KPop Analytics - Part 2

Picture 1. SM Town World Tour III in Jakarta

Study from previous post found that there was a high possibility that KPop had impact to local music industry. This time a study will try to take on the following question:

"What possibly drove or driven by the growth of KPop popularity?"

Summary
In summary, KPop popularity is driven by:

• Korean artists
  Some notable artists were:
• Girls' Generation members: Seohyun (in Japan), Yoona (in Singapore), Jessica (Indonesia), Sooyoung (France)
• Supernova (Japan)
• 2PM (Indonesia)
• Onew (France)
• File/Media sharing services
  Some notable services were:
• Dropbox and Soundcloud / youfeedme (various countries)
• Social Networking services
  Some notable services were:
• Gumtree (Singapore)
• Airg (Philippines)

KPop popularity drove popularity of:

• Other Korean artists
  Such as Supernova (Japan) and 2ne1 (Indonesia)
• File/Media sharing services
  Such as Dropbox (globally) and $shared / 4shared (Indonesia)
• Transport Information (Singapore and USA)
• Korean-style products
  Such as blazer (Indonesia), samsung mobile phones and winged eyeliner (USA)
• Payment solutions
  Such as OCBC Velocity (Singapore)

Opinion

All the factors studied actually played both roles, however each of them was subjectively categorized into lagging (drove) or keeping up (driven by) factors based on its tendency against K Pop interest trend in the area.

Factors that drive popularity of KPop are certainly the product itself: KPop songs and Hallyu Stars who delivered the songs. Role to spread the news and the songs were done by social networking and file/media sharing services.

Factors that were driven by KPop, beside its less popular songs and artists, are the file/media sharing services that act as the bridge to spread the songs around the globe. People/fans who followed the artists will relatively care about their personality (including fashion style and stuff used) and have willingness to see them in person. This may the reason of trending Korean-style products, transport information, and in the end payment solution to cover all of the expenses.

Methodology

Analysis will be based on search term which has similar trending interest pattern with K Pop (excluding search which include term K Pop). Higher correlation (r) terms is more favorable.

Previous post discovered top countries where interest about KPop emerged. One common thing that the countries had was that KPop concert was held in those countries. One of the notable concert was "SM Town Concert". Hence, this time two other countries which had experienced the concert will be added to the analysis: USA and France (China is excluded since Google/the tool used is not the main search engine in the area).
Selected search terms will be allocated subjectively into 3 categories: Keeping Up Terms, Lagging Terms, and Either. Keeping Up Terms are terms which are ahead of K Pop trends (keeping up), while Lagging Terms are terms which are behind K Pop trends (lagging). Either are terms which sometimes kept up, but in some other times those lagged as well.

Tool (and data provider): Google Correlate viewed on 4-5 October 2012.

Below are some findings in each region (selected terms only)
1. Japan (correlate with term: K Pop)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
ソヒョン (seohyun) r=0.9515	ヤフー 路線 (yahoo route) r=0.9519	超新星 ブログ (supernova blog) r=0.9461
soundcloud r=0.9457	ドロップ ボックス (drop box) r=0.9457
	ガーミン コネクト (garmin connect) r=0.9457

2. Singapore (correlate with term: K Pop)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
yoona r=0.9245	gothere.sg r=0.9348	android phone r=0.9174
	bus timing r=0.9275 shuttle bus r=0.9225	gumtree r=0.9210
	ocbc velocity r=0.9186

3. Malaysia (correlate with term: K Pop)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
	soundcloud r=0.9510	blackshot r=0.9679
		dropbox r=0.9547
		samsung galaxy r=0.9484

4. Indonesia (correlate with term: Lagu Korea)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
band korea (korean band)  r=0.9541 boy band korea (korean boy band)  r=0.9472	$shared  r=0.9371	rambut korea (korean hair) r=0.9349
girls generation r=0.9452 snsd r=0.9269  jessica snsd r=0.9259	2ne1 r=0.9309 2 ne 1 r=0.9239
2pm r=0.9250	blazer korea (korean blazer) r=9234

5. Philippines (correlate with term: K Pop)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
airg r=0.9459	soundcloud r=0.9510

6. USA (correlate with term: K Pop)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
www.dropbox.com r=0.9603	winged eyeliner r=0.9587	samsung galaxy phones r=0.9512
download soundcloud r=0.9522		pace bus tracker r=0.9512

7. France (correlate with term: K Pop)

Keeping Up Terms	Lagging Terms	Either
onew  r=0.8984		feed me r=0.8994
girl generation r=0.8792		dropbox r=0.8701 dropbox r=0.8689
sooyoung r=0.8698