BOYNEXTDOOR's 'HOME' debut album and 'VIRAL' MV drop as Shinsegae flags K-pop content in foreign shopper surge

BOYNEXTDOOR's regular 1st album HOME arrived with a time-signal video and the music video for VIRAL.

The timing coincides with Shinsegae Department Store's main branch reporting a 98% year-on-year surge in foreign card usage during Q1 2024. That's nearly six times the 17% growth seen across Myeongdong and Gwanghwamun's broader commercial zones in the same quarter. Foreign customers now account for roughly three times their Q1 2019 share of total sales at the main branch. Luxury goods alone climbed about 90% compared to Q1 2023.

Shinsegae attributes some of this to its completed The Reserve luxury renovation, wrapped by the end of Q1 2024. The store launched 'Shinsegae City Tour Shopping Festa' last month through the 14th—a tourism-focused event linking major Seoul and Busan locations. On the operational side, it expanded unmanned kiosks at tax-refund desks to reduce wait times and introduced an AI-powered multilingual interpretation service.

Context: 4.76 million foreign visitors entered Korea in Q1 2024, up 23% year-on-year and the highest Q1 count on record.

A Shinsegae official said the foreign card data shows the store "played an important role in the recovery of the Gwanghwamun and Myeongdong commercial areas after COVID-19," and that it will "continue to expand domestic and foreign customer demand through differentiated shopping experiences and cultural content." BOYNEXTDOOR's HOME era appears to be part of that cultural push.