– Presenting a new paradigm for fandom-based business… Establishing a Korean-style solution for fandom business
-Expanding the role of fans from consumers to planners… Creating value beyond simple sponsorship
“We wanted to create an ecosystem where creators can go beyond selling their content and develop IP businesses.”
The goal of Pending, which operates the fandom business platform ‘Pending’, is clear. It is to create a world where all creators can use their own IP to run a business. We met with CEO Eom Se-hyun at Pending’s office in Gangnam, Seoul, and talked about the fandom business that Pending pursues.
■ Creating a Korean-style fandom business
“It is a business model in which creators create value through continuous interaction with fans by providing premium content, services, and products based on their own unique IP and fandom.”
CEO Eom explained the fandom business as follows. The fandom business refers to a method of generating revenue through direct relationships with fans, breaking away from the existing advertising revenue-centered model.
“The growth of smartphones and content platforms such as YouTube and TikTok has led to explosive growth in the creator market. Now, creators have their own IP and have influence that is greater than that of celebrities. As their influence has grown, their business has evolved from being an advertiser promoting other brands to directly selling content based on their own IP.”
In the fandom business, loyalty and engagement of subscribers are more important than the number of subscribers. This is because fan loyalty and engagement are directly linked to revenue. This is in contrast to advertising models that require exposure to a large audience to succeed. CEO Eom emphasizes that creators with a small number of subscribers but who have secured passionate fans can earn more revenue. “Even if you don’t have many subscribers, if there are many subscribers who are enthusiastic about the creator’s content, the fandom business is established,” he emphasized. When a fandom is formed between a creator and fans, various revenue models such as membership, regular subscription, premium content, goods, and live events naturally become possible.
According to Panding's research, only about 5-10% of creator subscribers are loyal fans, but they generate 80-90% of total sales. The average cost of a membership subscriber is up to 10-20 times higher than that of a regular subscriber, showing that the 'Pareto's Law' is also applied to the creator economy.
Pending was inspired by the creator regular sponsorship service 'Patreon'. Initially, it started as a simple sponsorship model like Patreon, but it changed to a fan commerce solution to reflect the characteristics of the Korean fandom. This is because the Korean fandom has a strong tendency to consume when it receives another value rather than simply sponsoring. Pending has grown steadily since its establishment in 2017 and currently has launched a total of 1,500 creator pages, of which 300 creators are actively participating.
■ Creating an environment where you can focus solely on creation
Pending supports the entire fandom business of creators by combining management services and IT solutions. It is largely composed of four business modules.
- Product Planning: Customized product planning tailored to the creator's characteristics and fandom tendencies
- Sales solution: Provides an IT platform that can sell various products such as memberships, lectures, and goods.
- Operational Support: Support for business operations so creators can focus on content creation.
- Gross: Data-driven marketing strategy that increases fan acquisition, conversion, repeat purchases, and retention.
CEO Eom emphasized, “Based on an understanding of the fandom, we are collaborating with creators to focus solely on creation, while the subsequent IP business is carried out by receiving consulting and IT solutions from fans.”
Panding manages the entire fandom business process from fan acquisition to conversion, monetization, retention, and referral using the AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Revenue, Retention, Referral) framework.
In particular, we take different approaches step by step depending on the level of fan engagement and loyalty. We discover fans based on engagement and use strategies to connect potential customers to actual fandom. In the stage leading to actual purchase, we apply more detailed and customized strategies, onboarding creators to fan commerce, and inducing membership subscriptions following the initial payment, thereby maximizing fandom LTV and building a sustainable revenue model.
Pending is actively utilizing AI technology to provide more customized services to creators. CEO Eom said, “Competition among creators is fierce and a lot of time is spent on creation. We are using AI to assist with parts related to product production, CS, and strategic design.” Pending is actively utilizing AI to help creators’ fandom businesses, such as regularly providing summaries of live content produced by creators to fandoms and analyzing content trends and fandom data every week to provide consulting on business directions.
■ Virtual Idols, Beyond Investment, Expanding to Subculture and Knowledge Information Fields
Pending's main partner creators include virtual idols 'Stellive' and 'Playbe', coin YouTuber 'Kang Hwan-guk', stock channel '815 Money Talk', and economic YouTuber 'Ongdal Bookstore'. Pending is particularly achieving remarkable results in the virtual idol sector. Stellaive's 'Ayatsu no Uni' concert recently sold out all 3,500 seats at Korea University's Hwajeong Gymnasium, and the Stellaive Group currently has 7,000 membership members on Pending. The virtual idol business is expanding into Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore through simultaneous screenings of global concerts by Hololive, Playbe, etc., and sales of special goods. CEO Eom explained that the fantasy worldview of virtual idols has the advantage of effectively immersing fans more strongly in the fandom IP.
In the long term, Panding plans to expand into the 'subculture' area. Subculture is an area with a strong worldview and fandom culture such as animation, webtoons, and games, and it is also an area where fandom business operates effectively. We are also planning a new challenge. Knowledge information areas such as career and healthcare are areas where the transition to fandom business is slow compared to the large-scale fandom and excellent content capabilities of creators. Panding is preparing to apply the fandom business model to these areas as well.
■ Evolution into a fandom business where fans plan, promote, and create
The future that CEO Eom dreams of is a world where fans are not simply consumers but actively participate in the creators' business ecosystem.
“In the past, it was just about liking something. But these days, fans are acting as planners, marketers, and even secondary creators. We aim to build this fandom economy for all IPs in the world.”
Panding is paying particular attention to Generation Z. This is because the fandom business that Panding pursues is closely connected to the participatory consumption culture led by Generation Z. For Generation Z, consumption is more than simply purchasing a product or service; it is an active activity that expresses one’s identity and contributes to the community. These characteristics of Generation Z play a key role in the fandom business model that Panding pursues.
Panding is planning various incentive systems to encourage the participation of these fans.
“I want to implement it as a game where the fandom can participate, contribute, and be rewarded within a single IP worldview. In the future, I want to maximize the fandom economic effect by creating an ecosystem where the fandom can build IP together with the creator and become a part of the IP.”
The plan is to strengthen the motivation for participation by granting temperature, badges, rankings, and title systems based on participation, and provide access to exclusive content or events to active fans. In addition, by sharing actual profits when secondary creations or ideas are adopted, the plan is to build a cooperative ecosystem where creators and fans can develop IP and create value together.
Pending recently succeeded in attracting Series A2 investment and is expanding into the global market. In particular, it is strengthening its services targeting virtual idol and cheerleader fandoms in the Taiwanese and Japanese markets, and is also pioneering the fandom business solution market utilizing AI technology.
Panding goes beyond a simple creator fandom business solution, and is proposing a new paradigm for the fandom economy. Their vision is to build an ecosystem that creates greater value through two-way communication and participation, while making the relationship between creators and fans closer. The future of the fandom business that Panding will create is drawing attention.
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