Twitter announced ‘#BeyondKpop: Globalization of K-culture from Music to Drama, Webtoon, Movie and beyond’, at MU:CON 2021

• Big data analysis of Tweets from July 2018 to June 2021
  reveals the top 20 most-mentioned Korean dramas, webtoons, and movies on Twitter
  for the first time
• K-content fans come to Twitter to celebrate their favorites
  and engage in global conversations
• ‘Parasite’, ‘Kingdom’, ‘True Beauty’
  were ranked most mentioned K-content on Twitter globally

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – Media OutReach – 1 October 2021 – Speaking at MU:CON 2021, YeonJeong Kim, Head of Global K-pop
and K-content Partnerships at Twitter, introduced big data insights with the
theme of ‘#BeyondKpop : Globalization of K-Culture from Music to Drama,
Webtoon, Movie and beyond’, and Top 20 most Tweeted K-content. Twitter has been
at the center of global conversations about K-pop music scenes, and YeonJeong’s
new announcement reflects Twitter’s effect on the global spread of various
K-content like Korean popular dramas, webtoons, and movies as well as K-pop
music.

Picture Description:
Twitter’s Announcement of #BeyondKPOP at MU:CON 2021

The results of data aggregation were
conducted by Twitter and VAIV company through big data text mining techniques
that analyzed global English Tweets from July 2018 to June 2021.

Most-mentioned
K-dramas show clear connection to K-pop

Picture Description:
Top 20 Most-Mentioned K-Dramas on Twitter in the World

For many K-pop fans, K-dramas were
the next type of K-content they tried after falling in love with K-pop, and the
most popular K-dramas reflect this preference.

The top four most-mentioned K-dramas
around the world were ranked as follows: Kingdom
at number one, Itaewon Class (based
on the original webtoon) at number two, True
Beauty at number three, and Vincenzo
at number four. True Beauty and Vincenzo both include roles for K-pop
stars, with Cha Eun-woo (a member of the male K-pop group ASTRO) appearing in True Beauty, and Ok Taec-yeon (a member of the male K-pop group 2PM) starring in Vincenzo.

Twitter’s analysis of the word cloud
for Tweets mentioning Itaewon Class confirmed
that many Tweets about Itaewon Class mentioned
the OST song “Sweet Night” by V, a member of the male K-pop group BTS. The word
cloud also connected Itaewon Class to
11 other dramas during the first half of 2021. This shows that interest in Itaewon Class led fans to other
K-dramas, making Itaewon Class a
critical influence for K-content and new fans getting more interested.

Most-mentioned
webtoons show boosted interest in webtoons with related K-dramas

Picture Description:
Top 20 Most-Mentioned K-Webtoons on Twitter in the World

With K-pop music reaching all-time
highs, and the popularity of K-dramas surging accordingly, original K-webtoons
are also seeing increased interest, especially for webtoons that have been
turned into K-dramas.

Many of the most-mentioned webtoons
have been turned into K-dramas. True
Beauty, which ranked third in the most-mentioned K-dramas on Twitter,
ranked first in the most-mentioned K-webtoons on Twitter. Sweet Home, which was turned into a Netflix original series, ranked
second in the most mentioned K-webtoons. Itaewon
Class, which ranked fourth, was later turned into a K-drama, while Navillera (sixth) not only was later
turned into a K-drama, but also benefited from BTS member V recommending the
drama on a fan cafe.

Most-mentioned
movies show the impact of Korea’s biggest directors

Picture Description:
Top 20 Most-Mentioned K-Movies on Twitter in the World

Just three film directors accounted
for 9 of the top 20 K-movies that are most-mentioned on Twitter.

Parasite, directed by Bong
Joon-ho, was the most-mentioned K-movie on Twitter, but Bong’s other movies, Snowpiercer, Okja, Mother, and The Host, all were among the top 20.
Directors Park Chan-wook and Yeon Sang-ho also accounted for two K-movies
apiece, with Oldboy and Thirst, and Peninsula and Train to Busan,
respectively.

Twitter’s analysis of Tweets related
to Bong Joon-ho showed keywords related to Parasite
(which won four Academy Awards in 2020), Mother,
and Snowpiercer respectively, as well
as works by other prominent directors Park Chan-wook and Lee Chang-dong.
Twitter’s analysis shows that interest in Bong Joon-ho helped to drive interest
in K-movies broadly.

K-content
will continue to expand

Yeon-jeong Kim, head of Twitter’s
Global K-pop and K-content partnerships, said, “Twitter has proven that K-pop -
along with many other fandoms – thrive due to the characteristics of Twitter:
live, public, and conversational. People are consuming K-content through
various channels, but in the end, the conversations are being held on Twitter.
K-content has limitless potential as the fandom culture that started with K-pop
has taken an interest in other forms of Korean content, which has led to the
spread of the culture. Twitter will dedicate itself in the fullest to
supporting the globalization of K-content and the fandom it empowers.”

MU:CON 2021 celebrated the 10th
anniversary of Asia’s largest global music market event held by the Ministry of
Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and the Korea Creative Content Agency, in an
effort to help Korean musicians advance in the global market. In addition to
Twitter, the MU:CON 2021 conference included speeches from Harvard Business
School professor Anita Elberse, Billboard columnist Jeff Benjamin, and
singer-songwriter Jenna Andrews (songwriter for BTS”Butter’), as well as other
famous figures from Korea and the rest of the world.