Gleam Media Group, the company behind Starplay, a global K-pop platform with 7.5 million users, has created a number of media products to capitalize on the popularity of K-Pop. The startup hopes to dominate the Southeast Asian market through its global content business and fandom services.
Gleam Media Inc launched Starplay in 2019, a voting system and advertising platform for K-pop artists. Users can follow their favorite K-Pop artists, watch exclusive content from their favorite stars, be a part of a community that connects other fans, earn rewards by ranking shows, and much more on the platform.
Fans on StarPlay earn rewards in the form of crypto tokens. The fandom platform hosted official voting for SBS MTV The Show, Korea’s first music broadcast, and secured approximately 1.9 million users from 145 countries worldwide in 2020.
StarPlay applications are available for Android and iOS users and are monetized through in-app purchases and advertisements. In a post-Corona world, the startup hopes to revitalize the inbound tourism market and enter the global K-pop market. To be successful in this endeavor, the company created a variety of original content and developed a content transmission function within the application, Starplay while participating in the 2021 global challenge program.
The content marketing startup has enhanced its platform’s technology in 2022 compared to the last year. Based on voting data, it created a global artist influence analysis function and a brand index chart. Moreover, it has developed a global video transmission function and a SHOP function to complete the establishment of a system capable of independently distributing tourism products and contents in the future.
The startup is collaborating with the Korea Tourism Organization to develop an audition program for an Indonesian public broadcaster. The audition program is central to the Korean K-pop market. Gleam Media will be able to establish K-POP as a bridgehead to the ASEAN content market with the participation of the Indonesian Ministry of Creative Economy and Tourism.
The media group is planning to enter the ASEAN market’s content and cultural tourism sectors, starting with Indonesia. As a result, it is expected that the production of this original audition program will broaden the influence of the K-POP fandom market in the global POP market.
According to Gleam Media, the influence of the Korean K-pop market comes from fans. As a result, a system and platform for fandom culture are required to increase the impact of the Korean Wave. Starplay is evolving into a comprehensive portal service for global fans. It will be a platform that expands Hallyu’s influence through direct participation of international fandom.