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Light sticks, a must-have accessory for
hard-core enthusiasts of South Korean pop, have become pricier
and harder to get due to the shortage that has hit production of
anything from smartphones to cars.
The glowing wands fans wave during concerts and virtual events
are fitted with so-called microcontrollers for power management
and to pair with a phone to change colors, and highlight how far
the squeeze has rippled through various industries and aspects
of everyday life.
The price of light sticks, used by "ARMY" or fans of mega-band
BTS and referred to as "ARMY bombs", has increased by $2 to $59
from Oct. 1, Hybe entertainment-owned Weverse Shop said, blaming
the "persistent global semiconductor shortage".
"I sure hope prices won't get too high since a lot of ARMY and
other fans too cannot afford such prices," said Pervushina
Elizaveta, an entertainment company employee and a BTS fan from
Estepona, Spain.
Fans of South Korean boy band SEVENTEEN will have to cough up $3
more for their light sticks, while supporters of acts such as
EXO, SHINee, Girls' Generation and YG Entertainment's BlackPink
are entirely out of luck.
SM Entertainment's global shop said EXO, SHINee and Girls'
Generation's fanlights were sold out, while those of BlackPink
were out of stock on the band's official website.
Hybe, SM Entertainment and other top Korean entertainment
companies did not respond to requests for comment.
While the Grammy-nominated BTS plans to perform live in Los
Angeles in November and December for the first time since the
pandemic, other South Korean acts are scheduling online shows.
Still, fans are looking forward to make the most of those, with
light sticks on and sharing messages in chatrooms.
"It's a fun way to feel connected to other fans all around the
world so when you do get to enjoy a concert even from home you
can somehow feel part of something amazing!" said Starla
Stafford, a fan from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
LONG WAIT
Compounding the pain, semiconductors in light sticks are
manufactured using older technologies and such low-end chips
face the biggest shortage right now, said Jim Handy, an analyst
with semiconductor market research firm Objective Analysis.
Wait times for semiconductor deliveries have now stretched to up
to six months, compared with the usual about two months,
manufacturers said.
"I bulk ordered microcontroller chips in advance, hoping live
events will be back next year, because the delivery time is
long," said Ashton Jungmin Choi, a co-founder of FANLIGHT, a
Seoul-based company that makes light sticks for bands such as
BTS, EXO and SuperM. He said shipping charges have gone up three
times, and chips cost 30% more compared with a year ago.
"It is very difficult to get any light stick. They are always in
demand and it has been impossible to get the BTS Army Bombs,"
said Mette Kidal, owner of All In Kpop, a Denmark-based K-pop
merchandise retailer that opened a new store in the country this
month to cater to surging demand.
Fanlights of TWICE sold out faster than usual, Kidal said, after
the girl group teased an upcoming tour in the final scenes of
their newly released all-English single "The feels".
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru;
Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Tomasz Janowski)
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