**1. Introduction**

In 2021, 57% of global internet traffic was attributable to just six big tech firms—Google, Netflix, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft [1]. The growth of this dominance has been exponential in recent years, with 2021's share representing an increase of 33% from pre-covid figures in 2019.

Several contentious issues have surfaced in light of this uneven online power balance, such as fair competition [2] and the sustainability of shared contributions to network infrastructure [3]. However, less discussed is the fact that the internet's lopsided evolution has also resulted in substantial repercussions for culture and entertainment, impacting both domestic and global media marketplaces. With each of the

aforementioned six firms based in the United States, English language content has secured a formidable prominence within the global online mediascape—inevitably at the expense of locally produced media content and platforms. Internet content now represents the United States' third largest export, while the market cap of its big tech platforms exceeds the nominal Gross Domestic Product of all but five of the world's national economies [4].

This unipolarity is particularly pronounced in the context of video streaming services, with the popularity and spread of video content now being largely determined on a select number of online platforms, such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple TV. Prior to the digital age, domestically produced video entertainment had generally operated within a recognizable and comparatively placid television-based media ecosystem, centered around linear programming [5]. TV channels based in a particular country would generally broadcast a range of local content, covering all genres of conventional video entertainment and programming. With linear-program television providing the predominant medium via which video content was distributed amongst the population and consumed, the prominent status of local content was thus to a large extent protected by default. However, with the accelerated shift towards a digitally dominated content system, on-demand services, and unparalleled freedom with regards to the media viewers consume, domestic media is now effectively competing not only in a national marketplace, but an international one. These tensions are reflected in dwindling figures for national TV broadcasts around the world [6], as well as instances of financially struggling local media firms and creative producers [7]. These issues have been exacerbated by the status of English as the world's de facto lingua franca and the growth of English language proficiency around the world, alongside the increased availability of subtitles in a range of widely-spoken languages, such as Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese (**Figure 1**).

## **Figure 1.**

*Worldwide English proficiency levels by nation in 2021 (in index points). Source: [8].*

*Creative Industry Strategies in a Globalized and Digitized Media Landscape: The South Korean… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112902*

### **1.1 Media globalization and cultural imperialism**

Despite the increased attention these issues have garnered in the digital age, concerns regarding the uneven distribution of media and US dominance are far from new. The 'cultural imperialism thesis' gained considerable traction in the early phase of media globalization, encompassing concerns regarding the spread of American and Western popular media into the developing world. This thesis contends that media globalization is primarily the proliferation of US-based cultural hegemony, constituting a one-directional flow of culture from West to non-West [9].

However, an increasing amount of counterevidence would suggest that the cultural imperialism theory is either outdated or logically inconsistent with contemporary technologies and globalization trends. Hong Kong [10] and India [11] provide two examples of non-Western countries that have successfully exported film content to regional and global markets. A number of Mexican and Brazilian 'telenovelas' have found considerable success in the Latin American market [12], while a range of Turkish drama series have garnered immense popularity in the Middle East and countries across Central-South Asia [13].

The globalized media experience of Japan provides arguably the closest example to South Korea's (hereafter Korea) success, with Japanese popular culture imparting a substantial and lasting impact on regions as varied as Asia, North America, and Europe. However, the success of the Japanese cultural industries in the global marketplace peaked in the 1990s, based predominantly around animation productions. Other cultural exports from Japan, such as music, drama, and film have borne mostly intermittent success stories, and have struggled to substantially penetrate beyond Asia [14].

