As an eastern Asian country, how does South Korea K-pop enter the pop consumption mainstream of Western Countries? Why did South Korea do it, and China and Japan did not. This article indicates reasons and limitations.
“For the Japanese, foreign markets were an afterthought. The Chinese cut their platforms off from the rest of the world. But for the Koreans, it has always been about exports.” The Chinese domestic market is massive and united, in which there are 1.4bn consumers. It’s an advantage of the Chinese market and benefits companies. There is the detail behind the data of large consumers, according to the Chinese Premier, more than 40 percent of China’s population earned only about 1,000 yuan (US$141) per month in 2019. It’s also a disadvantage for Chinese companies. Focusing on the big and single domestic market means ignoring the more giant market, the global market.
There are two factors behind the success of K-pop, Korean content and foreign platforms. It’s foreign platforms that distribute K-pop subscribers worldwide. South Korean realize that even they receive plaudits from worldwide subscribers and audiences, about their content, but there is a limit to relying on foreign platforms too much. Foreign platforms gain large parts of profits. Metaverse is an opportunity for South Korea, the South Korean government and companies want to build their global platforms.
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