This might be the new strategy for mid-tier groups going forward. Chaeyeon’s video randomly popped up on my feed, and when I checked out the channel, I immediately noticed a lot of similarities to Woni’s channel (as did many other commenters). There’s only one video uploaded as of now since the channel is literally only a day old, but it’s already racked up over 728K views, which is great for a brand new channel.
The name of the channel is 13년 차 신인 김채연, which translates to “I’m Kim Chaeyeon, a rookie in their 13th year.” It’s a rather peculiar name, but it’s quite similar to Woni’s channel conceptually. Woni’s channel is called “Hello my name is Woni. Nice to meet you.” Both names have this almost deliberately humble, newcomer-like quality to them.
Another similarity is that both Chaeyeon’s and Woni’s first videos feature them having dinner and drinks with an “uncle,” or a middle aged man. Chaeyeon is having dinner with Kian84, who’s a famous celebrity, webtoon artist, painter, Youtuber, whatever you wanna call him, while Woni’s first video was with Lee Sunmin, a comedian. The common denominator here is that both of these “uncles” already had connections with the girls through other channels before their respective channels launched. I just thought that was a pretty interesting overlap.
The comments are also very similar between the two channels. There’s a ton of male engagement, which isn’t particularly surprising considering how popular Chaeyeon is among men. Some of the fans have also started leaving their patented comments from, including the “Alright, alright, I’ll give this one a pass too” type of comments that originated from Woni’s channel. Off tangent, but I hate when these uncles say stuff like this because it’s condescending in nature. That tone might not come across in the English translation, but in Korean, 봐주마 very much has this “fine, I’ll indulge you too” kind of connotation. Definitely not a fan of these.
Anyway, I find it really interesting that both channels seem to be deliberately building themselves around this humble beginnings(?) type of identity. They’re essentially building a world with the audience getting to watch them build their own little world and gradually become more successful. This approach inherently gives fans this sense that they’re discovering and supporting someone before they “make it,” which seems to be a common strategy nowadays.
So ya, it’s pretty interesting to see mid-tier groups experimenting with this new meta of creating individual channels for their members. Though technically, these channels aren’t actually owned by the girls themselves. Full ownership belongs to the production team and producer.
Chaeyeon’s channel seems to be off to a great start in terms of viewership. I’m intrigued to see how it develops from here and whether other mid-tier idols start adopting a similar strategy. Hope things go well for Chaeyeon as well. Btw, unlike Woni’s channel, this one already has English subtitles so you can actually check it out if you’re interested. I’ll leave the link here.
submitted by /u/Organic-Cranberry955
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