How K-Dramas and K-Pop Are Driving the ‘Next K’

This article explores the data demonstrating where K-dramas and K-pop will take consumers next. Using the “experience after watching and listening” indicator from the CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey (December 2025; 7,100 respondents aged 15 to 49 across 12 countries), along with the K-drama “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” KCON LA 2026 and Mnet Plus, it traces the two paths by which K-entertainment has fostered the next round of K-consumption. How Watching and Listening Became Part of Everyday Life Watch a K-drama and you want Korean food. Listen to K-pop and you look up Korean variety shows. Go to a concert and notice the products the artists use. K-entertainment today is not explained by how popular the content is alone. One content experience calls up another K-experience and works its way into consumers’ daily lives. The same flow appeared in the CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey. K-content and K-pop are both gateways into K-entertainment. Where consumers go after passing through those doors, though, can vary widely. How Did K-Content and K-Pop Become Part of Everyday Life? K-content crosses borders and transcends language through global streaming services. What also stands out is that it does not end with one hit; it keeps viewers looking for the next title. The touchpoints for K-pop have widened as well, from music streaming and YouTube to concerts and short-form videos, social media and fandom platforms. Someone who was listening to the music then watches the artist’s content, takes part in a concert and shares the experience with other fans. What is worth noting is what comes next. Where do the K-content and K-pop experiences lead? The Next Experience That K-Dramas and K-Pop Create K-content and K-pop both build interest in Korea. The way they move consumers, however, is different. In the CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey (December 2025), the experience that most often followed watching K-content was dining out on K-food, at 30%. In other words, viewers went out and experienced the food, places, fashion and beauty seen on screen. After listening to K-pop, by contrast, the same survey found a high share moving to other K-content, such as K-dramas at 29% and K-films at 28%. Idols appear in dramas and films themselves, making it a natural crossover. The gap between the two figures is not large. Rather than reading the ranking, the primary message to take is that people who listen to K-pop often come back to video content. K-content widens interest toward the K-lifestyle outside the content, while K-pop uses fandom as a footing to deepen the experience within K-entertainment. Within the same K-entertainment, in other words, the paths that lead to the next round of K-consumption differ slightly. Categories experienced after watching K-content and after listening to K-pop Table 1. Categories experienced after watching K-content and after listening to K-pop Source: CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey (December 2025; 7,100 respondents aged 15 to 49 across 12 countries). Base: After watching K-content N=1,973, after listening to K-pop N=1,800.RankAfter watching K-content (N=1,973)After listening to K-pop (N=1,800)1K-food (dining out) 30%K-dramas 29%2K-pop 26%K-films 28%3K-food (at home) 21%K-food (dining out) 26%4K-beauty 18%K-beauty 19%5K-fashion 15%K-food (at home) 19%6K-bakery 14%K-fashion 18% How Does the Korean Food in a K-Drama Become a Real Meal on the Table? The food, cosmetics, fashion and places that pass through dramas and variety shows become the thread by which people come to know daily life in Korea. “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” produced by CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon and aired on tvN, is one such case. Among all the series available on Netflix in the second half of 2025, it ranked third globally with 588.3 million hours viewed (Netflix engagement report for the second half of 2025). That places it behind “Wednesday” Season 2 and “Stranger Things” Season 5. What is worth noting about this drama, though, is not the viewing figures alone. The food in “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” truly walked off the screen. In November 2025, Cuisine.K, CJ Foods’ project to find and develop Korean cuisine chefs, worked with CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon on a pop-up dining event in Seoul, “The Tyrant’s Table: A Feast by Yeon Ji-yeong,” set up so guests could actually taste the royal court dishes from the drama. Entries poured into the free lottery, producing odds of more than 1,200 to 1, and views of related social media content passed 500,000 (CJ Foods). The experience crossed internationally as well. In April 2026, CJ Foods’ Cuisine.K held K-food cooking classes in Los Angeles and New York using the drama’s IP. The classes were part of 2026 Touring K-Arts, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s global touring support program, and were run with support from the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) in cooperation with the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles and the Korean Cultural Center New York (CJ Foods). Participants made the Korean dishes from the drama themselves, recreating the scenes from the screen with their own hands. You watch the drama, you get curious about the food, you eat it, you make it. The path by which K-content carries over into K-food showed itself in the actual experience of consumers. “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” is both a record of a K-drama’s global success and evidence that K-content is a gateway into the rest of the K-lifestyle. K-pop — How Does ‘Music You Listen to’ Become ‘an Experience You Take Part In’? The way K-pop reaches outward is a little different. You listen to a favorite artist’s music over and over, look up the music videos and variety shows, go to a concert and share content with other fans. Interest that started with the music deepens around the fan experience. CJ ENM’s KCON is a global platform where fans meet artists and content directly through K-pop performances. At recent editions of KCON, a bigger change than the concerts themselves can be seen, with the experience created on site spreading digitally. Cumulative views of digital content related to KCON LA 2026 passed 43 million, up 173% year over year (CJ ENM). As the experience of the venue carried over into short-form video and social