BTS Connectography Project Launch
On March 21, 2026, as BTS returns with their first comeback performance in three years and nine months, fans from around the world are gathering in Gwanghwamun, Seoul.
With joyful hearts, we warmly welcome ARMY who have come to celebrate BTS’s comeback. As part of its educational mission, the Great Geographic Society is launching the BTS Connectography Project.
This initiative is both a global geography platform—where ARMY from around the world can share and follow BTS-related news—and a community of goodwill, connected through the common bond of BTS.
Souce: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bU3KrOUhGAg
BTS and the Rise of Connectography
By Eje Kim, Professor of Geography, Gyeongin National University of Education
(Founder of Great Geographic Society)
JoongAng Ilbo, October 1, 2019
After conquering the Billboard charts and growing into a legendary group that now rivals—even surpasses—the Beatles, BTS has built a complete mobile ecosystem that integrates content, networks, platforms, and devices. Their passionate and highly cohesive fanbase, ARMY, serves as the strongest support system of the BTS empire.
Centered largely around early- to mid-teen “digital natives,” ARMY and BTS actively communicate through a wide range of social networks. Through their official YouTube channel, BTS continuously provides global fans with not only performances but also dance practice videos and backstage footage in real time. They consistently expand their global presence by uploading numerous photos on Instagram and sharing everyday moments on Facebook.
In particular, Twitter—with its rapid speed of dissemination—has become one of the most powerful tools of the BTS empire. Hashtags promoting online voting for BTS generated 5.172 billion tweets in a short period, earning a Guinness World Record. This figure amounts to nearly 70% of the world’s population, all mobilized in an instant.
As of 2018, the country with the largest number of ARMY members was the Philippines, followed by South Korea in second place and the United States in eighth. Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia—occupied third through sixth places, followed by Brazil (7th), Taiwan (9th), and Mexico (10th).
The success formula of BTS offers a clear lesson for governments and corporations in the era of the connectography revolution, pointing toward the path that South Korea must take.
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Connectography Raised BTS
By Eje Kim, Professor of Geography, Gyeongin National University of Education
JoongAng Ilbo, October 1, 2019
The term connectography combines “connection” and “geography.” Parag Khanna, author of Connectography, argues that in the 21st century, it is no longer sufficient to say “geography is destiny.” Instead, “connectivity is destiny.”
Today, victory in global competition depends on the transnational connectivity of functional infrastructures—highways, railways, pipelines for energy and goods, as well as digital networks through which information, knowledge, finance, and technology flow at high speed.
While geography once determined the rise and fall of nations and civilizations, connectivity has now become the decisive factor.
If you answer that the most populous country in the world is China (1.437 billion) followed by India (1.366 billion), you may still be a “prisoner of geography,” confined within the outdated framework of territory and borders.
In the new era, when population is measured digitally, the world looks entirely different. Facebook, which acquired Instagram (1 billion users) in 2012, now commands a combined “population” of 3.38 billion users, making it the most populous “nation” in the world. YouTube, which has recently surged in popularity in Korea, also boasts over 2 billion users.
Meanwhile, Chinese platform companies such as Qzone (572 million), TikTok (500 million), and Sina Weibo (465 million) each surpass the population of the United States (329 million). Even Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world (271 million), is smaller than emerging platform ecosystems such as Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Douban, LinkedIn, and Snapchat.
The connectography revolution is fundamentally reshaping our long-held assumptions about territory and population.
Flat Thinking Cannot Capture Opportunity
According to the McKinsey Global Institute’s Connectedness Index, the most globally connected countries—capable of absorbing and transmitting flows of goods, services, finance, people, and data—are Singapore (1st), the Netherlands (2nd), and the United States (3rd).
South Korea ranks 16th overall, performing relatively well in goods (8th) and services (12th), but lagging in finance (28th), data (44th), and people (50th).
China (7th overall), despite its technological strength, ranks low in people connectivity (82nd), reflecting limited openness to immigration and cross-border mobility.
In contrast, Saudi Arabia ranks second in people connectivity due to continuous pilgrimage flows to Mecca and active acceptance of migrants.
Seoul, despite being a major city, still lags behind global hubs such as New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, and Dubai in terms of global connectivity.
Platform Economy and the New Rules of Growth
The platform economy, a core feature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, grows by building ecosystems that integrate big data, artificial intelligence, and cross-industry convergence.
Like a railway platform where countless people and goods converge, the more connected a platform is, the greater its potential for expansion.
Disruptive global leaders—from Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google to Uber and Airbnb—have all leveraged platforms to reshape markets. Chinese giants such as Tencent and Alibaba have also risen rapidly through platform-based strategies.
However, Korea’s platform competitiveness remains a concern. Its presence in the global platform arena is still limited.
LINE, developed by Naver, was once a leading messaging platform in Asia but was quickly overtaken by WhatsApp and WeChat. This reflects the limitations of developing services primarily for a relatively small domestic market, while global competitors aggressively expand across borders.
Beyond Technology: The Power of Connection
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution and platform revolution intensify—and as geopolitical uncertainties grow—connectography will determine survival.
Securing global platforms and maintaining “competitive connectivity” is now essential not only for corporations but also for nations.
Leading companies such as Google and Amazon actively utilize geospatial big data to reduce logistics costs and explore new markets, placing high value on geographers and GIS experts.
Success in the 21st century requires not only technological innovation but also the ability to build strategic partnerships, identify niches, and apply geographic imagination.
Yoshikawa Ryozo, mentor to the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, emphasized that marketing is evolving—from advanced economies toward emerging regions, and from rigid analytical reports toward a form of geopolitical manufacturing that discovers new markets.
This is why we must move beyond the comfort of saturated developed markets and continue to explore unfamiliar and challenging frontiers.
Innovation Begins at the Periphery
Revolutions rarely begin at the center—they emerge from the margins.
The phenomenon of leapfrog growth—where societies rapidly advance by skipping stages—often occurs in environments of scarcity.
In China, underdeveloped infrastructure became a driver of technological transformation: the lack of landline telephones accelerated mobile adoption, and the absence of retail infrastructure spurred the growth of e-commerce.
Similarly, in regions such as Africa and Latin America, where many lack access to traditional banking, fintech ecosystems have expanded rapidly.
The End of Isolation
The era of the isolated, test-oriented model student is fading.
Whether individuals, corporations, or nations—those that remain isolated will inevitably decline.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, survival and prosperity depend not only on developing new technologies or learning to code, but on how effectively one connects with diverse people and diffuses ideas and innovations across networks.
The geographic imagination required to transform the world through “connection and convergence” is no longer confined to classrooms, factories, or offices.
It is unfolding quietly—in cafés, in traffic jams, and in the smartphones we carry every day.
