Song Sung-gak, president and CEO of the Korea Creative Content Agency, said the agency will seek to discover and enter new overseas markets this year with “new big killer content” created through the convergence of emerging technologies and other content from areas such as health care and tourism.

“In this new era, which I call the ‘multi avant-garde age,’ where everything changes very fast and things are converging, we cannot create new things the way we used to,” Song said at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday. 

“I define ‘big killer content’ as content that can only be created by converging with other new genres and sectors.”

He added that KOCCA has recently completed the reorganization of its divisions to facilitate efficient communication, responses and decisions to move ahead with speed in the current environment.

The state-run content agency plans to set up offices in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates in March; Chongqing, China in June; Sao Paulo, Brazil in July; and Jakarta, Indonesia in September. Through these overseas bases, KOCCA seeks to tap not only those growing markets, but also a variety of adjacent markets in Southeast Asia, South America and the Middle East, Song said.

With a budget of 292.7 billion won ($242.8 million) this year, KOCCA will not only seek to support the creation of new and big killer content created at the CEL Venture Complex, CEL Academy and other creative convergence centers, but will also help content creators introduce and export their works overseas.

“A big portion of the budget will be allocated to support start-ups to produce new content created using other new genres,” said Lee In-sook, general director of KOCCA’s convergence and strategic planning.

Some 110 billion won will be set aside for the plan, while some 18 billion won will be used to help start-ups export their content overseas, including to China, Southeast Asia and South America.

“This new age will bring both a crisis and an opportunity at the same time. KOCCA will seek to turn the crisis into an opportunity by creating a virtuous cycle in the convergence content sector with our plans for this year,” Song said.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)