Digital Industry Seoul Korea

Seoul offers a strong networked infrastructure based on state of the art information and communication technology. Together with the city's open attitude to new lifestyles, its spirit of experimentation and innovation and the cultural vitality typical of a metropolitan city, the scene is set for growth of the digital content industry.

According to a survey by Seoul Development Institute in 2003, there were 25,637 enterprises, with 302,806 employees, working in the digital content industry in Seoul. Although the number of employees in the industry was only 1.36% of the total for Seoul, they accounted for 48% of all patents approved, indicating the city’s concentration of excellent professional human resources. As the information and communication technology (ICT) and digital content industries are expected to lead Seoul's economy, the city’s competitiveness, secured by its vital ICT industry, should naturally encourage the speedy growth of the digital content industry. Furthermore, digital content will provide an opportunity for the ICT industry's renewed growth.

This is because the growth potential for the digital content industry is substantial, even compared to Korea’s other top growth engine industries. A point indicated by its annual growth rate of 17.9% in terms of total production and value added amount.

Industrial clusters have already formed in Gangnam (33%), the downtown area (13%) and Yeoungdeungpo (18%). Once Sangam Digital Media City (DMC), a specialized digital content industry zone, is completed and the multimedia cultural content complexes move into Cheonggyecheon, the digital industry cluster of Seoul will become the global center of the digital based software industry.