[Edaily Reporter LEE SEON-WOO ] The Netflix animated film "K-Pop Demon Hunters," which sparked a "K-Culture" craze around the world last year, is cited as a prime example demonstrating the scalability and potential of the "content economy." Just one year after its release, in June of this year, the film surpassed 600 million cumulative views. Through intellectual property (IP), the film’s soundtracks, characters, and props have crossed industry and national borders—spanning fashion, food, beauty, and tourism—to create new forms of consumption and markets.
This shift reflects how the content market has expanded beyond mere viewing and enjoyment to include experiences and product purchases driven by fandom. In other words, the economic value of content is now expanding beyond “how many views it gets” to “how much diverse consumption it generates.” This is why “2026 Content Universe Korea,” taking place on the 16th and 17th of this month at the Goyang Flower Exhibition Hall in Ilsan Lake Park, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, has chosen “The Infinitely Expanding Content Economy” as its theme.
“Content Universe Korea” is an event organized by Edaily and the Goyang International Expo Foundation to explore new business opportunities in the process by which content—originating from creative work—expands into industries and markets through intellectual property (IP) and fandom. Now in its fourth year, the event is sponsored by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Gyeonggi Province, Goyang Special Self-Governing City, and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization.

The keywords for this year’s event are “creators,” “fandom,” and “IP.” Over the course of two days, 24 domestic and international experts will deliver a series of lectures, offering “one-point lessons” on how to transform a single piece of content into IP and how to create new markets and businesses based on fandom. On the first day (the 16th), keynote speakers—Professor Bruno Lobrich of De La Salle University, Dr. Atsuo Nakayama, Lee Yoon-kyung, Head of the Content Research Division at the Korea Culture and Tourism Research Institute, and Seo Woo-seok, CEO of BeMyFriends—will present the processes and strategies by which content expands into new markets, transcending the boundaries of national borders, genres, and platforms.
Professor Lobrich is a scholar who has long studied the transnational flow of Asian content—including that from South Korea, China, and Japan—and its soft power. Dr. Nakayama, who was in charge of marketing and business development at Japan’s Bandai Namco and Bushiroad, is an entertainment sociologist who has researched content fandom and the IP business. Director Lee is a policy expert who has studied content industry policy and the fandom economy, while CEO Seo is a fandom business expert who led the launch of the BTS fandom platforms “Weverse” and “Weverse Shop.”
The event will also feature sessions on content creation, fandom, and successful IP business strategies. In the “Creator Economy” session, speakers will include Lin Zhengde, the author of the Taiwanese comic “Young Gun”—which gained immense popularity in Korea in the 1990s—and artist Lee Yum, who has used generative AI to reimagine Korea’s history and cultural heritage through new content and worldviews.
Next, in the Fandom Economy session, Lim Jin-won, Director of Fan Communications, who oversees the global fandom platform “JK Fandom” in Korea and Japan, and in the IP Economy session, Shin Cheol-ho, CEO of “OGQ”—a content platform that distributes the IP of 1.3 million creators worldwide—and Choi Yong-seok, CEO of Idea Flap, which has expanded the IP of various global brands into products, spaces, and experiences, will share their expertise in the content business.
The event will also feature a “Special Lecture” covering the present and future of K-content and the Greater China mega-IP market, a “Content Tourism Academy” for local governments and the travel industry, a “Talk Concert” with four mega-influencers, and a lecture on “Local Content Success Stories.” The Special Lecture stage will feature Ahn Sung-beom, Director of the K-Culture Story Content Research Institute at Kyung Hee University, and Lee Byung-kyu, CEO of Rajen Entertainment. The Academy, to be held on the afternoon of the 16th in the conference room on the second floor of the exhibition hall, will be led by Professor Toshiyuki Masubuchi of Hosei University and Professor Lee Byung-min of Konkuk University.
Exhibition and hands-on programs where visitors can directly view, enjoy, and engage with content and IP will also be available. For two days in Exhibition Hall 2, The Walt Disney Company Korea and Idea Flap will collaborate to operate the pop-up store “House of Toy Story & K-Heritage,” featuring “Toy Story” and K-Heritage-themed products, as well as various hands-on programs such as gacha, AI photo booths, and DIY activities. The “AI Media Art” gallery and the “Flea Market,” featuring over 20 mega-influencers, are also exhibition zones worth checking out.
Admission to Content Universe Korea is free with online pre-registration. The “Content Tourism Academy,” designed for local governments and the travel industry, costs 250,000 won per person. Further details are available on the event website.