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| ▲ This photo, provided by Korea Foundation, shows changes in the number of Korean Wave club members by region. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by Korea Foundation, shows changes in the number of clubs and club members worldwide.(PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Mar. 10
(Yonhap) – Due to the popularity of K-pop such as the group BTS and the spread
of K-content centered on online video services (OTT) such as Netflix, the
number of Korean Wave fans in Europe has increased 37% last year compared to
the previous year.
According to the
"2022 Global Korean Wave Status" recently published by the Korea
Foundation (KF), a public diplomacy organization under the Ministry of Korean Foreign
Affairs, Europe showed the biggest growth in Korean Wave fandom last year.
As of December
2022, Europe has 509 Korean Wave clubs and about 13.2 million club members.
In particular,
the number of clubs in Europe rose 37.6% and the number of club members rose
37.1% compared to the previous year.
Europe accounts
for 30.2% of the global Korean wave fans and 7.4% of the number of club
members. Compared to the previous year, the share of the club increased by 19.6%
and the share of the club members increased by 20.1%.
Asia is the
largest region in the number of clubs and club members.
The number of
clubs in Asia is 596 (35.4%), and the number of clubs is 130 million (73.4%).
By country, China
has 84.3 million), Thailand has 16.8 million, and Vietnam has 13.3 million.
"As Asia is
a region with stable Korean Wave fandom, it is necessary to develop a strategy
to expand Korean Wave around the world," KF said. "Europe has
potential Korean Wave capacity, so European countries can be the bridgehead for
future Korean Wave expansion."
The number of Korean
Wave fans around the world is 178 million, 19 times increase in 10 years
compared to 2012 when booklets began to be published (9.26 million).
Currently, the
number of Korean Wave clubs worldwide is 1,684, 2.2 times increase compared to
2012 (757).
Last year, as the
spread of the COVID-19 weakened, offline activities increased, and the number
of mixed online and offline Korean Wave clubs increased 26.8% year-on-year.
In terms of share,
the combined ratio of offline and online and offline mixed types among all
clubs, including online, is 43%, up 4%p from the previous year.
The reasons why
people around the world like Korean culture are because of ▲ K-pop's addictive
melody ▲ K-pop's creative choreography and lyrics ▲ Korea's trendy style ▲
Korea's economic and cultural development ▲ Etiquette and family-oriented
sentiment.
KF plans to
distribute the "2022 Global Korean Wave Status" booklet to related
organizations and organizations. Related data are released on the KF Statistics
Center website (www.kf.or.kr/koreanstudies/hallyu.do).
(This article is
translated from Korean to English by Yunhee Cho.)
(END)
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