Are we passing through the final tunnel of the novel coronavirus infection (new pneumonia)?

Due to Omicron, the number of new coronavirus infections is breaking daily records, but at least K-Pop is moving towards post-pandemic.

The concert "2022 LOONA CONCERT - LOONAVERSE: FROM" by the girl group LOONA, held on January 11-12 at the Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul, attracted attention as the first online and offline concert of the year.

This is the third concert since TWICE and NCT127 held in-person concerts at the Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Arena and Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, respectively, in December last year. It garnered even more attention given that infections have increased to over 10,000 due to Omicron. The result was a success. All seats were sold out in 10 minutes. Although Jangchung Gymnasium, with a capacity of 4,200 seats, is not a large concert venue, the music industry is relieved that it ended without any accidents or negative reviews.

Until now, K-Pop concerts have continued to be online concerts, unable to perform offline for nearly two years due to the pandemic.

Thanks to their ability to transcend time and space, they have met the demand for performances from fans not only domestically but also overseas. However, as Omicron, which is said to have high infectivity but low severity, became the dominant strain, K-Pop management companies, which had been cautiously observing the situation regarding offline concerts, are gradually starting to move.

Next month, the highly anticipated BTS will hold a concert. BTS will hold an online and offline concert (BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – SEOUL) at the Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul on March 10, 12, and 13. This will be BTS's first in-person concert in Korea in two years and four months, since October 2019. The scale of the concert is 15,000 people per performance, and 45,000 ARMY (BTS fandom) will participate in the concert over three days. This is the largest scale since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overseas performances, which had been on hold for a while, are already back on track.

In November-December last year, BTS held five performances at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, USA (53,000 seats per performance), recording sell-outs and generating buzz. TWICE followed suit. TWICE, currently on a US tour since the 15th, has been selling out shows and has decided to add more performances. TWICE is also scheduled for two performances at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, considered their second home ground, on April 23-24.

In addition, NCT is planning performances in Japan, and other K-Pop groups are reportedly exploring overseas offline performances.

An official from a management company stated, "In Korea, infections are expected to peak next month due to Omicron, but in the US, Japan, and Europe, the peak has passed, and some countries are even shifting to 'With Corona' without mask mandates." He added, "Due to the 'revenge spending' mentality, we are planning large-scale concerts."

Accordingly, management companies' sales are expected to increase significantly for the time being.

On the 22nd, HYBE announced through a filing that its sales last year were 1.2577 trillion won (approximately 121.3 billion yen), a 58.0% increase from the previous year. Of this, performance sales were 49.7 billion won, a 980.5% increase from 2020. This is because in-person performances resumed at the end of last year, unlike in 2020 when they were unable to perform due to the pandemic. HYBE stated, "Last year, offline concerts alone generated 40 billion won in sales from the LA concert."

However, industry insiders suggest that management companies are likely to continue parallel online and offline concerts.

This is because online concerts, which were reluctantly adopted due to the pandemic, have surprisingly emerged as a significant revenue stream. SM Entertainment's online paid concert "Beyond LIVE," held in April 2020 as the first K-Pop online concert, attracted 75,000 viewers for its first performance alone, generating 2.5 billion won in revenue. BTS's online concert "MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E" in October 2020 was watched by 990,000 people. Even calculated at the minimum viewing fee of 49,500 won per person, the sales amount to 49.1 billion won. Consequently, securities firms predict that the operating profit of the four major management companies (SM, JYP, YG, HYBE) will increase by nearly 40-80% year-on-year.