People underestimate how much the Philippines contributed to K-pop’s international popularity.
Back in the 2000s, K-pop was already big in places like Japan, China, and Korea itself. Groups like BoA or TVXQ were selling millions. But most of that fandom stayed inside their own internet ecosystems—Mixi, Niconico, Weibo, Baidu, Naver, etc. Those spaces were basically closed off from the global internet.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, K-pop and K-dramas were already blowing up around 2006–2007. Groups like Wonder Girls and 2NE1 were everywhere.
The difference is that Filipino fans were already using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and most of the discussion was happening in English. That meant K-pop fandom suddenly became visible to the rest of the internet. Other Southeast Asian countries had fans too, but they weren’t nearly as loud in English online at the time. Filipino fans basically acted as the bridge between Asian fandoms and the global internet, which helped K-pop start spreading outside the usual East Asian markets.
So yeah, K-pop was already successful regionally. But in terms of online visibility and international fandom growth, Filipino fans were a huge early amplifier that doesn’t get talked about enough.
submitted by /u/Negimarium
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