K-content tweets increase 546% over 10 years

The amount of tweets related to Korean content has grown 546 percent over the past 10 years, according to Twitter.

“K-content’s growth on Twitter follows the explosive growth pattern of K-pop,” said Kim Yeong-jeong, Twitter’s head of global K-pop and K-contents partnership, Tuesday at the Content Marketing Summit 2022 held at the InterContinental Hotel in Seoul.

“Twitter‘s strength, which allowed K-pop to expand its reach over the past few years, is expected to contribute to K-content spreading globally,” she added.

Kim pointed out that the driving force behind the explosive growth in the number of tweets related to Korean content is the quality of Korean content and the fandom culture that K-pop has created over the last three decades.

She explained that the same communities that formed based on K-pop have now been expanded to other categories such as movies, dramas and webtoons, leading to the globalization of K-content.

“Fans from all around the world are leading the global success of K-content by sharing conversations about it on Twitter in real-time,” she said.

Kim noted that K-content is now popular beyond Asia and is continuously expanding its base in North America, Europe and Latin America through social media and digital platforms.

According to Twitter, the 10 countries tweeting most about K-content from January through August this year were South Korea, Thailand, the US, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Brazil, Japan and the UK. The other countries in the top 20 were Mexico, Canada, France, Vietnam, Spain, Singapore, Italy, Turkey, Germany and Peru.

Kim underlined that the correlation between K-pop and K-content can also be explained by the Korean dramas and movies featuring singers, such as Kim Se-jeong of “Business Proposal,” Lee Jun-ho of “The Red Sleeve,” Lee Jie-un of “Broker” and Ok Taec-yeon of “Hansan.”

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)