K-pop tweets hit 6.7 billion in 2020

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- K-pop related tweets remained in full force last year, reaching a new record of 6.7 billion, Twitter Inc. said Thursday. The figure represents a jump of 600 million from 6.1 billion K-pop tweets in 2019. The social media company said Indonesia ranked as the top market tweeting about K-pop by volume, followed by Thailand and South Korea. In terms of unique users tweeting about K-pop, Japan topped the list, followed by the United States and Indonesia. Global superstar BTS was the most mentioned K-pop artist last year, while NCT, EXO and Blackpink were next on the list. BTS' songs grabbed six spots on the list of ten most-mentioned K-pop songs, with "Dynamite," "ON," "Black Swan" and "Life Goes On" topping the list. Twitter also highlighted K-pop fans' active participation in social causes last year. "The #KpopTwitter community's involvement in the #BlackLivesMatter movement gave fans another way to stay connected and express their views on broader issues in society," Twitter said in a blog post. Last June, BTS expressed support for the movement on Twitter, and the tweet has since been retweeted nearly a million times. A BTS fan group raised over US$1 million in donations for the cause, matching a sum donated by the K-pop group. yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr (END)