Asia News: Hybe Takes Over ‘The City’; More Blackpink Sellouts

KOREA

Hybe Takes Over ‘The City‘

Various local media have been picking up on The City, a marketing project devised by the Korean company Hybe, which manages K-pop acts like BTS, Seventeen and Tomorrow X Together.

Hybe went all out with the project in line with Seventeen’s recent dome tour of Japan, the purpose of which, according to NME, is to raise the level of the concert experience far beyond what happens in the actual concert venue.

The plan for the Seventeen Japan tour was even more ambitious, since it involved more than one city. In Osaka, city trains were commandeered and decorated with Seventeen graphics, a special metaverse display of Seventeen’s 2019 Osaka concert was available in the city’s nightlife district, and there was even a dedicated “stamp rally’ – a Japanese tradition wherein participants follow a predetermined route to collect special seals.

Representatives of Hybe told NME that the immersive experience offered by The City was not just a tool to promote the band, but a means for fans to interact with one another, thus making the whole concert experience richer.

More Blackpink Sellouts

Stops on the upcoming Asia tour by K-pop girl group Blackpink continue to sell out immediately.

Following the desperate rush for seats in Singapore and Taiwan, Hong Kong fans who tried to buy tickets for the group’s January shows through Urban Ticketing System (Urbtix) were left hanging online for hours before they were forced to give up. Now, some tickets are selling on secondary platforms in Hong Kong for 22 times their original price.

It’s hardly a new problem, and the South China Morning Post reports that Urbtix has launched a new system that it hopes will relieve some of the congestion. Under the aegis of the city’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Urbtix will soon be able to process 20,000 users at a time, up from 2,000 at present.

The new system would use cloud technology to handle the larger volume of ticket purchases, and the department hopes to increase capacity to 100,000 users at any one time in the future.

In addition, online purchasers will be able to monitor their position in the virtual line for tickets in real time. A mobile app will also be made available to extend the reach of the system. The main idea of the upgrade is to divert potential ticket buyers to more servers so that they have a better chance of ending up on the actual purchasing home page.