This is a scene from last year's Character Licensing Fair in July 2025 at the convention center Coex in Seoul's Gangnam-gu District. (Fair's official Facebook page)

By Jeong Euiseok

A trade show featuring popular domestic characters will open next week in Seoul.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) from July 16-19 will jointly host the Korea Character Licensing Fair at the convention center Coex in the capital's Gangnam-gu District.

Under the theme "Expand: Content IP," the event will showcase examples of characters generating new added value through convergence with other industries.

Like last year, this year's event will be held alongside Board Game Con, Korea's biggest event of its kind.

A combined 186 companies will participate in the exhibition and run 443 booths. Popular domestic characters and content intellectual property (IP) include KVision's Esther Bunny, Iconix's Zanmang Loopy and Shinhan Bank's Shinhan Friends.

An exhibition hall will showcase the commercial potential of content IP through the Build-Up Pavilion, which presents case studies of collaboration between the content and related sectors, and Hallyu IP Pavilion, which spotlights domestic content IP with a strong capacity for expansion overseas.

The ministry will explore opportunities for cooperation such as licensing agreements, commercialization, distribution and joint ventures to help participating companies expand their business and enter overseas markets.

Kim Kyung-hwa, head of the ministry's Cultural Industry Policy Bureau, said, "We will support the Korea Character Licensing Fair so that it serves as a practical business platform to help domestic content IP companies in commercialization and expansion overseas, as well as a festival allowing the public to experience 'K-characters' and content IP more widely."

Official poster for 2026 Korea Character Licensing Fair (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)