Sop: "'Pernation' Establishes Itself as a New Trend... High Interest in Donation Commerce"

The streaming platform SOOP announced on the 3rd that 'Funation,' a combination of Fun and Donation, is becoming a new trend.

At the charity bazaar held simultaneously online and offline on the 18th of this month at Seoul Forest's 'Understand Avenue' and SOOP's metaverse platform 'Freeblocks,' over 50 streamers participated and donated the entire sales revenue of approximately 17 million KRW to support medical expenses for children and adolescents.

In particular, the flea market where about 20 virtual streamers sold various goods featuring their own characters in the metaverse virtual space was evaluated as an eye-catching Funation content that attracted users' attention. The virtual streamers introduced the goods they made themselves, communicated with users at the Freeblocks site, and presented enjoyable donation content such as donation performances filling the Fruit of Love and mini-game events.

SOOP's annual campaign for good influence, 'AF (Afreeca Fool's Day) Day,' held every April 1st to celebrate April Fool's Day, has also been reborn this year under the name 'Give U - Donation Commerce for the Earth.'

The donation live commerce 'Give U' is content where streamers sell SOOP's private brand (PB) products such as Drill Mandu, Drill Yukdaejang Yukgaejang, and daily necessities to users, then donate 41% (4 million KRW) of the proceeds to environmental protection organizations. Additionally, through the Food Bank, 16,200 Drill Mandu (worth about 31.1 million KRW) were donated to support underprivileged groups.

Donation commerce, which has established itself as a signature content in SOOP's live commerce ecosystem, has been reproduced with positive experiences and empathy through the voluntary participation of many streamers and users.

Last September, game streamers combined domestic food brand products popular as chicken breast snack packages with metaverse-based online games to conduct promotional content and a goods donation program for SOOP users. About 260 million KRW worth of donated goods were collected through users' donation participation and supported vulnerable groups such as elderly, children, and disabled people via the Gangseo Food Bank Market.

Furthermore, content for communication with young people and scholarship donations have also received positive responses. A concert called 'SOOPrak' was held in collaboration with singer Kim Jang-hoon, who is active under the character 'SOOPtunghoon,' and Chongshin University.

This SOOPrak concert was revived after 12 years with the purpose of visiting students to provide '1,000 KRW lunchboxes' and allowing them to enjoy guerrilla mini-concert performances. The 800 lunchboxes prepared were sold out, and the Chongshin University Student Council also participated in the lunchbox sharing volunteer work. Matching fund donations from SOOP and Kim Jang-hoon, combined with contributions from Chongshin University faculty and staff, amounted to 7.01 million KRW donated as scholarships to Chongshin University.

Additionally, SOOP stated that the 'visiting' content series, where CEOs and popular streamers directly meet and communicate with teenagers and college students, is becoming a venue for industry-academic cooperation to discover future creative creators.

Since 2019, starting with Mokpo Jungang High School, the 'Visiting User Meeting' has been held 15 times until May this year. This content involves SOOP visiting schools directly to communicate with users in real-time both online and offline.

The music content 'Visiting Rockes (Music Kevin Scream),' hosted by BJ KevinUP (Seo Su-gil, founder and Chief BJ Officer (CBO)), has been prepared in collaboration with local organizations and institutions to allow streamers and users to learn various music genres. Since last year, it has supported future cultural artists by discovering musicians and providing music activity support funds.

Meanwhile, SOOP is not only engaged in donation activities through live streaming content but also practices the 1% sharing movement donation campaign, where employees voluntarily donate a certain portion of their monthly salary.