K-pop is a global phenomenon, soaring to ever-higher levels of popularity around the world. A 2023 survey found that one of the
was the music itself, as well as the outstanding performances and the attractive, stylish singers. This also makes the genre well-suited for video platform viewing, making K-pop music videos and related video content popular on platforms such as YouTube. Supported by the South Korean government, the so-called Korean wave, referred to as "hallyu" in Korean, has started to spread even further, with K-pop gaining a global audience.
The beginning of K-pop: the Big 3
Over the past two decades, the K-pop entertainment market was dominated by the “Big 3” K-pop entertainment agencies: SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment.
SM Entertainment has traditionally taken the lead in terms of size, number of artists, and revenue. SM is also regarded as having led the proliferation of the K-pop phenomenon around the world with prominent K-pop artists such as Girls’ Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, aespa. Singer BoA and boy group TVXQ became the first K-pop idols to successfully break into the Japanese market.
YG Entertainment’s leading K-pop groups are BLACKPINK, Treasure, and BABYMONSTER, while
JYP Entertainment manages TWICE, Stray Kids, ITZY, NMIXX, and many more.
The rise of Bangtan and the expansion of the Big 4
The K-pop dominance of the Big 3, which has remained unchanged for nearly two decades, has recently expanded to the ‘’Big 4’’, with the arrival of
HYBE Corporation, formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment. Thanks to its globally popular artist BTS, HYBE generally posts the highest revenue and profits among the Big 4. BTS is a K-pop group comprised of seven young Korean men, first formed in 2013, and are widely considered the most popular K-pop artists. They regularly break their own records in album sales and YouTube viewership. BTS are still gaining fans around the world, and these fans formed the “ARMY”. The continuous growth of their fandom is a major driving force behind BTS’ record-setting. Despite being on hiatus until 2025 due to military enlistments, they are still major revenue drivers for their company.
Global K-pop consumption
One popular and easy way of
accessing K-pop content is via online platforms such as YouTube and Spotify. This makes it easy for existing fans to continuously consume content, while the threshold for people unfamiliar with the industry to begin consuming music, videos, and other content is low, allowing for more and more people to listen to the music. In 2023,
K-pop fans worldwide spent over 11 hours per month on K-pop content on average, with fans in some countries spending up to 21 hours monthly on this interest.
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