Ex-Deloitte consultant runs gig booking platform
By Nam Hyun-woo
Entcrowd CEO Jake Jung
Is the indie music business in Korea profitable? The conventional answer would be “not really,” but that is not the case to Jake Jung, a former consultant at Deloitte who now runs a concert booking platform provider.
Jung’s company, Entcrowd, is a startup established in 2014. Its main business is the same-titled platform that redirects users to various websites for booking concerts and performances by non-mainstream artists.
The platform, which Jung described as “the indie music version of Interpark,” is garnering a good reputation among the indie music community because it addresses the inconveniences coming from finding non-mainstream music concerts and booking tickets for them. Interpark is the country’s popular online auction and shopping site.
With the simple idea, Entcrowd is now emerging as a promising startup having 23,000 subscribers, with information on more than 2,000 artists and 200 concert halls available through the platform.
Last June, Entcrowd was named as one of the startups supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
“I saw potential in the indie music business in Korea,” Jung said during an interview with The Korea Times. “With the recent success of several indie musicians, such as BolBbalgan4, the outlook is rosier than the past. The advance of social media is also favorable for the business because it gives more chances for independent musicians to promote their music.”
Jung mostly spent his consulting career at Deloitte’s offices in Japan and Hong Kong. He said he witnessed the influence of Korean music there and the country’s indie music could be also be a business. Of course, his preference for Korean indie musicians also affected the decision, he added.
After launching the booking platform, Jung rolled out another indie music-related service, which this time is designed to meet the demands of budding musicians and show organizers.
The service, named Modoostage, is a website showing concert halls available for rent. According to the company, users can find halls best matching their events by typing in the budget and the expected audience size. Currently more than 230 halls across the country are listed on the website.
On Dec. 27, Entcrowd got media attention as it drew “seed-level” investments from Seoul Business Agency, a city-funded startup incubator, and BA Partners, a domestic venture capital led by former NHN Investment CEO Lee Jong-seung.
The investment was made for Entcrowd’s new business model of concert curation. The Kakao Talk-based service recommends concerts and performances after analyzing user’s records of purchasing concert tickets, search history and other data accumulated in its concert booking platform.
“Entcrowd provides services based on big data and curation technologies,” an official at the capital said. “Based on these technologies, the company is expected to take a leading role in show business in Asia.”
I believe indie musicians are those who pursue what they like rather than go for a defined music style,” Jung said. “It is the same for me. I just keep doing what I like and I believe it will eventually bring me success.”