How much money do k-pop fans spend on their idols?
Every kpoper can spend more than $1,000 USD a year on their favorite group. Incredibly, spending on concerts does not constitute the largest consumption.
Nothing is free in this life, and kpopers know it very well
It gets a bit expensive to support your favorite idol, as well as keep up with what your favorite stars recommend or purchase their new hits.
But getting to specific amounts is something iPrice, an e-commerce aggregator, managed to nail down, pulling together data from various sources to find out which fans of K-pop group spent the most money.
Aggregated data from iPrice came up with startling figures for how much a K-pop fan spends, on average.
The following were taken into account: if they bought at least one merchandise for each category of purchases, if they bought all the albums of their idols and if they attended at least one concert a year.
Which groups took the first places?
According to the study conducted, the BTS ARMY ranked number one when it comes to spending the most money. On average, a female fan of that popular group spends an average of $1,422 USD a year.
It may seem like a huge number, but that kpoper has collected at least 15 studio albums/EPs and attended 5 concerts as well as purchasing numerous exclusive merchandise.
The number 2 spot is held by fans of girl group TWICE. Female fans who call themselves ONCE spend an average of $824 USD each year on the group. That money is used to buy merchandise, albums or concert tickets.
That amount is reached after buying a large number of products, 14 albums and attending at least 4 concerts.
As for the third place, it is occupied by BLACKPINK. The BLINKS can spend an average of $665 USD on these girls who delight us with their catchy tunes.
Although this amount is much lower than what a fan of BTS or Twice would spend, it is important to consider that Blackpink is a younger group than the others. So they have fewer albums and concerts available.
There are many different types of products available for every fan, from home goods and décor to gift cards, phone cases, and clothing.
Although it is hard to believe, buying albums is the least expensive. This is good news for fans who only appreciate these groups for their music.
Purchasing all albums available to date from the studio was $336 USD for BTS fans, $205 USD for Twice fans, and $161 USD for Blackpink fans.
Probably, what a fan wants most is to see their stars live and direct. And the concerts require purchasing tickets.
So we have the costs of attending at least one concert each year to see your idols, that requires spending an average of $541 USD for BTS, $446 USD for Twice, and $155 USD for Blackpink.
It has been revealed that purchasing various merchandising products can cost as much as purchasing concert tickets.
For an easier comparison, we can do a very simple exercise.
If a fan purchased one item for each category, an ARMY would spend approximately $545 USD, a BLINK up to $349 USD, and an ONCE up to $173 USD.
If we want all of us to keep in mind how much these fans are willing to pay for products related to their idols, we can mention that the latest iPhone can cost between 1,000 and 1,500 USD on iPrice.
For non-fans, it might sound ridiculous to spend that kind of money considering the other things you give up, but for a kpoper, it's money well spent.
These results show us just how much K-pop fans admire their idols. And that is proven by the impressive export record that the K-pop industry has produced.
According to the South Korean Customs Service, the amount of exports in the year 2020 increased four times in relation to the amount in the year 2017.
And this seems to have no limits. The k-pop industry has been expanding to Japan, China, the United States, Europe and other countries around the world.
As an example, a button. The number of exporters of k-pop records increased from 75 to 114 countries in the last five years.
Study methodology
Merchandising data was based on the sum of the average price of each category in iPrice's database of hundreds of merchants and billions of products.
They were then combined with prices from a specialized web page for each category of products that were not included in the iPrice database.
The concert ticket total is an average calculation of the prices of all classes and all areas at each concert.
This list is based on the independent online concerts and the concerts that were held on each group's tours in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Music festivals, joint tours, or performances at award events were excluded.
The price of the albums of the three K-pop groups were limited to studio albums and EPs according to each band's discography list.
As for the information on the price of the albums, it is obtained from four international music stores: KTown4U.com , CDJapan.co , Target.com Y YGex.jp ; that sell albums at official prices.
The price information collected is the normal price of a regular album type before the temporary discount is applied.
About iPrice
iPrice is a metasearch website that operates in seven countries in Southeast Asia. It currently covers Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.
iPrice compares and catalogs more than 5 billion pieces of information and receives between 20 and 30 million monthly visits throughout the region.
It has been operating in three lines of business: price comparison for electronics, health and beauty; discovery of products for fashion, home and life; and coupons in all categories.