With China's Yuehua Entertainment recently opening their own offices in Seoul, South Korea and the debut of their first K-pop girl group in collaboration with Starship Entertainment, it seems the power of Hallyu is attracting more companies to the Korean market.
Chinese companies have grown interest in increasing their investments on Korean entertainment.
In a report by the Korea Herald, the second largest economy in the world will invest in Korean film and television to compete with Hollywood.
In the third quarter of 2015, Chinese funds and corporations invested over 2.9 trillion KRW ($2.4 billion USD) in 13 of the 32 listed and unlisted Korean companies that focus on games, fashion and entertainment, according to Korea's Small & Media Business Administration.
"There is really no reason not to accept Chinese money given that film is a highly capital intensive business with extreme risk and low margin. Making a movie is like building an infrastructure, and they don't come cheap," a venture capital industry insider said.
China aims to improve better and advanced production and distribution with entertainment to stay on-level with Hollywood.
However, some think otherwise as these companies can pull out of their investments and also be given control with the production and distribution of original content for the sake of censorship.
"Concerns over increasing Chinese capital are rising as it can hurt the business because the investors can just walk away anytime they make losses," a music industry insider stated.
A Songgang University professor, however, seeks a win-win between the merging of both countries' interests in Korean entertainment.
"As for Korea, the industry here also needs to renew its strategy to best use and manage Chinese capital for a win-win strategic partnership," said Business School professer Jung Yoo-shin.
