K-pop and soap operas have taken the world by storm, but so too has a short-legged blue penguin wearing orange glasses and aviator cap who lives in a snowy peaceful island together with his friends.
A total of 80 animators, all of them Korean, work on Pororo stories.
Pororo the Little Penguin, who celebrated his 11th birthday last year, has become one of South Korea's most beloved exports. A curious and tireless explorer, the animated character gets up to all sorts of mischief but always ends up solving problems with the help of his friends.
Created by Iconix Entertainment Co Ltd of Seoul, Pororo the Little Penguin today is seen in 130 countries from Australia and the UK to India, Puerto Rico and some Asean countries. In China, children can even play with Pororo and his friends at their own theme parks, underlining the popularity of the mischievous little penguin in the universe of animated characters.
"From the beginning, when we developed this character we aimed to reach the global stage, not only the domestic market," recalled Jung Mikyung, general director of the overseas business department at Iconix.
The company, which was established just two years before Pororo was launched in 2003, conducted a survey of marketing potential overseas among potential foreign buyers. Specifically, it wanted to know which character was most appealing to them to express a mischievous character, she explained.
"Penguins are cute and loved by everyone. Pororo appeals to kids in every country. At those ages, there are no cultural barriers. That's why the character is so successful," said Ms Jung.
Without parents, Pororo lives together with his friends on a distant peaceful island untouched by human civilisation. When the encounter challenges, they learn how to solve problems and children learn with moral yet practical lessons from the result.
Pororo dolls featuring are displayed at a character licensing show in Seoul. The little penguin is seen in 130 countries around the world.
"No one is harmful and everybody has a certain reason for doing things. The philosophy is that we want to teach children to never give up in times of trouble and help each other," said Ms Jung.
While Iconix is specialises in planning and marketing, its affiliated 3D production company Studio Gale is in charge of the production and employs 80 animators. Fifty cartoonists or animators do the work during the pre-production stage while 30 create the production. All of them are Korean.
The Pororo cartoons generate revenue of $20 million annually, making about half of the total gross at Iconix. It takes two years to finish one season at a cost of $3 million, and five seasons have been created to date.
"We have partnered with broadcasting companies in 130 countries so far including Thai PBS. They either air the animation or sell the character in their countries," she said.
Pororo has been particularly successful in China where two theme parks have been established, although they are small and indoors, and a third is being discussed. Here are seven Pororo theme parks in Korea.
"The concept of the theme park is that the children, after watching the cartoons, like to be there and play with Pororo," said Ms Jung. "So we've established theme park in the same towns that appeared in the cartoons."
Pororo is one of only a handful of animated characters from outside the US-based Disney universe to become famous worldwide. Others include Thomas the Train, which targets audiences of the same age, and Peppa Pig from the UK.
Japan is also a strong player in the animation world, with Doraemon its most famous export. But Ms Jung notes that the Doraemon robot character originated in a comic book while Pororo was created as the animated character.
As well, Doraemon for many years was aimed only at domestic audiences in Japan so he continues to reflect strong domestic cultural characteristics after 50 years, but Pororo has targeted a worldwide audience from the start to the character needs to express universal values.
"Both teach good values and good lessons on daily life but kids can also learn how to socialise, make friends and respect people," she said.
Pororo was chosen as the mascot of the Korea-Asean Commemorative Summit held in Busan in December.
"The summit is a political and diplomatic event. The adults might be aware of the event but children don't know much about it, so the idea was to appeal to children that we are living in the same community," Ms Jung said. "Also, this character is well known in Asean countries and of course in Korea. It may be good for the publicity although he doesn't wear a Korean costume."
And while Pororo is approaching adolescence in human years, the producers at Iconic intend for the character to stay young forever, in the grand tradition of animation.
"But now he is 11 years old so the children who actually watched this cartoon [from the start] are quite grown up now," said Ms Jung. "To target this audience, we are planning to lunch some merchandise for them but for the animation, we have no plan to change the character for now."