Influencers wield greater power in marketing in S.Korea

Merch reliance on digital content creators for marketing is growing bigger in South Korea, allowing some influencers to enjoy handsome earnings from embedded marketing in their short videos.According to Seoul-based influencer marketing platform Featuring, creator KIMPRO was the top earner among Korean YouTubers from paid product placements, or embedded advertising, which features branded goods or services in a production like TV shows, movies or YouTube content.The channel was estimated to have reaped more than 560 million won ($420,000) per product placement based on Featuring’s analysis of data on digital content creators’ real advertisement revenue, numbers of subscribers or followers, numbers of likes and comments.KIMPRO is a Korea-based YouTube content creator who produces memeified short-form, content, and the channel’s subscribers stood at 58.9 million as of Monday, which is the largest subscriber base for Korean YouTube content.The next biggest earner from a product placement was mukbang, or eating show, YouTuber DONA with 534.8 million won, followed by Boram Tube Vlog with 443.9 million won, Seungbini with 304 million won and GH’S with 284.7 million won.Each of the top 10 YouTube creators boasts more than 10 million subscribers.MUKBANG ON YOUTUBE VS FASHION AND BEAUTY ON INSTAGRAMOn Instagram, evie_kinie was paid the most, nearly 400 million won for each product placement, followed by hjevelyn with 140.5 million won, hazelchoiii with 124.1 million won, woohye0n with 113.1 million won and seung847 with 107 million won. Most top 10 creators on Instagram by followers engage in fashion or beauty content, while those on YouTube mainly create mukbang or toddler shows. But the number of subscribers or followers was not the only metric advertisers take account of when choosing influencers, said Choi Hwasub, co-founder and chief technical officer (CTO) of Featuring, adding that likes also matter a lot in deciding paid embedded advertising.For example, the number of followers of evie_kinie, the most paid influencer on Instagram, is not one of the top 10 but the influencer has many posts with more than 100,000 likes.INFLUENCERS AFFECT CONSUMERS’ SPENDINGDigital content creators’ influence in marketing is growing as many consumers tend to purchase products or services after watching digital content creators’ shows on social media platforms.According to a survey by Seoul-based financial news content creator Uppity, 72.3% of the survey respondents in their 20s and 30s purchased products and services reviewed or recommended by influencers.Nearly 80% of the respondents also answered that they are strongly influenced by digital content creators.Reflecting such a trend, the global influencer marketing market is forecast to grow to $24.0 billion this year from $21.1 billion in 2023, according to global market research firm Oberlo.Korea’s influencer marketing market is also set to grow bigger.According to Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, the country’s local digital creator media industry reached 4.1 trillion won in 2023.Koreans spent the longest time on YouTube videos in the world in August, while Instagram was the second most popular smartphone app for teenagers and those in their 20s in the country. By Joo-Wan Kimkjwan@hankyung.comSookyung Seo edited this article.