KUALA LUMPUR: Instagram Korea recently released results for its 2018 Instagram Awards.
According to Soompi, K-Pop juggernaut BTS won Photo With Most Likes category, garnering over 3.2 million likes for its photo, taken during the 2018 Billboard Music Awards held in Las Vegas, USA last May.
The South Korean music sensation also won Top Boy Group category, and to top it off, its legion of fans worldwide, dubbed Army, was crowned Top Fandom Community on Instagram’s Year In Review blog post.
Other popular K-Pop acts also won for various categories. Hot girl group BlackPink was chosen as Instagram’s Top Girl Group, while its talented member, Jennie, won Most Loved Account of 2018 category.
This was based on the number of views and likes received by Instagram Stories and posts that were shared this year.
The other three members of BlackPink were also nominated in the same category.
Meanwhile, the three top winners in the Top 10 Accounts category, based on the amount of followers, went to BigBang’s G-Dragon, followed by Exo members Chanyeol and Sehun respectively.
Apparently, G-Dragon has been the celebrity with the biggest number of Instagram followers in Korea since 2014.
On a different note, the current influence of BTS worldwide is no laughing matter.
But what’s more incredible is the monetary impact that the super group has had on the South Korean economy.
According to Allkpop, a recent study by the Hyundai Research Institute revealed that BTS’ total economic impact in South Korea is roughly 5.6 trillion KRW (approximately RM20.91 billion).
Apparently, the institute gathered this data from the group’s total revenues, such as concert and advertisement takings, as well as its secondary economic impact aspects, such as tourism.
It was also revealed that BTS’ economic impact was about 26 times greater than the average corporation in South Korea.