Walt Disney is joining forces with K-pop artists to take content and intellectual property created in South Korea to global markets. The company is pursuing a project that combines the fictional universes of SM Entertainment artists with Marvel storylines, and is preparing collaborations with HYBE and Starship Entertainment. With Kakao Entertainment, it plans to set up a fund tentatively named the K-Culture Fund to identify projects that pair Korean cultural IP with Disney's global IP.
Disney will use its global network to support Korean partners across product planning, marketing, distribution and overseas expansion, strengthening a cross-border strategy that links IP discovered in Korea to markets abroad, industry sources said on the 17th. The company runs a consumer products division that operates a retail business worth about $63 billion (87 trillion won) with partners in some 180 countries, drawing on Disney IP.
"We want to widen the opportunities for ideas and success stories that began in Korea to reach fans around the world through Disney's global network," said Kim Hyun-jin, head of the consumer products division at the Walt Disney Company Korea. "Korea is optimized for a cross-border strategy across K-pop, K-content, K-fashion and K-food, which makes it a strategically important market from a global perspective."
Disney Korea will first form a strategic partnership with Kakao Entertainment and create the K-Culture Fund to pursue about 10 projects over the medium to long term. The plan remains at an early stage, and the size of the investment, its targets and the launch date have not been set. Kakao Entertainment said K-pop has established itself as a cultural phenomenon that drives global trends beyond content into lifestyle sectors such as fashion and beauty. "Meeting Disney's stories, which have been loved worldwide for decades, will expand the fictional universes of K-pop artists one step further and deliver new moments of emotion to global fans," the company said.
Disney Korea is also pushing a project that combines Marvel storylines with the fictional universes of SM Entertainment artists. The idea goes beyond merchandise that simply uses characters and artist images, connecting K-pop music, worldbuilding and fandom with Disney's stories. Collaborations with HYBE and Starship Entertainment are also in preparation.
To widen consumer touchpoints in a licensing business that had centered on business-to-business deals, Disney Korea set up a business-to-consumer retail team last year. Ahead of the June release of "Toy Story 5," it ran a pop-up store and a special exhibition at Hyundai Department Store, and when "The Devil Wears Prada" opened, it launched a large pop-up store in partnership with CJ Olive Young.
The company plans to find partners in experience-driven consumption such as sports, wellness and music, and to expand into three-way collaborations and festivals tied to licensed products. Disney Run and Marvel Run, scheduled for October, will be run as fandom festivals combining K-pop performances by acts including the girl group ILLIT with pop-up stores and food offerings. Disney Korea is also pursuing collaborations that pair its IP with domestic characters such as Haechi, Catch! Teenieping and Kakao Friends.
"We will combine Disney's storytelling with Korea's soft power, where fandom culture emerges quickly and spreads worldwide, to create new collaborative results," Kim said.
