Overall, “uniformity and banality” of South Korean content most influenced the negative perception of respondents, at 19.6 percent. (image: Wikimedia)
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) – The global popularity of hallyu (the Korean Wave) content is gradually waning.
Based on an online survey of 7,200 consumers from 15 countries in six continents (from October to December 2016), Monday’s report by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange showed that only 31 percent of the respondents had an optimistic outlook on hallyu consumption over the next year.
The percentage was down from 41.3 percent recorded in the previous year, while the U.S. (from 49.6 to 23.7), China (53 to 30.3), the U.K. (36.5 to 14.5) and the UAE (57 to 36.8) saw the biggest drops in terms of individual numbers.
The report also found greater negativism towards Korean content last year.
The percentage of consumers who sympathized with anti-hallyu sentiments rose from 16.2 percent in 2015 to 21.1 percent in 2016. Indian consumers had the highest rate at 33.7 percent, followed by Japan (28.3 percent), China (27.8 percent) and the UAE (25 percent).
Overall, “uniformity and banality” of South Korean content most influenced the negative perception of respondents, at 19.6 percent.
This was followed by “wildly provocative or lewd” (13.7 percent), “too profit-oriented” (13.5 percent), and “political or diplomatic conflict with Korea” (12.5 percent). The latter answer was most observed amongst Chinese and Japanese consumers, reflecting recent diplomatic woes surrounding THAAD and comfort women disputes, respectively.
“Through our report, we saw that consumption of hallyu, in what had been major hallyu markets (China, Japan and the U.S.), is waning,” said Kwak Young-jin, chief director at the KFICE.
Bibimbap. (image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
Meanwhile, hansik, or Korean food, was the most popular hallyu content chosen by 47.1 percent of the survey participants in a multiple-response question. K-fashion or K-beauty (41 percent), K-pop (33.4 percent), Korean TV series (29.8 percent) and films (28.7 percent) followed.
The most popular hallyu celebrities were Lee Min-ho (4.4 percent), PSY (3.6 percent), Song Joong-ki (3.4 percent), Song Hye-kyo (2.8 percent) and Jun Ji-hyun (1.4 percent).
By Joseph Shin (jss539@koreabizwire.com)