media, it reached global fans who could not be there in person. The role of fandom platforms has grown as well. CJ ENM’s Mnet Plus streamed the main KCON LA 2026 stages to more than 250 regions worldwide while also releasing original content showing the artists off stage (CJ ENM). Viewing of KCON-related content rose about twofold year over year (same announcement). The K-pop fan experience has settled into a cycle of listening, watching, taking part, sharing and discovering yet more content. CJ ENM, Building the K-Lifestyle Ecosystem Now the people who gather to see K-pop have begun to sample other parts of the K-lifestyle, such as K-food and K-beauty, at the venue itself. KCON captures that scene most clearly. Consumers from around the world who came for the concert meet Korean food, beauty, content and brands in one place. A trip taken to see a favorite artist turns into a chance to run into a new part of the K-lifestyle. CJ ENM handles dramas and variety shows, music and concerts, and films and platforms within a single company. The dramas that Studio Dragon makes carry over into food and dining out. KCON brings food, beauty and brands into the concert venue. Mnet Plus connects the on-site experience to the digital space. One piece of content pulls in the next, and that content widens into concerts, products and travel. It does not stop inside the content industry; it connects to food, beauty and retail. K-entertainment is becoming a K-lifestyle gateway that, beyond serving as content through which the world watches and hears Korea, lets people discover and experience daily life in Korea for themselves. Key Takeaways K-content and K-pop create different “next purchases.” In the CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey (December 2025; 7,100 respondents aged 15 to 49 across 12 countries), the top experience after watching K-content was dining out on K-food at 30%, while the top two after listening to K-pop were watching K-dramas at 29% and K-films at 28%. K-content widens interest outside the content; K-pop widens it within. In the same survey, K-content carried over into lifestyle experiences such as K-food and K-beauty, while K-pop deepened other K-content and participatory experiences around fandom. The gateway effect showed up as real experience. “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” the tvN drama produced by CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon, ranked third globally among all Netflix series in the second half of 2025 with 588.3 million hours viewed (Netflix engagement report). The food in the drama carried over into a pop-up and cooking classes. The Cuisine.K pop-up dining event in Seoul by CJ Foods in November 2025 drew odds of more than 1,200 to 1, and in April 2026, Cuisine.K held K-food cooking classes in Los Angeles and New York through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s 2026 Touring K-Arts program (CJ Foods). In 2026, K-pop moved closer to an experience you take part in than to music you listen to. Cumulative views of digital content related to CJ ENM’s KCON LA 2026 passed 43 million, up 173% year over year, and viewing of KCON-related content on CJ ENM’s Mnet Plus rose about twofold year over year (CJ ENM). Frequently Asked Questions What do people do after watching a K-drama? A. Most often, they go out for K-food. In the CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey (December 2025; 7,100 respondents aged 15 to 49 across 12 countries), the experience that most often followed watching K-content was dining out on K-food, at 30%. It is a journey in which people go looking in real life for the food, places, fashion and beauty they saw on screen. What is the difference between people who listen to K-pop and people who watch K-dramas? A. The direction they move in is different. In the CJ Global K-Wave Consumer Survey, a high share moved to other K-content after listening to K-pop, such as K-dramas at 29% and K-films at 28%. After watching K-content, they widened to experiences outside the content, such as dining out on K-food at 30%. K-content widens interest in the K-lifestyle, while K-pop deepens the experience around fandom. Who made ‘Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,’ and where can it be watched? A. “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” is a drama produced by CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon and aired on tvN, CJ ENM’s channel, and it was available globally on Netflix. Among all Netflix series in the second half of 2025, it ranked third globally with 588.3 million hours viewed, behind “Wednesday” Season 2 and “Stranger Things” Season 5 (Netflix engagement report for the second half of 2025). CJ Foods carried over the royal court dishes from the drama into Cuisine.K’s pop-up dining event in Seoul (November 2025) and its cooking classes in Los Angeles and New York (April 2026). What does KCON do besides the concerts? A. Beyond K-pop concerts, KCON is a global platform for experiencing several parts of the K-lifestyle in one place. Consumers who came for the concert meet Korean food, beauty, content and brands in a single space. Cumulative views of digital content related to CJ ENM’s KCON LA 2026 passed 43 million, up 173% year over year, and CJ ENM’s Mnet Plus streamed the main stages to more than 250 regions worldwide (CJ ENM announcement). Is spreading K-food through K-content something private companies do on their own? A. There are many cases in which companies collaborate with government programs. The K-food cooking classes that CJ Foods’ Cuisine.K held in Los Angeles and New York in April 2026 were planned as part of 2026 Touring K-Arts, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s global touring support program. They were run with support from the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) in cooperation with the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles and the Korean Cultural Center New York (CJ Foods). The format used the IP of “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” the tvN drama produced by CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon, enabling participants to make the Korean dishes from the drama themselves. Companies and the government are working together to enhance the K-Entertainment experience, starting with K-content and leading into K-food. K-Insight Series The K-Growth Story, Seen Through the Data How K-Food Is Becoming an Everyday Meal K-Beauty Spending Is Growing. How Are Retailers Responding? How K-Dramas and K-Pop Are Driving the ‘Next K’