Hello, this is the UniqueGood Experience Trend Newsletter. In an era where people wake up asking 'What should I do today?', everyone is always hungry for experiences. However, sometimes we can't find the experiences we want because there's either too little information or too much. It would be great if someone could show us what we can do in this city. That's why this week's Experience Trend Newsletter will introduce services that deliver urban excitement and answer the question 'What should I do today?'
Live Entertainment Platform: Fever
When we think of leading music streaming services, Spotify comes to mind, and for video content, it's Netflix. But what about the leading service for entertainment content? That would be 'Fever'. Some of you might be hearing about Fever for the first time - it's a global live entertainment platform that started in Madrid, Spain in 2014 and has now expanded to over 100 cities across 20 countries.
Travelers in unfamiliar cities look for things to do. But when they want something more novel and exciting than cafe tours or museum visits, what can they do? Moreover, the challenge of finding experiences in a city isn't just for travelers - locals face it too. How can we solve this disconnect between content providers and consumers?
Fever emerged from this very problem. While other industries were becoming platformized, the leisure and entertainment industry remained stuck at the level of magazines and flyers, so they leveraged digital technology to improve this situation. They also discovered that travel trends were shifting toward consuming live entertainment like exhibitions and performances.
Fever operates on the same business model as existing ticketing services, earning commissions from ticket sales. So what makes Fever special? While existing services couldn't break away from a supplier-centric perspective that prioritizes information about productions, Fever differentiates itself by curating content that I can experience in the city where I am.
Beyond content curation, they also began creating original content directly. Fever attracted 3 million audiences across 100 cities with their 'Candlelight Concerts', which made art more accessible and friendly to younger generations. With 70% of audiences being under 40, they seem to be achieving their goal. These Candlelight Concerts feature not only classical music but also diverse genres like pop and movie soundtracks, and they're experimenting with combinations across various art forms including ballet and opera, which makes it even more exciting.
Fever's current valuation is $1.8 billion, growing into a unicorn company valued at over $1 billion. In January 2023, they established Fever Korea and entered the Korean market. They're conducting both domestic live entertainment curation and their original Candlelight Concerts, so we'll be keeping a close eye on their progress in the Korean market.
Playable Content Platform: Realworld
You can also find special ways to enjoy cities through the playable content platform 'Realworld'. Since UniqueGood Company operates Realworld, I'll just touch on it briefly. Realworld is also one of the services beloved by younger generations - according to a recent survey, 93% of members are under 30. It might be the representative app for the 'Zalpha generation', including both Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Recently, Realworld has been expanding beyond online app services into offline businesses. Starting with 'Realworld Seongsu', a complex cultural space in the city center that opened in August 2022, they opened 'Realworld Clue Seongsu', Korea's first murder mystery cafe, in February this year. They're also turning the Realworld Seongsu space into pop-up stores, with all members working hard to ensure that 'Let's do Realworld' becomes the answer to 'What should I do today?'
To Provide 'Michelin 3-Star' Level Experiences
The 'Michelin Guide', which curates dining experiences, classifies restaurants with star ratings. Among these, three stars means 'Exceptional cuisine, worthy of a special journey'. As of April 2024, only 144 restaurants out of 16,833 total have achieved this 3-star status - less than 1%. It's extremely rare.
If there's content that can only be experienced in a particular city, something that makes that city worth traveling to, wouldn't that make the experience even more special? As we introduced in a previous Experience Trend Newsletter, UniqueGood members once visited Shanghai, China - the only city in Asia where it's currently being performed - to see the immersive theater 'Sleep No More'. Didn't that experience make Shanghai even more memorable for our members?
The irreplaceable experiences provided by the services we explored today might be good answers to the question 'What should I do today?' I hope you too will discover the hidden pleasures of your city, and with that, I conclude this week's Experience Trend Newsletter.