There’s no denying that Latin America is one of the leading markets with interest in K-pop, especially with the tremendous success it’s had from large fan bases across the Latine diaspora worldwide. And thanks in large part to social media platforms like Twitter, online conversations about the music scene have become more accessible to fans around the world, driving up remarkable engagements and multiple global conversations about the music and its artists — many of which come from Latin American countries.
In 2021, a whopping 7.8 billion engagements with K-pop music and artists took place on Twitter, according to South China Morning Post. In a discussion with Yeon Jeong Kim, head of global K-pop and K-content partnerships at Twitter, the list of the top 20 countries leading the discussions was revealed. The top three consisted of Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea, which comes as no surprise given it’s the center of that music industry.
But trailing closely behind said Asian countries and the U.S., several Latin American countries also made the list. Amongst the top 10, Brazil and Mexico came in at No. 6 and No.8, respectively, among the top countries with large K-pop fan bases and Twitter discussions. It is no surprise that both Brazil and Mexico made the top 10 given that they’re geographically the largest countries in the region and held the most K-pop concerts there prior to the pandemic.
Other Latin American countries appearing in the top 20 include Peru (No. 11), Argentina (No.12), Chile (No.15), Colombia (No.16), and Ecuador (No.19). Kim also highlighted that Latin American countries and India were the biggest emerging markets for K-pop on the platform in 2021. The growing trend in Latine and K-pop collaborations is an additional factor of K-pop’s emerging success in Latin America, with fans embracing each collaboration between the artists or creating potential collaboration predictions of their own.
The report also broke down K-pop groups’ popularity by country. Groups like BTS and Blackpink ranked within the top three in K-pop engagements on Twitter for Mexico and Brazil. Mexico’s top three popular acts are BTS, Stray Kids, and Blackpink, whereas Brazil’s are BTS, Blackpink, and ATEEZ. Even though both countries mirror worldwide trends for K-pop, with BTS at No.1 for tweet engagement, both have their own respective favorites among K-pop acts. While boy groups dominate the rankings, Brazil had the girl group Loona at No. 10, and Mexico was the only country outside of South Korea to include male ensemble Monsta X.
With Latin America becoming a stronger market for K-pop within the last few years, fans remain optimistic about seeing even more future collaborations amongst Latine and K-pop artists continue and more concerts taking place in Latin-American countries. The latest came just last year, with Natti Natasha teaming up with the girl group Momoland.
With these in mind, there’s hope that the region will be taken more seriously and become more accessible to Latin-American fans similar to Japan and the U.S.
By
Thursday, 27 January 2022
With a massive 7.8 billion global Tweets in 2021, #KpopTwitter once again showed its power by breaking its previous record of 6.7 billion Tweets in 2020. Registering a notable 16% increase in Tweet volume globally, #KpopTwitter conversations became more diverse and vibrant in 2021.
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Diving deeper into the flurry of Tweets, Twitter’s analysis reveals the Top 20 countries Tweeting most about K-pop, the Top 20 countries with the most K-pop fans, as well as rankings of the most Tweeted about K-pop artists and rising K-pop artists.
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With its legion of passionate and active fans, Indonesia tops the list for most number of K-pop Tweets for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, Mexico, Malaysia, Brazil, India, and Japan made it into the top 10.
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While the list of countries with the most number of fans (analyzed by unique authors) looks similar to the list for most number of Tweets, with Indonesia coming in first and the others like Japan and the Philippines close behind, countries like Peru, Colombia, Singapore, and Ecuador were featured among the top 20 this year (after missing out in 2020). Meanwhile, as the number of fans continues to grow in various countries, Chile and Vietnam climbed the ranks by four and five positions, ultimately securing the 16th and 13th spots respectively.
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Of course, the 21st century pop icon, BTS (@BTS_twt), takes the top spot as the most Tweeted about K-pop artist globally - with the band’s concert ‘BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LA’ alone contributing more than 68 million Tweets from all over the world. For the second year in a row, NCT (@NCTsmtown) comes in second.
