The global COVID-19 outbreak did not, in any way, lessen the love for anything and everything related to K-Pop. In fact, it may have contributed in increasing the adulation level.
So it was no surprise that for the past 12 months alone, conversations on #KPopTwitter recorded a staggering 6.1 billion K-Pop-related Tweets, one of the largest conversations ever on the popular social media platform.
The conversations covered more than 300 K-Pop topics, mostly by artist names. among global K-Pop fans where they saw the best Tweets about their favorites.
YeonJeong Kim, Head of Global K-Pop Partnerships at Twitter, was profuse in saying “thank you.” “It’s been a pleasure to watch and participate in the growth of K-Pop over the past 10 years. When K-Pop artists want to reach a global audience, they go on Twitter to connect with their passionate fans who want to be the first to see and talk about what’s happening. These fans — many of whom are young and based all over the world — are flocking to Twitter to join these fun #KPopTwitter conversations to feel connected to a global fan community.”
For the first-time ever, Twitter and K-Pop Radar, a fandom data observer, jointly released K-Pop data across the top 20 markets that covered every region in the world with the most K-Pop-related conversations via #KPopTwitter. These were the most-mentioned K-Pop artists (by total Tweets), most-mentioned K-Pop songs (by total Tweets) and fastest-rising K-Pop artists (by highest growth in Tweets) on Twitter.
For the period July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, the Philippines ranked as the 5th top market by unique voices on Twitter and 4th top market by Tweet volume. While BTS is the most mentioned K-Pop artist in every market (except Thailand where GOT7 topped the leaderboard), the rest of the top 10 most-mentioned K-Pop artists varied by market, showing the diversity of the K-Pop fandom on Twitter around the world.
Over the past decade, Twitter and K-Pop grew to become a formidable dream team, and the results of the data from the top markets mentioned emphatically showed how the global K-Pop community passionately share their love and connect with their favorite artists.
Just recently, Twitter organized an exclusive “Decade of #KPopTwitter” global live party held at Twitter’s Blueroom. The event brought together several of the K-Pop pioneers like Sunmi and Wonder Girls, global top stars Kihyun, Hyungwon, and MONSTA X, and also fast-rising artists such as Bang Chan and Stray Kids in a fun talk-show format and discussed the past 10 years of K-Pop and Twitter. K-Pop fans also joined in the fun where they submitted questions using the #AskKPopTwitter hashtag and even joined the live stream at @TwitterLive or @TwitterKorea.
Twitter continues to be the go-to source among fans for all things about K-Pop. This is especially true as legends PSY, Super Junior, Big Bang, and Girls Generation, today’s superstars BTS, EXO, GOT7 and Black Pink, and next-generation talents Stray Kids, ATEEZ, TXT, and IZONE are on Twitter. K-Pop fans use Twitter to get the latest updates from the artists they love, connect with other stans anytime and anywhere in real-time, and express their appreciation for the “Hallyu (Korean Wave)” culture that has taken the world by storm.
YeonJeong emphasized that even during the COVID-19 pandemic when K-Pop concerts, global tours and fan appreciation events have been cancelled, they did not see any drop in #KPopTwitter conversations. “K-Pop stans want to stay connected with each other and have their voices heard on Twitter, whether they are cheering for their favorite artist’s new song or participating in movements like #BlackLivesMatter. We can’t wait to see what the next 10 years of K-Pop and Twitter bring to the world.”
Step into the world of #KPopTwitter today to see and talk about your favorites or follow any of the 300+ K-Pop Topics on Twitter to stay connected with other fans around the world!