2026 Spring/Summer
Welcome to SUITE's Highlights
Get ready to explore
what we've been up to lately
The 25th Biennial Conference of the ITS Tokyo, Japan
In Tokyo, Japan
This year, the biennial ITS conference, in conjunction with the 17th ITS Asia-Pacific Conference, was hosted at Waseda University in Tokyo. Under the theme “Navigating Digital Frontiers in a Turbulent World”, the conference provided a valuable opportunity for our members to share their work, receive thoughtful feedback, engage with researchers from different countries. Our SUITE Lab was delighted to take part in this international academic gathering and present eight research papers across a range of topics.
Presented Papers
Seongyeon Ha
Designing Provenance for Short-Form Media: A Participatory Study of Creator and Consumer Perspectives
Jaeyong Park
Digital Well-Being Research: A Bibliometric Analysis and Thematic Analysis
Scott McLaughlin
How Discourse on Decentralized Social Media Frames Web3 Adoption
Why do people subscribe to individuals when they can watch for free: Explaining individual subscriptions on YouTube
Minhyeok Kang
Sewon Eom
To Remain or to Perish? Understanding Creators' Posthumous Preservation Intentions and Self-Representational Media Works on Digital Platforms
Helpful or Intrusive? Platform-Based Retail Media and its Influence on Consumers' Shopping Experience
Eugene Choi
Min Kim
How do Para-social and Fan-to-Fan Interaction Influence K-pop Fandom's Mental Health?
Chanhyeong Jung
What Makes a Smart TV "Smart"? Exploring Expectations toward FAST Services among Single-Person Households in Korea
Glimpse of ITS TOKYO 2026
This year's ITS conference is characterized not only by scholarly discussions but also by joy and enthusiasm.
At the Welcome Reception, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet alumni and professors from around the world. We were especially delighted to meet Professor Johannes Bauer, who was also Professor Kim’s doctoral advisor!
Our very own Seungyeon was selected as a recipient of the Rising Star Program Award. This award recognizes promising early-career researchers who demonstrate strong potential in their doctoral studies. Congratulations, Seungyeon!
At the banquet dinner, we enjoyed a traditional Japanese drum and dance performance. The vibrant and spectacular performance made the evening even more enjoyable and memorable.
SUITE LAB, SSRC and KU students presented research on a wide range of topics, and demonstrated outstanding academic achievements. There were so many of us that we even earned the nickname “KU Army”! Congratulations to everyone on a job well done :)
Academic
Progress
There's a lot happening in our lab.
I will give you a brief summary of our monthly highlights!
Day of the Month
At the 2026 ITS Biennial Conference in Tokyo, Jaeyong, Sewon, and Eugene received Outstanding Student Paper Awards. We look forward to seeing their papers develop into impactful research.
Alumni
SUITE LAB proudly celebrated the final approval for graduation of Dr. Ha and Dr. Kim. Their dedication and groundbreaking research mark the beginning of impactful careers in academia and beyond.
Center Awards
Smart Media Service Research Center (SSRC) was honored with the Minister of Science and ICT's Award for outstanding performance in the talent development sector. Professor Kim, Head of the Research Center, graciously accepted the award as the representative of SSRC.
International
In summer of 2024, Professor Seongcheol Kim hosted the biennial ITS Seoul at Korea University. More than 150 scholars gathered at the Media Hall, presenting research spanning a diverse range from tele-communications policy to accessibility, marking the opening of an international conference.
Publications
Yeah!!! Finalllllly, the articles have been accepted!
Creator strategies in the platform economy:
How frequency, consistency, and content type affect YouTube engagement, attention, and revenue
Available Online
Journal
Journal Index
Methodology
Keywords
June 2026
Telecommunicaions Policy
SSCI/SCIE
Online data, Regression analysis
Content strategy, Creator economy, Digital entrepreneurship, Platform economy, User engagement, YouTube shorts
Summary
This study examines the strategic roles of upload frequency, upload consistency, and content type concentration in shaping user engagement and revenue on YouTube, particularly following the rise of YouTube Shorts in 2021. While it is known that Shorts drive quick audience engagement and longer formatted regular videos (RVs) foster deeper user interactions, creators still lack clear content management strategies to optimize channel performance. Analyzing 47 beauty-related YouTube channels in Korea, this study identifies three strategic elements—upload frequency, upload consistency, and content type concentration—and explores their impact on key metrics such as views, comments, likes, watch time, sustained watch time, and revenue.
