Summary of Research Findings

The digital content market refers to services available online via smartphones, PCs, etc., and each content area provides various services.

The electronic book market offers both free and paid content. Paid content primarily uses three monetization models: The first is the traditional pay-per-title model, in which customers pay for each title individually. The second is the fixed payment model, in which customers pay monthly or yearly for points to purchase content. The third is the subscription model, which allows customers to read content at fixed rates. Meanwhile, free content secures advertising revenues by displaying ads while providing free manga. Subscription and pay-per-title models sometimes offer free content, such as old titles in the past or the current recommended titles. This is a common business model to gain new customers or encourage additional charges.

As more people shift from paper media to electronic books, e-book platforms, such as websites and apps, are diversifying. This diversification of platforms improves user convenience. These changes and developments will likely further expand the electronic book market.

The video streaming market is maturing, as more people have made watching videos a habit since the pandemic. Although subscription video on demand (SVOD) continues to drive the market, competition is more intense. To survive in the domestic market, it has become crucial to provide content that meets the viewer’s demand. Additionally, advertising video on demand (AVOD), a model based on advertising revenues, is becoming more prevalent and successfully gaining customers through free viewing. This creates a different revenue structure than the traditional subscription-based model.

Meanwhile, subscription-based music streaming services dominate the music streaming market. The market is expanding due to the synergy of free video platforms, online concerts, and video streaming provided by artists.

The expansion of the online advertising market has contributed to higher demand for video ads, including vertical video ads that align with the smartphone standards seen on social media and connected TVs (TV terminals connected to the Internet). There have been cases of using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in commercial production.

Noteworthy Topics

The Gaming Market

Since the introduction of the fifth generation mobile communication system (5G) to the gaming market, the initiative of cloud gaming has been in full swing. Cloud gaming is a service that streams video of games operated on a cloud server to users' devices via the Internet. This makes games available to play on various devices. However, depending on the communication environment, players sometimes disconnect in the middle of a game. The transition to 6G by 2030 is expected to expand the user base and the market by enabling faster data transmission and reception.

Research Outline