Over the past decade, a specific form of Korean popular music—K-pop—has enjoyed huge success around the world. Previous explanations have mostly focused on the demand side, such as intra-Asian cultural relations. This paper shifts the focus onto the supply side. Firstly, it presents new evidence on the scale of K-pop’s success in markets—with price-tags or no price-tag. Secondly, it argues that K-pop firms have been successful because they have made the “right product selection”: They have delivered the performances that have best exploited the comparative advantages that Korea has in global entertainment markets. Finally, this paper examines three major factors explaining the rapidity of this success. Two of them—level of competition and online prices relative to CD prices—have taken place in Korean markets, but have had indirect effects on K-pop’s attractiveness in foreign markets. By contrast, the third factor has taken place directly in foreign markets.

中文翻译：

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K-pop的成功

在过去的十年中，一种特定形式的韩国流行音乐——K-pop——在世界范围内取得了巨大的成功。之前的解释主要集中在需求方面，例如亚洲内部的文化关系。本文将重点转移到供给侧。首先，它为 K-pop 在市场上的成功规模提供了新的证据——有价格标签或没有价格标签。其次，它认为 K-pop 公司之所以成功，是因为他们做出了“正确的产品选择”：他们提供的表演最能利用韩国在全球娱乐市场上的比较优势。最后，本文考察了解释这一成功速度的三个主要因素。其中两个——竞争水平和相对于 CD 价格的在线价格——发生在韩国市场，但对 K-pop 在国外市场的吸引力产生了间接影响。相比之下，第三个因素直接发生在国外市场。