The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) plans to make Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, as a hub of game and e-Sports.
A new media startup hub will be built in Mok-dong, Yangcheon-gu, while image entertainment industry infrastructure will be expanded dramatically at Chungmuro, Jung-gu, a symbolic birthplace of the Korean film industry.
Ramps Up Support to Top 5 Core Areas, Including Webtoon and Game
These are contained in a vision to revive Seoul’s creative industry, unveiled by SMG on Nov. 29.
The vision calls for designating the top five core areas — reality, image, media, webtoon, and game/e-Sport industries and concentrating support on them.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, “The value-added industry that can boost the national economy amid the stark global economy is only the creative industry, and we will make it lead the present and the future of Seoul by invigorating the creative industry on top of the financial and tourism industries.”
SMG plans to build infrastructure for growth the creative industry at several places of the capital by 2028.
First, SMG will open “Seoul’s creative industry hub,” serving as a control tower over facilities to support the creative industry across the capital by 2027.
The hub will be a four-floor structure with three basement floors with 16,127 sq. meters in floor space.
It will be made into Seoul’s new landmark by installing a cube screen with differentiated designs on the ceiling.
A bird’s eye-view of Seoul’s creative industry hub, to be built in Namsan. (Photos: SMG)
The creative hub will comprise of corporate support space zone for exploring and investing in outstanding venture companies and a citizens’ participation space zone for holding exhibitions, conferences and screening sessions.
SMG aims to nurture 2,000 people in the creative industry, explore 5,000 intellectual properties and strike contracts worth $100 million annually. SMG plans to build creative industry centers in each region.
A game/e-Sport center in Sangam-dong will open “Creative Industry Story Center” for content creators’ space and “XR Center” for nurturing core digital transformation technologies by 2026.
The story center will serve as a creative workspace for film, drama, webtoon, and animation writers, directors and producers.
The game/e-Sport center will provide support to all processes, such as planning, developing and producing of SME production companies.
“New Media Startup Hub” will be created in Mok-dong, Yangcheon-gu. An advanced extended reality (XR) studio, to be created in the New Media Startup Hub, will be outfitted with facilities to support content production, editing and post-production process.
“Seoul Cinema Center” will be opened in Chungmuro, Jung-gu, by 2025.
The center will hold film festivals under diverse themes around the year. The center will serve as a platform to bridge producers and investors.
SMG says the capital has enough potential to become a global creative industry hub. Figures released by Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) showed that Seoul accounted for more than 40 percent of all people in the cartoon and character industries as of 2021.
In particular, 4,316 people or 70.4 percent of all those in the animation industry, lived in Seoul. An SMG official said the metropolitan government will come up with diverse support steps to make Seoul a global creative industry hub with a concentration of creative industry companies and employees.
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