EXO, Yoo Ah In, and Hyeri Lead the 2016 Forbes Korea Top 40 Celebrity Power Rankings

View Comments

• EXO are overr overrated, lip synced most of the time. They also look too plastic.

• Damn Girls Genration ,Kim Yuna,Jun Ji Hyun and IU are indestructible. I might be wrong but i see them on this list every year. These so called "trendy" female idols like Hyeri,Hani,Suzy etc, come and go ,but these ladies seem to be in top every year. Thats real measurement of popularity.

• Is Lee Kwang-soo really so popular? I don't follow him at all so am a little surprised to see his name there with the more heavyweight actors.

  • Most likely thanks to Running Man.

    • Yes its thanks to Running Man. But compared to other Running Man member, he really reap the most popularity.

• Very surprised to see Lee Min Ho so low in the ranks. Probably his lack of dramas last year? He only had one movie in the first half of year tho Kim Soo Hyun himself had just one drama and Jeon Ji Hyun had one movie and they are way higher. YAI surpassing KSH is a huuuuge feat but considering he's worked his ass off last year in both movies + dramas, it would be weird if he couldn't even do that I suppose.

  There's another 30s under 30 Asian celebrities list Forbes released soon after this and in that Siwon, Yoona and G-Dragon are featured along with KSH - duhrr, obviously - as well as Kim Yuna. I was again surprised that didn't have LMH at all, and not so surprised YAI was also not featured. Anyway I like these lists, they are fun to analyze heh.

  • Not even a fan and actully I dislike him but the under 30 asia forbes is SM mediaplay and one of the judges was SM CEO. Yoona and Siwon are not even more popular then Park Shin hye and Ljs. it was a obvious mediaplay to block other ex-SM members in Luhan and Kris while PSH, Ljs and LMH got blocked in the process so nothing of that is actual and SM calling themselves forbes asia. the Mediaplay is outspread in South Korea taking forbes tags and what not. Just wanna warn people from believing in any of these lists

    • LOL... I don't think I'm going to just take your word for it or that anyone else should. The fact that you claim PSH or LJS is more popular than Siwon or Yoona is pretty ridiculous. Why? Because accept it or not, kpop has a larger, stronger and broader reach than Kdramas ever had. SNSD + Super Junior is better known in general by the kpop world and that itself makes them easily the bigger celebrities than kdrama actors are specially outside South Korea. There is a really good reason why only one K drama actor is in the list and that guy has been the most successful out of them all.

      Whether or not SM is media playing, I think I'd like to trust Forbes over someone's words. It's not just an ordinary list, it's Forbes for god's sake. The other names from other countries are very believable and I honestly have no reason to be doubting it.

    • No it's not forbes the american one and they have nothing to do with it. it's an independent group who are SM run that are calling themselves Forbes Asia.

      Siwon is not even a leading male actor let alone being held in the same breath as Lee Jong-Suk who is a leading Male both in korea and China while Siwon was only 3rd or somethings 5th or 7th. they are not on the same playing field

    • Lee Jong Suk and Park Shin Hye can't even make it on the Korea list, how can they be on the Asia list.

      I like koala's preface, just because you think your favorites are the most popular people on the planet doesn't doesn't make it so.

    • That explained why the heck overrated EXO ranked top 1
      . Every Kpopper knows Big Bang is the king. I'm not fan of either group, just speaking of undeniable fact based on international/domestic reputation and pro music reviews. Don't take this ranking seriously.

    • Can Siwon even make the Korea list the answer is no. because they are from small agencies and they are feed on. thats how things work in sk and there is no credit to where credit is due and thats how things role down there.

