‘Perfect’, ‘Good’

When Spanish teenage girls started mimicking Blackpink's choreography, these phrases appeared on the screen. The 'K-pop Dance Battle Machine' equipped with motion-tracking artificial intelligence (AI) quantitatively evaluated the girls' dance moves in real-time and displayed praise messages. After a 20-second dance battle, the AI evaluated each participant's dance score to the second decimal place and selected a winner. This was the scene at the '2025 K-Expo' held at the Artes Arts Center in Madrid, Spain, on September 30 (local time).


The '2025 K-Expo' event, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, was held from September 28 to 30 under the theme 'All About K-Style'. Starting in Thailand in 2023, the K-Expo was held last year in France, Indonesia, and this August in Canada, marking its fifth event in Spain, considered a bridgehead to the European and Latin American markets. Approximately 20,000 visitors attended over three days, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for K-content exports worth about KRW 1.9 billion was signed.

Exhibition halls utilizing advanced technologies such as AI and information and communication technology (ICT) attracted significant attention. The AI K-pop Dance Battle Machine ‘Steppin’ experience hall was crowded with K-pop fans from across Europe. Sandra Gonzalez (14) said, “Being evaluated in real-time makes it feel like an audition,” with a smile.

Experience halls featuring mobile games like 'Superstar', which include famous K-pop artists from entertainment agencies such as SM and JYP, were also bustling with visitors. 'Superstar' is a rhythm game where players touch the screen in time with K-pop music and images to accumulate points, with idol photo cards given as prizes. Adrien from Manchester, UK (42), said, “I’m a fan of Stray Kids and flew here to trade photo cards.”

The platform 'OneMinuteGo', which automatically creates completed short-form videos by inputting storylines, also attracted the interest of European K-webtoon fans. Laura Olivia (27) said, “It’s amazing how the thoughts of creators are directly implemented into AI videos. The popularity of K-dramas and K-webtoons seems likely to last longer.”

Another key theme of 'K-Expo Spain' was 'convergence'. Efforts were made to expand interest in K-content to other areas such as K-food and K-beauty. Lim Soo-seok, Ambassador to Spain, stated, “We hope the industrial effects of the K-fandom confirmed in Madrid will spread to the Latin American market.”

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