Have you been taken by the Korean Wave yet?

The Korean Wave or ‘Hallyu’ refers to the dramatic rise in popularity and global spread of South Korea’s pop culture, entertainment, music, drama and film.

One example is the K-Pop sensation BTS, which boasts its own ‘army’ with a global fandom community of almost 13 million people. The BTS army is responsible for at least half a million social media mentions daily and, in 2023, the music group’s sales reached an astronomical US $1.5 billion.

BTS attracts at least 800,000 tourists to South Korea every year, generating over US $3.9 billion for the South Korean economy. And their global reach is widespread: in 2021, the group’s charity campaign with UNICEF, Love Myself, was equally supported across the Global North and Global South, raising more than US $3.6 billion.

Dating back to the 1990s when the first K-dramas conquered Asian audiences, the Korean Wave rapidly expanded around the world, offering a wide range of products from film and animation to music, cuisine and even cosmetics.  

In 2024, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of Hallyu fans worldwide reached 225 million, covering 119 countries across almost all continents and bringing in US $14.16 billion (KRW 19.54 trillion) worth of exports of Hallyu-related products and services.

Considering such powerful social and economic impact, could big data and AI tell us a more nuanced and detailed story about Hallyu’s rapid development and rise over the past three decades?

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To answer this question, a team of researchers from disciplines including cultural management, global media communication and international relations worked together on a project co-funded by the Korea Foundation to map the global impacts of Hallyu, developing a groundbreaking new tool, ‘The Hallyu Tracker’.

This AI-powered data visualisation tool delves into the details of Hallyu’s global dissemination, analysing over 300 datasets (some with several thousands of rows) to uncover patterns and trends behind its global production, circulation and consumption across cultural and economic geographies.

By mapping the Korean Wave’s three main powers (Reach, Appeal, and Engagement Power), Hallyu Tracker offers a new way of understanding Hallyu’s reach, intensity, durability and impact in different parts of the world.

For example, Hallyu Reach Power considers factors like a country’s economic infrastructure, the social demographics of its population, and the Korean government’s efforts to export Hallyu products to that country. By analysing variables like audience scope, purchasing power and the country’s trade position on the global market, the tracker can easily identify countries with the highest potential for Hallyu consumption.

While the Korean government strategically prioritises a handful of countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas where Hallyu has reached significant value (where the local population widely consumes Korean creative and entertainment products), the Hallyu Tracker can identify more countries with a similar profile, creating new opportunities to explore untapped territories.

For example, there are almost 50 countries around the world with a Hallyu Reach Power index above 70 (out of 100), including several Middle Eastern countries like Oman, Quatar and Kuwait which have zero direct Hallyu imports so far.

These countries also score very highly for Hallyu compatibility thanks to the median age of their populations (ranging from 29 to 34). Since Hallyu is known for its young demographic, a young population with rapidly growing content consumption demands becomes a decisive factor when it comes to assessing Hallyu’s potential reach power, particularly when those demands are poorly satisfied by domestic or regional creative industries. 

Experts from Space Oddity, a Korean music industry startup that recently secured US $3.7 million in venture funding to ramp up its K-Pop Fandom Incubating Services, found Hallyu Tracker to be a useful research tool for providing insights into potential markets in so-called ‘virgin’ areas.

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But potential reach does not necessarily guarantee actual consumption. Let’s look at China for example, a country with enormous mega-market potential for Hallyu.

In the past, the anti-Hallyu movement in China, fueled by South Korea's decision to deploy the US-led missile defense system, significantly impacted the consumption and circulation of Korean cultural products in China. With anti-Hallyu attitudes on social media reaching over 1.6 billion posts, reposts and reactions in 2016, the Chinese digital landscape posed a significant challenge for Hallyu circulation.

Nevertheless, despite this severe anti-Hallyu sentiment, the Hallyu Tracker shows that China has still scores very highly on the Hallyu Engagement Index. In 2020, for example, China achieved a score of 99 out of 100 with top engagement levels for digital and physical fandoms, media resonance, and Hallyu consumption.

Moving to other, less economically powerful regions, one might be surprised to see countries like Tanzania, Kenya or Sudan scoring high on the Hallyu Engagement tracker, with a digital fandom score above 80 pointing to strong activity of fans on Facebook or X.

While these countries are not known for direct cultural imports from Korea (and are modestly targeted by Korean government efforts like exchanges and other activities), the data tells us that many people in these regions are finding their way to Hallyu consumption via social media.

By using the Hallyu Tracker, we can gain a greater appreciation for just how complex the dynamics of the global entertainment market can be. Analysing vast amounts of data, the tracker helps us unlock the secrets of the Korean Wave's global success and identify emerging trends that could shape the future of the entertainment industry.

To learn more, join the launch of the Hallyu Tracker on YouTube Live on Friday 6 December 2024.