'2025 K-Expo' in Spain Short-form auto-production and mobile games gain popularity 20,000 visitors and KRW 1.9 billion in content exports K-Food and K-Beauty attempt expansion into other areas
On the 28th of last month, visitors lined up to enter the K-Music Hall at the '2025 K-Expo' held at the Artes Arts Center in Madrid, Spain. Madrid = Yoo Geun-hyung, Correspondent noel@donga.com
'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, displaying praise messages. After a 20-second dance battle, the AI evaluated each participant's dance score to two decimal places and selected a winner. This was the scene at the '2025 K-Expo' held at the Artes Arts Center in Madrid, Spain, on the 30th of last month (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 the 28th to the 30th of last month under the theme 'All About K-Style'. Starting in Thailand in 2023, the K-Expo was held in France and Indonesia last year, and in Canada this August, before being held in Spain, considered a gateway to the European and Latin American markets. Over three days, more than 20,000 visitors attended, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for K-content exports worth approximately KRW 1.9 billion (about USD 1.35 million) was signed.
In particular, experience halls utilizing advanced technologies such as AI and information and communication technology (ICT) attracted significant attention. The AI K-pop Dance Battle Machine 'Stepin' experience hall was crowded with K-pop fans from all over Europe. Sandra Gonzalez (14) said, "Being evaluated so precisely in real-time makes it feel like I'm at an audition," with a smile.
The 'Superstar' experience hall, featuring famous K-pop artists from entertainment agencies like SM and JYP, was also bustling with visitors. The 'OneMinuteGo' platform experience hall, which automatically creates completed short-form videos by inputting a storyline, drew interest from European K-webtoon fans. Laura Olivia (27) remarked, "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.
Yu Geun-hyung
AI-translated with ChatGPT. Provided as is; original Korean text prevails.
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