SEOUL, Oct 27 — The latest solo single by Blackpink’s Rosé in collaboration with American singer Bruno Mars is not only topping global music charts — it’s also boosting stock prices.
The song, APT, a teaser to her first full-length album rosie set to release on December 6 features an addictive chorus repeating the word “apartment,” pronounced as “apateu” in Korean, draws inspiration from a popular Korean drinking game known as the “Apartment Game.”
Players stack their hands together, the leader calls out a random number and players remove their hands one by one, starting from the bottom.
The person who pulls their hand out on the number called or if they repeat a number that’s already been called, they must take a shot of drink as a penalty.
Driven by the success of the song, and Rose’s promotional video for Vogue where she demonstrates how to make somaek, a popular mix of soju and beer — South Korea’s leading soju maker, HiteJinro, saw its stock price climb by 6 percent to 21,200 won (RM66.31) on Thursday, marking its biggest gain since February.
The feature of its Chamisul Original soju in the video helped push trading volume past one million shares — over eight times the previous day’s volume — reflecting heightened investor interest, reported The Korea Herald.
In the clip, Rose carefully mixes the Korean soju with Belgian beer to create the cocktail, describing it as making “the beer a little more alcoholic.”
She had said that it was her favorite drink when playing “Apateu”.
The video garnered 3.3 million views in a week, with fans around the world are eager to learn about Korean drinking culture.
With the added spotlight on Korea’s unique drinking traditions, thanks to Rose’s song, Korean liquor companies are expected to enjoy further boosts.
APT has drove up shares of YG Plus, the local media company distributing the track, with stocks rallying for five consecutive days.
On Friday, YG Plus shares closed at 6,070 won (RM18.99) on the local bourse, up 5.57 percent from the previous day and marking a 126.49 percent jump since the track was released on October 18.
Since the song’s debut, YG Plus shares have neared the daily upper limit of 30 percent each day on Monday and Tuesday with the continuing popularity of the song expected to drive share prices.
The music video for the song has attracted 160 million views to date, marking it the biggest male-female duet debut of 2024.
Apart from topping major Korean music streaming platforms, including Melon, Genie and Bugs, it climbed to No. 4 on the Apple Music US pop charts, becoming the highest ranked song by a K-pop soloist.
The song also topped Spotify’s Global Top 50 chart, making Rose the first Korean female soloist to achieve the feat.
