If in the past Korean stars went to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong... to do tours and organize fan meetings without landing in Vietnam, recently the situation has changed.
Epik High promises to return in 2024 - Photo: HAY Fest
BlackPink's tour in Vietnam at the end of July was considered a big hit, bringing in other "big guests".
Vietnam - the new "golden goose"?
After the DElight Party of Super Junior members Dong-hae and Eun-hyuk in September, Wow K-music Festival with famous K-pop artists: Super Junior - LSS, Chanyeol of EXO, Yugyeom of AOMG & Got 7... is about to land in Ho Chi Minh City.
In October, Vietnamese fans were also excited about the fan meeting of Lee Yong Suk - an A-list actor - held for the first time in Vietnam.
Not to mention at the HAY Fest 2023 stage at the end of September, the famous Korean hip hop group Epik High also promised to bring a tour to Vietnam in 2024.
Nguyen Ha My (born in 1995, Hanoi) hopes that in the near future, the Korean stars she likes will "come to Vietnam like going to the market".
She won't have to fly to Thailand or Singapore to "follow" her idol.
If in the past, the activities of most Korean stars in Vietnam only stopped at cultural exchange events or some brand events, recently entertainment companies have actually brought their "chickens" to set foot in the Vietnamese market to make a profit.
The representative of the Lee Jong Suk Vietnam fanpage - a fan community of up to 320,000 people - shared with Tuoi Tre:
Lee Jong Suk's fans are "happy that Vietnamese fans will no longer have to be jealous of the outside world. There will be more and more international artists choosing Vietnam as a destination for large-scale performances and events. That proves this is an attractive market."
In an analysis by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) last year, according to Statista data, Vietnam ranked 8th in monthly spending on K-pop in the world and 3rd among Southeast Asian countries.
Accordingly, many Vietnamese people spend an average of 9.3 USD per month on K-pop. Some factors show that Vietnam is truly a potential market : the number of YouTube viewers in Vietnam ranks 9th in the world, most of whom are related to music; the number of people consuming young entertainment products; the music genres that young Vietnamese people like are constantly changing; the style, music, and MVs of many Vietnamese artists are influenced by K-pop.
The four girls of the group BlackPink created a breakthrough for the Vietnamese performance market when they attracted nearly 70,000 audiences to two shows at the end of July - Photo: BLACKPINK
Opportunities and challenges
Mr. Hoang Linh - co-founder of The Bros Entertainment Company, the organizer of HAY Fest - said: "We are no longer out of the coverage area of world tours of international stars, including big Korean stars."
Not only Vietnamese audiences but also international audiences from all over the world will flock to Vietnam. The Bros representative said that the big stars coming to perform in Vietnam brings many benefits in terms of trade, economy, and tourism, while contributing to improving the quality of domestic entertainment arts, approaching the world.
However, Mr. Linh acknowledged that this will be both an opportunity and a challenge for Vietnam's cultural industry and the still relatively young Vietnamese entertainment market.
This includes how to preserve Vietnamese identity, integrate without dissolving. "It is also the driving force that forces domestic organizers to learn, improve quality, and form professional operating methods to help the whole industry develop," he said.
Not long ago, sharing at the workshop "Developing Vietnam's cultural and creative industries in the digital age" (organized by the Department of International Cooperation in collaboration with Netflix) in Hanoi, Director of the Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam Choi Seung Jin said that there are many similarities between Vietnam and Korea, including culture:
"I think some of the development experiences of the cultural industry in Korea are something that Vietnam can learn from."
In addition to 30 Korean centers around the world to promote Korean culture abroad, Korea also established a creative content agency to develop and promote Korean cultural content in many places around the world with separate categories.
DElight Party event of two Super Junior members Dong-hae and Eun-hyuk in September - Photo: Organizing Committee
At the same time, many policies were issued to develop cultural content such as training human resources and professional staff.
Korea also builds a cooperation mechanism between schools and businesses to support those working in this cultural industry.
"Schools and businesses build a combined training program. Businesses provide internship opportunities and the government supports salary costs for that year," said Choi Seung Jin, describing how Korea trains its professional workforce.
For startups facing difficulties in the early stages, Korea has built a system to identify the business development process in each stage, thereby proposing support policies to help businesses survive and develop without interruption.
The government also operates many policies related to cultural exports.
They invest financially and strategically in human resources to search for and exploit new markets.
Mr. Choi said that Korean industry is not a separate industry but is related to other manufacturing and service industries.
Talking about Vietnam, Mr. Choi Seung Jin assessed that the talented workforce is extremely large. Vietnam has a long history and rich culture. Mr. Choi believes that these are opportunities for Vietnam to rapidly develop the cultural industry.
Tuoitre.vn
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