As early as 2017, South Korea's annual sales of the role economy reached nearly 70 billion yuan. Recently, when the Korean Institute of Cultural Industry Revitalization announced this number, it caused quite a lot of discussion in the industry.
role economy has always been a highly-watched area in South Korea. In this field, there are also many representative brands, such as Kakao Friends. It started making cartoon emoticon packs, and its sales have reached 610 million yuan this year.
The idol industry leading the Korean pop also gained a lot of revenue in derivatives, and the annual sales around celebrities also exceeded 600 million yuan.
What is role economy?
Under the conditions of a market economy, roles have the basic attributes (i.e. value and use value) of all commodities, and the business format formed based on role production and role consumption, is role economy. In South Korea, the representative areas covered by the character economy include comics, movies, animations, celebrities, etc.
From the perspective of originality and IP, South Korea's role economy can also be divided into these two aspects. In terms of
IP, both companies and celebrities and idols in South Korea are strengthening their brand image through highly recognizable two-dimensional roles. For example, the Kakao Friends series, the YG bear of YG entertainment, the BT21 cartoon image of BTS, etc.
In 2017, the annual sales of the Korean character economy reached nearly 12 trillion won (about 70 billion yuan), an increase of 7.7% year-on-year from 2016. The popularity of domestic animation characters such as Kakao Friends and Bolele surpasses that of overseas IPs such as Marvel and One Piece .
, as the most popular Kakao Friends, sold
, reached 105.1 billion won (about 610 million yuan) in 2018. The revenue growth of
role economy is inseparable from the increase in user demand.
Between 2016 and 2018, the average annual expenditure of Korean users in various role derivatives increased significantly, and user demand has been increasing, which provides a user base for this market. In particular, kidult products that meet the needs of users in their 30s and 40s have become the main consumer force of character derivatives.
kidult is literally "kid+adult", which refers to an adult on the outside but also has certain characteristics of children in the heart. It is reflected in the derivative industry and usually refers to an adult group who is interested in toys, characters, cartoon products, etc. Most of the
Kidult products are derived from cultural fields such as comics and animation, and have gradually occupied a place in the market as a unique popular culture.
In Korea, adult audiences aged 20-30 are the backbone of Kidult product purchases, and show the characteristics of being willing to buy high prices for their favorite characters. For example, the "Kakao Mini" product launched by Kaokao Friends in 2017, which combines cartoon characters and artificial voice intelligence has sold 3,000 units within 40 minutes of its launch.
According to statistics from the Korean e-commerce platform TMON, 71% of consumers who purchased dolls in 2017 were between the ages of 30-40. Another e-commerce platform, Wemakeprice, counted the sales of kidult products from May 1 to 21, 2018. Users aged 30-40 accounted for 80% of the buyers of this type of product, an increase of 2.5 times compared with the same period last year.
In addition to the expansion of the user market aged 30-40, the audience market dominated by children is also growing.
On the one hand, Korean animation focuses on the children's market and has produced many high-quality cartoon animations, such as "PINKFONG", " Little Penguin Bolele ", "Taobao Brothers", "Little Bus Too Friends" children's song series, etc., creating many cartoon characters that children love.
On the other hand, with the changes in the consumption concept of Korean parents, consumption expenditure on children's goods has increased significantly, and demand has become more diversified. Cooperating with popular animation characters, launching children's supplies for character naming has become the focus of the company.
Korean stars do cross-border, with annual sales of 600 million
Korean idol group is active on the stage of countries around the world, especially in Southeast Asia and North America, with many fans. With the support of the fan economy, the business model of the idol industry has become more diverse, from the performance and record fields to the derivative industries such as stationery, dolls, jewelry, food, and fashion.
Using celebrity IP to produce derivatives like this can not only meet the fans' star-chasing needs, but also increase the added value of entertainment companies. According to statistics from the Korea Trade and Investment Revitalization Commune, as early as 2016, the scale of the Korean celebrity IP derivatives industry was about 75 billion won, and now it has reached 100 billion won (about 579 million yuan).
In addition, according to YG Entertainment's 2017 performance estimate, its derivative sales reached 3.9 billion won.
star peripherals are mainly aimed at adult consumers, which contributes to the growth of the scale of the Korean role industry. Because the Korean character industry has always been dominated by animation IP, derivative buyers are limited to children. Celebrities attract adult groups with independent purchasing power, making the character industry bigger and bigger.
In fact, the celebrity peripheral industries are expanding to the global market with the Korean trend. The physical stores around celebrities established by entertainment companies such as SM have become an important place for Korean wave tourism. Overseas direct purchases around celebrities are also very active.
According to statistics, from January to May 2018, Taiwan, China and Taiwan accounted for 30.7% of the sales volume of Korean stars overseas, followed by Japan (10.8%) and the United States (10.6%). In order to better serve global fans, Big Hit Shop, a physical store near BTS, has also developed its own overseas delivery and settlement system.
Big Hit Shop is a peripheral store established by an entertainment company of the same name for its artists, including online stores and offline physical stores. In 2018, sales reached 90 billion won and net income of 24.6 billion won. In July of the same year, Big Hit Shop online store released a new support stick for BTS. On the day of the release, a large number of fans logged in and purchased the website, causing the website to be paralyzed.
Using celebrity IP to develop derivatives is a business model with Korean characteristics. It is difficult to imitate without such a mature idol industry foundation. But from a domestic perspective, the fan market is huge, but the celebrity-based role economy is starting.
