KOCCA's K-Story & Comics in America was a great success.
- Export consultations with overseas buyers resulted in USD 113 million... a 217% increase from the previous year
- Over 22,000 K-POP fans visited KCON-linked B2C booths such as The Remarried Empress and Solo Leveling
- Events scheduled to held in Germany, Japan, France, and Thailand to support the global expansion of K-comics companies
SEOUL, South Korea, July 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister In-chon Yoo) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA, CEO Hyun-rae Cho) successfully hosted the 'K-story & comics in America' in Los Angeles, USA, from the 24th to the 28th of July.
K-Story & Comics in America is a global comic event that combines B2B and B2C, focusing on creating business results through export consultation as well as raising global wide awareness through exhibitions and promotions.
The B2C event, newly arranged this year, was held in conjunction with 'KCON LA 2024' organized by CJ ENM, providing an opportunity for people to experience new K-content genres alongside K-POP.
◆ 14 domestic comics and story companies participated in the event and recorded USD 113 million in consultation value.
The B2B event, held at the AC Hotel in downtown LA from the 24th to the 26th, was attended by overseas buyers and officials from 70 companies to explore the potential of Korean comics and stories to go global.
There were 14 companies attending the event, including comics companies such as ▲DCCENT ▲Rockin' KOREA ▲Storywiz ▲CnC Revolution ▲Woongjin Thinkbig ▲Take One Studio ▲Torycomics ▲Toyou's Dream, and story companies such as ▲Smartbig ▲RS Media ▲ A2Z Entertainment ▲Eunhu Holdings ▲EO Contents Group ▲Kakao Entertainment, which showcased more than 70 works.
They conducted 291 export consultations with local buyers and achieved a consultation value of 113 million USD. This represents a 67% increase in the number of consultations, a 217% increase in the value of consultations, and a whopping 300% increase in contract wins compared to last year.
In particular, eight companies, including ▲DCCENT ▲Rockin' KOREA ▲SmartBig ▲A2Z Entertainment ▲Eunhu Holdings ▲Kakao Entertainment ▲Torycomics ▲Toyou's Dream, pitched their representative works in front of 80 major buyers.
The director at Disney, an American production and distribution company, who attended the pitch said, "As K-content has recently attracted global attention, the competitiveness of various Korean web comics and story IPs was confirmed through this event."
In addition, among the K-Story & Comics participants, Storywiz and Leonardo Nam (actor and Hollywood producer), Teresa Huang (writer and producer) sought strategic collaboration with local companies, signing a business agreement for the visual content based on web novels in Hollywood.
◆ Repeat visitor rate 88%... Local K-POP fans captivated by K-comics
The K-Story & Comics exhibition booth, held in conjunction with KCON from the 26th to the 28th, attracted over 22,000 visitors to experience the charm of Korean comics content.
As the exhibition booth was the first place to meet Hallyu fans in the U.S., it showcased various content to display and experience under the slogan Nice to meet Toon. Moreover, the booth attracted attention by recreating a banquet hall, one of the settings of the popular local web comics The Remarried Empress.
Along with showcasing web comics content, Solo Leveling provided an opportunity to demo games. The 10th anniversary of Lookism showcased highlights from Netflix's original animation to demonstrate the infinite scalability of the K-Webcomics IP.
In addition, various on-site programs such as AR photo cards, photo shoots with the main characters of Solo Leveling, and the visit of artists BOYNEXTDOOR and Kep1er added to the excitement of the event.
To assess interest in K-comics, an on-site survey of booth visitors revealed an average interest score of 4.6 (five-point scale), and 88% of participants indicated they would visit the booth again the following year.
Starting from this event, KOCCA will continue to support K-comics companies to go global with ▲The Frankfurt Book Fair (October) ▲K-Story & Comics in Japan (November) and ▲The Angoulême International Comics Festival and K-Story & Comics in Thailand (next January).
Hyun-rae Cho, Director of KOCCA said, "Through this event, we were able to confirm the high level of interest in K-comics in overseas markets. We will continue to provide support for export and promotion so that K-comics IPs can lead the global market."
