Top 1% of YouTubers earn nearly $1 mil. on average per year

Calls grow for stronger tax audits

By KTimes

The top 1 percent of YouTubers and online personal broadcasters earned a total of 327 billion won ($227 million) last year, with the average income exceeding $1 million or 1.3 billion won per person.

However, income disparity within the one-person media market remains significant, with the top 10 percent accounting for more than half of the total revenue.

According to data obtained from the National Tax Service (NTS) by Rep. Chung Il-young of the Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday, a total of 24,797 content creators, including YouTubers, reported their income last year.

This figure represents a nearly 19-fold increase compared to 2019, when only 1,327 individuals declared their earnings. The total reported revenue of these creators reached 1.79 trillion won.

The top 1 percent, comprising 247 individuals, made an extraordinary amount of money. Their combined income amounted to 327 billion won. Compared to 2019, when their total income was 98 billion won, this marks a 36 percent increase over five years. The top 1 percent accounted for 18.3 percent of the total revenue in the one-person media market.

The pattern was similar when the scope was expanded to the top 10 percent. These 2,479 individuals earned a total of 899 billion won last year, making up 50 percent of the market.

Their average income was approximately 362 million won per person. Meanwhile, the NTS has conducted only 67 tax audits on YouTubers since 2019, when it introduced a new industry classification code for one-person media content creators.

"As the one-person media market grows, the production of extreme and provocative content aimed at increasing views for advertising revenue and personal sponsorships is on the rise," Chung said. "Despite the rapid annual increase in the income of YouTubers and personal broadcasters, the number of tax audits has remained almost unchanged over the past three years. Stronger tax investigations are necessary."

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.