YGE Planning of Expansion into Chinese Market

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

China the next big market for South Korean record label after success of K-pop artists

YG Entertainment, the record label and agency that represents South Korean pop sensation Psy, plans to expand into the China market by setting up a firm on the mainland this year.

"We now have more confidence after Psy's global phenomenon and Big Bang's world tour [last year]. So probably we can put more resources and invest more into the Greater China market, which we believe will be the next big market next to Japan," said YG chief operating officer Simon Choi Sung-jun.

Last year, the music video to Psy's Gangnam Style single went viral to become the most-viewed video on YouTube. It has racked up more than 1.58 billion views. The song was the third-best selling digital single in the world last year, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry figures show.

Psy's label mate Big Bang - a five-member boy band - made a world tour to 24 cities including Hong Kong last year, with a total estimated audience of 800,000, according to Billboard.

Benefiting from its artists' success and the popularity of K-pop, YG reported a 36 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to 106.55 billion won (HK$757 million) last year. Net income at the South Korean firm, which is listed on the Kosdaq electronic stock market, rose 45 per cent to 18.76 billion won.

Thanks to social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube, Choi said the firm was able to expand its reach to audiences throughout the world.

Outside Korea, Choi said the company previously focused more on the Japan market, but the overwhelming response to Big Bang's concerts in Guangzhou and Shanghai last year boosted its confidence in expanding to the Chinese market.

"We are going to open up a new dedicated entity in mainland China within this year … by collaborating with local partners. We hope to get a dedicated and China-oriented strategy," Choi said, adding the office may be in Shanghai or Beijing.

"It'll be very hard to generate income from physical and digital downloads [on the mainland], so we are thinking of … things such as concerts and events that people can enjoy," he said.

YG artist G-Dragon, the leader of Big Bang, will hold concerts in Hong Kong on Friday and Saturday at the AsiaWorld-Expo.

Choi said about 50 per cent of YG's revenue was from its home market last year, while the rest was from overseas, primarily Japan. This proportion is expected to shrink as the group expands internationally.

Other Korean entertainment firms are seeking inroads into the mainland market. SM Entertainment, for instance, has debuted groups with Chinese names or Chinese members to tap into the market.

Hyundai Securities analyst Kevin Jin said South Korean music exports to the mainland had risen from US$1.8 million in 2008 to US$3.6 million in 2010.

Choi said YG would continue to diversify by collaborating with, for example, fashion brands to develop apparel or merchandise. Last year, YG and Samsung's Cheil Industries set up a joint venture in the apparel business, Hyundai Securities said.

Source: Paggie Leung @ South China Morning Post

Video source: GeriWuv GDragon

Comments

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

YG's waiting for 2Pac's Resurrection so 2NE1 can do a collab with him obv.

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Where did all the US plans go then. Up YG's ass.

[crazyxcami.livejournal.com]

I figured when they opened several weibo account for their artists last year, and the YGeSHOP China became active. Not to mention the increase of events in china that they began attending. Good for you YG. Get that paper.



Okay now, Give me that 2NE1 comeback. KTHANKS.

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

LOL okay. Even SM's barely doing well in China as is. All them US plans that YG kept talking about seem to have disappeared. LOL

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how having a few concerts in china and psy's success outside of china would bring them to this conclusion.

[45s.livejournal.com]

You and me both.

[45s.livejournal.com]

Lol good luck with this. Mandopop and cantopop are not kpop and he's going to have to develop and work with artists from there. I honestly don't see him doing that....

Like I hope he rly isn't going to go in with what he's got. You can't keep milking that big bang cow....

[rikayla.livejournal.com]

who are they gonna teach to sing in mandarin? i guess, lee hi?

[jia-zhang.livejournal.com]

If they tried to promote Lee Hi, she'd crash and burn so freaking hard in China it ain't even funny.

[frantastic.livejournal.com]

lol I read "JYPE planning expansion..." and I was like what? weren't they doing that already?

Anyway, I'm curious on what this means. Will they be putting chinese material from their already established acts or will be they be debuting chinese groups/artists? Who knows, perhaps the new girl/boy group has chinese members already.

All in all I just want to see how YG will manage this.

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Remember reading some article about Lee Hi getting love calls from China.

[nightfrost75.livejournal.com]

The irony that out of the big three, the one to plan expansion into China is the one with no Chinese speaking artists

[45s.livejournal.com]

Mte. Are they going to attempt a Mandopop or cantopop group or are they still gonna redo 90s rnb and pretend no one notices?

[u-niverse.livejournal.com]

Not too sure if want. US seems to suit YG more but I don't want them spending too much time there too.

[tryxkittie.livejournal.com]

aren't they making enugh money doing what they're doing? why do they have to try to ~expand into new markets? just setting themselves up for failure tbh

[vivafreedom.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to think there's a Springtime for Hitler type plot going on here.

[oniongulru.livejournal.com]

Just leave poor China alone omg

[achan123.livejournal.com]

AFTER ALL CHINA'S DONE FOR YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAARDS!!!!!!!!! ;_______;
:P

[unicornios.livejournal.com]

lol at least debut a chinese trainee or something omfg

[tryxkittie.livejournal.com]

btw what happened to that girl group

[joong-ki.livejournal.com]

Do they even have any Chinese trainees?

SM is barely learning how to promote there, I can't imagine how it is going to go for them. Good luck to them I guess.

[toshi830.livejournal.com]

Somewhere Jay Chou is like YG plz

[secretchord.livejournal.com]

lol true fax

[magicpineapple.livejournal.com]

YG is putting way too much on his plate.

[jia-zhang.livejournal.com]

This would probably be YG's stupidest move ever. The style of music YG makes and mainstream China would not mix at all. They would be laughed out of the country.

[af-fx-tion.livejournal.com]

lol try and get some chinese trainees first, yg.

[kotetsu.livejournal.com]

lol i don't think yge's intention is to put out chinese language music here, maybe a collab for publicity but thats it. it's right here in the text, "so we are thinking of … things such as concerts and events that people can enjoy," he said." i follow a lot of cvip on weibo and interact with them. from what i gather, the main focus in doing this is to better get more profit from cvips by setting up an office, eliminates the middle man. chinese fans already get flight, special tickets, accommodation, hotel packages for flying throughout china/hk/taiwan to big bang's concerts (just like the SM travel thing). i'm pretty sure due to this huge response and those sales going over well (there's always bidding wars and reservation drama going on from who i talk to), like i said it's just to get more profit off them and better management of it. i think it'll just be so more concerts/events to be held at most.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Why is everyone freaking out? They are just going to establish some YGEX type of entity with some local Chinese company and get that company to arrange some concert tours and events for their Korean artists. There is demand there for that so why not to answer it? Considering the yg representative says that "It'll be very hard to generate income from physical and digital downloads [on the mainland], so we are thinking of … things such as concerts and events that people can enjoy," I don't think anyone is gonna start out releasing Chinese albums.

[the-erotomanic.livejournal.com]

i don't know how yg will manage their artist once they start promoting in china, but it seems like the next logical step in terms of expanding markets. i mean china is more open to kpop compared to the u.s., so it's not a stretch that a kpop company would want to branch out there.

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

He can barely manage his artists in Japan and Korea lmao.

[21banged.livejournal.com]

lol I interpreted this article as 'YG will have more concerts and shit, but not release any new music into the Chinese market'. I feel like with the amount of freak outs in the comments, my interpretation is wrong :(

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Nah I think that's it. I mean the idols could barely manage to learn Japanese, I don't see them releasing music specifically for china.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Ahh I think it's best that they do this tbh. :/