KCON Spreads K-Lifestyle in Thailand by gathering 45,000 people

CJ ENM (CEO Heo Min-heoi), an entertainment & lifestyle company, announced that <KCON 2019 THAILAND> which was held on the 28th and 29th at ‘Impact Arena’ and ‘Impact Exhibition Center’, the largest performance/exhibition halls in Bangkok, Thailand, gathered 45,000 spectators.

KCON is the world's largest K-culture convention that CJ ENM has held in the US, France, UAE, Australia, and Mexico since 2012 to promote the global K-Lifestyle. This year, after Tokyo in May, New York in July, and LA in August, KCON was held in Bangkok, Thailand, on the 28th and 29th, amassing an audience of 45,000. KCON, which started with 10,000 visitors in 2012, has grown rapidly to an event gathering around 290,000 people this year (the total cumulative number of visitors exceeding 1.1 million).

CJ ENM conducted KCON in Thailand for two consecutive years following last year, communicating with the Thai audience. Thailand is a mature market with a high spread of K-Culture among Southeast Asian countries, and it is also showing a solid economic growth rate, making it an important strategic country for the spread of the Hallyu in Southeast Asia. 

Various programs to experience K-Lifestyle such as K-Pop, K-Beauty, and K-Food were present and K-Pop artists' participation in convention programs increased, with K-pop artists such as Golden Child, Kim Jae-hwan, Stray Kids, Everglow, ITZY, and X1 having participated in various programs like ‘Star Live Talk’, ‘Idol Cooking Challenge’, ‘Star Beauty Show’, and ‘Beauty Q&A’.

In addition, diverse convention programs tailored to the audience characteristics of Thailand were prepared, introducing K-Lifestyle to local audiences. As female audiences in their teens and 20s accounted for 88% of last year's KCON visitors in Thailand, this year's K-CON 2019 Thailand separately presented ‘KCON Girls’ by collecting K-Beauty and women’s lifestyle contents. Talk shows featuring female artists such as (G)I-DLE, Chungha, ITZY, makeup demonstrations, and girl group performances captivated the audience.

Thailand is a ‘mobile first’ country with more mobile phone subscribers than internet subscribers. Reflecting this local characteristic, CJ ENM communicated with the audience through various digital programs. Already since July, nine live broadcasts were held on KCON Thailand's official Twitter account to reveal the KCON lineup and to deliver various news with artists such as The Boyz, VERIVERY, Everglow, ATEEZ, (G)I-DLE, and AB6IX, collecting 1.05 million cumulative viewers. In addition, in <KCON 2019 Thailand>, ‘Creators Zone’ was newly established and communication was conducted through various digital programs and influencer marketing that can be participated through mobile. Including the mentoring of creator Go Toe-kyung, who has 1.85 million YouTube subscribers, the stage of various creators such as 'Ob1jellopy', a Thai creator who presents K-Pop cover dance, gained great popularity.

CJ ENM provides opportunities for promising small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea to enter the global market through KCON, and allows artists belonging to small and medium-sized agencies to meet global fans. This year, the new composers of 'O’PEN Music' also joined in.

First, CJ ENM, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Large, Small and Medium Enterprises and Agricultural and Fishery Cooperation Foundation collaborated to support 30 promising SMEs to advance into Thailand. In the export consultation held the day before the event, 78 buyers from Thailand and neighboring countries participated to conduct 400 consultations. In addition, separate booths for small and medium-sized enterprises were prepared at the KCON Convention Center to promote products to visitors.

Among the 101 startups selected through the 'Product 101' group joint fair, the 'Product'-based win-win innovation project that CJ Group is carrying out for the second time since last year with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Startup Promotion Agency, 20 companies suitable for global expansion also joined KCON, and a total of 50 small and medium-sized enterprises tried to advance into Thailand with contents and Hallyu consumer goods.

In addition, CJ ENM and the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) conducted the K-CONnected Project, a public-private partnership global CSR program. This project built a creative room in a remote school in Thailand to hold a cultural exchange camp for the culturally marginalized youth between Korea and Thailand, and a special lecture on music mentoring by 7 composers of 'O’PEN Music' to practice sharing.

At the concerts held at the 'Impact Arena' on the evening of the two days, Golden Child, Kim Jae-hwan, Nature, The Boyz, Bandit, VERIVERY, Boy Story, Stray Kids, IZ*ONE, Everglow, ATEEZ, (G)I-DLE, ONEUS, Chungha, AB6IX, GOT7, ITZY, and X1 appeared to deliver jaw-dropping stages to Thai fans. Among the 18 teams of artists who participated in the two-day concert, teams that debuted less than a year ago also accounted for 50% of the total.

Shin Hyung-kwan, Music Content Division at CJ ENM who oversees KCON, said, “Through KCON, we are conducting the event with a sense of mission to inform the world of our K-Lifestyle and to advance into the global market together with Hallyu-related industries. Next year, by holding KCON in various regions, we will do our best to bring communication and empathy to people from all over the world beyond borders and genres.”