□ Overseas consumption of Hallyu content, which stalled in the wake of China’s sanctions after
Korea’s placement of THAAD missiles, rebounded in late 2017, according to a survey conducted by
the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE; President Kim Yongrak) for
three months from October last year. The survey found that expanding use of online and mobile
streaming and the worldwide popularity of Bangtan Boys, better known as BTS, contributed largely to
the rebound. Compared to the previous year, Hallyu consumption increased in all eight sectors,
including K-pop. In the meantime, negative attitudes towards Hallyu also increased by about 10
percent from the previous year with the naysayers blaming Hallyu’s commerciality and news reports
related to North Korean threats as the major concerns.

□ The survey was conducted on 7,800 people of 16 countries who had experienced Hallyu content
encompassing eight genres of culture and arts, in cooperation with the Korean Cultural Centers in
Brazil, Turkey, and other countries. The survey also looked into the local demand for cultural
exchange programs in those areas.

□ Most outstanding was the growth of K-pop consumption. The music topped other genres in terms of
evoking the image of Korea and was ranked the most popular Korean cultural content, recording the
highest rate of growth among all popular music consumed in the surveyed countries at 9.1 percent. By
region, the Americas saw the highest growth of K-pop, as it took up 15.6 percent of the total popular
music consumption. The worldwide “Top 10 Hallyu Stars” also included four K-pop artists—Psy,
BTS, Suzy, and G-Dragon.

□ The consumption of Korean fashion and beauty products topped all other surveyed fields in a
similar survey in 2016, but their consumption decreased by 2.9 percentage points last year. However,
57.4 percent of the surveyed people said consumption of the Korean fashion and beauty products
would increase in a year. The positive prediction rate was 51.3 percent for games, 50.4 percent for
books, 50 percent for entertainment programs, 48.8 percent for dramas, 48.1 percent for movies, 45.6
percent for music, 45.5 percent for food, and 43.2 percent for animation/comics/fictional characters.

□ The media used for Hallyu content consumption changed markedly from the conventional medium
of television to online and mobile media. More Hallyu fans enjoyed Korean cultural products via
online and mobile media streaming than via television. The online and mobile users comprised 62.6
percent of the total fans of entertainment programs, 62.3 percent for K-pop, and 60.8 percent for
animations. Fans still viewed more dramas and movies on television, but the difference between
television viewers and online and mobile media streaming users narrowed down to less than 10
percent. Use of online and mobile media streaming was far greater than online and mobile downloads
or CD and DVD rentals. In the case of games, 64.1 percent of those surveyed played them online and
56 percent did so via mobile media. Online consumption of Hallyu products topped consumption via
all media: the rate of Hallyu fans using online sites in each of their countries was 60 percent for
comics, 60.7 percent for fictional characters, 75 percent for fashion and beauty, and 56.6 percent for
books.

□ The survey results showed the most favored fields in various genres of popular culture. Among
dramas, romantic comedies were most favored with 22.5 percent of those surveyed choosing them as
favorites, followed by melodramatic romances (13.8%). Among movies, action and adventure topped
the list, chosen by 18.1 percent of the respondents, followed by romantic comedies (15.6%). In the

field of music, dance music was most favored at 24.2 percent, and next was hip-hop (20.6%). Among
fictional characters, Pucca was on top with 29.3 percent of the respondents favoring it, followed by
Pororo (15.1%) and Larva (14.2%).

□ Expansion of Hallyu content consumption was accompanied by an increase of negative attitudes
towards it. As many as 31 percent of the total respondents, up 9.9 percent from the previous year, said
they sympathized with critics of Hallyu. The negative tendency was the strongest in China (49.4%),
followed by India (41.3%), Thailand (40.3%), France (37.5%), and the United States (35.6%). In the
case of China, where naysayers increased by 21.6 percent from the previous year, the main factors
were “news related to the division of South and North Korea and international threats from North
Korea (17.4%),” “extremely commercial nature of the content (14%),” “political and diplomatic
conflicts between Korea and China (11.3%),” and “protection of the domestic content industry
(11.3%).” As many as 35.2 percent of the respondents said these issues influenced their consumption
of Hallyu content. Answering a related question asking what issues the respondents have had access
to in terms of Korean politics, society, and history, 70.4 percent pointed out “North Korean nuclear
capability and missiles.” When asked about the hindrances of Hallyu content consumption, 32.8
percent cited the lack of information available in foreign languages, and 20.7 percent pointed out the
lack of opportunities to experience Korean popular culture.

□ KOFICE President Kim Yongrak said, “Despite the mounting protectionist tendency in world trade,
overseas demand for Hallyu is great enough to overcome the trend. However, it is difficult to meet the
demand as we are lacking in multilingual information for foreigners and provision of opportunities for
their experience of Korean culture. For the second wave of Hallyu, we need to expand opportunities
for foreigners to experience Korean culture through a variety of international events for cultural
exchange and work out policies to circulate content through new media platforms.”

※ “2018 Overseas Hallyu Status Survey” can be downloaded at the KOFICE website: www.kofice.or.kr