Top creator firms take 76% of Korea’s one-person media revenue

Revenue among South Korea’s one-person media companies is heavily concentrated, with a small group accounting for more than three-quarters of the sector’s reported total last year, National Tax Service data showed Tuesday.

The data covered 2,024 companies in the sector that reported a combined revenue of 1.11 trillion won ($837 million) in their 2025 corporate tax filings. The tax service submitted the data to Rep. Jung Tae-ho of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

Of those companies, 207 — or 10.2 percent — reported annual revenue of at least 1 billion won each. Their combined revenue was 842.7 billion won, equal to 75.7 percent of the total. The other 1,817 companies reported a combined 270.7 billion won.

The number of companies reporting at least 1 billion won in annual revenue rose 9.4-fold from 22 in 2021. Their combined revenue increased 13.3-fold over the same period, from 63.6 billion won to 842.7 billion won.

“With the rapid growth of the one-person media industry, revenue models and business structures are diversifying,” Jung said.

He called for more sophisticated systems to obtain tax information and monitor income, particularly as revenue becomes concentrated among a small number of highly profitable companies.

Jung also said tax authorities need more reliable access to information on income earned through overseas platforms.

The NTS does not receive income data directly from overseas platforms such as YouTube.

Instead, it tracks foreign-currency receipts linked to YouTube advertising, Super Chat payments and channel memberships, and compares those records with tax filings to identify potential underreporting.