One in 10 one-person media companies in South Korea accounts for three-quarters of the industry's total revenue, with the concentration deepening as the market expands.
A total of 2,024 corporations in one-person media businesses reported combined revenue of 1.11 trillion won ($780 million) in their 2025 corporate tax filings, according to National Tax Service data submitted to Rep. Chung Tae-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 20th.
The top 10% — 207 companies with annual revenue of 1 billion won or more — reported 842.7 billion won, or 76% of the total. The remaining 1,817 corporations reported just 270.7 billion won, or 24%.
Growth among the high-earning firms has been steep. The number of corporations with revenue of 1 billion won or more jumped 9.4-fold to 207 last year from 22 in 2021. Their combined reported revenue swelled 13.3-fold over the same period to 842.7 billion won from 63.6 billion won. Their share of total corporate revenue in the sector widened to 76% last year from 60% in 2021.
The market itself is also expanding quickly. The number of active individual operators rose 3.8-fold to 36,604 in 2025 from 9,633 in 2021, while active corporations increased 2.7-fold to 3,182 from 1,167. Total business income reported by individuals roughly doubled to 1.62 trillion won for 2024 from 796.7 billion won for 2021.
The tax agency tracks revenue using records of foreign-currency receipts tied to YouTube advertising income, Super Chat payments and channel memberships. It plans to compare those records with value-added tax and income tax filings to identify operators suspected of failing to report or underreporting income.
Chung said the structural shift toward revenue concentration in a handful of high-earning corporations calls for better access to tax information and a more refined system for managing the tax base. He urged authorities to stabilize the sharing of tax information with overseas platforms and strengthen filing verification to improve fairness for operators who report in good faith.