HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s leading entertainment agency YG Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it has recently opened an online store for Chinese fans of Korean pop stars.

The company that has big name stars such as Psy, Big Bang and 2NE1 under its label said it started operating an online store at http://cn.ygeshop.com where Chinese consumers can buy merchandise related to YG Entertainment-affiliated pop singers.

The opening of the new store was due to the increasing popularity of YG Entertainment stars in China, they said.

“It will now be easier for fans in China to purchase YG Entertainment merchandise,” the company said.

YG Entertainment will be selling products including music albums, videos and photo books at the online store.

The company was founded in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk, who was a former Korean pop star himself. Yang, also known as Yang Goon, rose to stardom in South Korea as a member of Seo Taiji and Boys, one of the country’s first boy bands that formed in 1991.

Over the past two decades, the popularity of Korean pop culture has been strong in China.

The Korean Wave, also known as hallyu, began when the MBC TV soap opera “What is Love?” became a sensation in China after being first broadcast on the state-run CCTV channel in 1996. The Chinese audience response to “Daejanggeum (Jewel in the Palace),” a Korean period drama starring Lee Young-ae and shown in the country in 2005, was also explosive.

Hallyu has entered into a second phase as Korean pop music, known as K-pop, has surpassed the popularity of Korean TV dramas in China, Taiwan and other Asian countries.