The Korean Wave (‹The template Korean is being considered for merging.› Hangul: 한류; hanja: 韓流; RR: Hallyu; MR: Hallyu, About this sound listen (help·info), a neologism literally meaning 'flow of Korea') is the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture since the 1990s.[2][3][4] First driven by the spread of K-dramas and K-pop across East, South and Southeast Asia during its initial stages, the Korean Wave evolved from a regional development into a global phenomenon, carried by the Internet and social media and the proliferation of K-pop music videos on YouTube.