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Zepto rides the Hallyu wave: ramen searches top 4.6 lakh as India's K-beauty market eyes $1.5 bn by 2030
Zepto saw ramen searches cross 4.6 lakh and Korean noodle searches pass 1 lakh as Korean food and beauty demand grows. India's K-beauty market is projected to reach $1.5 billion by 2030. Zepto's Soul Street activation ties Hallyu culture to quick-commerce sales.
The numbers
Figures from ET BrandEquity,
| Indian respondents viewing Korean pop culture favourably: | 84.5% |
|---|
Why it matters for the brand
Korean noodles and K-beauty are pulling real search demand on quick commerce (4.6 lakh ramen searches, 1 lakh+ Korean noodle searches on Zepto), so FMCG and beauty operators should test dedicated Hallyu assortments, dark-store placement and campaign tie-ins now, while keeping in mind that search volume is not the same as sales.
What to track next
- Zepto announcing a permanent Korean category or store-in-store, or repeating Soul Street in more cities
- Blinkit or Swiggy Instamart launching dedicated Korean or K-beauty collections
- Disclosure of search-to-order conversion or repeat-purchase rates for Korean products, beyond the 4.6 lakh and 1 lakh+ search counts
- Stock-outs or delayed listings for imported Korean items, or regulatory action on imported food and cosmetics labelling
- Korean brands announcing India distribution tie-ups or exclusive quick-commerce launches
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- Zepto is likely to extend Soul Street-style cultural activations to other themes, since the format links content to quick-commerce sales and the Korean campaign gives it a proof point.
- Expect Zepto to deepen its Korean assortment, with more noodle variants and K-beauty listings, to turn search volume into baskets.
- Rival quick-commerce platforms such as Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart may launch their own Korean-themed storefronts or curated ranges if they see the Hallyu demand as durable.
- Korean food and beauty brands are likely to use quick-commerce platforms for India visibility, with co-marketing or exclusive launches, given the $1.5 billion K-beauty projection for 2030.
- Indian D2C and beauty players may add K-beauty-inspired products to compete for the same shoppers, since 84.5% of surveyed respondents view Korean pop culture favourably.
The counter-case
The case against this reading — not reported by the source.
Search volume is a vanity metric, not a sales metric. 4.6 lakh ramen searches says nothing about conversion, basket size, repeat purchase, or margin. It is also an unbounded cumulative figure with no time window, no baseline, and no comparison to searches for Maggi, instant noodles, or other categories. Ramen searches may also be inflated by existing demand, since Korean instant noodles like Samyang have been sold in India for years. The 84.5% 'favourable view' survey is a sentiment poll of unknown sample and sponsor, and favourable views of K-pop do not translate into spend. The $1.5bn K-beauty 2030 projection is a third-party forecast with no stated methodology, and it covers a market that Zepto barely touches, since K-beauty is largely served by Nykaa, Amazon and Olive Young-style specialists. Soul Street is a marketing activation, and the story likely comes from Zepto's own PR. The result is a brand-sourced narrative that stitches together unrelated stats (noodle searches, a pop-culture poll, a beauty forecast) to imply a causal Hallyu-to-quick-commerce revenue link that has not been demonstrated. Novelty-driven spikes in a niche, imported, low-margin, supply-constrained category may fade, and Korean imports face regulatory and labelling friction (FSSAI) and customs exposure.
The source
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