SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - South Korean entertainment companies are ramping up efforts to gain a foothold in India’s fast-expanding media and entertainment sector, a market projected to reach 46 trillion won ($33 billion) by 2025, according to the Korea International Trade Association.
From K-pop powerhouses to digital comics and gaming giants, Korean firms are tailoring strategies to navigate one of the world’s most diverse and dynamic content ecosystems.
At the forefront is HYBE, the music label behind global sensation BTS, which is preparing to launch a wholly owned Indian subsidiary as early as this fall. The new unit aims to replicate HYBE’s proven K-pop development model for India’s burgeoning music scene.
“The K-pop business model must be applied to and exported to other music genres to survive,” said HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk in a statement last month, signaling a shift toward localized artist development.
The company is scouting major cities such as Mumbai as a potential base, amid a rising wave of Indian K-pop fandom and concert attendance.
HYBE’s move marks one of the latest in a series of Korean investments in India’s cultural sector.
Kakao Entertainment, a subsidiary of tech conglomerate Kakao, entered the market earlier through its 2020 acquisition of Cross Pictures, a film and drama production company that had operated in India since 2015. The studio gained local prominence with Oh! Baby, the 2019 Indian remake of the Korean hit Miss Granny, which topped domestic box office charts.
Kakao has also extended its reach through webtoons, launching Kross Komics in 2019 to serve India’s growing mobile reading audience with Korean digital comics translated into English, Hindi, and Telugu.
Its global webtoon platform Tapas, which also distributes content to Indian readers, surpassed 200 million won in daily transaction volume last year.
Meanwhile, gaming company Krafton, best known for PUBG: Battlegrounds, is expanding its Indian footprint through acquisition.
In March, the firm purchased a 75 percent stake in Nautilus Mobile — the Indian studio behind the popular Real Cricket franchise — for $14 million, signaling a move into locally resonant genres and a broader shift toward narrative-driven gameplay, long a staple of Korean exports.
The Korea Webtoon Industry Association (KWIA) is also making inroads through partnerships.
In 2024, it teamed up with Bengaluru-based AI startup Dashtoon to launch a creator-focused platform that helps local artists and Korean webtoonists co-produce India-specific digital comics. The platform uses artificial intelligence for translation and layout automation, enabling streamlined adaptation across India’s many languages and visual storytelling traditions.
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