The answer: "Ahjummas":. Well, technically it's women in their mid 20s and older who have disposable income. They have been a HUGE contributing factor to the rapid rise of IVE and NewJeans in Korea. It's no secret that more and more Korean women are going childless. It's also known that women are the main paying consumers of kpop, and boy groups have decreased in popularity. This means women with jobs are more likely to spend on kpop groups compared to other Korean demographics. And they are gravitating towards younger female idols, who they see as either "young sisters" or "daughters" para-socially. Since these Korean women in their late 20s, 30s, and 40s don't have children on their own, whatever remains of their disposable income will go towards these young female idols.
SM can obviously see these trends, but with even greater detail and better ability to make projections of future profit. This is likely the reason they are shelving Aespa until next year despite being early into their career, when 3 cbs per years are common. And focusing on getting a new girl group out as soon as possible. This is heads up to the SM stans, you might have to adjust your narratives in the near future because you can likely expect SM to debut underage idols for their new GG.
SM can obviously see these trends, but with even greater detail and better ability to make projections of future profit. This is likely the reason they are shelving Aespa until next year despite being early into their career, when 3 cbs per years are common. And focusing on getting a new girl group out as soon as possible. This is heads up to the SM stans, you might have to adjust your narratives in the near future because you can likely expect SM to debut underage idols for their new GG.
