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'KPop Demon Hunters,' 'When Life Gives You Tangerines' and presidential election top Korea's 2025 Google search history

Published: 04 Dec. 2025, 21:33 Updated: 05 Dec. 2025, 15:39

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

Google logos are shown when searched on Google in this file photo taken in New York on Sept. 11, 2023. [AP/YONHAP]

Though Koreans may have found moments of peace and fun in hit films like “KPop Demon Hunters” or the “Chill Guy” meme, their online searches reflected a year dominated by anxiety regarding politics, personal finances and internet safety.

The country spent much of the year deliberating over who to vote for president, how to use their state-funded consumer coupons and how to navigate a series of massive data breaches, according to Google’s Year in Search 2025 report released on Thursday.

The annual report compiles the most popular and trending online searches of the year.

The 2025 presidential election was the most searched news topic, according to the report. President Lee Jae Myung topped Google’s list of most searched people this year, followed by his election rivals Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party, who ranked second, and Lee Jun-seok of the minor Reform Party, who came in third.

But Koreans also looked outward, with interest in conservative U.S. media personality Charlie Kirk's assassination and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, where world leaders and business executives gathered.

Data breaches at two telecommunications firms, SK Telecom and KT, prompted users to search “how to switch SIM cards” and “how to block small payments on KT.” Koreans were also quick to adapt to AI, using it to search for information on the web, translate, write and generate images, Google said. The most searched AI tool was ChatGPT.

HUNTR/X from Netflix's animated film ″KPop Demon Hunters″ [NETFLIX]

Netflix dominated the entertainment scene. Its animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” and K-drama series “When Life Gives You Tangerines” topped the film and TV search category, respectively. Songs from “KPop Demon Hunters,” including “ Golden” and “Soda Pop,” were the No. 1 and No. 2 most searched K-pop tracks and dances.

“Even during a socially difficult time, works like 'KPop Demon Hunters' provided people with positive energy. This was a landmark year, during which K-content gained global recognition and opened a new chapter for K-power,” said Noh Hee-young, the CEO of FNB Lab, an analytics platform.

"Chill Guy" was the most-searched meme on Google in Korea in 2025. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Koreans also sought budgeted trips to Shanghai and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, as well as other cities in East and Southeast Asia, reflecting a preference for practical overseas trips, Google said.

Other highly searched lifestyle trends included the “Young 40s” crowd and “demure” fashion.

“It was a year during which people's [mental and emotional] exhaustion peaked from anxiety and conflict. But paradoxically, that pushed them to seek pleasure and work even harder to define who they are,” said Kim Nan-do, a professor of consumer studies at Seoul National University.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]