Partnerships with Four Nippon Professional Baseball Teams
Discussing Services Connecting Players and Fans
Expanding to Overseas Tour Business through Hello Stage
A K-pop fandom platform, which boasts 500,000 paid members in 198 countries worldwide, is expanding its business domain into the Japanese professional sports and local intellectual property (IP) markets.
Sungwon Seo, Director of Hello Live / Korea Creative Content Agency Tokyo Business Center.
Sungwon Seo, Director at Hello Live, spoke with The Asia Business Daily at the ‘Korea-Japan Joint Content Production Week’ hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency in Tokyo on September 30, 2026. He explained the future direction of the platform, stating, “We serve as a dedicated IT department for entertainment companies that find technology development challenging,” and added, “Beyond the one-way export of introducing Korean artists to Japan based on platform leadership, we are fundamentally transforming our business into a cross-border model that directly connects Japan’s rich IP with global fans.”
Hello Live has developed its own proprietary technology since its establishment in 2017. The company has stably broadcast K-pop events such as the Golden Disc Awards, Seoul Music Awards, The Fact Music Awards (TMA), and K-World Dream Awards (KWDA) to audiences around the globe. By offering highly praised one-on-one videocall technology, including for artists such as ATEEZ and ENHYPEN, it has established itself as a global platform. Currently, more than 70% of Hello Live’s total revenue comes from overseas markets, with Japan accounting for 30% of this figure.
This outstanding technological capability is being applied to the Japanese professional sports market as well. Hello Live is forming partnerships by collaborating with local offline photo booth operator Photoism and has signed agreements with four teams in Nippon Professional Baseball. Discussions are also underway to roll out Hello Live’s proprietary online service that directly connects players and fans.
Hello Live has also entered the offline event planning business through its overseas tour subsidiary Hello Stage. The company has already organized tours in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America, building a business model that combines concert logistics with online communication technology.
Sangwon Seo, Director of HelloLive / Korea Creative Content Agency Tokyo Business Center.
Seo noted, “While we have not yet held official tours in Japan, we have successfully managed several solo concerts and fan meetings. In particular, by offering mini live events and regionally tailored videocalls, we have restored communication with local fans, which had often been lost when artists left for overseas schedules,” he explained. All these features are powered by their proprietary technology and optimized for artists’ activities, setting Hello Live apart from other platforms.
For its partnership expansion in Japan, Hello Live has also leveraged the infrastructure of public support organizations. In particular, the legal services and networking opportunities provided by the Tokyo Business Center of the Korea Creative Content Agency proved to be of substantial help.
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Seo declared, “Through this Korea-Japan Joint Content Production Week, we plan to introduce Hello Live to many local partners and create meaningful cross-border projects.” He added, “With the recent introduction of AI-powered real-time translation technology, we have reduced language barriers and aim to become a gateway connecting Japanese local IPs with global audiences, especially in areas like animation with significant worldwide fan bases.”
This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.
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