Sometimes official merchandise from your favorite K-pop artists isn't enough to feed your hunger. Thus, sites where people take photos of idol groups and other Korean artists and try to create quality products fulfill the many K-pop fans' desires of wanting more.
With the use of a high quality camera, the possibilites are endless for entrepreneurial fans to make a profit out of photos they've taken of an idol at an event.
In an report by the Korea Times, these "hom-ma" ("hompage masters" in English) are fan-run sites where a number of the members solely take photos of an individual idol or their group. Once photos are taken from an event, they utilize the photos to produce goods to sell on their homepage or social network sites.
From socks to school supplies like notebooks and folders, to photobooks and calendars, these hom-mas attract local and international fans with their high quality goods. With the help of international fanclub communities and forums, fans who translate to the international audience are able to gain access on how to retrieve these goods.
As international fans are limited to what official merchandise they can purchase, buying quality fan-made products is a stronger option to them.
However, the production of fan-made merchandise is an ongoing debate within entertainment agencies as the photos may violate the rights of artists and their privacy. While agencies, on the other hand, do not want to take legal action as it "might attract fans' criticism."
In addition, these entrepreneurial fans could face tax evasion due to the fact that their small businesses are not registered or reported to the government.
