[Namsan Stroll] The Driving Force of K-Content: The Fandom Economy

The Rise of Fandoms Reshaping the Content Industry
Need for Mechanisms to Prevent the Abuse of Power

At the recent inauguration ceremony of the Korea Popular Culture Exchange Committee, Co-Chairman Park Jinyoung emphasized the importance of "fandom." He explained that "light sticks are an element that allows K-pop fans to become part of the performance," and that fandoms with names are not just consumers, but partners in content, describing this as a "Fanomenon" created by fans. This is significant in that it represents an expanded perspective on content users.

A fan is defined as someone who regards their favorite subject as important to their own identity. According to a 2024 survey by Macromill Embrain Trend Monitor of 1,200 men and women aged 13 to 69 nationwide, 77.8% of respondents said they were engaged in fandom activities or considered themselves a fan of someone. This demonstrates that fandom culture has become a widespread social phenomenon, transcending specific age groups and fields.

Fandom is both a cultural phenomenon and a key player in supporting the market as an industry. As American pop culture scholar Henry Jenkins referred to fans as "cultural producers," fandoms are seen as groups that form social communities within digital networks and add new value to content through voluntary sharing and dissemination. From an industrial perspective, fandoms play a crucial role. They are not just a simple consumer base, but a core target, and their affection and sense of belonging toward content naturally translate into various purchases and economic activities related to that content. This is the so-called "fandom economy."

While the phenomenon of the fandom economy is common globally, its characteristics and perspectives differ somewhat. Traditional Western fandoms, symbolized by Disney, Marvel, and Harry Potter, are characterized as loose communities of taste centered on individual selective consumption. In Japan, fandom is mainly understood from the "otaku" perspective, or through a regional economy and tourism linkage frame that focuses on the consumption of spaces. In China, there are cases that focus on the side effects of fandom culture and the protection of users.

K-content has shown unique aspects in the operation of fandoms, and especially the dynamic seen in K-pop fandoms is spreading to various fields such as dramas, webtoons, films, and e-sports. K-content fandoms are not just passionate consumers; they act as co-creators of content. They display collective action by moving and consuming for the content they love. They are also the main agents of new creation, producing and sharing secondary works such as fan fiction, fan art, and memes that traverse the content universe, and they directly influence content distribution by creating translations, subtitles, or engaging in promotional activities. Their collective action on a global scale is also a distinctive feature.

It is also noteworthy that there are fandom-exclusive platforms where fan activities are directly converted into industrial value, beyond spontaneous communities. In particular, the interactivity that enables simultaneous global consumption across borders is the biggest feature of fandom platforms. Fan platforms such as Weverse, which has surpassed 150 million cumulative downloads and whose overseas users account for more than 90%, have "monetized" the interaction between artists and fans. According to MIDiA Research, in 2024, revenue from products and services targeting "superfans" in the music sector, which had previously focused on streaming and downloads, grew by 16.4% year-on-year to reach 4.1 billion dollars, demonstrating strong growth.

Thanks to this structure, fandom acts as a key driver for expanding intellectual property (IP) beyond simple content consumption. For example, drama fandoms connect to the fashion and tourism industries, game fandoms drive the e-sports industry, and webtoon fandoms serve as pipelines for various IPs, helping content secure long-term lifespans. The very existence of a fandom increases the likelihood of content success, leading to genre expansion, related products through merchandising and licensing, fandom-based pop-up stores, exhibitions, and visits to filming locations, all of which drive the spread of original IP and generate economic ripple effects.

The unique characteristics of fandom have contributed to the global competitiveness of K-content today and offer many insights into the future of K-content, which aims for a 300 trillion won K-culture era. Fans are not just consumers who open their wallets, but secondary producers of content IP based on communication and empathy for their "favorites," and the main agents of global expansion as well as the engine for the expansion of super IPs and market development. They are also leading social discourse connected to content consumption, such as the controversy over AI crawling and learning, and eco-friendly content products.

There are also some concerns. The collective actions of fandoms can influence the performance of content or artists, raising the possibility of excessive marketing or commercial misuse that goes beyond voluntary consumption. There is a need for autonomous adjustment mechanisms that can function as healthy participatory communities and sustainable drivers of IP expansion.

For the sustainable growth of the content industry, super IPs that can be branded in the long term, beyond short-term consumption, are needed, and this is only possible with the support and drive of fandoms. This is why more attention must be paid to fandoms as an important pillar that leads the content industry alongside creators and companies. In the era of fandom, the participation and consumption of fans create new K-content.

Song Jin, Director of the Content Industry Policy Research Center, Korea Creative Content Agency