YouTube enters K-pop streaming scene; competition heats up

Google Inc., the operator of the world’s largest streaming platform YouTube, has entered the growing local online concert scene, heralding fierce competition with domestic companies that have already forayed into the market.

On Jan. 31, the South Korean girl group Blackpink held a livestream concert, Blackpink: The Show, on YouTube. It was the first time the US-based streaming platform teamed up with a music act to roll out a paid-online concert. The 90-minute concert tickets were priced between 36,000 won ($32) and 48,000 won.

According to Google, the concert drew in 280,000 viewers globally. The actual figure is expected to be higher as it did not include China-based viewers. Revenue from the concert is estimated at around 11.8 billion won ($11 million).

YouTube's successful collaboration with Blackpink highlights the fast-growing phenomenon of online concerts, which have come to replace offline concerts halted by the prolonged global pandemic.

Last May, Korean platform giant Naver Corp.'s streaming service V Live saw its paid monthly content grow fivefold compared to the first couple months of the year -- before the coronavirus outbreak. V Live is a fan community platform where celebrities and fans can interact. The service makes most of its profit from online concert ticket sales.

A similar fan community platform, Weverse, launched by the BTS label Big Hit Entertainment Co., also streamed the BTS concert Map of the Soul ON:E last year, pulling in around 1 million viewers from 191 countries. Ticket sales were estimated to have reached 49.1 billion won ($44 million).

Google entering the online concert scene is likely to trigger competition in the market where Korean fan community service providers have already begun the race for the lead.

YouTube has almost 2 billion users, allowing the platform to attract concert viewers quickly without engaging in separate promotional activities. Meanwhile, Naver and Big Hit have the advantage of being able to cast globally popular K-pop artists on their platforms.

"YouTube entering the market is likely to strengthen solidarity between Korean companies," said an industry official.

Naver, which had competed against other Korean entertainment labels to snag market share in the emerging fan community service market, has recently shifted its direction to form an alliance.

The Korean platform company joined forces with major K-pop labels in Korea, including Blackpink label YG Entertainment Co., EXO label SM Entertainment Co., and Big Hit to boost its K-pop content offerings and to expand fan-based services to the global audience.

Last week, Naver announced plans to integrate its streaming platform V Live with Weverse, in what is anticipated to become a K-pop fan community platform behemoth.

Write to Min-ki Koo and Joo-wan Kim at kook@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.