A new trend is emerging of Internet companies streaming concerts online for fans to watch at a fraction of the cost of a concert ticket.
A recent series of concerts organized by Tencent, known as the Tencent K-Pop Live series, featured Korean Pop acts streaming their concerts in China. The series was the product of collaborations between the Chinese Internet company and Cantara Global, a South Korean content distributor.
The project has K-Pop artists perform at least one concert a month since February, with the concerts being broadcast via Tencent Live Music.
One of the most recent performers was girl group Girl's Generation who performed at the Wapop Hall in Seoul, as their concert was streamed live in China. 1.57 million Chinese fans watched via live streaming.
"It's exciting to know that we have many Chinese fans watching our show right now," said Girl's Generation member Im Yoona.
The first performance in the series was by T-ara, another girl group. This was followed by Sistar and 4Minute, each attracting around one million online viewers.
Chief editor of Tencent's video division Wang Juan said that the company's live-music business began in 2014 by offering subscribers content from artists in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States.
Wang said that the online platform gives Chinese fans the opportunity to interact with stars in real time, with K-Pop concerts by Girl's Day and f(x) coming in October.
Tencent decided to start the program with K-Pop stars because they already have a large fan base in China thanks to Korean movies, TV commercials and reality shows, according to Wang. The platform also allows South Korean artists to break into the Chinese market.
As of now, Tencent offers the service for free, saying it will charge fees once users become more used to streaming live concerts.
The idea of streaming live concerts started in Aug. 2014, with LeTV live streaming singer-songwriter Wang Feng's concert at the Bird's Nest Stadium. Each online user was charged 30 yuan, while tickets to watch the concert live ranged from 280 yuan to 1,680 yuan.
After 75,000 viewers watched the concert on LeTV.com, Chinese Internet companies have become confident in live streaming concerts.
After the first time, LeTV has been live streaming concerts by domestic and foreign artists for a fee. From Sept. 19-28, LeTV charged 18 yuan per show for the 2015 Global Citizen Festival, which had a total of 20 shows headlined by Beyonce and Coldplay.