Gyeonggi Province Nurtures 2,302 Solo Video Creators Over 5 Years…Supporting Settlement in Media Market

# Choi Cheonghwa (29) has been posting knowledge-related videos on YouTube since 2020, but struggled with channel growth as subscriber numbers failed to exceed 1,000.

After stumbling upon Gyeonggi Province's 'Solo Creator (Individual Video Creator) Development Project,' Choi learned video editing and channel growth strategies through the project's academy starting last year, and his YouTube channel 'Mark's Knowledge Library' has since grown to approximately 53,500 subscribers.

After receiving instructor training, Choi is also contributing to nurturing junior creators.

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Nohoon] Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Content Promotion Agency announced on the 7th that they have trained 2,302 solo creators through the 'Solo Creator Development Project' over the past five years since 2017.

Solo creators are content creators who provide their videos on online video platforms such as YouTube and AfreecaTV.

The province and the Gyeonggi Content Promotion Agency have been actively pursuing projects to discover and showcase excellent creators starting from 2017 in line with YouTube market growth.

Student creators who went through the academy, production support, and mentoring within the development project total 2,302: 732 in 2017, 187 in 2018, 340 in 2019, 511 in 2020, and 532 in 2021.

Looking at specific details by project, the 'Academy' provides customized education programs including beginner, short-term, and practical courses.

High-quality online classes simultaneously meet quarantine measures and student satisfaction, and through the newly established 'Instructor Training Program' this year, tangible job creation results such as employment as instructors in provincial schools are also expected.

'Production Support' involves selecting growing creators and providing capacity-building programs consisting of production funds along with consulting, seminars, and collaboration support.

The 50 teams that participated last year posted 777 supported works reflecting their own style, accumulating a total of 20 million views.

Beyond simple education and production support, the province is also pursuing various projects to enable creators to continuously grow and convey public value to the region.

Most notably, through the 'Culture New Deal' project conducted with small business owners in Gyeonggi Province, live commerce (real-time sales) was held for small business owners in the province damaged by COVID-19.

Creators directly sold products from small business owners, and numerous Gyeonggi Province solo creators such as 'Nèmi Nù TV,' 'Book Reading Jjira,' and 'Hogu Couple' actively participated in promoting culture and tourism in the province for the revitalization of culture, sports, and tourism in Gyeonggi Province.

Additionally, the province has held 'Gyeonggi Creators Day' annually since 2017 to promote exchange among creators and cultural enjoyment.

This year, the province plans to provide not only academy and production support but also to support commercialization for channels with over 100,000 subscribers to aid in content advancement and market development.

Lee Seokbeom, head of Gyeonggi Province's Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, said, "Through the Gyeonggi Province Solo Creator Development Project, we have been nurturing excellent creators in the era of individual media where anyone can produce and consume content," and "We will actively support more creators to settle and succeed in the individual media market."