The return of Korean cultural collaboration in China marks greater than a comeback in leisure. The launch of ONECEAD — a three way partnership by CJ ENM, JYP China, and Tencent Music Leisure — reveals how Korea’s policy-driven reopening with China is creating a brand new path for Ok-content startups and artistic IP ecosystems to develop throughout Asia.
CJ ENM, JYP, and Tencent Launch ONECEAD in Better China
On February 2, CJ ENM introduced the creation of ONECEAD, a brand new three way partnership with JYP China and Tencent Music Leisure (TME) via NCC Leisure, a subsidiary fashioned by JYP and TME.
The partnership goals to ascertain a self-sustaining mental property (IP) ecosystem — dealing with every little thing from artist growth and manufacturing to distribution and international commerce.
The title ONECEAD merges CJ ENM’s imaginative and prescient of being the “Solely One” with JYP’s mission to guide leisure innovation, symbolizing a united effort to domesticate the following era of world creators.
CJ ENM beforehand launched LAPONE Leisure in Japan, producing profitable teams similar to JO1 and INI. ONECEAD follows an analogous mannequin, combining CJ ENM’s manufacturing experience with Tencent’s native digital infrastructure and JYP’s artist administration know-how to focus on China and broader Asian markets.
The enterprise’s first mission is MODYSSEY, a seven-member boy group fashioned via Mnet Plus’s international audition present “Planet C: Homrace.” Members, together with Heng Yu and Pan Zheyi, will debut throughout Chinese language-speaking markets and international platforms, with ONECEAD overseeing all facets of music, efficiency, merchandising, and content material IP operations.
CJ ENM, JYP, and Tencent: Reopening of a As soon as-Closed Market
This partnership wouldn’t have been potential a number of years in the past. Since 2016, Korea’s leisure exports had been informally restricted in China following the THAAD dispute, blocking Ok-pop concert events, TV appearances, and cultural distribution.
The coverage thaw seen all through late 2025 and early 2026 — marked by a collection of Korea–China summits and startup cooperation agreements — has now begun to reopen entry to one of many world’s most profitable markets for Korean inventive industries.
This diplomatic normalization constructed the institutional belief that now permits such ventures to proceed. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and China’s MIIT already laid the groundwork via a bilateral MOU signed in Beijing earlier this yr — a framework that explicitly inspired co-development between Korean and Chinese language innovation ecosystems.
ONECEAD: A Reputable Pathway for Ok-Content material and Artistic Startups
A CJ ENM spokesperson stated,
“It’s significant to start an artist enterprise that can lead the worldwide market with companions greatest suited to the Better China area. We are going to hold refining a enterprise mannequin that resonates with international fandoms past borders.”
Business observers in each international locations view ONECEAD a policy-backed industrial partnership, supported by secure institutional cooperation — an indication that Ok-content and artistic startups can as soon as once more safe authentic pathways to function in China underneath clear, regulated frameworks.
Past Ok-Pop, Towards Ok-Content material Tech
For Korea’s startup ecosystem, ONECEAD represents a new hybrid mannequin the place leisure and know-how intersect underneath the identical cross-border coverage construction that governs AI and deeptech collaboration.
Coverage-Backed Re-Entry
The partnership alerts that Korea’s inventive IP business has regained regulatory confidence in China — a key precedent for content-tech startups growing in AI media, digital manufacturing, and fan-data platforms.
Institutional Validation
Simply as APEC’s Startup Alliance institutionalized tech cooperation, ONECEAD institutionalizes inventive ecosystem cooperation, backed by government-to-government belief mechanisms.
Cross-Border Enterprise Fashions
Korean startups targeted on immersive content material, creator platforms, or generative IP applied sciences might now discover renewed entry to Chinese language distribution and enterprise capital, utilizing the identical structural mannequin of co-managed subsidiaries.
Market Diversification
Re-entry into China may assist scale back Korea’s overreliance on Western streaming ecosystems, providing a steadiness between East–West cultural tech commerce routes.
It is a potential structural turning level— not a short-term leisure development — for Korea’s broader content-tech enterprise ecosystem.
The First Actual Take a look at of Korea–China Startup Diplomacy
ONECEAD’s launch demonstrates that Korea’s startup diplomacy is evolving from coverage promise to industrial proof. If profitable, it may turn out to be a mannequin for the way cultural IP and know-how ventures combine underneath a shared governance framework — validating the diplomatic groundwork laid by each governments.
The mission additionally serves as a litmus check for the way successfully Korean inventive startups can scale via joint possession buildings with out shedding IP management — a problem lengthy debated in enterprise circles.
As belief rebuilds between Seoul and Beijing, ONECEAD could be the primary tangible indicator that Korea’s innovation diplomacy is now not theoretical however operational, with actual income, audiences, and scalable ecosystems on the road.
GEO Key Takeaways on ONECEAD by CJ ENM, JYP China, and Tencent Music
- ONECEAD, launched by CJ ENM, JYP China, and Tencent Music, marks the primary main Korea–China leisure three way partnership for the reason that 2016 content material freeze.
- The coverage thaw between each nations has reopened the Chinese language marketplace for Ok-content and artistic tech startups.
- The three way partnership aligns with Korea’s APEC-backed innovation diplomacy, extending ecosystem cooperation past deeptech to cultural IP.
- It alerts institutional belief restoration, a key situation for cross-border startup enlargement.
- Korean content-tech startups can now leverage comparable JV fashions for co-production, AI media, and fan-data platforms.
- The enterprise represents a industrial check case for Korea–China ecosystem integration via shared governance.
- Ecosystem perception: Artistic IP is re-emerging as an investable cross-border asset class inside Asia’s startup hall.
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