The hallyu 2015 to-do list

Hallyu 1.0: Actress Jun Ji-hyun, right, and actor Kim Soo-hyun starred in "My Love From the Star," an SBS drama about an alien who landed on Earth during the Joseon Dynasty and falls in love with an actress 400 years later. The word "hallyu" was coined by Beijing journalists in the mid-1999s. Hallyu began with Korean dramas like "Winter Sonata," "Daejanggeum" and
"Stairway to Heaven," and gave birth to hallyu stars like Choi Ji-woo, Lee Young-ae and Bae Yong-joon

Cultural exchange key to overcoming ‘hallyu' recession

By Kwon Ji-youn

Demand for "hallyu" (Korean cultural wave) content surged in the early 2000s, when K-pop bands like TVXQ! swept through neighboring countries to dazzle fans in Japan and China. Hallyu then peaked in 2012 when rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style" music video went viral on YouTube.

According to Lee Pal-seung, president and CEO of the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE), TV dramas were a part of "hallyu 1.0," K-pop characterized "hallyu 2.0."

"Now we're working with ‘hallyu 3.0,' which focuses on tangible products, fashion and food, among others," he said. "The government has been working to ensure that the platform will ultimately lead to an expansion of related industries, like tourism or advertising. But for that to happen, there is still some work to do."

Hallyu 2.0: Rapper Psy performs his hit song "Gangnam Style" during the "American Idol" finale at the Nokia Theater at L.A. Live on Thursday, in this May 16, 2013, file photo. Hallyu 2.0 featured K-pop stars. Idols like TVXQ!, Girls Generation, KARA and EXO spearheaded the second Korean wave, and rapper Psy brought the wave to a crest when the music video for his song "Gangnam Style" went viral on YouTube, a video sharing website.

However, a recent recession in the hallyu industry has become most evident in DVD sales, which has until now been the main profit source for the industry. Lately, hit TV dramas like have seen substantial declines in sales, and Japanese broadcasters are airing them less and less.

For example, "My Love from the Star," which starred actors Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun, seemed to give hallyu, which had been experiencing a downtrend, a boost early this year, when the SBS drama's video-on-demand (VOD) viewership reached 3 billion on iQiyi, a Chinese video platform. But that didn't last very long.

The Wall Street Journal reported in September that the Chinese government plans to regulate drama imports and tighten pre-screening censorship, and this has, to some extent, stifled hallyu demand in the sovereign state.

Hallyu 3.0: Designer Park Seung-gun of pushBUTTON. Since 2003, pushBUTTON has gained popularity both at home and abroad, and has over 15 stockists worldwide including the United Kingdom, China, Hong Kong and the United States. Hallyu has moved its focus to products, fashion and food, among others. According to the Korea Foundation for International
Culture Exchange, next up on the list are movies and program formats.

Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok warned early in his term that hallyu is bound to lose its appeal unless it moves its focus from export to exchange, and Lee agrees. According to Lee in a recent interview, "It's true that lately there has been some slack in hallyu, and this is largely because of anti-Korean sentiments rolling out in Japan."

In truth, the Kyodo News Agency reported in August 2013 that the number of Japanese who felt kinship with Koreans fell 23 percentage points from 2011 to 39.2 percent, and it attributed such a drop to diplomatic unrest between the two countries. Lee said in the interview, "Diplomatic and political issues are putting walls up between the two countries. In the past, a short visit to a Japanese hotel only went to prove how sought-after Korean dramas were, but now, it's difficult to come across one, if any."
Lee said the focus of hallyu has typically been more on exporting Korean content for profit and less on a cultural give-and-take. "But such a model will only get us so far," he said. "Exchange and diversity will become more and more crucial as content develops. It's the only win-win strategy there is."

In this 2004 file photo, TBS Television, a Japanese broadcaster, films Japanese tourists as they wait to enter the filming site of "Winter Sonata." "Winter Sonata," which starred actors Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo, is widely considered the very drama that launched the Korean Wave.

The 2015 to-do list

Lee stressed that the reasons for such a slump in the popularity of hallyu content overseas include a lack of artist support, investment and sustainability. "Hallyu was successful because the content was unique and unfamiliar," Lee said. "But now that it has become familiar, we need to develop fresh, new content."

Rep. Hong Moon-jong of the ruling Saenuri Party agreed that hallyu synergizes with industries like tourism, music, advertising and national branding. "But for this to continue, the country's major broadcasters need to hone in on producing innovative content, especially in the areas of sports or children," Hong said. "The National Assembly's Society and Culture Research Office will do its best to support the development of hallyu," Hong continued.

From 2002 to 2004, 259 program formats were exported worldwide, and from 2006 to 2008, 444 program formats were exported. As the hallyu rage cools in Japan and China, distributors of content need to be able to look to South American countries like Brazil. For content to reach that far, it needs the support of Korea's conglomerates.

But even before that, artists need to be provided with an environment in which they can expect reasonable pay and copyright protection. "We cannot expect our artists to fare well overseas when they are not being treated properly at home," Lee said. "Artists need to be guaranteed proper pay, as well as protection by law should copyright issues surface."

Then businesses need to step in, Lee said. "The growth of hallyu next year will depend on the investments they receive from the country's top-tier conglomerates," he said. "There's a limit to how much support artists, management and broadcasters can receive from the government. So businesses shouldn't stop at making donations, and take tactical approaches to transform hallyu into a marketing strategy. In other words, hallyu content and businesses need to feed off one another."

Lee added that another important objective for next year should be the development of local media infrastructure. "For hallyu to grow exponentially in the near future, we need a distribution network of our own." He noted that without a local channel like YouTube, hallyu content will not be able to flourish on its own. It will always depend on the existence of a foreign platform.

"Social networking systems (SNSs) give people around the world a means through which they can truly experience hallyu and communicate with hallyu stars," he said.

Lee hinted that "hallyu 4.0" could be about Korean movies or program format exports, detailing a KOFICE report on hallyu stressing the importance of program format exports. "Hallyu formats are working their way up, but for long-term success, we need to take a more macroscopic approach," Lee said.

"We need to provide a more creator-friendly environment, and work needs to be done on compiling a database of know-hows. Production companies need to keep export possibilities in mind when conceiving new ideas."