We all know how devoted K-pop fans can get, but has this ever been quantified or measured?
Well, iPrice Group, Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce aggregator, just did.
With iPrice’s aggregated data, they found out how much a K-pop superfan spends (on average) if he/she bought at least one merchandise per shopping category, purchased all their idols’ albums, and attended one concert a year. The results may surprise you.
Which K-pop fan group can spend the most?
If you have an undying love for BTS, then you know how much you need to save up to stay in the army. A devoted member of the BTS army must have spent an average of Php68,725. It’s a huge number, but that person has collected at least 15 studio albums/EPs and attended 5 concerts aside from having numerous merch. Worth it!
Blackpink fans, or “blinks,” have also spent a huge sum on their idols. A devoted blink can spend up to about Php32,139. Although this amount is much lower than how much a BTS army or Twice fans, aka “onces,” would spend, it’s important to consider that Blackpink is a younger group than the others. Hence, Blackpink has fewer albums and concerts available.
Twice stans, on the other hand, have been existing longer. A Twice superfan can spend up to Php39,824 after purchasing a whole lot of merch, 14 albums, and attending 4 concerts.
The breakdown of K-pop fan kits
Apparently, merchandise can bankrupt superfans as much as concert tickets can (unless of course, they’re tycoons). There are so many different kinds of merch available for each K-pop fan, from home & decor items to lomo cards to phone cases to clothing, you name it!
If a superfan is devoted enough to purchase one item per shopping category (i.e. buys one light stick, a shirt, a lomo card, and so on), that person can spend up to Php26,340 if he is part of the BTS army. A blink would spend about Php16,867 on merch, while a once would spend Php8,361.
Surprisingly, purchasing albums is the least costly. This is good news for fans who solely appreciate these groups for their music (which, realistically, may only be a small percentage of the fans). Purchasing all albums may cost Php16,239 for BTS fans, Php7,781 for Blackpink fans, and Php9,908 for Twice fans.
Lastly, we all know how attending a K-pop concert can be so much fun. What would stand in the way between a K-pop superfan and seeing their idols in the flesh? Well, sold out tickets. But that’s beside the point. If a super fan was able to buy one concert ticket a year to see their idols, it would cost them an average of Php26,147 for BTS, Php7,491 for Blackpink, and Php21,555 for Twice.
In conclusion, you must be pretty devoted to burn cash for your idols. To put things in perspective, the latest iPhone 12 Pro can cost Php68,000 on iPrice; this is about how much BTS superfans can potentially spend on their idols! To non-fans, it seems ridiculous considering the things you can buy with that amount of cash, but for these superfans, it is money well-spent.
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Methodology
Data on merchandise was based on the sum of the average price of each category in iPrice’s database of hundreds of merchants and billions of products. This is then combined with https://www.bt21fans.com/ website’s prices for merchandise categories (such as lightsticks, etc.) that weren’t included in iPrice’s database. The total of concert tickets is an average calculation from prices of all classes and all areas of each concert tour. This list is based on the standalone online concerts and concerts that are done in the form of tours of each group in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Any music festivals, joint tours, or performance in award events are excluded. The price of the three Kpop groups’ albums are limited to studio albums and EPs based on the list of each band’s discography on Wikipedia’s list. Album price information is obtained from four international music stores (KTown4U.com, CDJapan.co, Target.com, YGex.jp) that sell albums at official prices. The price information collected is the normal price of a regular album before any discounts. The conversion rate is based on Morning Star for Currency on the week of November 16.
About iPrice Group
iPrice Group is a meta-search website operating in seven countries across Southeast Asia namely; Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Currently, iPrice compares and catalogues more than 5 billion and receives about 20-30 million monthly visits across the region. iPrice currently operates three business lines: price comparison for electronics and health & beauty; product discovery for fashion and home & living; and coupons across all verticals.