Adorable Korean characters on display at Seoul Character & Licensing Fair 2014

You may have heard of Pororo and/or Larva... If you haven't, you will soon... as Korea's most popular animated cartoon characters are winning over countless young fans around the world and are taking home plenty of awards to boot. Riding on this wave, Korea has pulled out all the stops for its largest character fair, currently underway in southern Seoul. Park Ji-won reports. This adorable feline character is one of the most popular emoticons on Korea's mobile messaging application, KakaoTalk. It's been downloaded more than a million times since it was first introduced in 2012. If cats aren't your thing, how about a sleep-loving sloth? This sloth character embodies the slow life that some of us might miss in this busy, modern society we live in. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Pororo, perhaps the most widely-recognizable Korean character worldwide. The children's animation has been exported to some 130 countries since it debuted in the early 2000s. Following in the lovable penguin's tracks is "Larva", another successful character that now has a presence in 105 countries. "It doesn't have any language, it doesn't have any dialogue. It's a simple slap-stick comedy that everybody's easy to understand. I think that's the main reason." From instant messenger emoticons to healing icons, Korea's character industry is expanding rapidly. In just six years,... the export volume of Korean characters has more than doubled,... and from 2010 to 2012,... the export volume grew at an average growth rate over 22 percent every year. "I've been visiting Korea since the early 1990s in the licensing business. I've really seen the industry grow and become very mature. It's really grown to world-class level, particularly lots of innovative properties." "I think there's definitely a maturing of the licensing market here. People are more aware of the value of an effective strategic licensing program, how it could help create more awareness for their brand or their character, and how it could also help them create a significant revenue stream." All these characters and many others can be found at the Seoul Character & Licensing Fair being held at Coex through this Sunday. Park Ji-won, Arirang News.