In addition to K-pop sensation BLACKPINK (@BLACKPINK) and heavyweights EXO (@weareoneEXO) being featured on the top 20 list, younger groups also cemented their positions with TOMORROW X TOGETHER (@TXT_members) rising from 8th place in 2020 to 6th in 2021, ATEEZ (@ATEEZofficial) climbing one spot to 9th, and Stray Kids (@Stray_Kids) at 10th.
2021 also proved to be a breakthrough year for the 4th generation of K-pop idols. ENHYPEN (@ENHYPEN_members) who were 5th on the 2020 list of rising K-pop artists impressively came in as the 3rd most Tweeted about band in 2021 (just after BTS and NCT). Within a year of their debut, the group celebrated a huge achievement with their first studio album “DIMENSION:DILEMMA” becoming a ‘million-seller’ and placing 11th on the Billboard 200 chart. Fellow 4th generation idols aespa (@aespa_official) and ITZY (@ITZYofficial) also hit significant milestones as they first entered the top 20 list, being 14th and 16th respectively.
Other K-pop idols on the top 20 list include TREASURE (@treasuremembers), SEVENTEEN (@pledis_17), TWICE (@JYPETWICE), GOT7 (@GOT7Official), THE BOYZ (@IST_THEBOYZ), iKON (@YG_iKONIC), ASTRO (@offclASTRO), MonstaX (@OfficialMonstaX), Red Velvet (@RVsmtown), and SHINee(@SHINee).
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Unsurprisingly ENHYPEN (@ENHYPEN_members) is first on the list of the Top 10 rising Artists, followed by TOMORROW X TOGETHER (@TXT_members), TREASURE (@treasuremembers), aespa (@aespa_official), and ITZY (@ITZYofficial). Newer generation groups like IVE (@IVEstarship), CRAVITY (@CRAVITYstarship), WEi (@WEi__Official), ONEUS (@official_ONEUS), and CIX (@CIX_twt) are also featured on the Top 10.
2021 saw growing global interest in Korean entertainment beyond music
While the reach of K-pop continued to skyrocket, we also saw a variety of conversations as Korean dramas, movies, webtoons, and other types of entertainment steadily cemented their place on the world stage. In particular, webtoons turned K-dramas were embraced by the global audience, with True Beauty, Sweet Home, and Navillera among the top most Tweeted about webtoons on Twitter. Of course, the influence of K-pop also had a part to play. When official soundtracks included famous K-pop artists, dramas and webtoons enjoyed a boost in viewership - such as BTS V’s song ‘Sweet Night’ for Itaewon Class.
As the place to be for both fans and artists to connect, Twitter is a home for many celebrities from the different facets of Korean entertainment. In addition to well-known rapper Youngji (@dokgodieinsaeng) and actress Lee SeYoung (@seyoung0703), stars from the hit show Street Woman Fighter such as Monika (@monikaaashin), Honey J (@__honey_j__), and no:ze (@noze_world) started new Twitter accounts in the second half of 2021.
Fans enjoyed more #OnlyOnTwitter content connecting themselves closely to stars
Twitter continues to launch new features and programs that deliver #OnlyOnTwitter content to fans everywhere. Beyond providing support to the K-pop community, Twitter is also expanding our capabilities and evolving into a service to promote K-content. We have already hosted #TwitterBlueroom live sessions for movies and dramas including Q&As with the cast of The Book of Fish, King Maker, The Red Sleeve, and One Ordinary Day. Twitter also brought #FanTweets and #BehindTheTweets to K-pop starting with BLACKPINK’s ROSÉ. With the introduction of Twitter Spaces in 2021, Twitter has also created more opportunities and channels for fans and artists to connect and communicate, building stronger relationships with each other.
Twitter’s Head of Global K-pop Partnerships, YeonJeong Kim says, “In 2021, with BTS and NCT leading the conversation, we could also see an increase in conversation related to rising artists such as ENHYPEN, aespa, and ITZY. But beyond K-pop, we’ve also seen discussions about Korean content across the board on Twitter growing with K-pop fans talking about not just their favorite music, performances, concerts, and daily lives, but showing increasing interest in dramas and webtoons with K-pop soundtracks or starring K-pop idols. As the global consumption of Korean content grows, we look forward to seeing even more diverse conversations on Twitter and providing more content you can see #OnlyOnTwitter in 2022.”
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