The K-pop mania does cost money. Fans of popular groups BTS, Twice and Blackpink are willing to spend up to P60,000 for their albums, concerts and merchandise, according to a study.
iPrice, an e-commerce aggregator, released a study on November 25 that showed how much fans of these K-pop groups spend to show their support to their favorite South Korean groups.
For BTS fans, which are collectively called ARMY, can spend an average of P68,725 if they managed to collect at least 15 of their full and mini albums and attended at least five of their concerts. This excludes the costs of their numerous merchandise.
Aside from these fan events and fan kits, the Grammy-nominated septet had also auctioned off their microphones and costumes to MusiCares, the philanthropic arm of the Recording Academy which organizes the annual Grammy Awards.
Devoted fans of girl group Twice called Onces can spend up to P39,824 after purchasing 14 albums, attending four concerts and some of their merchandise.
Last, fans of K-pop sensation Blackpink or Blinks can spend up to P32,139. iPrice noted that the group is younger than the first two and has so far, put out fewer albums and concerts.
“To put things in perspective, the latest iPhone 12 Pro can cost P68,000 on iPrice; this is about how much BTS superfans can potentially spend on their idols!” the study said.
“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,” it added.
A breakdown
K-pop merchandise range from phone cases, clothing to home and décor items and gadgets. BTS’ brand partnership with Line Friends called BT21 sells earphones, speakers and even makeup items.
Devoted ARMYs can spend up to P26,340 for just shopping a light stick, a shirt and a lomo card.
Blackpink goods, meanwhile, can cost fans about P16,867. A once would have to shell out P8,361.
While attending concerts are fun, they are also very expensive. Tickets for one concert in a year cost their fans a hefty P26,147 for BTS, P7,491 for Blackpink, and P21,555 for Twice.
For those who can only afford their music, K-pop albums are the least expensive. They would need to spend P16,239 for BTS albums, P7,781 for Blackpink albums, and P9,908 for Twice albums.
iPrice acquired the data for merchandise based on the sum of the average price of each category in its database of hundreds of merchants and billions of products.
Price information, meanwhile, was gathered from the official websites of merchants and distributors such as bt21fans.com and KTown4U.com.