The number of illegally distributed South Korean content items overseas neared 500 million last year, data showed.

According to data provided by the Korea Copyright Protection Agency to Representative Jung Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, illegally distributed K-content overseas last year reached 493.55 million cases, a 19.2% increase from the previous year (414.1 million cases).

This is the highest figure since fact-finding surveys began in 2022.

Webtoons accounted for the largest share at 328.21 million cases (66.5%), followed by video content (films and broadcasting) at 165.34 million cases (33.5%). Notably, illegal video distribution surged by 40.6% compared to the previous year (117.59 million cases).

In contrast, the number of overseas illegal posts deleted by the Copyright Protection Agency last year stood at just 243,374 cases, which is about 0.05% of the total illegal distribution volume.

By language, English accounted for the largest share of translated and provided illegally distributed content at 46.6%, followed by Chinese at 20.4%, Southeast Asian languages at 15.7%, and European languages at 7.6%.

While the proportion of illegal content translated into English dropped by 17.0 percentage points in a year, Southeast Asian languages (Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian) and European languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese) quickly filled the gap.

Illegal distribution in Southeast Asian languages surged more than threefold over four years, rising from 5% (24.09 million cases) in 2022 to 15.7% in 2025. European languages also grew 2.7 times from 2.9% (13.86 million cases) to 7.6% over the same period.

In the webtoon sector, "Eleceed" was the most illegally distributed across six language regions, including English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, with a total of 27,063 cases deleted.

A total of 19,280 cases of "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint" were also deleted across six language regions, excluding Chinese and Spanish.

Among video content, the SBS variety show "Running Man" suffered the most damage across five language regions, including English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian.

In the Chinese-language region alone, 18,481 cases were taken down.

Representative Jung Jun-ho said, "The map of illegal distribution is rapidly changing, with the proportion of English declining while Southeast Asian and European languages surge." He added, "We need to increase the number of monitoring personnel fluent in emerging languages and strengthen international cooperation with overseas investigative agencies targeting illegal site operators."


(Photo courtesy of Representative Jung Jun-ho's office, Yonhap News)