(Note: This is my professional profile. For a more fun, down-to-earth description of myself and Popsori, please go to the About Us page.)
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Jason Yu is an esports and K-pop journalist, consultant, and video creator. He has lived overseas for 15 years, living in Japan and Korea for seven and a half years each.
Originally from California, he started his career as a software engineer after graduating college. After three years as a coder, he would leave his position and move to South Korea in 2010 to teach English. He would teach one year in kindergarten, teach university students English at Konkuk University and Sogang University for five years, and teach Computer Science at an international high school.
While working as a university instructor, Jason would also work as a journalist and columnist at Yonhap News. He would later work at Korea Times as a team leader and editor, mentoring Korean university graduates and coordinating stories with his Korean co-workers. He would also wrote for both publications in esports, Korean life, and K-pop.
During his journalist career living in Seoul, he would cover over 300 events as media. The genres he covered were film, anime, esports, J-pop, and K-pop. Among these events include the Busan International Film Festival, Tokyo Game Show, G-Star, the Bucheon International Film Festival, the Global Starcraft League, and the League of Legends Championships. Jason would work with several companies, including Livenation, JYP Entertainment, Starship Entertainment, 1totheK, Afreeca TV, Blizzard Entertainment, and Riot Games.
In late 2017, after living in Korea for seven and a half years, he would move back to California. He took a position as the West Coast K-pop writer at South China Morning Post (SCMP) and become an esports consultant to various companies.
He would create a new YouTube channel during this time called Popsori, a K-pop channel dedicated to learning Korean music in-depth. With the motto “become a smarter K-pop fan,” Jason wanted to share his K-pop media experiences while living in Korea, while teaching K-pop in a fun and educational way.
Today, Jason continues to create videos on Popsori, while working as a K-pop writer at SCMP and esports consultant in California.
Jason's skillset and specialities
Jason has worked as a marketer, content creator, copywriter, and full-stack programmer throughout his career. These days, he works with entertainment and pop culture focused companies grow their brand and increase their profit.
Here are some the results he accomplished in his previous jobs, past clients, and current projects.
- Created a viral video with over 1.4 million views on YouTube.
- Increased profit for two media sites selling English learning material from $0 to $2000 a month.
- Increased monthly traffic for two media sites from 100k to 250k a month and 50k to 85k a month respectively.
- Consulted Western esports companies how they could relate and understand Korean companies better.
- Created a personal project called Asian Filmist, a site about Asian films, and ranked several articles in the top 5 of Google SEO in less than three months.
- Worked with a Korean music label to promote their small concert by doubling their ticket sales from 400 to 800 buyers.
- Designed and created websites for Korean media sites.
- Built three websites from scratch in pop culture.
Below are my several of my publications in articles and videos.
Publications interviewed or referenced in
World Magazine: Crazy for K-pop
Kübra Okutan / Roskilde University, Denmark: The rise of Korean music and hip-hop
Music articles in media
SCMP: How K-pop bands like BTS and BLACKPINK cracked North America
SCMP: K-pop girl band BLACKPINK’s US tour marks meteoric rise to global success
SCMP: Is J-pop girl band Perfume destined for US stardom?
SCMP: How Candace Sosa’s song Killing Time became K-pop boy band BTS’ hit single, Euphoria
Asian articles in media
Yonhap News: Mirrors reflect obsession with physical appearance
Esports articles in media
xLive: How esports online became more dominant than traditional media
xLive: Investing in esports: why brands and celebrities want a piece of the esports scene
IGN: How Korea embraced eSports
Yonhap News: The rise of eSports and interview with Artosis
IGN: Behind the scenes look at a Starcraft 2 match in Korea
Vertagear: Why should you care about EVO 2019
Esports articles for businesses
Teknos Associates: The Streamer Wars: How Ninja’s Defection to Mixer Started the Bidding War
Teknos Associates: The Rise of Female Gamers Esports’ Underappreciated Fans
Videos
Why IU is well-respected:
Why BoA is well-respected:
How K-pop became more popular
than J-pop globally:The rise of BTS
Why B.A.P didn’t break out and become huge like EXO and BTS
How the TWICE Dome Tour cemented TWICE’s popularity in Japan
The revival of Japanese city pop
The rise of Dreamcatcher