2023 flover Survey Results

The 2023 flover Survey was held from July 29 to August 13, 2023, and was shared by Promise Publications on various social media platforms, such as Twitter (X) and Reddit. From there on, it organically spread. We released the survey in three languages: English, Korean, and Japanese. A total of 1860 unique responses were received; 778 from English-speaking flovers, 972 from Korean-speaking flovers, and 110 from Japanese-speaking flovers.

Important information:

– Most of the data in this survey is presented in percentages. This was necessary due to the large difference between the number of Japanese-speaking respondents and English/Korean-speaking respondents. The small number of Japanese data would be difficult to visualize in number-based charts.
– The survey discusses three language groups. Korean (KOR), Japanese (JPN), and English (INT). The English-speaking flover group will be referred to as “international flovers,” “I-flovers,” or “INT flovers.” In this case, “international” doesn’t include Japanese flovers.
– All statements about flovers in this survey only represent our respondents.
– Data sheet with full detailed survey results is provided at the end of this Write-Up.

The survey results are discussed in 4 sections:

1. FLOVER INFO: Who is flover?
2. FLOVERS AND FROMIS: Which member, song, etc. are flover’s favorite?
3. BIAS ANALYSIS: Is there a relation between bias, age, gender, etc.?
4. FLOVERS AS K-POP FANS: The Korean language? Favorite music genres? Album collections?

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1. FLOVER INFO

1.1 The Average flover

The global average flover is an 18 to 21-year-old (29.7%), straight (71.3%) male (71.6%) who has an INFP personality type (15.0%).

1.2 flover World Map*

*map based on flover nationality

flovers can be found all over the world! Our survey reached 1860 flovers across six continents. A whopping 79.9% of our respondents are from Asia. This is followed by 10.6% in North America, 5.8% in Europe, 2.3 in South America, 1.0% in Oceania, and finally 0.3% in Africa.

Without Korean and Japanese flovers, Asia still makes up 50.7% of respondents, most of whom live in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. North American flovers make up 26.0%. 14.2% are European, 5.8% South American, 2.6% Oceanian, and 0.7% African.

2. FLOVERS AND FROMIS

2.1 flovers as fans

Out of 1843 respondents, 409 (22.3%) became a flover during “Stay This Way” era. “Stay This Way” and “DM” were notably popular eras for Korean fans, while “DM” gained the most international flovers. The most popular era for our J-flover respondents was “WE GO.” Overall, fromis_9’s fans-gained-per-era has been on the rise, except for “Talk & Talk,” which was just a special single, and “#menow,” which was, according to many fans, improperly promoted.

There are various reasons why a group might catch your attention: music, visuals, personality, dance, label… International flovers were overwhelmingly drawn to fromis because of their musical hits. Korean flovers, on the other hand, were more caught by the girls’ visuals and personalities, aspects that KOR fans are more exposed to on a daily basis thanks to the proximity and better understanding of the language. Last but not least, Japanese flovers are drawn by both music and visuals.

Which of the members is the most eye-catching? These results differ per flover group! INT flovers are mostly drawn by Saerom, Nagyung and Gyuri.* KOR flovers are caught by Hayoung, Jiheon, and Jiwon. JPN flovers are mostly drawn by Hayoung, Nagyung and Gyuri. Saerom is extremely eye-catching for INT flovers, but less so for KOR and JPN flovers. Overall, Hayoung is the most eye-catching member!

*Gyuri, though a former member, was included in this question for flovers who were initially drawn to the group because of her.

Is fromis_9 flover’s favorite K-pop artist? Most of our respondents across different flover groups answered with a resounding yes!

For 71.2% of Koreans, fromis_9 is the only group they follow closely. Other flovers mostly follow multiple groups along with fromis_9.

Overall, Koreans are the most die-hard flovers!

It has been a rocky period for flovers. With nearly a year’s gap between “Stay This Way“ and “#menow,” most INT and JPN flovers say nothing has changed for them during that period, while most Korean flovers became more invested in the group. Regardless of flover group, around 11% of flovers became less invested.

Regarding Gyuri’s departure, 75.5% of flovers say they are still just as invested since Gyuri left.

How many flovers have seen fromis in person? 43.5% of Korean flovers, 36.4% of Japanese flovers, and not a lot (4.5%) of international flovers. As opposed to Korean and International fans, a considerable chunk of Japanese flovers attended online fansigns.

