France ranks in the top 10 of the most important Kpop markets in the world, netizens react to the statistics released

France has climbed into the top 10 of the most important Kpop markets in the world!

Data from the Korea Customs Service (KCS) on Tuesday showed that exports of K-pop albums continued to rise in the first half of the year and hit a record high.

In particular, the United States overtook China in the ranking of South Korean album export destinations, ranking second after Japan, which shows that K-pop has become a popular music genre in the United States.

According to the data, the export value of K-pop albums from January to June amounted to 132.93 million dollars, up 17.1 percent from the same period last year. This is the record for the first half.

Japan ranked first in importing K-pop albums with $48.52 million, followed by the United States ($25.51 million) and China ($22.64 million).

Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom and France are among the top ten countries. In terms of annual album exports, China was the second destination after Japan between 2012 and 2022, with the exception of 2020.

But in the first half of this year, K-pop stars achieved remarkable results in the United States despite the lack of group activities from BTS.

BTS member Jimin debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Like Crazy,” the lead single from his debut solo album.

Stray Kids and Tomorrow X Together (TXT) topped the Billboard 200 chart which takes physical album sales into account and converts streaming streams and downloads into the number of albums sold.

BTS’ Jimin, Suga, Seventeen, Ateez and Twice took second place on Billboard’s Best Album sales chart. FiftyFifty stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 16 consecutive weeks with their song “Cupid”.

“K-pop, which used to be BTS and Blackpink in North America, is now a genre in its own right.” said Choi Kwang Ho, Secretary General of the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA). “Recruitment of BTS members has raised concerns, but the results of Stray Kids, Seventeen, and the solo activities of other BTS members are excellent,” analyze.

The newly released data attracted the attention of netizens who wrote:

• But for China, if we count Chinese fangroup purchases that are technically “domestic” sales since they do so through Hanteo, they get the biggest slice of the pie.
• So if we want to make money, we have to take over Northeast Asia and the United States
• My God, Thailand is not in the ranking
• It’s because Southeast Asian fans are mostly polyglots, so they don’t buy many albums.
• Japan is strong
• So there’s a reason why entertainment companies are targeting Japan…
• Southeast Asia Not here for the highest place to talk
• ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’m even more shocked because there isn’t a single country in Southeast Asia

What Kpop album did you buy recently?

Kpop songs that we hear on the radio in France

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