Is BTS really that important to SK's economy?

BTS discussed Asian inclusion and representation at the White House in 2022. (Photo: AFP)

I’ve been a fan of BTS since 2018, when I sat down next to my college roommate to cram an essay and accidentally joined a listening party for their newly released album Love Yourself: Tear. She was an avid fan of the group, and she was listening to the new album while I was busy staring at my laptop screen waiting for words to magically appear. But, as one specific song came up, I stopped, looked up from my laptop, and told her, “This song is so sad.”

Within a week, I had downloaded their entire discography.

Beyond their unique sound, gripping lyricism, and numerable charms, I’ve always been genuinely interested in the group and their groundbreaking, unprecedented impact on music, culture, and most surprisingly, the economy. 

Watching BTS’ meteoric rise in music and culture in the past few years, from Billboard charts to the Grammys and the United Nations, while simultaneously enjoying their music and content, has been a true pleasure for me. Even now, as BTS embarks on their newest journey of military enlistment, I’m still finding new things about them to be fascinated by.

The current big question for me, my fellow fans, and experts in the industry: What happens now that BTS is going to be away until 2025?

The BTS impact

To anyone who isn’t a fan of BTS, it must be confusing to see so many articles about their enlistment and what it means. They’ll only be gone for three years—and they’re just a boy band, right? What does it matter if we have one less K-Pop group for the time being?
 

In 2018, BTS contributed 0.3% of South Korea’s GDP (Source: Statista)

They bring in a ton of money, for one—more than any other K-Pop group, in fact. In 2018, Hyundai Research estimated that BTS alone contributed over $3.6 billion to the South Korean economy every year, which was the equivalent of about 26 mid-sized companies and 0.3% of the country’s GDP. The study also found that the group pulled in one in every 13 tourists or 796,000 foreigners who visited South Korea in 2017, and that they generated about $1.1 billion in consumer goods exports.

This study is a few years old now, and BTS has only gotten bigger since then. By 2021, it was estimated that they were contributing over $5 billion to the South Korean economy yearly. Hyundai Research estimated that between the years 2014 and 2023, BTS will add 56 trillion KRW to the SK economy—easily surpassing even the value brought by a global event like the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018. The members themselves were collectively valued with a net worth of $100 million in 2022.

The Grammy-nominated group also has a huge impact on stocks. When they announced that they would be going on a hiatus earlier this year to rest and pursue individual projects, shares of their management and South Korea’s wealthiest K-Pop company, HYBE, went down by a quarter of its value and sank to the lowest it had been since the company first went public two years ago. 

After announcing oldest member Jin’s enlistment, shares for HYBE went down again by 2.5%, though the number has since gone up by 4.8% after an executive clarified that the group would return in 2025.

As of 2021, the group had already broken 25 Guinness World Records: First K-Pop to hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Chart, most weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Digital Singles chart, and highest annual earnings for a K-Pop group, to name a few. 

Getting a spot in the charts means money gained, too. One report estimates that BTS’ Dynamite bagging #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 had an economic effect of 1.23 trillion KRW added to the production sector, and 480 billion KRW in added value, plus, it created 7,928 new jobs.

Not only that, the group has consistently dominated the industry in terms of sales across digital and physical music formats globally—leading the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to name them Global Recording Artist of the Year in 2020 and 2021. They are the first act to grab the accolade two years in a row.

And it’s not just sales and charts: Fans show up for BTS, time and time again. Just a few days ago, on October 15th, the group performed a free-of-charge concert in support of Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo to a crowd of 50,000, with an additional 10,000 in the city watching a live retransmission, and almost 50 million watching via livestream. 

And when BTS is in town, their fans do not shy away from spending. Their two sold-out concerts in Wembley Stadium were estimated to have an economic impact worth $84 million on the city of London.

No exceptions for superstars

Despite all this, BTS’ enlistment has been up in the air for years now. Men are supposed to enlist before they turn 28—and BTS’ oldest member, Jin, is turning 30 this year. A 2019 revision allowed artists who received the recommendation of the Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to postpone their enlistment until age 30, which is why BTS has continued to perform as a unit.

It’s worth noting that there are other exceptions to the mandatory enlistment law: Athletes who win Olympic or Asian Games medals, as well as classical musicians and dancers who win certain competitions are allowed to serve for a shorter time. This exemption has led some to believe that BTS, too, should be exempted, considering their great contributions to South Korean culture and economy. 

There was plenty of speculation about ongoing discussions on exempting the group entirely from mandatory enlistment, but before the government could come to a decision, BTS had already announced that they would be enlisting.

In any case, Jin himself said in 2020, “As a South Korean young man, I believe military service is a natural course. And as I have always said, I will answer the country’s call whenever it comes.” so most fans, like myself, were not surprised by the announcement. In fact, reception of the news was fairly positive among the ARMY.

Millions of military wives

So, will the South Korean economy collapse while the boys are off to the military? No, almost definitely not. But the country is still foreseen to lose a significant amount of income and beyond that, some of their most effective cultural diplomats. BTS has been instrumental to expanding the Hallyu wave in the West, and they have always been passionate about sharing their culture and identity as Koreans, as well as their core message of self love.

But the group has made clear that the best is Yet To Come. They will return, and unlike some boy bands (looking at you, One Direction) BTS has always been extremely transparent with their fans, so they’ll likely be back before we even know it.

For the next few years at least, ARMYs will continue to laugh, teary-eyed as they jokingly refer to themselves as military wives waiting for their husbands to return home—and yes, I’ll be one of them.