Kakao discovered to be behind Idol Lab, which media gaslighted and defamed many competing Kpop groups
Kakao’s Idol Lab is accused of defaming groups from unaffiliated companies and posting favorably about groups from affiliated companies.
‘Idol Lab’ (아이돌) is a Facebook page specializing in posting information about idol groups in Korea with 1.32 million followers. When an idol group debuts or makes a comeback with a new album, K-pop fans around the world find it because the posts that evaluate them are uploaded in real-time.
The problem is that recently, as it was revealed that Kakao Entertainment, a subsidiary of Kakao, is the actual owner of this media, the controversy over ‘reverse viral (word of mouth) marketing’ is rising. Viral marketing is an advertising method that allows consumers to naturally obtain information through social media (SNS).
It is known that after the truth was revealed, the Idol Lab page has now been removed from Facebook.
According to the Chosun site, many netizens had pointed out that ‘Idol Lab’ focuses on publishing favorable articles about idol groups and celebrities managed by Kakao Entertainment while making negative posts regarding idols managed by other management agencies.
Many idol group fans claimed that “Kakao Entertainment defamed competing businesses’ idol groups with baseless, defamatory articles via Idol Lab.”
For example, articles with titles like ‘LE SSERAFIM‘s style change is gathering opposing opinions’ or ‘ITZY‘s new song outfits cause mixed opinions’, are like uploading titled content as if a specific idol’s costume or new song is controversial among fans. There is no mention of what is controversial when you click on the post.
Idol groups unrelated to Kakao Entertainment, such as NewJeans (ADOR) and NMIXX (JYP), are also victims of ‘reverse viral marketing’. On the other side, the site positively promotes artists from Kakao-affiliated companies including Starship Entertainment and IST Entertainment.
Chosun discovered that Kakao purchased Idol Lab in secret from the private Citizen 2-3 years ago and the Page was being managed by Kakao’s Music Marketing Team. An online media reporter said, “Kakao must have acquired an influential page for the purpose of promoting its entertainers. Although the Idol Lab has been known as a Facebook page run by individuals among journalists, as long as ownership is revealed, reverse viral posts can definitely become a problem.”
In response, Kakao Entertainment claimed that the posts were made by a third party, “The posting and management of various articles at Idol Lab was done by an outsourced company.”
In the industry, it is pointed out that this reverse viral controversy is a side effect caused by Kakao’s monopoly expansion in finance, games, and webtoons. In particular, Kakao in the last several years has acquired several companies in various entertainment industries. The number of Kakao affiliates increased from 16 in 2013 to 187 as of June. This is higher than that of large companies such as Samsung and Hyundai.” An entertainment industry official said, “In spite of this, Kakao has found that their Music Sector is significantly lagging behind their Web Novel and Webtoon sectors and that the intentional bad press for competition is a result of trying to get the sector up to parity.”
Kakao is also behind the popular online music site Melon and the community site Daum cafe. Many people are concerned that Kakao can manipulate the viral marketing effect through the tools this company owns.
Singer management companies under Kakao Entertainment:
- IST Entertainment
- Starship Entertainment
- EDAM Entertainment
- FLEX M
- Highup Entertainment
- Antenna
The difference in the number of posts published by Idol Lab mentioning girl groups under Kakao Entertainment and other companies in the search results:
- IVE – 5100 posts
- Jang Wonyoung – 2880 posts
- aespa – 969 posts
- LE SSERAFIM – 491 posts
- TWICE – 2380 posts
- BLACKPINK – 1620 posts
- Red Velvet – 2170 posts
The difference in the number of posts published by Idol Lab mentioning boy groups under Kakao Entertainment and other companies in the search results:
- CRAVITY – 3900 posts
- THE BOYZ – 3160 posts
- SEVENTEEN – 2580 posts
- ATEEZ – 402 posts
- Stray Kids – 339 posts
- ENHYPEN – 37 posts
- TXT – 142 posts
- NCT – 1980 posts
(Results may change over time and the searchers)
K-netizens’ comments are as follows
- Melon, Daum, Starship are all Kakao’s? Melon is also Kakao… I can’t trust in Melon anymore
- But do that for what? IVE is successful enough, isn’t it? Doing these things will only earn unwanted backlash for the group in the end
- No wonder IVE got off to a good start. The viral marketing strategy has gone a little too far!
- Kakao also runs Melon and Daum, all of which can create controversies
Source: daum
