Billboard, Billboard Korea Signs MOU With NAVER Pay

As Billboard prepares to launch the physical edition of Billboard Korea, a new alliance with NAVER Pay that should unlock opportunities for its readers and the broader K-pop space.

NAVER Pay, the South Korea-based mobile payment service, has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Billboard and Billboard Korea, ahead of the first print issue midyear.

As previously reported, Billboard Korea Volume 1 is scheduled for release in June, which will amplify 100 K-pop stars selected by Billboard.

The goal of the MOU is to promote various collaborative endeavors that will combine simple payment services with the entertainment services that Billboard Korea will provide, reads a statement, with NAVER Pay providing “a safe and straightforward” facility for music, broadcasts, and performances.

Through the alliance, the brands will contribute to creating “a fair and transparent performance booking culture,” and in the long term, a unified approach in spreading K-pop content through Billboard’s global platform.

“We are pleased to be able to work with Billboard Korea as they enter the Korean market,” comments NAVER Pay CEO Park Sang-jin, adding, “in the future, we will actively strive to find ways to create synergy between Billboard and Billboard Korea’s various entertainment services and NAVER Pay.”

Mike Van, president of Billboard, and Yuna Kim, CEO & publisher of Billboard Korea, remark, “Through our partnership with NAVER Pay, we will be able to provide a variety of innovative services unique to Billboard in the Korean music market.”

As Billboard Korea rolls off the presses, the K-pop genre reaches new heights. South Korean acts accounted for five of the top 10 albums in the IFPI Global Album Chart for 2023, including top spot for SEVENTEEN’s FML, representing the best-ever global charts performance for the genre. Indeed, an unprecedented 19 of the top 20 titles on the tally were K-pop.

And separately, on the recently-published IFPI Global Recording Artist Chart, which ranks the most popular artists on the planet, based on sales and streams, four K-pop acts appeared in the top 10 – representing a record year for Korean music on a global scale.

Billboard Korea adds to the list of the publication’s international editions, including Billboard Japan, Billboard Arabia, Billboard Español, Billboard Brasil and others.