1. A Webometric analysis of K-pop
in Hispanic Countries
Xanat V. Meza
Choi Seong Chol
Professor Han Woo Park

2. Introduction
• Between 2001 and 2010, Korea’s aggregate annual
revenue from content exports rose from $12 million to
$172 million
• Korean pop music has become an important part of
“contra media flows” (Thussu, 2010).

3. Introduction
• Previous studies have examined the general diffusion of Kpop
including Latin American countries, but no study have focused
on countries sharing a common language.
• The question of whether reliance on the English-based
cyberspace can limit a more detailed understanding of the
Internet remains unanswered (Goggin & McLelland, 2009).
• Spanish is the second most widely used language in the
world, with some 495 million speakers (Instituto Cervantes,
2012), and some traditional media outlets have paid close
attention to K-pop in Spanish speaking countries.

4. K-pop today
• K-pop has become an important cultural asset due to its
strong relationship with television-based music programs and
dramas (Leung, 2012).
• It is part of the Korean government’s strategy to strengthen
the country’s export-based market economy.
• K-pop tends to have transnational, hybrid, multi-layered and
multidirectional characteristics (Jung ,2009).

5. K-pop today

6. K-pop diffusion.
• In Europe studies about K-pop are few and none of
them have focused on Spain (Hubinette, 2012;
Sung, 2012; Kim, forecoming).
• In Latin America, Yoon (2010) analyzed the Hallyu
Wave in Chile and Argentina, and Choi & Vargas
(forecoming) in Mexico. The common findings are:
– The K-pop phenomena is on its first stages.
– It is focused on a feminine teenager segment.
– Fans tend to like Asian cultures in general.

7. K-pop diffusion.
• K-pop has been better recognized and disseminated
in Mexico (Choi & Vargas, 2012).
• The public broadcaster TV Azteca has been
particularly active in television and SNSs since 2011.
• The Korean embassy has played an important role in
promoting K-pop through dance contests.

8. The Spanish-Speaking Countries
as Music Crucibles
• In Spain Christian and Jewish music
mixed with Europe and Middle East
musical influence.
• Colonial Spanish-American music was
the result of European music mixed with
autochthonous music from the preconquest period and African music
(Bethell, 1984).
• Independence movements in Latin
America prompted songs with
topical, nationalistic and nostalgic
content (Olsen & Sheehy, 2008).
• Today Latin America can be viewed as a
multicultural and transcultural heritage.

9. Music as a social factor.
• Although there is cultural discount in modern
music (Longhurst, 2007) purity of musical
expressions is not possible.
• Geography influences ecology, which
influences economics, which determines
musical events, instruments, types of
dances, etc. (Olsen & Sheehy, 2088). This can
be referred to as cultural hybridity.

10. Music as a social factor.
• Ter
Bogt, Mulder, Raaijmakers
and Gabhainn (2010)
constructed a typology of
music listeners aged
between 12 and 29.
• Enhancing the mood was
the most frequently
mentioned reason for
music use, followed by
coping with problems and
defining personal identity.

11. Music as a social factor.
• North and Hargreaves (2007a, 2007b, 2007c)
examined the relationships between musical
preferences and a diverse range of lifestyle
choices, verifying that these preferences are
meaningful in terms of the process of group
dynamics.
• Some of their findings in the context of K-pop
related genders include:

12. Music as a social factor.
• Hobbies: Fans of hip-hop/rap and dance/house scored
highest on ‘non-domestic, intellectually
undemanding, indoor entertainment.
• Internet access: Fans of current chart pop, R&B and
dance/house music were most likely to have Internet
access, and younger participants were more likely to
have mobile phone access, particularly fans of current
chart pop, R&B, dance/house and other pop music
styles.
• TV: Fans of current chart pop and other pop music
styles preferred undemanding light entertainment.

13. Music as a social factor.
• A clear pattern emerging from the data was the
apparent clustering of responses from fans of hiphop/rap, dance/house, R&B, and DJ-based music. This
involved a clear preference for “low-culture” media;
an unusually “masculine” approach to interpersonal
relationships; and a desire for more friends (perhaps
indicative of loneliness).
• Fans of current chart pop had rather unsophisticated
elements in their lifestyles that mirrored the
superficial image of current chart pop (North &
Hargreaves, 2007c).

14. Music as a social factor.
• Dunn, De Ruyter and Bouwhuis (2012) investigated the
relationships between personality traits and music
preferences by using the Big Five measures (Costa &
McCrae, 1992).
• They found positive correlations between extraversion
and pop, dance, and rap genres.

15. Music as a social factor.
• Previous studies have acknowledged the importance
of dance in Hispanic culture (Fraser & Muñoz, 1997;
Olsen & Sheehy, 2008).
• Luck et al. (2010) associated the Big Five measures
with patterns of movements performed with various
types of music.
PC1: Local Movement. PC2: Global Movement. PC3: Hand Flux.
PC4: Head Speed. PC5: Hand Distance.

