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In 2023, the sales revenue of the South Korean publishing industry amounted to around **** trillion South Korean won. This represents a decrease compared to the previous year. After a few years of decline, the number of businesses in the publishing industry started to increase again.

Growing popularity overseas

With the rising popularity of South Korean content and products, the publishing industry saw an increasing trend in its export value. The highest figure was recorded in 2023, accounting for almost *** million U.S. dollars for the first time. According to a 2023 survey about the worldwide popularity of South Korean books and comics ("manhwa"), around ** percent of respondents answered that books and manhwa were very popular in their country. Although books and manhwa were less popular than K-dramas, movies, and entertainment shows, Korean comics were generally perceived as more known than music content from South Korea.

Advantages and challenges for the e-book sector

Since 2015, e-books have gained popularity again. The leading reason for reading e-books was the convenience of storing and carrying them, closely followed by their availability to be read anywhere at any time. Despite that, more people preferred to buy a physical copy of a book than read an e-book. In particular, readers wanted e-publishing services to improve on their variety of offered content services for a better reading experience. In comparison to other e-publishing services, e-books seemed to be less popular. For example, the usage rate of digital comics showed a growing popularity over the years, sitting at around ** percent in 2024.