#### **1.2 Hallyu: Korean wave**

Hallyu, meaning 'Korean Wave', can contrastingly be understood as an all-encompassing term describing Korea's emergence as "one of the most recognizable non-Western cultural hubs for the production of vibrant transnational popular culture and digital technologies [14]." Indeed, when compared to the experience of other countries, Hallyu can be understood as an unparalleled success, with Korea effectively representing the very first "non-Western country to strategically export a wide range of cultural genres and forms, such as television programs, films, pop music, animation, online gaming, and smartphones, to both Western and non-Western countries [14]." The global popularity and success of Korean films (such as 2020 Oscar-winning *Parasite*), dramas (such as 2022 record-breaking Netflix production *Squid Game*), and K-pop (with its plethora of global, record-breaking superstars such as *BTS* and *Blackpink*) have solidified Korea's role and status as a global producer, innovator, and distributor of cultural media. Hallyu should nonetheless be understood as a phenomenon far more extensive than such mainstream productions, with the wave also encompassing fashion, gaming, and even food amongst other facets of Korean culture. Beneficiaries of Hallyu are not just large-scale production companies, but also small-scale and independent creatives who are well-positioned to capitalize on a strong national and international affinity for Korean content [15].

It should be noted here, particularly in relation to the issues raised earlier in this introduction, that Hallyu is as much a domestic phenomenon as it is a global one [16]. Inevitably, Korean content would not have been embraced abroad if it had not first been popularized by its own native audience [17]. This is part of a wider symbiosis

by which the domestic popularity of Korean content boosts its international profile, which in turn further cements its dominance in the domestic media marketplace. The lessons to be taken from the Korean experience are thus not just limited to nations with international ambitions, but are also fundamental for the consideration of countries seeking to address issues faced by their own local content creators within a domestic context.

## **1.3 Digital-cultural convergence**

This chapter will focus on the Hallyu as a whole, rather than limiting itself to content genres which are directly related to video and TV. The reason for this is the complex ways in which Hallyu embodies the phenomenon of 'transmedia'. Transmedia refers to the convergence of different media types through genre and format synergy, which is often manifest via evolving consumer practices and perceptions of mass media [18]. For example, although K-pop is primarily considered a genre of music, its music videos and idol-fan engagement content are considered integral and defining components of the subculture, which is consumed predominantly on videohosting sites such as YouTube and Instagram. Also, media formats such as webtoons (digital comics) have direct implications for video-based industries, given that webtoon stories have provided considerable inspiration to producers, writers, and directors in the realms of film and drama. Similarly, digital technologies that form part of Hallyu, such as Korean social media app KakaoTalk, are central to the ways in which the culture of consuming and disseminating Korean content has evolved to become distinctly digital in nature [14].

This point is key to the analysis of this chapter. It is undeniable that excellent standards of production, creative storytelling and branding, meticulous talent sourcing, and a finely-tuned balance between cultural distinctiveness and mass global appeal are all central to the ways in which Korean and international audiences have embraced Korean content in its various formats and genres [19]. However, the timing and context within which the Hallyu has taken form, as a distinctly digital cultural flow, is crucial to a holistic understanding of the groundwork that has enabled the success of Korean media. Indeed, much of the systems and policies that have provided the groundwork for Hallyu are not part of the creative industries per se, but are rather related to the communication tools that creative industries utilize and the communication systems within which they operate.

Digitalization refers to "the adoption of increase in use of digital or computer technology by an individual, organization, industry, and country", which therefore means that the process itself is centered around the ways in which various aspects of social life are "constructed and restructured around digital media" [20]. The next section of this chapter will outline the historic context within which Korea's cultural content became intrinsically tied to a digital ecosystem, culminating in Korea finding itself perfectly poised to take advantage of the twenty-first century's newest phase of globalized media. Building upon this, the chapter will then outline the ways in which Hallyu must be understood as a wave that is as 'Digital' as it is 'Korean', with digital audience participation serving as the driving engine behind its expansion both at home and abroad. Finally, the chapter will tie the preceding analysis together with the concept of 'creative industry strategies', in which contemporary popular cultural content for the digital age can be conceptualized as a 'commodity', which must now find innovative ways to compete in a highly internationalized marketplace.

*Creative Industry Strategies in a Globalized and Digitized Media Landscape: The South Korean… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112902*
