Future Trends in the Entertainment Industry: How NFTs Are Shaping Asian Fan Culture and Business Models
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Future Trends in the Entertainment Industry: How NFTs Are Shaping Asian Fan Culture and Business Models
The next generation of fan culture will begin once the right products are found and the infrastructure is ready for consumer adoption.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Teng Yan
Compiled by: TechFlow
Entertainment will be the next big trend, and NFTs will play a key role. In Asia alone, this represents an $18 billion opportunity. Here's why:
K-POP is a prime example. K-POP is South Korea’s largest cultural export, with the boy group BTS generating $5 billion annually—accounting for 0.3% of South Korea’s GDP.
Asian fans are extremely passionate. They are willing to financially support their favorite stars and propel them to success. This enthusiasm manifests in massive purchases of physical albums and merchandise.
The top 5 K-POP groups have generated over $1.5 billion in album sales alone. Fans buy albums to obtain photo cards, posters, and other collectibles. Some operate like gachapon (blind boxes), where ownership helps fans feel closer to their favorite artists.
Fan culture shows up in business metrics: HYBE (BTS’s agency) reported total revenue of $673 million in 2020, with $276 million from albums (41%) and $219 million from merchandise (32%). By contrast, Universal Music Group earned only $217 million from merchandise (2%) out of $8.9 billion in total revenue that same year.
Digital collectibles via NFTs will enable the next generation of FANDOM:
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Exclusive token-gated experiences such as concert presales, private fan channels, and meet-and-greets.
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Dynamic media that evolves based on user actions.
Fan collectible NFTs can also:
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Serve as a transparent and immutable record of “fanhood.” Everyone can see who the top supporters are.
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Offer known scarcity (unlike most physical merchandise today).
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Be easily traded on secondary markets.
I’ve already seen NFT startups engaging with K-POP in several ways:
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Partnering with top-tier K-POP agencies. This makes sense given the massive existing fan bases ready to be tapped. Examples: Anicube, MOMENTICA.
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Focusing on mid-tier artists and IPs. Many talented artists haven’t reached mainstream fame due to competition but still maintain sizable fanbases—with lower risk than top-tier IPs.
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Building a new entertainment agency from scratch and developing original content IPs. Using NFTs for community co-ownership, cultivating fan ambassadors, and offering novel experiences. This path is harder, but the potential for disruption is enormous.
For example: Modhaus/tripleS official is an agency behind a 24-member, community-driven K-POP group where fans make key decisions—voting on which members join sub-units and which song becomes the lead single on their debut album.
In South Korea, you can purchase a random physical TripleS card pack ($0.40) and scan the QR code to link the card to the Cosmo app.
Each physical card is also an NFT, with varying rarity levels and voting power. They are transferable.
Selling digital fan collectibles is one business model for revenue generation. Another model? Giving NFTs away for free… yes, free.
Here’s how it works:
Free NFTs act as marketing and customer acquisition tools. They indirectly drive revenue by funneling users into traditional entertainment revenue streams:
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Concert ticket sales;
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Music album sales;
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Merchandise sales, etc.
For example: GEMIE, an entertainment-focused metaverse platform supporting virtual concerts. Their VIP pass is a Free Mint.
The next wave of fan culture is coming. Once the right product-market fit is found and infrastructure is ready for consumer adoption, we’ll be close—though not quite at the golden age yet.
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Account abstraction;
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Coinbase’s Wallet-as-a-Service;
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Easy credit card purchases.
The cultural tipping point will come when:
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Early adopters showcase their favorite digital collectibles within fan communities;
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Celebrities actively discuss their NFTs on social media.
I predict this wave will begin in Asia before spreading to the West. It may take 9–18 months, but it will happen. Once attention around fan collectible NFTs starts growing, it could explode rapidly. Remember NBA Top Shot in 2021?
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