Influencers wield greater marketing power in S.Korea

Merch reliance on digital content creators for marketing is on the rise in South Korea, allowing some influencers to enjoy handsome earnings from embedded marketing in their short videos.

According to Seoul-based influencer marketing platform Featuring, creator KIMPRO was the top earner among Korean YouTubers from paid product placements, or embedded advertising, which features branded goods or services in productions like TV shows, movies or YouTube content.

The channel was estimated to have reaped more than 560 million won ($420,000) per product placement based on Featuring’s analysis of data on digital content creators’ real advertisement revenue, number of subscribers or followers, and number of likes and comments.

KIMPRO is a Korea-based YouTube content creator who produces memeified short-form content, and the channel’s subscribers stood at 58.9 million as of Monday, which is the largest subscriber base for Korean YouTube content.

The next biggest earner from a product placement was from a mukbang, or "eating show," YouTuber DONA with 534.8 million won, followed by Boram Tube Vlog with 443.9 million won, Seungbini with 304 million won and GH’S with 284.7 million won.

Each of the top 10 YouTube creators boasts more than 10 million subscribers.

MUKBANG ON YOUTUBE VS FASHION AND BEAUTY ON INSTAGRAM

On Instagram, evie_kinie was paid the most, at nearly 400 million won per product placement, followed by hjevelyn with 140.5 million won, hazelchoiii with 124.1 million won, woohye0n with 113.1 million won and seung847 with 107 million won.  

Most top 10 creators by followers on Instagram make fashion or beauty content, while those on YouTube mainly create mukbang or shows for toddlers.

But the number of subscribers or followers is not the only metric advertisers take into account when choosing influencers, said Choi Hwasub, co-founder and chief technical officer (CTO) of Featuring, adding that likes also matter a lot in deciding on paid embedded advertising.

For example, evie_kinie, the most paid influencer on Instagram, is not among the top 10 in terms of followers, but many of the influencer's posts have more than 100,000 likes.

INFLUENCERS AFFECT CONSUMER SPENDING

Digital content creators’ influence in marketing is growing as many consumers tend to purchase products or services after watching digital content creators’ shows on social media platforms.

According to a survey by Seoul-based financial news content creator Uppity, 72.3% of the survey respondents in their 20s and 30s said they purchased products and services reviewed or recommended by influencers.

Nearly 80% of the respondents also answered that they are strongly influenced by digital content creators.

Reflecting the trend, the global influencer marketing market is forecast to grow to $24.0 billion this year from $21.1 billion in 2023, according to global market research firm Oberlo.

Korea’s influencer marketing market is also set to grow further.

According to Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, the country’s local digital creator media industry reached 4.1 trillion won in 2023.

Koreans spent the longest time on YouTube videos in the world in August, while Instagram was the second most popular smartphone app in the country for teenagers and those in their 20s. 

Write to Joo-Wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.