'Helping with Deokjil' K-pop Fandom Platform Highlighted by Google

Interview with Kim Hong-gi, CEO of Space Oddity, Creator of K-Pop Radar and Blip
‘Blip’ Targets 8 Trillion Won Fandom Market, Gaining Popularity as a Platform That Attracts Overseas Fans Automatically

Kim Hong-gi, CEO of Space Oddity, explained, "To interpret the phenomenon of music tracks climbing back up the charts, music data is necessary, but not many companies showed interest." He added, "Fandom is also an industry, but I was surprised by the lack of data, so I decided to collect the data myself. We started by gathering various data such as the number of YouTube subscribers, SNS followers, and fan cafe members of domestic artists and providing it in the form of a dashboard." Photo by Kim Hee-yoon

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] As the K-pop market expands globally, the fandom culture supporting artists is industrializing into the fan-dustry (fan+industry). IBK Investment & Securities estimated the fandom industry size to be approximately 7.9 trillion KRW as of 2020. Amid the rise of platform businesses connecting idols and fans as battlegrounds of the global fan-dustry, a startup platform recognized by K-pop enthusiasts is gaining attention. SpaceOddity’s ‘Blip’ is an entertainment app that claims to be a “deokmate” (dedicated fan mate) in your hand, providing users with a comprehensive view of various information about their favorite artists, including real-time news, category-specific schedules, real-time chart rankings, and music video view counts. Kim Honggi, CEO of SpaceOddity, stated, “We aimed to create a playground for K-pop fans that helps users live a happy life through music.”

Before Blip, SpaceOddity built a fandom data observation system through KpopRadar to measure fandom size and changes. While music charts have been a market indicator, their credibility has often been questioned. The rapid growth of the K-pop industry contrasted with the lack of accurate fandom statistics, which motivated the system’s development. CEO Kim explained, “To interpret the phenomenon of songs climbing back up the charts, music data is necessary, but few companies showed interest. Since fandom is also an industry, I was surprised by the lack of data and decided to collect it myself. We gathered various data such as YouTube, SNS, and fan cafe membership numbers of domestic artists and provided it in a dashboard format, which was the beginning.” Having entered the music industry during university and worked at Naver, Kakao, and Dingo (MakeUs), CEO Kim is a veteran who accurately identified the market demand for music data.

SpaceOddity and Twitter jointly observed and compiled the 'K-pop Radar 2020 Year-End Summary,' which tracks the size and changes in fandoms of K-pop artists. The data was collected over approximately 11 months, from January 1 to November 30 of last year. Photo by SpaceOddity

Building a Global K-pop and Artist Data Observation System with IT Technology

Selected as an official partner of Twitter and having announced the ‘#KpopTwitter 2020 World Map,’ SpaceOddity gained confidence from the success of KpopRadar and began launching the fandom platform it had envisioned earlier. To identify the most needed services for fans in their fan activities, they conducted an online survey with 500 participants and face-to-face interviews with 100 people to understand demand. Noticing complaints about the difficulty of gathering information due to the proliferation of fandom platforms, SpaceOddity focused on providing a simple, comprehensive view of abundant information so that fans could easily become enthusiasts on their own. Blip, launched last year, was selected as the App Store and Google Play’s App of the Day within a month. In its first year, it recorded 240,000 cumulative downloads, with overseas users accounting for 30%, CEO Kim added.

With the global fandom expansion, large corporations such as Naver and NCSoft, as well as major entertainment companies like SM, HYBE, and JYP, are rushing into fandom platforms, intensifying market competition. CEO Kim said, “It is true that many fandom services have been launched due to IT technology development and K-pop’s global success, making competition more intense. Blip’s unique competitiveness lies in being a service that focuses solely on fans from start to finish, solving fans’ inconveniences and providing optimized information for supporting artists.” Especially, when Blip’s beta service initially lacked foreign language support, overseas fans created their own translation guidelines and used the service, making up 40% of all users, which CEO Kim explains as fandom recognition and empathy being the essence of the service, almost forcing its overseas expansion.

SpaceOddity launched the application 'My Handy Deokmate, Blip' targeting K-pop fandoms. Photo by SpaceOddity

A Service Focused Solely on Fans, Accelerating Global Expansion

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the music industry, which centers on live performances. SpaceOddity also experienced a difficult year due to decreased offline-related revenue. CEO Kim analyzed, “I believe the inevitable shift of the K-pop market to online platforms was accelerated by COVID-19. Just as the innovation from LPs to Blu-rays represented the transformation of performing arts into content and the culture of owning that content, the current online shift opens a new stage where fandoms can immerse themselves and communicate with artists.”

According to the Korea Foundation’s ‘2020 Global Hallyu Status,’ as of September last year, the global Hallyu fan count was 104,778,808. The industry expects the number of Hallyu fans to reach 200 million within the next year, with the fandom market size exceeding 10 trillion KRW. Recently, Blip was recognized for its growth potential by being ranked first in the ‘Changgu Program 3rd Term,’ supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Google Play for overseas expansion. CEO Kim stated, “Our goal is to diversify Blip’s content as a genuine deokhu (dedicated fan) platform where K-pop fans worldwide can focus solely on their artists.”