Twitter Korea’s CEO Says K-Pop Saved Twitter From Being Neglected In The Country

Twitter was once neglected in Korea, but now it’s one of the top social media platforms in the country. A recent interview with Twitter Korea’s CEO, Shin Chang Sup, has revealed that K-Pop idols are the reason for this sudden revival!

The monthly number of users in Korea is currently twice that of 2013, user growth rate last year was third among the 35 Twitter using countries. Sales growth is second only to China.

According to Shin Chang Sup, K-Pop idols are some of the most mentioned artists in the world on Twitter.

“Including BTS, who has over 14 million followers, 6 of the top 10 singers who are most mentioned on Twitter are K-Pop groups.” — Shin Chang Sup

The social media presence of K-Pop idols is what caused a huge surge of Twitter users domestically as well as globally.

“K-Pop groups’ accounts began increasing and interviews began broadcasting through Twitter in 2015. Fans began to flock onto Twitter domestically, as well as globally. If you look at the ratio of K-Pop tweets, users from the U.S., Southeast Asia, and South America amount to 65%, which is twice the number of users in Korea.” — Shin Chang Sup

K-Pop idols have such a heavy influence on Twitter, they are comparable to that of world leaders.

“K-Pop groups have a huge impact on Twitter users, comparable to U.S. President Donald Trump or India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” — Shin Chang Sup

Many experts used to believe that a social media platform could never come back from a decline (example: Cyworld in Korea, and Myspace in the U.S.). Shin Chang Sup believes that Twitter Korea was able to break the mold because of the unique aspect of being able to communicate with your favorite idols in real time.

“The advantage of Twitter is that fans and idols can communicate with each other in real time using short sentences, and can select from a variety of content to watch quickly.” — Shin Chang Sup

It probably also helps that the reigning “Top Social Media Artist” is a K-Pop artist!

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