Naver has revealed the top monthly searches of 2020 and only one K-Pop idol made it to the list.
Naver, which is often referred to as the "the Google of South Korea," released the list of the most popular monthly searches of 2020 on Dec. 14 - and only one K-Pop artist was included. In particular, this idol was the most searched term in "October 2020," and this is none other than Red Velvet's Irene.
According to Naver, "Irene" was the most searched keyword on both mobile and PC in October. This perhaps is the result of her "gapjil" controversy last October 21. On that day, a particular editor and stylist made a post with the hashtags "#psycho" and "#monster." In the post, she stated that a certain idol, which later revealed to be Red Velvet's Irene, said harsh words toward her, making her feel humiliated.
Following the accusations, some individuals defended Irene, mentioning there are always two sides to every story. In addition, Red Velvet's Irene made an apology post and even met with the stylist to apologize in person. SM Entertainment also released an official statement, saying that they will work hard so that such incident will not happen again. The original post by the editor was then deleted afterward.
As a result of the "gapjil" controversy, some fans and netizens want Irene out of the group although the K-Pop idol has already apologized. Also, Red Velvet's fan meeting at the 2020 K-Culture Festival was canceled.
On Nov. 5, Red Velvet released a season-greetings video on YouTube, becoming the group's first appearance after Irene's attitude scandal. Then, on Nov. 20, SM Entertainment shared through a press conference that there are plans for the female act to make a comeback soon "with a more mature appearance."
Meanwhile, the other most popular searches of 2020 include web dramas, certain people, and other matters. In particular, the top Naver searches on mobile in the respective months were: "Crash Landing on You" - referring to tvN's television series (January), "Itaewon Class" - referring to JTBC's K-Drama (February), "publicly-distributed face mask" (March), "The World of the Married" - pertaining to JTBC's television show (April and May), "Celltrion" - a Korean biopharmaceutical agency (June).
In August was "weather alert," in September was "typhoon" (relating to typhoons named Maysak and Haishen). The top Naver searches on PC were "simplified year-end tax settlement service" (January), "Shincheonji" - relating to Shincheonji Church of Jesus where a huge COVID-19 outbreak occurred (February), "KOSPI" - an index of all stocks traded on the Korean Stock Exchange (March), "Kim Jong Un" - North Korea's leader (April).
Then, in May is "emergency disaster relief funds" and in June is "translator," which refers to machine translation services like Naver Papago and Google Translate. In August is "typhoon" (pertaining to Typhoon Bavi), and in September was "word counter."
The most popular Naver searches both on mobile and PC is "Park Won Soon" in July and "Park Ji Sun" in November. Won Soon was the previous and longest-serving mayor of Seoul, who presumably took his own life. And Ji Sun is the beloved comedienne who passed away due to suicide.
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Written by Mhaliya S.
