The K-pop girl group CSR, aka Cheotsarang (First Love) in Korean, on June 17, 2023, poses for photos at a performance in Brussels, Belgium, as part of Hallyu Town in Belgium, a two-day festival that attracted more than 47,000 visitors. (Screen capture from CSR's Instagram account)

By Lee Jihae

The global Hallyu (Korean Wave) market is expected to reach KRW 273 trillion in value by 2030.

TikTok Korea on July 15 said this at CGV Cheongdam Cine City in Seoul's Gangnam-gu District after releasing the white paper "Hallyu in the Digital Age: Short Content, Big Impact," which it jointly produced with Kantar, a London-based global marketing and analytics company.

The unprecedented success of Hallyu shows no signs of slowing down thanks to the strong growth of domestic companies and their foreign advances, the report said, adding that spending on the Korean Wave this year will hit an estimated USD 76 billion (KRW 105 trillion).

Such spending is expected to double by 2030 to over USD 143 billion (KRW 197 trillion), and if potential consumers who have not bought anything related to Hallyu yet are included, the figure is seen to reach USD 198 billion (KRW 273 trillion) by 2030.

In April, the white paper found that 92% of 2,018 consumers surveyed in the U.S., Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam ranging in age from 18-45 said they grew more interested in Korean products and brands through K-dramas and K-pop.

The majority 75% said the rise in their interest in Korean skincare products also stemmed from Korean dramas and music, and 57% said they tried Korean food after consuming Korean webtoons or dramas.

Cheong Tai Leung, CEO of Kantar Insights' Asia-Pacific business, cited Hallyu's growth into a global industry through extraordinary speed and influence, urging companies to use the Korean Wave boom as a business opportunity.

jihlee08@korea.kr