For the past couple of months, a mini-fleet of red-and-black BTS-themed Waymos has been floating around the city, proof that the BTS takeover of San Francisco continues apace.
The Waymo-BTS collab is nothing if not smart marketing. There are about a dozen of these Waymos around the Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, but only the Bay Area can boast that BTS is in the region while their branded self-driving taxis buzz around.
This isn’t the first time Waymo has attempted to endear itself to K-pop fans, though it’s arguably the most successful. Waymos featured prominently in the music video for BTS labelmate Katseye’s “Gabriela.” The video was met with a noticeably negative reaction during a December show at Bill Graham that took place a month after the bot-and-run death of beloved bodega cat KitKat.
The sight of a BTS-branded Waymo whizzing down Market Street perfectly captures San Francisco’s peculiar nexus of fan culture and tech money in 2026. Mayor Daniel Lurie's efforts to revive the city are in part tied up in embracing both of these trends, positioning himself near everything from Labubus to AI conferences.
As much as I enjoy the art and commerce of K-pop, I have reservations about linking it up with the tech money floating around San Francisco at this moment.
In the past six weeks alone, there has been a roving billboard campaign, a flash mob, multiple events at boba shops, a cruise around the Bay, and an Ocean Beach bonfire. All of this has been conducted by local members of the BTS Army, whose loyalty, community, and willingness to spend and volunteer their time fuels much of this activity. It is also ripe for moneyed interlopers — like, say, the increasingly scrutinized tech billionaire-funded Civic Joy Fund — to enter the fray in the name of bringing San Francisco so back for the tech class!
Already, we're starting to see the effects. Last week’s Downtown First Thursday was K-pop-themed, and last month Mayor Lurie went to South Korea as part of a trip to Asia to foster “cultural and educational exchange.” Surely, the powers that run this city understand the financial upside of leaning into Korean pop culture and K-pop’s most profitable group. (It’s really only a matter of time until Lurie posts a TikTok about his favorite BTS song.)
To get a glimpse of just how beneficial this can be to a city, take a gander at the breathless response to BTS’s three-night residency in Mexico City earlier this month, an event so significant that the group meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum shut the city down. According to the Korean news outlet Chosun Ilbo, the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimated that the economic impact of BTS’s concerts, attended by an estimated 150,000 people, reached $107.5 million.
Which brings us back to BTS in the Bay: The BTS concerts this week will be the first major event here in the coming months. In October, BTS leader RM has an exhibit at SFMOMA, ostensibly a showcase of his art collection, but also an act of marketing for the group that will attract fans from around the world. Basically, it’s an activation.
And what’s an activation without a power player or two honing (and cashing) in?
So, Army, by all means, take a BTS-wrapped Waymo to the show in Stanford this weekend. Load up on merch; lose your voice shouting fan chants. Your efforts are probably helping the city and its comeback narrative and making you — ok, us — feel like K-pop fandom is at the very center of the culture right now. But it’s also worth remembering that when the powers that be attempt to co-opt your passion for their own ends, you may have been recruited into an army you wouldn’t want to fight for.
