Convergence Digital / KPOP in Korea

Jean-Baptiste SoufronFWPA Avocats / Technikart

jbsoufron@fwpa-avocats.com

It’s a WIP!!!

K$O$

• 2013 : $5 billions from pop culture export

• 2017 : x2

Digital + Content• 1997 : 1st turning point

• Financial Crisis

• Kim Dae-jung, President and Nobel Prize decides that digital and content will be priorities

• IT : electronics, videogames, web

• Samsung moved to digital and phones

• 1999 : launch of Naver

• Content : movies, music, dramas

Hallyu• Without the 97 crisis, there would be no

hallyu

• Strong gov support

• tax incentives for videogames, digital and music

• 2005 : $1 billion investment in pop industry

Becoming a local power

• Survive the decline of J-Pop and Canto-Pop• Japan culture succeeded « by luck » in anime, manga, videogames• Unable to get the japanese market to real maturity, instead relying

on niche demand and getting more and more dependent on Akiba and the otaku market

• Get the Korean culture market to maturity• Digital Business Model :

• Strong on Piracy• Make content available as much as possible• Generate revenues from digital by-products

Becoming a global power

• US-like strategy:

• Lee Soo-Man was a student at USC Northridge

• He witnessed the emergence of MTV

• 2 sources of digital soft power:

• Hollywood-like soft-power

• Silicon Valley-like soft-power

DPOP• Digital-POP? • The rise of Youtube after 2005 had a huge impact

• Easy global reach• The digital dividend works full speed : the more you invest,

the more you benefit… if it works for Hollywood, it works for everyone

• The digital lead is key: • Naver and Samsung are essential to tech independence. • The rise of online videogames is helping share the love.

Who is the biggest star for -18 people in France: Faker or Federer?

The Japan Trap• Does Girl’s Generation really has an impact outside of Asia?

• What about the AKB48 temptation? • How to maintain global reach? There is KPOP, there is Hip-Hop, but what about?

• Who will invest to help achieve global reach? Are we talking about interesting niches benefiting from the elite club effect, or are we talking about Taylor Swift / Selena Gomez / Kim Kardashian mainstream culture art?

• What about the business side?• Is it generational? • Is it as global as the japanese culture movement was?

• Where does it reach? Middle-East, South America? • How to stay relevant without being for long in the EU - still the biggest market in the

world, and in the US - the most powerful market in the world. • The turn over is huge. But how does it help?

from KPOP to GPOP? • Heavy dependance on foreign content and technology

• Youtube

• League of Legends, Starcraft, etc.

• Can it last and stand against Sili-Wood without connecting to other local cultures?

• Other are very active: Nolywood, French Movies, South American TV, British POP, Eurodance, etc.

• Other died before: HK movies, Cinecitta, African Jazz, etc.

• Should there be a Global POP movement?

Next next• Logical move : after Youtube, Netflix could be

the next wave, leading Korean actors and singers to the global stage for long

• Protective moves from abroad: chinese quotas, etc.

• Why not others?