OPINION

SEOUL, Korea – KBS broadcasting center gathered several experts to speak for “K-pop Wave Conference” on Tuesday.

Right now, K-pop wave is surging all over the world, although only few portion of the country’s population are interested in it.

Psy’s ‘Gangnam style,’ for example, recently hit 2 billion hits on YouTube. That is about 40 times more than the South Korean population. (approximately, 50 million)

The speakers included: K-pop star Idol Dong-Un Son (from boys’ group, Beast), International Ambassador from Korea, Chinese reporter from People’s Daily(China), German Translator who mainly translates Korean video games and cartoons, Google and YouTube Korea’s Chairman, and many more.

The talks were ‘TED’ style, and aimed to give a suggestion to pave the way of K-pop wave internationally. Here are what I’ve got from the talks:

1. China as a growing market

China is enforcing a new law to ban foreign soap operas, animations and TV series at specific time of the day when most Chinese citizens are watching. Instead, they will air TV series made by China.

Korean soap operas are apparently really big in China. I’m Korean, and even I didn’t know if it had a great impact. Most Chinese I met back in the U.S., they watched one or two Korean soap operas. Some of them even had Korean actor for cell phone background.  The reporter from People’s Daily said about 200 million downloads for one popular Korean soap opera. That’s four times more than Korean population!

2. Make fan!! Not audiences

I personally loved the guy from Google and YouTube Korea. His presentation reminded me of Steve Jobs. According to him, the difference between audiences and fans are:

“Audiences are the ones who watch the video and determine if they like the video or not. However, the fans are the ones who shout and go crazy before even playing the video. ”

Gangnam Style, for example, it was found on YouTube and with words of people, they scattered all around the world.

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Ten years ago, the social network only revealed what’s close to people. However, videos like Gangnam style proved that you don’t need to go another country to make them press “like” button. Today, everyone can get contents they want anywhere they are. More people will be self-journalists and producers in the future.

I want to ask…. What’s next?

What’s your opinion of K-pop? Leave comments below!