For Kpop fans, buying products, albums, merch, etc. related to idols is no longer a strange thing. It even becomes a culture and fans can spend a lot of money and the amount of K-pop goods that can be consumed is huge.
That's why people call K-pop a music industry that brings in trillions of dollars in revenue every year. But of course, as an industry, it also has many downsides. Most recently, a number of major K-pop entertainment companies, including HYBE, are facing accusations of taking advantage of fans and having unfair sales tactics related to photocards.
This story is stirring and causing great controversy in the fan community. Here's what's going on:
Photocards have long been an indispensable item for Kpop fans. In fact, photocards featuring their idols with their signature poses are included with each album and are limited.
Because of the random nature (each album has 1 member's photo), fans often scramble to hunt for photocards of their favorite members or limited edition photocards with special editions. That is why, photocards of famous members are often expensive, sometimes many times more expensive than the album.
Many companies also take advantage of releasing multiple versions of albums and start selling photocards randomly in albums to stimulate fans to collect enough photocards of their favorite idols, thereby increasing disc sales as well as getting huge profits. While this didn't pose a big problem before, the growing number of versions and huge number of members made it necessary for fans to buy albums in bulk to increase their chances of getting their favorite photocard.
This tactic is like attaching other goods to desired goods for sale, which unfairly forces consumers to buy both goods to get the good they want. Similarly, K-pop fans have problems with photocards that are random when they're forced to buy albums with photocards they don't want, just to look for a lucky chance to own the cards they want.
The idol group NCT is given as an example. For NCT 2020's album, nearly 50 different photocards were released with the album. One cannot preview which member's photocard will appear in the album prior to purchase. Therefore, to get the phototcard of their favorite member, fans have to buy dozens to hundreds of albums just to get one such photo.
When entertainment companies abused this, consumers were enraged by the photocard sales tactic that allegedly "exploited the love of fans". As a result, the ḳöŕệä Fair Trade Commission had to start an investigation amid growing complaints about excessive spending on photo cards.
As of August 3, 2023, according to industry insiders, HYBE Labels has been subpoenaed for investigation. Officials handling the investigations declined to comment to the media, saying it was private.
But not stopping there, insiders pointed out that not only HYBE was investigated, but other companies among the 5 big companies were also investigated. Some sources also pointed out that SM Entertainment was investigated on July 31, 2023, while JYP Entertainment was investigated on August 1, 2023, and YG was summoned on August 2.
The ḳöŕệän Fair Trade Commission is currently accelerating the progress of this investigation to deal with entertainment companies promoting the sale of random photocards to increase profits. Investigations were conducted to ensure that the production and sales processes were treated fairly. That includes the suspected case of the above companies changing the number of photocards to promote more sales.