When fromis_9 drops a new album, most fans show their support by streaming the music, as well as buying physical albums. Korean fans show a higher percentage in buying digital albums, as opposed to international fans who (most probably) prefer to listen on music streaming platforms.

The majority of INT and JPN flovers turn to Twitter for updates, while KOR flovers check on Weverse. There are varying results for each social media platform, but YouTube is a commonplace flovers look into. Reddit, Discord and DC Inside are the most region-specific platforms.

2.2 flover favorites

Which member has the most fans? Everyone! The largest group of flovers (18.5%) is unable to choose a single fromis_9 bias. Jiwon and Hayoung follow this with at least 16% each. Next are Jiheon, Seoyeon, Saerom, Nagyung, Chaeyoung and Jisun, who range from 9.1% to 6.3% respectively.

The favorite member distribution is different per region. Korean flovers have a strong preference for Jiwon (19.5%) and Hayoung (18.0%). Japanese flovers prefer Hayoung (17.3%) and Nagyung (14.5%). International flovers have the most even favorite member distribution, but show a preference for Jiwon (13.9%) and Hayoung (13.4%).

All flover groups agree that DM is fromis_9’s best track! The ranking of the other songs, though, is different. The top 5 for INT flovers are “DM,” “Feel Good,” “Airplane Mode,” “Blind Letter” and “WE GO.” The top 5 for KOR flovers are “DM,” “Airplane Mode,” “Blind Letter,” “Eye Contact” and “Stay This Way.” The most disagreed upon song is “0g,” placing 10th for I-flovers and 37th for K-flovers (out of 45). The top 5 for JPN flovers are “DM,” “WE GO,” “Clover,” “Somebody To Love” and “Glass Shoes.” JPN flovers love fromis_9’s old discography!

How do flover feel about fromis_9’s most recent album? Again, the ranking is different per language group. International flovers show a significant preference for the hot starter of the album, “Attitude.” Korean flovers love the emotional ending with “Eye Contact.” Japanese flovers are the biggest fans of the catchy title track, “#menow.” “Eye Contact,” “Attitude” and “#menow” are respectively the overall top 3. “What I Want” was the least appreciated song.

What is flover’s favorite album? The top 3 for INT flovers are Unlock My World, Midnight Guest and My Little Society. For KOR flovers, who weren’t as big into fromis_9’s latest album, from our Memento Box, Midnight Guest and My Little Society were the favorites. For JPN flovers, from our Memento Box is followed by Unlock My World and 9 WAY TICKET, which are tied in second place. Compared to the other regions, J-flovers also have a big preference for fromis_9’s first two albums.

The top three fromis_9 choreographies are “Rewind,” “DM” and “Up And.” International flovers have a preference for girl-crush choreos, with “Rewind” scoring first by a large margin, and having both “Escape Room” and “Attitude” within the Top 10. Korean and Japanese flovers love the playful and cute “Up And” choreo (probably Jiheon’s doing). Japanese flovers also show a preference for older choreos, with “Love Bomb,” “Pinocchio” and “To Heart” cracking the top ten. The choreography of the catchy summer song “WE GO” ranked third in each region.

fromis_9 have performed several different concepts, with their latest title tracks going for a retro vibe. Which of these concepts is flover’s favorite? Across all regions, Retro is the No. 1 style. Koreans especially have a big preference for it. Similar to the results for favorite track and favorite choreo, international fans also like the dark concept. J-flovers also like the cute concept, as shown by their preference for older tracks and choreos.

fromis is a group with all cute girls, but Hayoung is overwhelmingly the cutest member! A massive 58.6% of K-flovers find her the cutest member. I-flovers find Hayoung and Jiheon equally adorable. J-flovers find Hayoung slightly cuter than Nagyung and have Jiheon in third place.

The three least cute members are the sexiest! Saerom comes in first place, closely followed by Chaeyoung; two members with unmistakable mature charms. Jisun comes in third place with a lot of votes from Japanese flovers.

There is no doubt that Jiwon’s unhinged behavior makes her fromis_9’s funniest member. Chaeyoung and Jisun scored well too!

Sorry, Hayoung. The debate(?) can be settled.

3. BIAS ANALYSIS

In this section, we use the data discussed in the first section of the survey to analyze if there are any correlations between flover characteristics (age group, gender identity, sexuality and region) and their choice of bias. Do young flovers prefer younger members? Who is most popular for men and who is for women? Which member is the queer favorite? Which members are more loved internationally? Let’s find out!