      Besides that the list was imo made to block the rising stars of Asia Today which are non-other then Ex-SM members in Luhan and Kris. they have become increasing influential and they are overshadowing everything so THIS was SM move to block them. I imagine the lawsuit is also heating up between them

    • @Aone

      Look, I'm not here to pick a fight or argue with you but you hardly make any sense to me. Kpop IS bigger than kdramas and even I, as someone who hates the aegyo and repetitive music and ridiculously stupid MVs of almost all kpop groups, can admit to that. It shows in the basic knowledge of people who don't follow either as well as the way a kpop group can fill stadiums with 40k people in seconds vs most actors who just can't. There's obviously TONs of arguments why - 1. because an actor is one person vs many members 2. because concerts are their careers vs fanmeets being just a part of an actor's extracurricular etc etc. But there's absolutely no denying that kpop's reach is bigger catering to a larger mass audience. You can deny this and I refuse to go further into this debate but honestly, this is common knowledge as far as I'm concerned.

      And now that someone else has mentioned in regards to PSH and LJS, they are not even in this list's top 40. For people you keep calling B I G and more popular than the likes SM stars like Yoona, EXO whatever, they sure seem to embarass you words. Pick bigger stars because as much as you think they are popular, I have every reason to doubt that.

    • Koalas blog has fallen to the dogs..

      @Hmmm

      ''Kpop is bigger then Kdrama''

      You took 40k as numbers that they sold out? first of all how the hell would you sell that to non-korean speaking and non-hardcore Kpop circle fans the answer would be no which is logical.

      Example Dots just got 26-mio views on Youku within 24-hours while while I hear your voice and Doctor stranger who are not the biggest hits got respectively each almost 1-bil views on youku now we are talking PSY numbers only on chinese portals forget about if we add other International Portals. there is no age limit and Kpop fans are young and drool around on forums and fanwars while the real consumers don't even socialize in Kdrama they just stik there HDMD stik to the TV and watch with there boyfriend or whatever they are legit consumers. Kdrama------------------ Not even close ------------- wall of china ------------- kpop.. hope Kpop fans realize the truth and wake up from the slum

    • I think you underestimate Siwons and Yoonas popularity and huge impact SJ and SNSD have in Asia. There is really no legit proof that LJS and PSH are more popular than them but your own word. If i dared to guess, i would say Yoona is easily the most popular and famous one out of all of them.

  • Kdrama-------->Kpop because there is language barrier in kpop but not in Kdrama and has larger consumers with no age limits. Dramafever, Viki and other Kdrama portals get ridiculous high traffic that kpop would only dream about. realistically speaking Kdrama-----> wall of china-------> Kpop.. thats why Idols take roles in Kdrama because it was larger audience

    • Why idols like to do dramas? You think it's because dramas have a larger audience? LMFAOOO, are you new? They want that because:

      1. Better reputation in Korea because actor >>>>>>>>>> idols
      2. Better working conditions because idols have insane schedules that is both unhealthy and extremely stressful
      3. Want to create their own identity as an individual instead of being a part of a group
      4. Prepare for a career later because idol life ends very soon after 30 for most - specially girls (and nope, I'm not being sexist, just stating facts and observations)
      5. They've always wanted to act but don't have the talent for it so they used a different route.

      There are probably tons more reasons but I would be damned if one of them was because kdrama have a larger audience.

  • @Aone

    Fallen to the Dogs? Woah there, don't be barking up your own house! You actually make a kdrama fan seem more immature and pathetic than most of kpop's insane fangirls and that's an achievement in and or itself. Congratulations. Also, apologies but my time is too precious to be arguing with someone like that unfortunately. Sigh.

    So have a field day in convincing yourself with your arrows and wall of Chinas because you ain't getting me to reply to your nonsense anymore.

    • lmao.. whatever rocks your boat and you whoever is willing to believe will believe you. I don't either need to carry this further. I delivered my case and point clearly I leave that to the readers imagination and logic. Peace N love my dear

  • If YAI is higher than KSH in this list, why didn't he even make it in 30s Under 30s? Is he past 30 already?

