K-pop Remains Top Global Symbol of Korea for Eighth Consecutive Year; Global Viewers Spend 14 Hours Monthly, Spending Approximately 23,000 Won Per Month

As a global symbol of Korean culture, K-pop has held the first place for eight years in a row. According to the “2025 Overseas Hallyu Survey (Based on 2024 Data)” released on the 7th by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea International Cultural Exchange Promotion Agency, K-pop (17.8%) has ranked first for eight consecutive years since 2017 as the image that comes to mind first when people think of Korea. Following K-pop are Korean cuisine (11.8%), dramas (8.7%), beauty products (6.4%), and movies (5.6%), while IT products and brands (5.1%) ranked only sixth. This marks the first time since the 2012 survey that IT products have fallen outside the top five. The survey was conducted online from November 29 to December 27 of last year among 26,400 people who had experienced Hallyu in 28 foreign countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. The Philippines and Hong Kong were newly included in this survey, and the sample size per region was increased from 700 to 1,600 to 700 to 2,100. ## Surge in Global Consumers’ Investment in Hallyu Global consumers are allocating more time and money to K-content. The average monthly consumption time per person who has experienced Hallyu for Korean cultural content is 14 hours, an increase of 2.3 hours compared to the previous year (an increase of approximately 20%). Among different types of content, dramas (17.5 hours) and variety shows (17 hours) recorded the highest viewing times. Spending amounts also increased significantly. The average monthly expenditure is 15.4 dollars (approximately 23,000 won), up 4.9 dollars from 10.5 dollars in 2023 (an increase of approximately 46%). By category, spending was highest on Korean language learning (31.7 dollars), fashion (31.2 dollars), beauty products (27.9 dollars), and food (23.2 dollars). Among different age groups, people in their 20s spent an average of 15.3 hours per month on Korean content, 1 to 2 hours more than other age groups. By country, the Philippines (24 hours per month), Thailand (20.1 hours per month), and the United Arab Emirates (19.2 hours per month) had the longest consumption times. ## Approval Rate for Hallyu Content Exceeds 70% Approval for K-content as a whole has also risen. The percentage of respondents who said they liked Korean cultural content was 70.3%, while those willing to recommend it reached 68.2%. By category, the willingness to recommend was highest for Korean language learning (78.5%), variety shows (75.9%), games (75.9%), dramas (75.4%), and beauty products (75.4%). Notably, “Korean language learning” was included in this survey for the first time, with an approval rate of 75.4%, surpassing the overall average of 70.3%. By region, high levels of Hallyu approval were maintained in the Philippines (88.9%), Indonesia (86.5%), India (84.5%), and Thailand (82.7%). ## BTS Remains Favorite Artist; “Squid Game” and “Parasite” Still Popular In terms of preference for favorite singers/groups, BTS held the first place for the seventh consecutive year with 24.6% of the vote. BLACKPINK remained in second place for the sixth year in a row with 12.3%, followed by IU (3.1%), Psy (2.2%), and TWICE (1.8%). For Korean dramas, “Squid Game” ranked first for the fourth consecutive year with 9.7%, “The Queen of Tears” came in second at 6.5%, and “Love Descends” finished third at 2.2%. Among movies, “Parasite” retained its first-place position for the fifth consecutive year with 8.3%, followed by “Busan Train” at 6.5% and “Palm Grave” at 4.1%. In terms of favorite actors, Lee Min-ho held the first place for the 12th consecutive year since 2014 with 7.0% of the vote. ## Concerns Over Rising Negative Perceptions of Hallyu The spread of K-content is accelerating further. Looking at the average perception rate of “popularity” across various categories, it increased by 4.4 percentage points from 2015 to 2020, and by 8.2 percentage points from 2020 to 2024, showing a growing upward trend. This is attributed to increased accessibility due to more exposure to Hallyu through social media and online video service platforms. However, along with the rising popularity of Hallyu, negative perceptions are also on the increase. The percentage of people who agree with negative perceptions of Hallyu is 37.5%, up 4.9 percentage points from the previous year (32.6%). The highest levels of negative perception were observed in India (52.7%) and the United Arab Emirates (52%), where interest in Hallyu is high and consumption is active.