3.1 Age Group x Bias

Is there a relation between flover age groups and their choice of bias? In general, these results reflect the same trend with the overall age distribution. There is a difference between the younger and older members, however. The youngest four members (Seoyeon, Chaeyoung, Nagyung and Jiheon) have the most fans in the 18-21 age group. Additionally, Jiheon is the most popular with the two youngest age groups. 22-25-year-olds lean more towards the oldest three members. Jisun has a strong appeal for the 30-35 age group. Fans over the age of 35 have a hard time choosing a bias, but in general, prefer the older members.

3.2 Gender Identity x Bias

Of our 1860 respondents, 1331 identify as male, 469 as female, and 29 as non-binary. The others were unsure about their gender or preferred not to disclose it. This large number of male fans is mainly concentrated in the Korean fanbase. Therefore, our K-flover respondents are discussed separately from the I-flovers and J-flovers.

Among K-flovers, each member has a large majority of male fans. Seoyeon stands out, however. She is the most popular member for female fans, having double the ratio of the other members.

For international and Japanese flovers, the results are more varied. While the largest chunk of male fans are unable to choose a favorite member, Hayoung, Nagyung and Jiwon took the top three spots as the male favorites. Chaeyoung and Seoyeon have a majority of female fans. Saerom, Jisun and Jiheon have a near-equal distribution between male and female fans. For non-binary flovers, Hayoung and Seoyeon are the most popular members.

3.3 Sexuality x Bias

International and Japanese fans were asked to disclose their sexuality. Among the 888 replies, 32 were unsure and 47 preferred not to answer. Among the remaining 809 flovers, 71.3% are straight and 28.7% are queer.

The favorites for queer flovers are Chaeyoung, Seoyeon and Jiheon, each having over 40% queer fans. Nagyung has the highest proportion of straight fans with 87.1%.

3.4 Region x Bias

Do certain regions have a preference toward certain members? For this chart, the Korean data has been omitted since it’s been shown that they have a preference towards Hayoung and Jiwon. The other Asian flovers are mostly unable to choose a single bias, but lean towards the oldest three members. North Americans share the Koreans’ preference for Hayoung and Jiwon. European flovers like Chaeyoung and Jiheon the most. South American flovers love Seoyeon and Jiheon a lot. The results for Oceania and Africa are less accurate due to the small number of respondents.

4. FLOVERS AS K-POP FANS

K-pop has been a music genre for more than three decades now, and some of our respondents have been listening to the genre since its inception. Since then, the Korean Wave (Hallyu) has continued to surge in popularity as the Korean entertainment industry garnered global interest. The survey results revealed significant peaks during the second (2008-2012) and third generation (2015-2018) of K-pop. Many of our respondents became K-pop fans in 2017 and 2018, around the time when fromis_9 debuted.

What many fans appreciate most about K-pop is its music, dance and spectacle, as it is, after all, a music industry. To take an interest in idols’ personalities and enjoy variety content, a fan has most likely already enjoyed the music and has become more than just a casual fan, which might explain the lower percentages of these options. Fans who reached the point of putting the community first add up to just 1.5%.

Collecting is a hobby and it’s a choice a fan makes. KOR and JPN flovers are predominantly more focused on buying fromis_9 albums, while INT flovers showed mixed results.

Not a lot of K-pop fans speak Korean, but many have picked up a few phrases and words from watching content. Nowadays, subtitles have made K-pop content more accessible and easier to enjoy than ever before. Besides, music knows no boundaries.

Surprisingly, 32.0% of international and 44.5% of Japanese fans are studying the Korean language! This could be thanks to their dedication towards their idols or interest in Korean culture.

While each region has slight differences, overall flover’s top five music genres are Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-hop, Rock, and J-pop/C-pop.

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That concludes Promise Publications 2023 flover Survey.
Thank you to everyone in the flover community for participating in our survey! We hope the results were as satisfying to read for you as they were for us!
If there are any questions about the data, feel free to contact us or view the full survey results linked below.
See you next year!

Click here to view the data sheet with full detailed survey results

Click here to view 2022 flover Survey Results

Writers: Adam and Mitch
Designer: Adam and Mitch
Editors: Brad, Bruno and Folt
Proofreader: Brad
Huge thanks to our amazing translators for helping us!
Korean Translators: Folt, Lydia, Ko-yurim
Japanese Translators: Aaron, Tohm

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Join the flover community on Reddit.