G* 2007 Showcases
Korea's Game Industry Power

Attracts World-Class Game Companies Thru Various Events

Korea boasts the world's No. 1 on-line game market. The domestic game industry continues to see a trade surplus. The following are excerpts of a written interview between Kim Chan, director general of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Cultural Industry Promotion Bureau with NewsWorld.
Q: Can you first tell us about the impact the hosting of G-Star 2007 has had on the international prestige of Korea's game industry?
A: G-Star has solidified its status as a world-class exhibition through the first and second events last year. This year, it attracted 150,000 participants, a fact that shows the expanded development of the domestic industry. We have been trying our best to raise the international status of the nation's game industry while providing the people with more chances to get acquainted with games, which have emerged as the new leisure culture.
Q: What was the level of participation at G-Star 2007"
A: A total of 150 companies participated in the exhibition - 89 in the B2C pavilion and 67 in the B2B, with six firms taking part in both pavilions. Sixty eight-companies from 17 countries engaged in export negotiations.
Domestic game makers including Nexon, J&C Entertainment, Yedang Online, NHN, SKT, T3 Entertainment, and JiPax took part in the exhibition while Neowiz, CJ Internet, Unii, Joymax and Onnet took part in the B2B pavilion.
Foreign companies included Microsoft, Procter Studios, Claytech, CDC Games, Tencent and Gamepot. A total of 58 companies from Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Finland took part.
Additionally 18 Arcade companies like IR Robot, D-Gate and Comuse and three mobile game companies like E3NET attended with an independent booth to provide attendees with various kinds of things to look at.
Q: Would you describe the G-Star 2007 exhibition and export fair?
A: Sixty nine game publishers from 17 countries in North America, Europe and Asia and 100 domestic companies engaged in business meetings held at the B2B pavilion for the two-day run on Nov. 8-9. The "Global Publisher Invitational Export Fair"was co-sponsored by the Korea Game Industry Agency, KOTRA, Korea Software Industry Promotion Agency, Seoul Business Agency and the Gyeonggi Digital Contents Promotion Agency.
The G-Star Investment Fair (organized by the Korea Game Industry Promotion Agency and KOTRA) was held Nov. 9 for domestic companies to engage in one-on-one negotiations with major venture capitalists from major international centers. Participating businesses included HSBC Capital, Daiwa Capital, Intel Capital, JAFCO and THQ.
The companies engaged in successful negotiations worth $330 million in exports and $200 million in investment negotiations in 45 cases.
The G-Star Organizing Committee also hosted the "Biz Meeting"at the B2B pavilion among officials from domestic and foreign game companies for four days, which saw negotiations worth $21.4 million in 330 cases. The event has helped promote the advertisement of domestic IT products including game goods.
Q: What's the current situation facing the nation's game industry and its future vision?
A: The size of the nation's game industry has reached 7.4 trillion won with production turnover (game goods) standing at 2.88 trillion won (38.7%) and consumer market (game rooms and PC rooms) reaching 4.57 trillion won (61.3%). Korea accounted for 7.8 percent of the world's game market in 2006. It tops the world's online game area and ranks fourth in the mobile game area.
The export of game products in 2006 reached $670 million, an increase of 19 percent from a year earlier, while imports of related goods amounted to $200 million, which means exports have tripled imports. The nation registered four consecutive years of surplus in the trading of game products. But the business climate has begun to deteriorate, prompted by the advance of gigantic companies into the global game market, tightening the competition. Now it is high time for the domestic companies to strengthen their competitiveness through the development of competitive content and an aggressive advance into foreign markets.
Q: What do you have in mind to help the domestic companies to make inroads into overseas markets and what is the situation in their bids toward that end?
A: Domestic online game makers have been briskly advancing into markets in the United States, China, Japan and Southeast Asia. The exports amounted to $670 million, an increase of 19.0 percent from 2005. In particular, the nation accounted for 36.5 percent of the world's online market.
We will exert our efforts to help the companies explore key and newly emerging markets. We have been holding meetings for the promotion of exports and investment while dispatching market exploration missions. Next year, we plan to carry out the free market projects linked to the online game global award.
In addition, we will install game business centers for marketing assistance, like information provision in areas other than Los Angeles and Shanghai where we already established such centers in 2006 and 2007, respectively. nw

Kim Chan, director general of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Cultural Industry Promotion Bureau