This study aimed to find a new industry suitable for Sewoon district, a representative downtown in Seoul, Korea and suggest ways to foster them. To this end, we analysed the industrial structure of Seoul with Seoul business survey and found that video industry was a suitable industry considering feasibility of the city center. Expert advice by report and sector was analysed to reflect results in the establishment of an industrial strategy.
As a result of analysis of business survey, Seoul is a city that focuses on service and construction industry, including wholesale, retail and finance. Its manufacturing base is small. As a result of analyzing specialised industry in Seoul using the location quotient method, it was found that the specialization was high in order of air transportation, video and audio records production and distribution, broadcasting, clothing, clothing accessories and fur products manufacturing, publishing, computer programming, system integration, professional service, information service, other professional, science and technology services, finance and insurance services. These results showed characteristics of the Seoul industrial structure with strong information and service industries.
Growing industries with high growth rates of the number of companies, workers and sales include video and audio record, distribution, other professional, science and technology, creation, arts and leisure services and information services. Distribution, other professional, science and technology services and information services are also specialised industries in Seoul, which are within the top 10 location quotients.
In Sewoon District, there were a total of 8,973 businesses and 28,498 employees in 2020. According to the number of workers, wholesale and product brokerage, printing and recording media cloning, professional service, general construction, business support service and finance business were main industries. In addition to the flagship industry commonly observed in the city center, printing and recording media cloning accounted for a high proportion. Various theoretical concepts have been presented to understand the location of the video industry. In reality, chance and path dependence play an important role. Looking at the intensive area of Seoul's video industry, Chungmuro and Gangnam were highlighted as main positions, which were greatly influenced by the region's history and changes. Chungmuro symbolises the role of the initial center of the Korean film industry. Gangnam has grown into the current film industry by combining various factors such as urban development, subway opening, investor access, securing professional manpower and grasping trend. Sangam-dong is mainly built as the center of the broadcasting industry. Compared to Gangnam, it has some restrictions in accessibility.
The current video industry is experiencing structural changes. This change is expected to affect spatial distribution of the video industry. The emergence of new industries such as OTT and VFX shows a possibility of accumulation of new video industries. The city center that is reorganised in a large scale, such as Sewoon District, is advantageous for the new movie-related industry.
Based on these findings, the following policy directions can be presented. First, it is necessary to enhance industrial competitiveness around the city's main industry. To create a growth base for the flagship service industry, it is necessary to create a prime-class office and consider raising the use area of Eulji-ro into the central commercial area. Second, new industries in the global leading cultural industry such as K-video and performances should be activated. To do this, in the case of the video content industry, it is necessary to promote VFX and other video digital content industries , construct cinematech Seoul with independent film support and museums, strengthen infrastructure for digital content development and build a Seoul-type realistic content open lab so that citizens can feel and enjoy them. Third, it is necessary to promote the existing urban manufacturing industry. To this end, it is necessary to link the supply chain network and create a smart supply chain ecosystem through the business process task force.