According to statistics from the Korea Creative Content Agency, as of 2023 the global K-culture fandom stood at 225 million people. This represents a 24-fold increase compared with 12 years ago. In contrast to this explosive interest, opportunities for fans around the world to meet K-pop artists or actors remain limited, as related events are mainly held in major cities of major countries. In other words, there are “blind spots” for K-culture.

Against this backdrop, a new service has emerged that aims to match K-celebrities with locations worldwide and address these cultural blind spots. The service is called the “K-Celebrity Immersion Service.” Powered by AI, it quickly matches K-celebrities and sponsoring companies with local event organizers, helping to reduce budget burdens. It was developed to offer unforgettable experiences to fans in smaller cities and to provide sponsoring companies with opportunities for promotion and ESG activities.

AI startup AligoAI, developer of celebrity intermediation platform “Celevu,” launches “K-Celebrity Immersion Service”

The “K-Celebrity Immersion Service” is a new offering within “Celevu,” operated by AligoAI. It works by intermediating so that, when an event organizer wishes to invite a celebrity but lacks sufficient budget, the shortfall is covered by corporate sponsorship. The service is provided on the basis of Celevu.

Celevu is a platform that uses AligoAI’s proprietary AI recommendation algorithm to present lists of actors, singers, athletes and other celebrities suitable for events or products to event organizers or advertisers. The platform not only enables quick searches for celebrities, but also provides objective metrics explaining the reasons for recommendations. For example, when given a natural-language command such as “Find a model suitable for the car brand Hummer,” the AI generates a recommended list based on metrics such as the celebrity’s follower count and portal search volume, and also indicates the countries where that celebrity is preferred. This enables event organizers or advertisers to quickly select celebrities that meet their needs and execute campaigns or advertisements.

Previously, securing a celebrity required going through complex contractual procedures, and it took more than two months to move from contracting to running an ad campaign. AligoAI emphasized that, by using Celevu, the time from searching for a celebrity to carrying out the advertisement can be reduced to just five days. Thanks to this efficiency, about 150 actors, singers and other celebrities have registered and are active on Celevu.

AligoAI focused on the fact that, although the global K-content boom has sharply increased demand among fans worldwide to meet K-celebrities, events remain concentrated in major countries and large cities, leaving fans in smaller cities with unmet cultural needs.

In fact, an analysis by AligoAI of the 2024–2025 world tour and fan meeting schedules of 16 K-celebrities confirmed that events are predominantly held in major countries and large cities such as those in the United States and Europe. In response, AligoAI launched the “K-Celeb Immersion Service” to intermediate, via Celevu, events, fan meetings and performances held in smaller cities around the world.

Utilizing the K-Celeb Immersion Service, AligoAI was able to invite actor Kim Joo-ryeong as the guest of honor to the 1st Korean Tours Festival held in the city of Tours, France, from 24 to 25 February 2025. She played the role of “Han Mi-nyeo” in Season 1 of “Squid Game.” Tours is located 250 km south of Paris, but thanks to the K-Celeb Immersion Service’s support in inviting Kim Joo-ryeong, the event attracted approximately 11,000 paying attendees over the two days. For next year, organizers are ambitiously preparing the second edition, setting a target of 35,000 visitors and extending the schedule from 27 February to 1 March. On the back of this success, AligoAI, led by Celevu, has also become an official partner of Canneseries, the international TV series festival held in Cannes next year.

AligoAI expects that the K-Celeb Immersion Service will create new opportunities for K-celebrities such as actors and singers who have appeared in films or dramas with high overseas viewership, as well as athletes active abroad. In particular, because Celevu’s AI can present objective indicators (such as follower counts and portal search volumes) of preferences for specific K-celebrities in each country, it is expected to support decision-making by institutions, advertisers and companies that may hesitate to hold events in smaller cities.

Because the K-Celeb Immersion Service is integrated with Celevu, it can also play an intermediary role among advertisers and companies. For example, an advertiser seeking to launch an event in a global small city can post the desired celebrity profile, schedule and budget on Celevu; celebrities matching the conditions then indicate their interest in participating and propose appearance fees. After that, a sponsoring company is matched, and the event proceeds in the smaller city. As this entire process takes place on a single platform, it is fast and convenient.

AligoAI emphasized that this service can both meet the needs of global fans whose opportunities to encounter K-celebrities directly are limited and expand the base of K-culture, while simultaneously supporting sponsoring companies’ promotional and ESG activities.

Lee Jang-hyuk, CEO of AligoAI, said, “Despite the high global interest in K-culture, some regions still lack opportunities to meet K-celebrities in person. The K-Celebrity Immersion Service was planned to reduce this imbalance and broaden the reach of K-culture to underserved areas. We also aim to create growth opportunities by matching celebrities who may not yet be widely known in Korea but enjoy strong overseas popularity with performances in smaller cities, thereby helping to invigorate the popular culture industry,” adding, “By providing direct cultural experiences through performances and fan meetings in global small cities, we will contribute to the continued spread of K-content and the enhancement of Korea’s national image. For global companies already operating locally, we will offer not only ESG opportunities but also chances to raise their brand recognition in those countries.”

IT Donga reporter Kim Dong-jin (kdj@itdonga.com)

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