KITA Chairman Christopher Koo stresses, “The trading sector should expand its boundaries to cover blockchain technologies and NFTs”

Christopher Koo, the Chairman of KITA stressed, “The trading sector should expand its boundaries to cover blockchain technologies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at the 164th KITA Breakfast Meeting for CEOs, which was held on October 25 at InterContinental Seoul COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul.

Chairman Koo mentioned, “With the Industry 4.0 affecting a wide array of sectors, digitalization of the fine arts sector is leading to an expansion of the fine arts market.” He cited, “an expansion of online trading supported by the growing popularity of media, including social networking services, and the rise of NFT fine arts based on blockchain technologies” as attributable factors for such change despite a slowdown in the global economy. Chairman Koo expressed his commitment and said, “KITA will not spare effort to support Korean companies in making an early move to dominate the newly emerging market and encourage them to expand their scope of their trading business.” Professor Yeon-hwa Joo from the Department of Arts & Cultural Business Management at Hongik University Graduate School of Business Management analyzed that the existing fine arts industry is facing a crucial turning point as it becomes converged with blockchain technologies.”

One fact worth paying attention is that Korea is ranked second after the U.S. in terms of the share of people subscribed to Artsy - a global online art brokerage platform. This demonstrates Korean’s high interest in investing in fine arts, making Korea a leading country having a considerable influence in the fine arts market. Professor Joo mentioned, “The NFT technology is being utilized as a new type of communication tool between artists and consumers” and added, “This technology can rise as a new marketing tool if it is applied to manufactured products.” According to relevant statistics, the size of Korea’s fine arts market was approximately 320 billion won (approx. 225 million dollars) in 2020.

The size of the market nearly tripled to reach 920 billion won (approx. 650 million dollars) a year later in 2021 and it is expected the size will additionally grow to reach nearly one trillion won (approx. 700 million dollars) this year.

[This news is provided by Yonhap News]