User:Stlamers/sandbox

Social media
Social media has been instrumental in the global reach of K-Pop, particularly video-sharing site YouTube and Twitter. Due to these sites, K-pop has been able to expand to a much wider audience all around the world and are able to communicate with their fans much easier and better.

YouTube
Of the 2.28 billion worldwide K-pop YouTube views in 2011, 240 million came from the United States, more than double the figure from 2010 (94 million).[195] In December of 2011, K-pop became the first country-specific genre of music to gain its own homepage on Youtube, along with other popular genres like Pop, R&B, etc. In December of 2012, Psy’s music video for “Gangnam Style” reached 1 billion views, making it the first video to ever do so. On August 24, 2018 BTS’ music video for “Idol” won the record for Youtube’s “Most Viewed Music Video in 24 hours”, reaching over 45 million views in only 24 hours after the video was released to the public. As for girl groups, in 2016 the girl group Twice reached over 400 million YouTube views for the music video for their hit song "TT", making them the first female Korean act to do so.

Twitter
Another fundamental social media platform to Kpop artists has been Twitter. BTS’ twitter reached 10 million followers on November 13, 2017, making them the first South Korean act to do so. At the 2017 and 2018 Billboard Music Awards, BTS won the award for Top Social Media Artist, which fans were able to vote for with the Twitter hashtag “#BTSBBMAS”  On April 23, 2018 BTS was awarded with the Guinness World Record for the Most Twitter Engagements for a Music Group, in which they received 330,624 engagements on average for each tweet.

Facebook
Many Korean entertainment companies use social media platforms, especially Facebook, to promote and communicate about their global auditions and encourage idols from all over the world to participate in them. Many companies have specific facebook pages dedicated to their auditions, like SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment , YG Entertainment , and many more. Many K-pop groups have Facebook pages for their groups where they promote their music and other content to their fans, similar to Twitter and other social media sites. Their Facebook pages can often reach large amounts of fans, as many groups and solo artists, like Psy, Big Bang, and more have millions of Facebook fans that like their page. Many K-pop fans also use Facebook to show their devotion and consume more K-pop content. They also often use Facebook pages to communicate with others that are a part of the K-pop community. When Kpop artists have concerts in different overseas countries and the tickets sell out quickly, many fans turn to social media sites, especially Facebook, to organize flash mobs to release more tickets and tour dates like many did in Paris in 2011.