    • I believe that list is for Asia's most influential individual celebrities who has had a major impact last year. YAI is an 86 born, so he is under 30 as his birthday hasn't passed yet. But as successful a year as YAI has had in 2015, he still is far from being amongst the most influential stars in Korea let alone Asia. I think his reach is great obviously, but people like KSH, JJH, etc are on a higher scale being Hallyu and popular Domestic actors for a very long time.

      Here's the link to the Forbes list in case you're interested (and it's from the actual Forbes website so I am not even sure what others are claiming about it being Forbes Asia or whatever):

      http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2016/02/24/g-e-m-angelababy-soo-hyun-kim-and-the-actors-and-athletes-of-30-under-30-asia/#2d89d1dc65c7

    • KSH is a bigger name in Asia. He has also been on the Korea Power Celebrity 40 list for the last five years, with three of those being in the Top 5.

• not a surprise lmh has always rank lower in list like this even though is the most popular he rarely made the cut. is either he is rank low or not there at all infact am always suprise about it here in Nigeria if not because of lmh i would never know there is a place called south korea

• Wait, does anyone know why K-netizens do not like IU?

  • She get her first scandal several years ago when she uploaded her picture in bed (? I think) with Eunhyuk of Super Junior, thats damaging her national little sister image. Recently her newest album is linked to lolita image or sexualize child story. Then she is revealed to dating Jang Ki Ha, whom also have good reputation and is many ideal man before, didn't bring good image to both of them because of their big age difference. I think thats all.

• u cant say kpop has larger crowd than k drama infact kdrama makes kpop to be known globally. i have never heard a kpop song before but have watch kdrama because it global and target larger audience

  • And you can't say that what you know or don't know to be the be all and end all.

• Imo, the first hallyu wave that crashed my country was Winter Sonata in 2003. After that I got hit by kpop such as tvxq & Big bang in 2006 & 2007. This is just my point of views.. :)

• @Hmm

  I'm Kpop fan myself and into some groups but it's oxymoronic claim to say that Kpop is bigger because it's basically not bigger.

  @Aone said that Dots had 26mio in 24hours but after 48hours it got 60mio views on Iqiyi China portal and will probably hit above 1.5-billion views within frist 3-4 months and lets keep in my mind thats only in China. Imagine if all the other International Portals released there numbers people would be shocked. I'm also small time Yoo Won fan and his drama Yongply got 0.83-Bil views on Youku alone.

  I actully that the numbers that China is getting is also equal to the numbers Dramafever, Viki and MyasianTv gets since they cover the rest of the world basically but they don't release numbers but if they did people would be in for huge surprise.

  The lastest BB song BANG BANG BANG which is considered one of the biggest hits Kpop songs on Youtube it tookt them 8-months to hit 100-mio while PSY did it on 4-weeks which shows they are not mainstream due to language difficulty. Kpop has reached it's peaked and it's not getting bigger if they got this far it should be considered success keeping in my the langauge barrier which is always there and it's already miracle they overcame that which is only some groups since there is to many nugus

  • This. As Ljs/psh shipper I thought it was oxymoronic that someone even mentioned them in the same breath as Yoona and Siwon. thats what you get when SM call themselves forbes asia and release things. Kris and Luhan tho they are the rising stars of Asia if anyone should be on any legit list it's them as of current today. it was no surprise that they would get blocked

    • @Arnold Despite all that they still manage to feed out of their past fame. And that is just more than enough.

      @Aone isn't it tiring to be harping everywhere about this kind of theories. I'm pretty sure there's no need for media play for an already well peak group like Suju and SNSD. Or should i say past peak but still profitable. It simply doesn't make any sense not like SM is super investing on them anymore. They have younger groups they need to take care of..

• Jesus, people need to calm down. This list varies by exposure in a particular year and so the people who worked last year and were popular made it on this list. What's all the fuss about.

  • You got my vote. The comments section is just a mess. Can you guys just applaud and stop with the conspiracy theory. It's getting pretty darn annoying.