Eugene
(1st Author)
Yay - It is finally published! I am so happy and proud to see my first paper officially published.
This paper is especially meaningful to me because it grew from an industry-academia collaboration project. It was a valuable experience to conduct research that connected academic inquiry with real-world practice, and i felt especially proud knowing that the findings provided meaningful support and insight to the company. The publication process also taught me how much meticulous effort and patience are required to bring a single paper to completion. I could not have done this alone; I would like to sincerely thank my co-authors, my advisor professor, and Beaus Company for their support, and for giving me this opportunity :)
Publications
Yeah!!! Finalllllly, the articles have been accepted!
Rethinking Commerciality: How Content Commerciality
Contributes to YouTube Beauty Content Performance
Available Online
Journal
Journal Index
Methodology
Keywords
April 2026
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research (JTAER)
SSCI, Scopus
Quantitative content analysis, Regression analysis
YouTube, short-form video, beauty content, commerciality, user engagement, revenue, content-driven commerce, sponsorship, persuasion knowledge model, content monetization
Summary
Creative expression is increasingly shaped by platform-based monetization models. As content monetization has evolved from advertising and sponsorships to integrated commerce features such as YouTube Shopping, commerciality has become central to the creator economy. This study examines how different levels of content commerciality affect performance using real-world data from 286 short-form videos produced by Korean YouTube beauty creators. The findings highlight how monetization models and content strategies differently shape performance in the short-form video ecosystem and offer practical implications for creators, brands, and platforms.
I'm delighted to see the outcomes of our industry–academia collaboration with BeausCompany published. This project gave me a valuable opportunity to explore the economic sustainability of the content industry and to rethink how the value of content may expand beyond video in an era where platforms enable direct commerce. I hope this study serves as a starting point for further discussions and collaborations, and I am deeply grateful to my advisor and co-authors for their guidance and support.
Jaeyeong
(1st Author)
Book Publication!
Korea’s Platform Empire: An Emerging Power in the Global Platform Sphere
Korea's Platform Empire explores the evolution of digital platforms in South Korea’s media sphere, and their global political, economic, cultural, and technological influence. With a focus on Korea in the context of the global platform revolution, the book takes a methodical look at the broader social implications, and the impact on cultural production. The authors explore various facets of the media and cultural industries, looking beyond social media to news broadcasting and the music industry and look at the policy and regulations behind this shifting technological advancement. This book will appeal to students and scholars working on media industries, digital media, platform studies, information and technology studies, Korean and East Asian media studies, and the creative and cultural industries.
Authors
Publisher
Seongcheol Kim, Dal Yong Jin
Routledge
Table of contents
-
Introduction: Why Do Digital Platforms Matter?
-
How Korea’s Digital Platforms Have Been Evolved?
-
Digital Platform Ecosystem: Who Are the Main Players and What about Their Competitiveness?
-
How Cultural Production Has Shifted in the Digital Platform Age?
-
Policy/Regulation: What Are the Policy Responses to the Rapid Progress of Global OTT Platforms and the Underperformance of Local OTT Platforms?
-
Are Korea’s Digital News Platforms Healthy?
-
Do Korea’s Entertainment Platforms Promote the Korean Wave?
-
How Has YouTube Music Outperformed Korea’s Digital Music Platforms?
-
Can Korea Stay Ahead of Emerging Digital Platforms?
Media
Appearances
Do you recognize the significance of local platforms in today's global society?
If you have an interest in the platform industry, this video will guide you in organizing your thoughts and developing a comprehensive understanding of the topic.