K-Pop in Vietnam Becomes a Regular Part of Daily Life... "K-Pop Is Not a Trend but an Emotional Outlet"

Vietnam’s music streaming platform Zing MP3 serves as a key indicator of K-Pop’s true level of market maturity. Its chart calculation method, which prioritizes repeated listens and session duration over short-term fan mobilization, shows that K-Pop is no longer a fleeting trend quickly consumed and forgotten. Instead, it has established itself as an emotional outlet within Vietnamese people’s daily lives. A prominent feature of the Zing MP3 charts in November 2025 was the coexistence of new releases and long-standing tracks. NMIXX’s “Blue Valentine” and Davichi’s “TIME CAPSULE” maintained first and second place throughout the month. These two songs differ from typical idol music focused on flashy performances. They feature melodies with clear emotional themes and structures suitable for repeated listening, indicating that Vietnamese audiences no longer respond solely to visual elements centered around idols when consuming K-Pop. Emotional ballads such as Hwasa’s “Good Goodbye,” Roy Kim’s “No Words Can Say,” Wooz’s “Drowning,” and Wudi’s “Sadder Than Yesterday,” along with solo artists’ tracks, stayed at the top of the charts for multiple weeks. This shows that these songs retained their rankings through consistent streaming even without strong fan mobilization. The performance of original soundtracks and project-based IP is also noteworthy. “Golden” and “Soda Pop,” from the “K-pop Demon Hunters” soundtrack, also remained in the upper ranks of the Zing MP3 charts for extended periods. This signals that content IP combining animation and music is being naturally consumed by Vietnamese audiences. Zing MP3 features a chart structure with high predictability. While NCT charts experience rapid spikes and drops over short periods, Zing MP3 shows slower changes with top tracks tending to stay in place for longer durations. This holds significant importance for entertainment companies and labels, as success on Zing MP3 is more likely to lead to stable streaming revenue rather than short-term attention. Meanwhile, K-cultural consumption is also expanding significantly in Malaysia, another key market in Southeast Asia. According to the “2024 Malaysia Content Industry Trends” report published by the Korea Content Agency (KOCCA), 91.5% of Malaysians who have experienced K-pop said they had watched Korean dramas, while 86.8% said they had listened to Korean music. These figures are among the highest among countries surveyed, demonstrating that K-content based on Korean culture is widely consumed locally. This strong interest is leading to purchases of Korean products in various fields such as beauty, fashion, and food. The global reverse import platform Deliveroo Korea recently participated in the Kuala Lumpur K-Pop Expo (KBEE), offering direct purchasing experiences for Korean products. Visitors to the event showed strong purchasing desire for K-beauty and K-pop merchandise, driven by their high interest in K-dramas and K-Pop. Erica, a person who has experienced K-pop, said, “I’m already interested in K-Pop groups like NCT, and now that I can buy merchandise such as lightsticks at lower prices, I plan to use this service more actively in the future.” Deliveroo Korea’s average annual growth rate over the past three years reached 317.8%, with cumulative exports amounting to $7.39 million.