Role Development in the entertainment industry
In Korea, the role industry has cooperated with games, clothing, entertainment and other industries, especially the entertainment industry, which has broadened its revenue channels with the help of character development and derivative production.
The entertainment industry personally developed role IP in order to strengthen the brand image. For example, YG Bear Krunk, a corporate mascot designed and developed by YG Entertainment.
BigBang boy group YG Bear
YG Bear made his first appearance in the 2013 singer Li Hai's "IT’S OVER" MV, and now it is no longer a simple image representative. YG Bear has expanded the scope of activities through cooperation with peripheral products and music for artists such as BigBang, released music sources, and even held fan meetings overseas, which are very popular. YG Bear Krunk also has his own SNS account. In addition to posting some photos of attending performing activities, he also shares his daily life. Behind YG Bear is still YG artist, but changing into doll outfits has changed the way of appearance, but it has created richer meaning.
not only interprets the company, but also artists are making their own character IPs. The most basic thing is the cartoon figure of the artist. The designer creates cartoon characters based on the characteristics of the artist, and then cooperates with the doll manufacturer to create the doll. Under the Korean pop star effect, such dolls are very popular in the fan circle.
In addition to idol dolls, there are also artists who directly participate in the development of character design and production. The most representative one is the character cartoon image BT21 launched by Line in collaboration with the boy group BTS. From the initial cartoon image sketching to character giving and product planning, BTS members directly participated, and BT21 composed of 8 cartoon images was created. Taking the success of BT21 as a springboard, Line is expanding its cooperation areas to mobile games, cosmetics and other fields. The development of
character has even been used in variety shows.
"New Journey to the West" was a Korean travel variety show that was filmed with "Dragon Ball" and "Journey to the West" as the background of the story. CJ EM is responsible for the production. The producer launched the cartoon image of "Miaohan" for the first time in the opening animation of " New Journey to the West 3" in 2017. Miaohan not only appears in the introduction animation at the opening, but is also added to the program interactive session and subtitle stickers.
Myohan's cartoon characters can be seen everywhere in the restaurant decoration of the derivative variety show " Jiang Canteen " of "New Journey to the West".This character is not as cute as other characters, but has become a Korean internet celebrity doll, thanks to the high-scoring program content and character story rendering.
In addition to the entertainment industry, the gaming industry is also paying attention to cooperation with the character industry. NCsoft, one of the three major Korean gaming companies, launched its own cartoon image Spoonz in 2018, inviting idol group NU’EST W to endorse, and also collaborated with them to launch new music works. It also opened an offline store, Spoons Pop Store, and held a NU’EST W fan signature meeting here.
, as the Korean entertainment industry that led the Korean wave to the world, is not only good at celebrity packaging, but also good at using the development of two-dimensional roles to strengthen its brand image.
started as emoticon packages. Kakao Friends has an annual sales of nearly 600 million yuan.
. It started the earliest in South Korea. Kakao Friends, the largest character derivatives company, started with online emoticons.
After emoji moved from Japan to the global market in 2011, various regions have also launched their own online emoticons. In November 2012, Kakao Talk launched his own emoji character Kakao Friends. Internet expressions like
Kakao Friends require a fee to obtain. In Kakao Friends' emoticon store, a set of emoticons with 24 animated images can be sold for 2,200 won, equivalent to RMB 12.8.
In 2018, Korean users' expenditure on online products such as online expressions was mainly concentrated in 1,000-3,000 won. It is estimated that the average monthly expenditure of 1,483 won per person is about 8.6 yuan.
In 2018, Kakao Friends' total sales exceeded 100 billion won (about 579 million yuan), and the number of expression users increased to 28 million, creating more than 6,500 expressions, with an average monthly number of 2.2 billion times.
How does it make emoticons the most popular character product?
First of all, a lot of popularity has been accumulated through KaKaoTalk. According to the annual settlement information released by KaKao, KaKaoTalk's monthly active users in China can reach 43.2 million, accounting for 84% of South Korea's total population and covers more than 97% of South Korea's smartphone users. In addition, KaKao Talk also has about 6.5 million monthly active users overseas.
Taking the KaKao Talk platform as an important opportunity, KaKao Friends' emoticon maps have been spread rapidly on a large scale, and have also accumulated a certain fan base for subsequent derivative development and sales.
Secondly, the character of Kakao Friends is very three-dimensional. The designer has given it a rich story background and character personality, providing a blueprint for subsequent derivative creations such as games and animations, leaving a lot of room for play. Kakao is also constantly adding new characters, such as the newly launched NINIZ in 2017. The careful background and story setting of
gives each cartoon character a vivid personality and unique charm, which is an important prerequisite for attracting fans. To a certain extent, KaKao Friends is an extension of consumer emotions, and consumers' enthusiastic pursuit and purchase of peripheral products is also a process for themselves to gain a sense of happiness.
Furthermore, Kakao Company responded quickly to the market. In 2015, Kakao Friends was established to specialize in the development and derivation of roles, and established a diversified business model that is conducive to character promotion, from dolls, supplies to games, animations, physical stores, etc.
2015 and "friends farm" and "friends run" released in 2016 both entered the top ten best-selling list of Google Play in Korea, and received good reviews. The KaKaoFriends flagship store, which opened in December 2016, reached 3.5 billion won (about 20 million yuan) in just one month. (Author: Tony)
