Nowadays, The entertainment industry in South Korea has developed quite mature. SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment are known as the three major entertainment companies in South Korea. They have also created many successful groups, such as Super Junior, 2PM and BigBang.
In 2005, the South Korean government decided to promote South Korean cultural Organisations overseas, which could receive millions of government subsidies. This policy enabled South Korean industrial operators to make huge profits and commercial returns through advertising and idol management.
However, The Entertainment agency in South Korea usually invests ordinary people in the early stage, and these ordinary people can recover their profits quickly after their debut. Generally, the company will take half or more of the income. As a result, the number of entertainment companies in South Korea is increasing, the number of trainees is also growing, and idol groups are exploding. This is the result of political and commercial factors, and the emergence and development of male and female groups is also the result of this environment. Before the group’s debut, the company has made a number of album planning schemes and content reserves.
South Korea’s entertainment idol industry is “industrialisation”. In the successful reproduction and launch of idols, South Korea has walked out of the road of industrialisation with its own characteristics. Even the United States, Europe and Japan can only catch up with it. In terms of process, standardisation and assembly line have been realised in production, planning and publicity, which makes the successful cases of idols one by one and the iteration faster and faster.
“Fans” culture is the main profit channel of Korean entertainment companies. The company carries out some activities to attract fans to purchase large number of albums and souvenir. Fans will spontaneously and freely build websites and post publicity for idols. These websites and web pages are managed and standardised by special personnel. Or during festivals, idol birthdays or large-scale activities, spontaneous fund-raising activities are organised to build momentum for idols. For example, in the name of idols, donate to charities through fund-raising to expand the influence of idols. When idols are popular enough, they will appear in some TV dramas or movies, and entertainment companies can draw benefits from them.
In 2018, South Korea’s cultural content industry reached a new high, reaching 116 trillion won (about 98.4 billion US dollars) From 2007 to 2017, a total of 436 idol groups appeared in South Korea, with an average of one group appearing every eight days. However, this mature industry makes people more and more commercialised. Korean high school students give up learning at school and begin to practice to become stars. The age of Korean groups is getting younger and younger, and there are many minors. Then, under this cultural policy, the economy has developed rapidly, but the mental health of more and more Koreans has not been paid attention to.