Not really small,North korea would kill for a bts who's yearly revenue creation is equal to North Korea's yearly export of 4/5 billion approx.
Why are we comparing gaming and music industry though,these are different streams and it's desirable for a nation to do well in both, Korean gaming export is 7-8 k billion USD yearly, and for China is 17 billion USD ,Korea is doing pretty well in that regard too.
The Korean entertainment industry seems to ride high from the momentum they get from Hallyu.
Bts alone make 4 billion USD for Korea each year there are a dozen of popular kpop group from blackpink to bigbang making shitloads for Korea from their foreign audience. Korea have a plethora of acts touring the globe incessantly collecting easy foreign money by dancing and singing .
One of Blackpink's concert ticket in LA concert cost more than iPhone 14 pro max,yet it's soldout.The easy profit they make is insane.The blackpink or bts members can make millions from global fashion brands by simply posting on their 50million + followers sns accounts. And the impact of bts or Hallyu isn't restricted in music,they cause ripple effects in all Korean industries,from fashion to cosmetics to food and beverages. Anything in hit kpop or drama becomes a global craze .It's easy for koreans to grow global brands and make shit load of revenue using hallyu appeal.Koreans also dominate webtoon industry,world's biggest webtoon service is from Korea,while bilibili comics & we comics ends up only competing against each other and don't court the biggest of talents and proven artist.
I sure do have fond memory of a Bruce Lee,and he's very much respected almost as a philosopher, I'm not challenging his stardom and legacy,but he also contributed to some stereotype in ignoramus western based movie platforms that made him the superstar that he is.But for Asians from pacific east, nothing improved the appeal and soft-power than Hallyu, before Hallyu based on Hollywood ,Asian men was an unattractive geek of class or kungfu crackhead, with some oriental life philosophy.
The cool image wasn't there, you never expect foreigners to flock to Hk or china in search of love due to Bruce Lee
The Caucasians are a race carrying inherent ignoramus trait . They naturally lack humility, restraint, and ability to decipher foreign cultures and don't seek the inherent goodness among humans, their world view is based on their own primitive instinct,to conquer or be subjugated; "we are inherently superior!!" simply based on the infantile logic "We/I/Our The Best"; they need delible visual and physical stimulus to construe anything foreign,and only Hallyu managed to put something in their ignoramus heads.
China is also learning ,they are using the pointer from hallyu to refine its own soft-power capabilities.
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Chinese wuxia /gaming drama is pretty popular has great potential.
They have the base audience not just in China but globally, they just need to the take it to the next lvl with some breakthrough works and massive quality control. The inability of China to breakthrough the standard set by Korean dramas reminds me of the semiconductor issue for china. Maybe Korean culture is more complementary to modern life tvdrama .