As the Korean Netflix series 'Squid Game' became the most-watched original series on the platform, people around the world have been scrambling to find out what makes the dystopian series so globally attractive.
'Squid Game' is a brutal Netflix survival drama about desperate adults competing in deadly children's games for a chance to win a huge cash prize.
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Korean entertainment experts are now drawing comparisons between 'Squid Game' and PSY's hit song 'Gangnam Style', which first put South Korea on the global entertainment map.
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"In a way it's kind of like, 'Squid Game' is kind of like K-drama's 'Gangnam Style.' Like PSY and 'Gangnam Style' became viral because of the emergence of social media back then, because of YouTube. Before then, K-pop was only popular within, mainly in like East Asian countries like China, Japan, Hong Kong, a little bit Taiwan," says Areum Jeong, who teaches Korean film, theater and performance at Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute.
PSY's hit song "Gangnam Style" was a 'turning point' for K-pop's presence - pushing it from a handful of East Asian countries to fans in North America and Europe.
"The emergence of social media and YouTube...allow(ed) transmission of Korean cultural products much easily to, you know, every part of the globe," says Jeong.
Netflix has said that "Squid Game" has become its biggest original series launch after reaching 111 million fans.