K-Pop Case Study

1. Improved K-pop Show Contents

Since the globalization of K-pop, the demand for Korean popular music contents has been diversified throughout Asia.

To meet the needs of fans wanting to see K-pop stars directly before them, Korean production companies, broadcasting companies and non-profit foundations increased overseas performances and prepared for alternative channels such as internet live-streams. But they could neither satisfy fans in quantity nor in quality. K-pop fans in Asia did not enjoy the luxury of experiencing K-pop contents as a whole since most of the concerts were one-off events, concentrated on a few artists.

The definition of a total K-pop experience is as follows. “K-pop that is introduced in many different languages

It is an effective strategy for media companies to continuously supply and promote K-pop culture. In media economics, it is quite expensive to make the first copy of media contents. However, it takes nearly zero to make the second, third copies of contents. It means that media companies could get money as much as they build various platforms, and increase the overall amount produced and supplied. To sum up, companies can gain high interests by establishing various windows and making audience use these platforms when watching contents.

This windowing strategy should be adapted to distribute K-pop culture worldwide. If media companies build online streaming services specialized in K-pop culture and provide various video clips, it could gain a global layer of fan users and develop as a NO.1 streaming webpage like YouTube. It would be specialized in providing contents such as K-pop idols’ concerts and TV programs showing the idol singers’ daily life. It would be an effective solution to overcome the current problem of the supply of K-pop being unable to match the continuously growing demand, as well as a means of promotion of

Since K-pop culture has prospered based on a few idol groups that the big companies have supported, it lacks genre diversity. Although there have been top-down governmental efforts, such as holding K-pop festivals, they are not sufficient to establish a sustainable K-pop culture.

We have provided two alternatives to promote a sustainable K-pop ecosystem. First, we will increase show contents, such as international concerts, to suit the demands of international consumers as well as to promote K-pop culture. Second, we will use the “windowing” strategy and create an online streaming service where fans from abroad can easily have access to the exact contents they are seeking for (i.e. videos of concerts of idol stars).

The two alternatives that we have provided target consumers of K-pop worldwide, instead of limiting the layer of consumers to Koreans. Some may argue that it is unnecessary for companies and even the government to step in, to suit and benefit foreigners. However, K-pop has a strong competitive edge which enables it to compete worldwide, and benefiting foreign consumers will ultimately benefit domestic companies and the image of Korea itself. Permeation of K-pop culture and ultimately Korean culture into other nations can positively influence the minds of foreigners and strengthen the leverage and power of South Korea as a whole. Looking forward to such returns, we should make efforts to establish a sustainable