will seek to diversify the market as well.

Currently, more than 50 percent of K-content services exports are consumed in China, Taiwan and Japan, where the potential for further growth is limited. The ministry is eyeing expanding in new markets such as North America, Europe and the Middle East.