Top K-Pop Influencers on TikTok and How to Leverage Their Impact

Korean pop music (or K-pop) has taken over the music industry. Japan and the United States are the two countries that love K-pop the most, with 9.7 billion stream downloads in Japan and 9.2 billion in the U.S. The love of K-pop music has propelled its stars, who have become social media icons, especially on TikTok. Searching K-pop on TikTok brings up thousands of videos: The hashtag #kpop on TikTok has 529B views and 60M posts. Other popular hashtags to search on TikTok are:

• #BTS: 90M posts
•  #kpopdance: 609K posts 
• #blackpink: 31M posts
• #twice: 12.6M posts

Top 10 K-pop music artists on TikTok

BLACKPINK

With 47.8M followers, BLACKPINK is a female K-pop group from South Korea made up of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa. The four singers were brought together by YG Entertainment, and their TikTok is filled with their performances.

Twice

Formed by JYP Entertainment, the K-pop group Twice has nine female members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. The group tours all over the world and their TikTok has almost 24M followers. The women are active on TikTok and share plenty of videos of their lives beyond their shows or new music.

Red Velvet

The four women in Red Velvet are Irene, Seulgi, Wendy and Joy. They are a group formed by SM Entertainment and have 3.1M followers on TikTok. They share music videos, performances and other fun videos with their followers.

IVE

The K-pop group IVE has 6.7M followers on TikTok. Starship Entertainment put this group together, comprising six female members, Gaeul, Yujin, Rei, Wonyoung, Liz, and Leeseo. You’ll find behind-the-scenes videos on their TikTok, silly videos and all kinds of K-pop goodness. 

WEi

WEi is an all-male Korean pop group made up of Daehyeon, Donghan, Yongha, Yohan, Seokhwa, and Junseo. Their TikTok has 2.4M followers and shares TikTok trends, silly sounds and, of course, singing and dancing.

Fifty Fifty

This K-pop group of four was just founded in late 2022 and consists of singers Keena, Aran, Sio and Saena. Their TikTok has 1.7M followers and the girls show fun, behind-the-scenes videos where you can get to know them or they jump on to trends. They share more dancing videos on TikTok vs. singing. 

BTS

BTS is a male K-pop band formed in 2010. The group is made up of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. The group works together to co-write and produce most of their songs. On TikTok, you’ll find them sharing dancing, having fun together, and even moving with Usher.

ENHYPEN

The male K-pop group ENHYPEN has just under 22M followers on TikTok, where they share their raw talent with the world. They were brought together by the 2020 survival competition show “I-Land.” The band has seven members: Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon, and Ni-ki.

New Jeans

The group New Jeans is known for their songs and styles that mimic 1990s and 2000s pop music. The female group has five talented performers: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. They have just over 11M followers on TikTok, where they love using trending sounds, being silly together and dancing.

NMIXX

NMIXX has 5M followers on TikTok and is made up of six members: Lily, Haewon, Sullyoon, Bae, Jiwoo, and Kyujin. The women are talented dancers and singers, of course, but they also love using TikTok as a fun outlet. 

How brands can leverage the popularity of K-Pop

Here are a few ways you can incorporate K-pop into your strategy.

Collab with K-pop stars

Working with a famous K-pop star is one way to get your brand in front of millions of people. There are also smaller K-pop groups rising to fame that can also make ideal partners.

Limited-edition beauty collabs

Beauty, clothing or lifestyle brands can create a limited-edition piece with a K-pop influencer. For example, Jisoo of BLACKPINK is a global ambassador for DIOR. She even inspired DIOR’s Adapt Lip Glow in Shade #031 Strawberry. 

Jumping on K-pop trends

If your brand doesn’t have the budget for some of these more extensive collaborations, you can still jump on the K-pop trends or let K-pop inspire some of your content. Some influencers make up their boyfriends to look like K-pop stars, or your brand could create makeup looks inspired by your favorite K-pop band. Another option within this is using K-pop music or trending sounds on TikTok. 

K-pop is around to stay and continues to pick up steam worldwide and on TikTok. Expect to see more K-pop collaborations as brands start leveraging their popularity.