When we hear the word “Korea”, it naturally bridges us towards some big players, and you can never mention Korea without talking about K-pop. Today, K-pop is not just about a music but it remains as the one of the biggest content and a culture within South Korea’s entertainment industry. The K-pop entertainment industry does not rely solely on sales on album, or their concert tickets. like they did in the past. They have successfully developed a whole new platform based digital transformation that built more connection between idols and fans, but also on the revenue side.
Case 1- Living in the bubble?
The bubble-Dear U is a subscription based app, where fans pay money(subscribe to the specific idol they want) and pay the money, then they can experience the private-style messages from idols(Zhang, Y. 2022). This gives an another level of connection, that as a fan you are privately having a conversation with your idol(But you’re not). To target users from different countries, they provide a translate features within the app as well so the language barriers is reduced.
Case 2- V Live
V-Live, as from the name you can see it is a digital platform where idols can livestream and fans can join their live with their comments, likes and etc. This was also intended to make more communication and connection between idols and fans(Park, S., Jo, H., & Kim, T. 2023). It was originally owned by Naver(another big company in Korea), but recently it was integrated by Weverse (HYBE’s platform which is another big entertainment industry)And this clearly depicts the envelopment strategy where swallowing up on the compliments.
K-pop industry builds on parasocial relationship
Looking at these examples and cases of digital platform integrated in the K-pop industry, we can clearly see that the K-pop industry builds its backbone on a parasocial relationship between the fans and idols. It’s not just about listening to their music anymore, it’s about how to satisfy the needs and desire of the fans.
Then what is this parasocial relationship? The parasocial relationship refers to a one-sided connection and feelings you get towards celebrity, influencer or a fictional character that is not based on the reality, and you experience feeling of intimacy, friendship, and some connection. So they key is that you do not know this person personally, but based on the marketing strategy and tools, you can feel this strong connection and intimacy.
This trend on K-pop displays on the downside of the industry, that the idols are commodified. Meaning they became a certain products that the entertainment industry produces based on the social beauty standards or other norms, and their worth matters only when they are consumed by the consumers(fans).
Do you think this platform based model of K-pop industry is the only solution of entertainment industry to survive in the future? or do you think this will create a negative effect where fans will get burned out from paying for so much subscription?
References:
Lee, S., & Prey, R. (2025). The Labor Process of Relational Labor: The Case of the K-Pop Fan Platform “Bubble.” Popular Music and Society, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2025.2492505
Jang, G., & Paik, W. K. (2012). Korean Wave as tool for Korea’s new cultural diplomacy. Advances in Applied Sociology, 02(03), 196–202. https://doi.org/10.4236/aasoci.2012.23026
Park, S., Jo, H., & Kim, T. (2023). Platformization in local cultural production: Korean platform companies and the K-pop industry. International Journal of Communication, 17, 2422–2443.
Zhang, Y. (2022). A study on the para-social interaction between idols and fans in virtual applications: Case study of Lysn Bubble. In Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, Volume 631. Duke Kunshan University.
