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Tamar Herman

Between the virality of K-pop acts like BTS and Blackpink and K-dramas such as Squid Game and Hellbound, South Korean entertainment content dominated pop culture conversations on Twitter last year, and in 2022 that is expected to continue.
Last year, more than 7.8 billion engagements with K-pop music and artists took place on the social media platform, compared to 6.7 billion engagements in 2020.
The most popular K-pop act on Twitter in 2021 was BTS, followed by NCT, Enhypen, EXO, Blackpink, Tomorrow X Together (TXT), Treasure, Seventeen, Ateez and Stray Kids.
According to YeonJeong Kim, head of global K-pop and K-content partnerships at Twitter, K-pop conversations outpace all other pop culture discussions on the platform. Esports and gaming, another sizeable community on the site, in comparison had 2.4 billion engagements in 2021.

Twitter users in Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and the United States tweeted the most about K-pop in 2021, and these countries, along with Japan, have the most K-pop fans.
Twitter K-pop fans are not limited to any specific demographic, Kim says.
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Each country’s audience has its own distinct taste and favourite acts, although trends in the popularity of emerging artists typically follow those in South Korea. BTS were the most talked about K-pop act in the top 10 countries, while in Thailand NCT dominated the conversation. “K-pop fans are really diverse, but at the same time unified,” Kim says.
She says Twitter identified India and Latin American countries as the biggest emerging markets for K-pop on the platform last year.
Twitter analysed mentions of official Twitter accounts of K-pop acts and bands, along with their official names, to calculate their official #TwitterKpop 2021 data between January 1 and December 31.

Gen Z users are especially active, with Kim saying many begin using the platform at least in part, if not wholly, because of the scale of the conversations on it about K-pop.
According to Kim, “K-content” – Twitter’s umbrella term for all facets of South Korean culture and pop culture discussed on the site – also had a milestone year, largely thanks to discussions spurred by hit K-drama series, including shows such as Squid Game.
Twitter being a conversational platform for K-pop fans has helped increase general K-content conversations, says Kim.

“It is kind of beyond K-pop, from music to dramas to webtoons to films and games, and even fashion and food,” she says.
In 2022, Twitter plans to focus on spotlighting other elements of Korean popular culture, working with K-drama and film stars and creators. Having an existing audience is helping.
“On Twitter, there is a global fandom, already existing, and they are driving diverse conversations,” says Kim. “They’re also focusing on related dramas, and the original soundtracks, and the fashion, and gaming. Those kind of conversations are spurring diverse conversations in terms of K-pop. It’s like a hurricane.”
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One example of this cyclical content discourse around K-content was the popular Netflix show Our Beloved Summer. “The show was popular, but there was also an original soundtrack by V from BTS, so that trended and he was contributing to the popularity of that drama.”
Fandom activations, both ones naturally created by fans and others featuring artists using Twitter, helped boost engagement, says Kim. K-pop stars regularly appear on Twitter’s Blueroom live-streaming engagement platform, and several have joined Twitter’s voice-only conversational Spaces.
Several of the most popular Spaces hosted in 2021 were by K-pop stars, including BamBam of Got7 and members of NCT. Real-time translations have helped make the conversations more accessible to fans from around the world.

Let's say goodbye with the emoji! We are ASTRO! Thank you good night see you soon! Good night~
— Twitter Korea🇰🇷 (@TwitterKorea) August 5, 2021

The top 10 most mentioned K-pop artists by country on Twitter in 2021, ranked in order of engagement:
Indonesia


BTS


NCT


Enhypen


EXO


Treasure


TXT


Seventeen


Stray Kids


Ateez


Blackpink



The Philippines


BTS


Enhypen


Blackpink


NCT


Seventeen


Treasure


Twice


EXO


TXT


Stray Kids



South Korea


BTS


NCT


The Boyz


Seventeen


Itzy


TXT


Exo


Monsta X


Shinee


IZ*One



Thailand


NCT


BTS


Got7


Blackpink


Exo


Treasure


Enhypen


Aespa


TXT


Seventeen



The US


BTS


Twice


Ateez


NCT


TXT


Exo


Enhypen


Stray Kids


Blackpink


Seventeen



Mexico


BTS


Stray Kids


Blackpink


TXT


Enhypen


Ateez


NCT


Monsta X


Astro


Exo


Malaysia


BTS


NCT


Ateez


Enhypen


Seventeen


Exo


Treasure


TXT


Blackpink


Stray Kids


Brazil


BTS


Blackpink


Ateez


TXT


NCT


Twice


Stray Kids


Enhypen


Exo


Loona


India


BTS


TXT


Exo


Blackpink


Ateez


Enhypen


Twice


NCT


Got7


Seventeen


Japan


BTS


NCT


Seventeen


Enhypen


TXT


Twice


Astro


Shinee


Stray Kids


Ateez




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Blackpink

Which K-pop bands were the most tweeted about in 2021? And which countries’ K-pop fans tweeted the most?

Twitter named BTS the most talked about K-pop group last year among the 7.8 billion K-pop engagements on the site. Photo: @bts_twt/Twitter

The countries that were the biggest sources of tweets about K-pop in 2021. Photo: Twitter

The countries with the most K-pop fans on Twitter in 2021. Photo: Twitter

The most tweeted about K-pop artists globally in 2021. Photo: Twitter

Enhypen were the second most mentioned group in the Philippines. Photo: Belift Lab

BTS were the most talked about K-pop group, except in Thailand. Photo: Big Hit Entertainment

NCT 2021.

Twice. Photo: JYP Entertainment

Rising K-pop artists globally on Twitter in 2021. Photo: Twitter

TikTok’s biggest K-pop acts: BTS, Blackpink and Tomorrow X Together, with NCT, Twice and Enhypen also popular

CL is one of the fastest growing K-pop artists on TikTok. Photo: Instagram/@chaelincl

Boy band Tomorrow X Together are one of the biggest K-pop acts on TikTok. Photo: Big Hit Music

CL is one of the fastest growing K-pop artists on Tiktok. Photo: Instagram/@chaelincl

 Lisa of Blackpink’s song Money is popular on TikTok because of its connection with smash hit K-drama Squid Game.

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Twitter saw more than 7.8 billion engagements with K-culture last year, driven by the ongoing global fascination with K-pop and K-drama
The top acts mentioned were BTS, NCT, Enhypen, EXO and Blackpink, and Twitter users in Indonesia and the Philippines tweeted the most about K-culture



Twitter saw 7.8 billion conversations about K-culture in 2021, led by tweets about K-pop groups BTS, NCT, Enhypen, EXO and Blackpink. Two southeast Asian countries were the biggest sources of tweets about K-pop.
