Along with the industry-wide growth, exports have increased threefold to $551 million in 2015 from $163 million in 2005.

During the 10-year period, the number of character businesses rose to 2,069 with 30,128 employees from 629 with 2,069.

Until the mid '90s, the character industry was dominated by Disney although there were a few beloved characters from popular Korean cartoons such as Dolly the little mischievous dinosaur. By the late '90s, with the start of the Internet era, a wide variety of Korean characters started to enter the market.

The industry started to take off in earnest in 2003 with the introduction of online cartoon series, or webtoons, and the birth of the Pororo series, the little penguin that became arguably the most popular animation character among young kids. The growth was also partly boosted by regulatory measures to support the local animation industry by, for example, guaranteeing broadcast hours.

Now the industry is led by mobile app characters from services such as Kakao Talk and Line. They are currently 23 character stores for Kakao nationwide, while rival Line has 13 in Korea and 24 overseas.

The KOCCA estimates that the industry recorded solid growth with more than 10 trillion won last year.

"Despite a slow economy, the character industry is making noticeable growth due to growing exports and robust domestic consumption," an official from the KOCCA said. (Yonhap)