Kpop had so many audiences before US audiences became a prominent player like today : SEA first and foremost, Latin America and even Eastern Europe/Russia. The US and the west definitely is a huge market and holds a lot of power in legitimizing art forms and making them more reputable; which is why a lot of Kpop groups try to break in the US for that reason.
But there's so many things still; like the rumoured NCT Indonesia unit, RBW neglecting their Vietnamese group D1verse, unfulfilled SEA attempts like the kpop groups Tiny G and Skarf, and Zpop being mismanaged and without the best planning and NCT planned to extend to Latin America. Although there's been some positives, like Secret Number and Cignature having members from SEA or SEA ancestry and Hanbin in I-land.
But for a region that's been supporting the Hallyu wave of Kpop for years before it became a thing outside of Asia, it's really sad that they've not got fully realized localization projects by Kpop labels. Even if they have, it's by agencies with low resources, or there's not enough planning, or big companies not putting effort.
So what should the region do? SEA has Asean as a collaberation of geopolitics. So why not a Asean Produce show?
I personally if the major ent.companies in SEA came together and combined their resources, they can deliver. If they can work together with Asean, I see why not in the entertainment industry as well?
