Squid Game’s Enormous Popularity Fuels South Korea’s ‘Hallyu’: What It Means
Understanding South Korea’s ‘Hallyu’: From Squid Game and BTS to Korean dramas, beauty products, and pop music, the global fascination with Korean culture has led to the phenomenon known as Hallyu — the Korean Wave.
South Korea is experiencing a cultural high — Squid Game is dominating on Netflix. Earlier this month, Maybe Happy Ending earned a Tony Award on Broadway, marking a major achievement similar to Parasite, which became the first non-English film to claim an Oscar for Best Picture in 2020. Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in Literature last year.
Youth around the globe are obsessed with K-pop stars like BTS, and Blackpink is set to kick off an international tour next month.
From TV shows and songs to beauty products and cuisine, the growing international interest in Korean culture has sparked the rise of Hallyu — a Korean term that translates to “cultural wave.”
The Origins of Hallyu: How South Korea’s Cultural Growth Started
Following the devastation of the Korean War in the 1950s, South Korea struggled through severe financial hardship. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Seoul had to approach the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of $60 billion — a moment still remembered as the “Day of National Humiliation.” In the years that followed, the country launched a “national rebranding” initiative, transforming its cultural identity into a global product. This gave birth to Hallyu, the surge of Korean pop culture.
Today, cultural exports rank among South Korea’s most valuable industries. This cultural soft power has helped elevate the country to Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a major global cultural force.
K-Pop Craze: From Gangnam Style to BTS, Blackpink, and Squid Game
Gangnam Style broke records as the first video on YouTube to reach one billion views, paving the way for the K-pop explosion. BTS alone reportedly contributes around $4 billion annually to South Korea’s economy. K-pop remains the largest segment of the country’s content sector, which reached an all-time high of $12.4 billion in 2021.
This surpassed revenue from traditional South Korean exports like home electronics and automobiles.
Korean television and cinema are also hugely profitable. Some standout K-dramas include Queen of Tears, Business Proposal, Crash Landing on You, My Demon, The Glory, and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. Encouraged by this boom, Netflix has pledged $2.5 billion toward Korean content, while Disney and Apple TV are also backing new Korean productions.
K-Beauty and Korean Cuisine
Korean food is gaining popularity worldwide and is now valued at $77 billion. K-Beauty products have also become widely sought after. Tourists visit South Korea specifically to purchase skincare items like snail mucin creams and facial masks. The K-beauty industry is projected to reach a market size of $18 billion by 2030.
Korean Literature on the Rise
Experts believe Korean literature could be the next big cultural export. Han Kang gained international fame with her novel The Vegetarian, which became the first Korean-language work to win the International Booker Prize in 2016. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — the first time an Asian woman and a Korean author had received the honor.
There’s also a growing global interest in learning the Korean language, with phrases like saranghae (meaning “I love you”) now commonly used among young people worldwide.
