Analysis of K-food trends using social media big data in Korea

This study extracted K-food-related keywords from big data collected from Korean portal sites between 2019 and 2023 and analyzed the associations and trends of various food items using network analysis. Results showed that mentions of K-food significantly increased each year, with a rise of over 60% in 2023 compared to 2019. Key associated terms included “Korea,” “food,” “global,” and “export,” positioning K-Food as an export product representing Korea worldwide. The main representative items were Kimchi, vitamins, Tteokbokki, and Ramen. Kimchi emerged as a symbolic food connecting traditional Korean cuisine with modern K-food, while Tteokbokki and Ramen contributed to the global expansion of K-food by offering convenient meal options. Additionally, K-food was also recognized for its emphasis on spicy flavors and achieved success in the global market through easy preparation methods and localization strategies. Visualization was conducted using the NetDraw program from UCINET, and centrality analysis was applied to examine the prominence and changes of specific K-food items within the network over time. This study provides an analysis of K-food's current status using big data and suggests areas for improvement in future research.