Soompi is an English-language website providing coverage of Korean pop culture. It has one of the largest international Internet communities for K-pop, mostly concentrated in news and forums. With more than 23 million fans across all platforms, Soompi offers English and Spanish services. Since its establishment in 1998, Soompi has grown into an authoritative source for Korean popular culture, and is one of the longest-running, and most frequently visited websites providing coverage of K-pop music, celebrity news and entertainment. At first, its visitors were mostly Koreans residing in foreign nations, with over 1.2 million people visiting the site. Currently, however, the majority of its members are non-Koreans in the United States, Canada, Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia, among others. The site receives 120 million page views during peak months from more than 23 million fans spanning more than 190 countries. Soompi was founded in 1998 by Korean Americanweb developerSusan Kang, and the site quickly gained traction with fans throughout the world. In February 2011, Soompi was acquired by , a Seoul-based IT venture company specializing in video search technology, and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of it. When Enswers was acquired by another company, Soompi found a new home with Crunchyroll, a U.S.-based VOD site that specializes in anime, in 2013. Viki acquired Soompi on August 19, 2015. Soompi launched Soompi France in 2011 and in 2012, and it works closely with major South Korean entertainment agencies such as JYP Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and YG Entertainment. The Soompi brand also encompasses the Soompi Awards, which began in 2005, the international reality talent competition "Rising Legends", and a slate of original programming, including mini-documentary "When You Call My Name" with K-pop group Monsta X and singer-songwriter Gallant. The 2017 Soompi Awards received 100 million votes, and the awards-related hashtags trended worldwide on Twitter over eight consecutive hours. Soompi celebrated its 20th anniversary in late March 2018.
