What is exporting culture?
Rossi (2021) defines culture as “Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones and a million other things” in an article written and published by LiveScience. Culture is based on a broad range of societal factors such as language, religion, music, drama, and history, among many others. Culture represents a collection of people with a shared identity in terms of their ethnicity, geography, and religion, among other shared attributes. For example, in the United States of America, there is a shared culture most notably represented by the “American Dream” whereby any individual from a unique background can reach their own unique pinnacle of success. Simultaneously, the US is home to many subcultures based upon various shared identities such as ethnicities, religions, sports teams, and several distinct types of interests. This article in the following sections will define the process of exporting culture and further illustrate it using the lucrative examples of Hollywood, major sports from around the globe, and country-specific subcultures.
This article defines exporting culture as developing a unique aspect of modern culture in a method that can also generate revenue. Revenue can be generated by these subcultures through ticket sales, online payments for business models such as Pay-Per-View (PPV) and subscription to digital platforms, advertisement revenues for platforms, and monetizing IP using alternative methods. Each of the examples of international subcultures generates revenue using one or more of the revenue sources mentioned above.
The origin of exporting culture
The first type of revenue-generating subculture this article will elaborate upon is the Hollywood movie industry. Hollywood refers to an area in California that is the entertainment and show-business capital of the USA and is a hub for globally acclaimed cinema. According to History (2018) “The first film completed in Hollywood was 1908’s “The Count of Monte Cristo”, although production of the film began in Chicago. The first film made entirely in Hollywood was a short film in 1910 titled in Old California”. From these humble beginnings began the most profitable entertainment-based entertainment industry in the world. According to Zippia (2022), the box office revenue for the North American film industry was $11.32 Billion in 2019. While also generating massive amounts of revenue from ticket sales, licensing rights, merchandising, Video on Demand (VOD), etc. Hollywood also has the added benefit for the USA of creating a powerful narrative around the United States that generates soft power for the country in the global stage.
According to Joseph Nye soft power refers to “A countries ability to influence the preferences and behaviors of various actors in the international arena (states, corporations, etc.) through attraction or persuasion rather than coercion.” Hollywood continues to be a useful tool for the United States to exercise soft power as millions of immigrants from around the globe flock to the US in hopes of achieving the American dream. Hollywood movies and the stars in the industry often proclaim the importance of following your dreams and achieving immense success, starting from underprivileged backgrounds. The music industry, American Football, the NBA, and other sectors of American society, also provide the message to the globe that in the US it is possible to achieve the pinnacles of success through dedicated work. But the issue with this messaging is that while it is a soft power tool for the US, the success in these various fields relies on many more factors than hard work and being a US citizen alone. The next section of this article will elaborate on the successes of Cricket and Soccer in generating revenue for the countries that play a heavy role in exporting these subcultures globally, such as the Indian Premier League (IPL), UEFA league, and the FIFA world cup.
The IPL is a cricket league based in India. The league has nine teams representing nine cities around India. These nine teams pay large sums of money to buy highly skilled local and international players in an auction held annually. The league holds a tournament annually for approximately one month where these teams play to win the IPL Cup. Over 200 million viewers from around the globe tune in to view the IPL according to Money Control (2022). Players from around the world play in the league and it is highly entertaining. Just this year the broadcasting rights (including digital) for the IPL were sold in an auction to Sony for over US$ 6 Bn. Other than selling broadcasting rights the IPL generates revenue from selling tickets to spectators and sponsorships.
UEFA Champions League is a soccer league based in Europe that gains approximately one billion viewers annually according to Sporting News (2022). This league has similar methods for generating revenue as the IPL. But it is important to note that UEFA generates a much higher number of viewers and revenues. Finally, the FIFA World cup which is held every four years also is based on soccer and national teams from 24 countries playing in the world cup. The World Cup gained a combined viewership of 3.5 billion people aged four and above according to FIFA (2018). The revenue sources for the FIFA World Cup are like the previous examples with sponsorships, and broadcasting rights, but it is slightly different from IPL as only one country hosts each World Cup and therefore ticket sales and the free publicity received due to hosting the World Cup is enjoyed by different countries every four years. The aforementioned sporting events generate revenue for the host countries and generate revenue for the institutions that manage these events. Along with the revenue created these sports play a significant role in developing a shared subculture across several countries with diverse cultures.
The final example of exporting culture is the subcultures created by specific countries to generate massive amounts of revenue. Examples of this process are illustrated by Japanese anime, K-Pop, K-Drama, and Bollywood. According to Statista (2022), the South Korean music industry (K-Pop) achieved an export value of US$ 756 Million and achieved sales revenue of 6.8 trillion South Korean won in 2019. Furthermore, according to Grandview research (2022) the global anime market size is valued at US$ 24.8 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach US$ 28.69 billion in 2022. As illustrated above in this section subcultures that are unique to countries around the globe have generated immense value to these countries, financially and with regard to cultural influence.
In conclusion, culture is unique to countries, and communities based on various shared values and beliefs. Along with these cultures, countries, international institutions, and businesses can create subcultures that are unique to them that are shared by millions or billions of other individuals from around the world. These points are elaborated upon and further illustrated using numerous examples in this article. The main point of this article is that any country, business, institution, or business can take part in developing a subculture or further developing an existing subculture in a unique way.
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