Melon, the music platform operated by Kakao Entertainment, said on the 15th that 1.02 million K-pop fans from 160 countries overseas visited its "Global-K Chart," which officially launched on the 1st of last month.
The Global-K Chart is an integrated K-pop artist chart jointly launched on the 1st of last month by Korea's Melon, China's Tencent Music and Japan's LINE MUSIC. It aggregates usage across the leading music platforms in the three countries of Korea, China and Japan. It has been generating buzz since its launch as the world's only K-pop chart that tallies not only music streaming but also various fan activity metrics from each platform.
By country, visitors to the Global-K Chart came in the following order: Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, the U.S., Australia and Thailand. Considering that the Global-K Chart is served only through the three-country platforms of Korea's Melon, China's Tencent Music and Japan's LINE MUSIC, this confirms worldwide interest that far exceeds the countries where the service is actually offered, a Melon official explained.
In particular, even though overseas users can access the Global-K Chart only through the mobile web, the number of overseas unique visitors (UV) reached 1,017,573 over the past month, reflecting strong interest. This interest also had a positive impact on Melon's own traffic. The number of unique visitors (UV) to Melon's mobile web, combining overseas and domestic figures, rose 36.1% from May, marking the highest level in the first half of this year.
The online response was also enthusiastic. On X (formerly Twitter) and more than 30 global communities, mentions of the Global-K Chart reached 106,840 over about a month after launch. There were many reactions regarding artist rankings and how to participate in the chart, including delight at high rankings for second-generation groups such as SHINee and BIGBANG, and interest in what the "fan activity metrics" reflected in the chart are.
"The fact that more than 1 million users across 160 countries worldwide directly visited the Global-K Chart, which we unveiled in the three countries of Korea, China and Japan, within just about a month of launch means that K-pop fans around the world were that thirsty for an integrated chart they can trust," a Melon official said. "Based on this achievement, we will continue our efforts by communicating with K-pop fans around the world so that the Global-K Chart can establish itself as a bona fide global chart representing K-pop."
