This is a scene in March last year from the K-pop festival KCON Hong Kong 2024 at Asia World Expo in Hong Kong. (CJ ENM)

By Koh Hyunjeong

Fans of Hallyu (Korean Wave) worldwide last year were most interested in K-pop, with North America showing the highest interest in Hansik (traditional food).

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Culture Information Service Agency on Feb. 25 said this in releasing an analytical report on 2024 global Hallyu trends. The study compiled and analyzed 680,000 pieces of related data from October 2023 to September last year.

K-pop accounted for most of Hallyu's popularity in Asia, Europe and Latin America, while Korean food was most popular in North America, Africa and Oceania.

In the number of articles on Hallyu, Asia led all continents with 50.6%, followed by Europe (27.5%) and North America (13.6%). By country, India had the most such stories, followed by the U.S., Thailand and Turkiye (Turkey).

Popular foods included kimchi, soju (clear liquor), Korean-style fried chicken, bibimbap, or rice mixed with vegetables, meat and gochujang (spicy red pepper paste), and Buldak Bokkeum Myeon, a brand of highly spicy ramyeon (instant noodles) whose name literally means "fire chicken stir-fried noodles."

Mukbang, aka meokbang, or a livestreamed video of the host eating and interacting with viewers, emerged as a term used worldwide as it was mentioned every quarter.

The annual report and another quarterly study on foreign news coverage of Hallyu are available on the Culture Big Data Platform (www.bigdata-culture.kr).

Chae Su-hee, director general of the ministry's Global Public Relations Bureau, said, "We will continue seeking to provide diverse analytical data in a timely fashion to contribute to Hallyu policy and project strategies customized for each country and continent."


hjkoh@korea.kr