16. Music as a social factor.
• Latin music was related to openess, extraversion and
agreeable personality, which in turn were related to
global movement. Open personality was also related to
local movement.
• Techno music was related to
openess, consciousness, extraversion and agreeable
personality, which in turn were related to local
movement. Extraversion and agreeable personality were
also related to head speed.
• Pop music was related to extraversion, which in turn was
related to head speed, and to agreeable
personality, which in turn was related to global

17. Music as a social factor.
• Summarizing:
• K-pop is compounded by
musical genders
correlated with a low
social status and culture.
• These musical genders
are correlated with a
wide range of positive
personality traits, which
in turn may prompt an
open communication.

18. Music as a social factor.
• Summarizing:
• Latin dance movements are
correlated with certain
personality traits, suggesting
openness to new experiences.
• K-pop is tailored to appeal to
the largest number of
listeners, and listeners in
Hispanic countries are culturally
predisposed to accept it
because of the special emphasis
on the dance feature.

19. Research Questions
•Which is the Twitter network
structure of K-pop diffusion in
Spanish-speaking countries?
•Which are its
communication patterns?
•Who are the main hubs?
How much activity and
relationships do they have
in Twitter?
•How is the network
evolving through time?

20. Method: Data Collection
and Analysis Techniques.
Webometrics is “The study of web-based
content with primarily quantitative
methods for social science research goals
and using techniques that are not specific
to one field of study.” (Thelwall, 2009, p.6).
Webometrics measures web sites, web pages, parts of web
pages, words in web pages, hyperlinks, and web search engine
results.

21. Twitter
•
•
Twitter was launched on July 2006, attracting more than
500 million active users as of 2012 (en.wikipedia.org, 2012).
It generates more than 340 million Tweets and processes
more than 1.6 billion search queries each day
(en.wikipedia.org, 2012).
•
•
Twitter consists of a stream of messages with a 140character limit (“Tweets”)
There are three major types of relationship in Twitter:
• Follow
Follower
Reply

22. Data collection procedure
• Tweets from a total of 19 countries were considered.
• The element was the “kpop” hashtag.
• The process included:
•Collection of global data
•Classification of data by country
•Network analysis
•Analysis of linked URLs
•Analysis of hashtags

23. Data collection procedure
• Tweets from a total of 19 countries were considered.
• The element was the “kpop” hashtag.
• The process included:
•Collection of global data
•Classification of data by country
•Analysis of networks (degree centrality,
betweeness centrality and pageranks)
•Analysis of linked URLs
•Analysis of hashtags

24. Results
• The results indicate
high betweenness
centrality and a large
number of connected
components, suggesti
ng a well-connected
network, although the
eigenvector centrality
implies that the nodes
were isolated.

25. Results: Main influencers
ID
fer_gay
koreamx
tvtelehit
elmundoalreves7
lodealla13
kpopcol
lodeallatr3ce
universo1071
latiachuchi
canal13colombia
ID
fer_gay
koreamx
tvtelehit
lodealla13
_momoghei
latiachuchi
kpopcol
universo1071
elmundoalreves7
tsuubaakii20293
Indegree Centrality
467
206
125
87
76
62
53
45
44
43
Betweenness centrality
1075020.86
475493.98
215910.55
198266.86
148770
146649
146260.91
131801.16
129844.08
121526.32
Following
585
1961
332
178
4
193
2
497
765
1147
Following
585
1961
332
4
377
765
193
497
178
559
Follower
40886
1941
176458
13671
401
2456
1328
1173
114162
35299
Follower
40886
1941
176458
401
546
114162
2456
1173
13671
305
Tweet
8258
2054
12089
1700
247
1956
6341
3201
17984
19335
Tweet
8258
2054
12089
247
75463
17984
1956
3201
1700
39227
Country
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Colombia
Colombia
Colombia
Venezuela
Peru
Colombia
Country
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Colombia
Peru
Peru
Colombia
Venezuela
Mexico
Mexico

26. Results:
Classification of main influencers
MASS MEDIA
7
CELEBRITY
1
CITIZEN
3
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
1

27. Results:
Qualitative analysis on comments
General terms
Korean songs and artists
Twitter users
Hashtags

28. Discussion
• K-pop is winning a small but growing portion of the
music consumption in Hispanic countries as a result of
combined efforts of public broadcast firms and fans.
• The main focus of interest appears to be on dance and
collective activities (conventions, mashups, and dance
contests).
• What is exotic, different, and has rhythm is likely to
become popular.
• Further research should contemplate more in-depth
analysis on Chile and Panama’s K-pop diffusion.

29. Thank you!