Online videos are rapidly evolving into independent cultural content covering topics ranging from beauty, food and online games to news, increasingly replacing conventional media.

In line with such trends, a festival shedding light on emerging Web-based content will be held from June 23-26 in Gwangju, inviting some of the most popular YouTube channel content creators.

“Web-based content has been expanding to the point where it challenges existing traditional media such as television programs, newspapers and movies. The way cultural content is consumed has been changing rapidly among young audiences,” said Kim Tack-whan, chairman of the 2016 Gwangju World Web Contents Festival Promotional Committee, during a press conference Tuesday in Seoul.

YouTube content creators plan and produce their own content in the fields of their interests, with some of the more popular creators garnering thousands to millions of views that often lead to business opportunities ranging from embedding advertisements to content rentals. 

The festival, which will be held at the Asia Culture Center, will gather online content creators, agencies and audience to discuss the quickly emerging forms of online content and explore partnership opportunities.

Celebrity YouTube content creators will hold a series of talks from June 24-25 on how they started their own channels, share some fun episodes and also offer advice for young audiences aspiring to create their own channels online.

Invited speakers include creators that run some of the most subscribed YouTube channels, including Na Dong-hyun, who runs the online video broadcast channel “The Great Library,” David Levene of “The World of Dave,” who shares his life in Korea and cultural differences he felt living in the country, as well as online game broadcasters Yang Ji-young (Yangtting) and Na Hee-sun (Doti), whose videos attract as many as 840,000 to 1.6 million viewers.

Online content experts and scholars will also come together to talk about the future forms of online content, and its business and employment opportunities on June 24.

The festival is organized by the Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Gwangju Metropolitan Government.

For more information, visit http://wwcf.kr or call (062) 601-4861.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)