From Place to Platform: Extended Global Cities Theory for Transnational Cultural Diffusion

Abstract This study investigates how global city characteristics shape the acceptance of non‐mainstream cultural goods—focusing on K‐pop—as they diffuse across digital platforms. While prior research emphasizes fandom, soft power or media strategies, this research highlights the role of urban infrastructure in cultural globalization. Global cities, with their high levels of connectivity, digital infrastructure and cosmopolitanism, serve as hubs for transnational cultural flows. Drawing on international business, marketing and media studies, the study theorizes that four urban factors—Korean foreign direct investment (FDI), diaspora presence, ICT infrastructure and educational attainment—positively influence K‐pop popularity. It furthers proposes that these effects vary by platform: YouTube's visual, algorithm‐driven environment may amplify the effects of FDI and ICT, while Spotify's audio‐focused, user‐curated model may be more influenced by diaspora and education. Using rare‐event logistic regression on data from 3786 K‐pop hits across 710 US cities (via YouTube and Spotify), the study finds robust support for these hypotheses. Overall, it offers a new perspective on the intersection of urban infrastructure and digital platforms in facilitating the global spread of cultural products, with K‐pop servicing as a revealing case of how emerging‐market content circulates in the contemporary media landscape.