[TRANS] 130502 TVXQ Hit The Jackpot Of 100 billion Won In Japan… K-Pop Takes On The Yen

Inside Story – The Economics of Idol Stars’ Overseas Concerts

– 850,000 audience members… The biggest concerts ever
– Girls’ Generation and SHINee are preparing their world tours
– SM states, “The number of audience members will increase by 50%”
-YG’s G-Dragon is expected to attract 550,000 audience members

TVXQ, the ‘oldest brother’ of Korean idol groups, have yet again proved their explosive popularity in China and Japan. Their Beijing concert in late-March had 10,000 Chinese fans holding light sticks and cheering the singers on. Their Five Dome Tour, which began late last month at the Saitama Super Arena, is expected to attract 850,000 audience members across 18 concerts till mid-August. This means that TVXQ have now set the record of the most number of audience members for a tour in one country. They will be the first non-Japanese singers to be holding a concert at Nissan Stadium, which seats 75,000 people.

The price of tickets for this tour is approximately 120,000 Won per ticket. Considering the fact that 850,000 people will be attending the tour, it can be said that TVXQ have earned 102 billion Won in ticket sales alone. SM Entertainment also has Girls’ Generation and SHINee lined up for world tours starting June, and Super Junior recently visited South America for their own tour.

TVXQ’s world tour last year attracted 570,000 fans. SM Entertainment was able to attract a total of 1.4 million overseas fans to its tours with a joint-concert (300,000) that included Super Junior (280,000), SHINee (250,000), and Girls’ Generation. A representative of SM stated, “The number of audience members we’re attracting this year already rivals the total number last year,” and “If we take into consideration the number of concerts we will have by the end of the year, we can estimate that the number of audience members will increase by 50%.”

K-pop singers have become more active in holding overseas concerts. They are planning to utilize their global popularity to earn a profit in a wide range of countries. YG Entertainment is currently in the process of scheduling Psy’s overseas concert tour and will be revealing the dates once they are done discussing the details with their American partners. A representative of YG stated, “As this is Psy’s first world tour, we expect it to receive global attention.”

YG’s G-Dragon from Big Bang is expected to attract a total of 550,000 fans through 25 performances in 13 cities in 8 countries. He will be the first solo singer to hold a 4 Dome Tour. Big Bang’s Daesung brought in 100,000 fans in 25 performances in 19 Japanese countries. Big Bang also attracted 800,000 fans in 12 cities for their world tour. JYP’s 2PM, DSP’s KARA and FNC’s CN BLUE have either begun or are planning to kick off overseas tours as well.

The industry expects to see a 20% increase in profits from overseas K-pop concerts from last year. Though the number of concerts has increased from last year, the weakening of the Yen has hit hard with Japan being K-pop’s biggest overseas market.

Overseas concerts bring in more profit than album sales and it’s said that half of total K-pop sales (235 million dollars) comes from concerts. The proportion of profit in Japan of K-pop concerts and album sales is 6 to 4. In other countries, concert sales contributes to the majority of overall profits. In large-scale concerts, a total of 2 billion Won can be earned from each concert from sales of goods such as towels, clothing and photobooks.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has decided to create a large-scale concert venue in Korea for overseas fans. Goyang-si Ilsan’s Hallyu World is contracted to build a concert venue by 2016 that will hold 150,000 people.

Source: [hankyung]

Translated & Shared by: dongbangdata.net

Momma’s Source; dongbangdata.net

Share This