– Leading the growth of the domestic creator industry for 10 years… MCN → Pioneer in media industry expansion
– Expansion centered on IP business from 2025… Business diversification including launching virtual idol group
– CEO Lee Pil-seong “We will build a sustainable creator economy ecosystem”… Announces growth goals for the next 3 years
Digital entertainment company Sandbox Network (Co-CEOs Pil-seong Lee and Byeong-gon Cha) celebrated its 10th anniversary by sharing its reflections on the past 10 years and revealing a blueprint for the next 10 years.
Sandbox Network (hereinafter referred to as Sandbox), which started as a creator-centered content company and has been leading the digital entertainment industry in Korea, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in June 2025. Sandbox will begin its 10th anniversary celebration with an online and offline ceremony with all employees on the 13th, and will then launch a 10th anniversary brand campaign in the second half of the year.
In 2015, in the midst of the rapidly growing one-person content ecosystem centered around YouTube, Sandbox took notice of the potential of the creator industry and launched as a representative domestic MCN (multi-channel network) company that systematically supported it. Based on partnerships with various star creators including founder Dotty (Na Hee-sun), the company presented a business model that became the 'standard' for the creator industry, such as content planning and advertising business, and has since broadly expanded its business areas to branded content, commerce, goods production, publishing, and performances.
According to Sandbox, annual sales, which were around 1 billion won in 2015, have grown to approximately 66 billion won (based on K-IFRS) by 2024. The operational data and content management capabilities focused on core customers, creators, have become the foundation for Sandbox to grow from a simple MCN to a comprehensive digital content company.
“Beyond Creator to Brand, Beyond Content to IP”
Sandbox plans to fully expand its business centered on the 'IP business' starting from this 10th anniversary. It plans to establish IP derivative businesses such as goods, animations, and children's book publishing based on creator characters and stories as a more stable profit model and strengthen its business portfolio centered on this. It will also advance its advertising business into an influencer solution business encompassing content and commerce.
In the second half of 2025, we are planning to officially launch our own virtual idol project, ‘Solidarity Idol (tentative title)’, which we planned and produced ourselves. Having recently completed the selection of debut members through auditions, this project is a business that will fully expand the contact point between K-pop and the creator industry, and we plan to develop it into an IP business that encompasses music, live content, and communities by combining Sandbox’s planning capabilities and fandom management experience.
“Sustainable Creator Economy, the Next 10 Years as Envisioned by Sandbox”
The core of Sandbox is still the 'creator'. Not only is it solidifying the partnership structure that supports the growth of creators, but it is also expanding the ecosystem by implementing diverse collaboration models as well as content advertising business from the creators' business perspective.
Sandbox CEO Pil-Sung Lee emphasized, “Providing a positive experience to creators, advertisers, and viewers is the most fundamental corporate value of Sandbox Network,” and stated, “Based on our systematic financial performance, we will pursue the first IPO among domestic digital entertainment companies, while continuing to achieve gradual growth to achieve 100 billion won in sales and 10 billion won in operating profit within three years.” He added, “We will establish ourselves as a sustainable company centered on content IP and grow into a leading company that will open the next 10 years of the creator economy.”
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