Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한 謝雪矢One reason why the #Kpop and #Kdrama industries are prioritizing the #Philippines in fan events like concerts, meet-ups, merchandise, and so on, is because the Peso even got stronger more than the Won.
- Pre-2020: ₱1 = ₩21–22
- Today: ₱1 = ₩24–25
Not to mention Filipinos are ready to spend …
… even though majority are below the poverty line or just at the line. 🤪 (No kidding.)
In addition, unbeknownst to many—even Wikipedia—the Philippines was already enjoying #Kpop and #Kdrama in the early 90s before the so-called #Hallyu wave. 😉
In Facebook, where majority of Filipinos are, it's not uncommon to see posts like "This song is actually Kpop, I thought it was Jpop." Or, "This drama is Korean, I thought it was Chinese!"
For real. You'll never see historians & writers talk about that. It's always "China/Japan the first market …
… for Korean music and drama". Naah. It's the #Philippines.
We lived through it, so we know. We heard it in airwaves. We heard on streets. Cassette tapes. Betamax. VHS. TV.
Just misidentified as Japanese or Chinese. 🤪
Even in the early 2000s when "hallyu wave" supposedly started, many Filipinos incorrectly assumed #BoA as Japanese.
There was also Jewelry. Their song «Superstar» (2005) was a hit in the #Philippines but most assumed it was Japanese or South American. 🤪
Imagine this. If Kpop and Kdrama companies …
… knew this, they would never ignore the Philippine market. But because the history of "hallyu wave" is incomplete, they only started prioritizing the #Philippines in 2021.
They wasted 20–30 years.
Never ignore the Philippine market and #fandom.
Even Japan. They didn't pay much attention to the #Philippines during the height of Jpop, Jrock, manga, and anime. 1990–2010 saw the highest activity in Japanese culture in the Philippines, in particular 2000–2007.
Japanese companies did not capitalized on it.
Did you know who did? Resellers and pirate stores/distributions. They told us a product is original and straight from Japan, only to discover later it was pirated. 🤣
It was an opportunity for the official companies but they ignored it. 😅
Filipinos "poor"? We are. But we still spend.
Here's a story from a Singaporean.
In Singapore, SUVs are not popular because it's expensive for them. But they get surprised when they see SUVs are common in the Philippines, so they assume Filipinos are "rich".
We're not. We just spend too much. 🤪