Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪
We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️
Korea’s Big K-Pop Export is Worth Billions 🎤
The Korean government released a report saying that the new #1 single ‘Dynamite’ from K-pop band BTS will generate $1.4 Billion for the Korean economy. It’s an estimated amount (I wonder how many holes you can poke in the methodology), but South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism factored in new economic activity and 8,000 new jobs created by the song. The report claims that the song’s popularity also leads to sales of Korean cosmetics, food and beverage, and more. In 2018, the Korean government estimated that BTS’s contribution to the economy that year was $3.5 Billion.
Whatever the exact economic activity generated by BTS, K-Pop definitely increases Korea’s brand awareness and increases tourism. This can trickle down into a micro-level, with increased demand for Korean goods, Korean cuisine, and so on. I wrote last week how ‘Dynamite’ is the first song from an Asian act to get a #1 single on the US Billboard Hot 100 since 1963. Previously, Korean musician Psy got to #2 on the Billboard charts in 2012 with his song ‘Gangnam Style.’ BTS’s musical career probably has more longevity and already has more appeal than Psy. The Korean Wave keeps on coming!
Alibaba Starts B2B Sales of Livestreaming Tech 🎥
Alibaba will now start selling their livestream technology to other companies. Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao has livestreaming functionality called Taobao Live, which is the most widely used livestreaming e-commerce platform in China. The Taobao livestreaming product was first released in April 2016 and now the overall Chinese livestreaming industry is expected to reach $129 Billion by the end of this year. Alibaba has set a 2020 goal to achieve $73 Billion in gross transaction volume for e-commerce livestreaming by end of the year. As I mentioned in a previous article this week, other platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin are also setting aggressive targets for their livestreams.
Livestreaming is THE big new trend for e-commerce in China and Alibaba owns one of the main livestreaming platforms with Taobao Live. With this new business decision, Alibaba has basically spun out a B2B SaaS product, which means they are selling livestreaming technology as a service to other enterprises. It’s hard to really comprehend this in the West, because the livestreaming behaviour is so tiny compared to China. One way to picture this—imagine Alibaba has created video technology like Zoom, but it’s primarily used by people hosting livestreams where they sell products. And now they’ve put that in a bundle together to sell to enterprise clients. It’s a pretty good idea, and it’s a pretty huge opportunity.
China’s Post-Covid Boom in Autonomous Retail
While many shops in China are ‘back to normal’ after the worst parts of the coronavirus, we need to start examining what normal really means. One big trend in China right now, especially Post-Covid, is ‘autonomous retail.’ Autonomous retail refers to stores that use technology to directly replace typical staff you would find in retail experiences—which often involves vending machines, no cashiers, and unstaffed shelves. Most of these experiences still include some small group of staff, but the development of technology decreases the need for human staff over time.
One example of this is the F5 Future Store in Guangzhou, which uses robotic arms to serve food to customers who place their orders from electric ordering terminals. Over the last four years, the Chinese autonomous retail category has doubled and the total number of autonomous retail customers is expected to go from 91 Million this year to 245 Million in 2022. It’s interesting to read about these new retail experiences happening in Asia, and I wish I could see it myself in person. There are so many non-obvious changes to our daily life that have been accelerated by Covid, and autonomous retail might be one that becomes ‘normal’ more quickly than we realise.
Update #67 - Korea's Big Export, Alibaba's Livestreaming Tech and Autonomous Retail