Carolina Steinert, founder and CEO of HIT! Magazine, holds the magazine's February issues featuring K-pop girl group TWICE. Courtesy of Carolina Steinert
When Carolina Steinert from Brazil first caught a glimpse of K-pop act SHINee on the internet 13 years ago, she had no idea how a boy band from the opposite side of the planet would change her life.
The singers, who mesmerized her with their jaw-dropping choreography and music video, opened the door to new opportunities for her, prompting Steinert to become a K-pop content creator on YouTube and a K-pop dance teacher.
The zealous fan also got her journalism license and began writing for Todateen, a Brazilian magazine about general pop culture. However, Steinert thought her solo effort was not enough. She felt she needed more people to join her in promoting Korean culture in her home country, and ended up launching HIT! Magazine in 2023 — the first of its kind in Brazil dedicated to Korean culture.
Carolina Steinert, founder and CEO of HIT! Magazine / Courtesy of Carolina Steinert
"At that time, no company wanted to hire and pay someone to talk about K-pop," Steinert said in a recent email interview with The Korea Times. "So, I decided to create one on my own and have editorial control over what was posted about it. I believe Korean culture should be highly respected and K-pop should be treated as something serious — not something childish."
According to Steinert, K-pop and Korean culture are hitting high notes in Latin America, one of the world's fastest-growing music markets.
After singer PSY swept the world off its feet with his 2012 mega-hit "Gangnam Style," K-pop giants like BTS and Korean dramas have picked up the baton, solidifying their presences in South America.
Nonetheless, numerous companies and corporations in Brazil are still quite skeptical about their economic value and potential, Steinert says.
"My biggest difficulty is to gain recognition from large companies and corporations and to show them that K-pop is a business as well," she explained. "It is profitable and we are the professionals working to promote Korean culture in the country. But we still feel significant resistance from companies both outside and within the sector."
She added, "It is difficult to show these companies how we can grow this market even more by working together. It also becomes quite challenging in the Brazilian industry because many people are without a business vision or a perspective of boosting the Korean culture industry here, which sometimes hinders progress a bit."
A digital cover of HIT! Magazine featuring Chen of K-pop boy group EXO / Courtesy of HIT! Magazine
Being a cultural pioneer is not a piece of cake and Steinert's journey would have been less bumpy if there had been a model magazine to follow. However, her love and passion for Korean culture, coupled with her pursuit of professionalism, are gradually coming to fruition.
"Today, we have over 4 million accesses on our social media every month," Steinert revealed. "We sold over 5,000 copies of our February magazine featuring girl group TWICE within the first few weeks of sales. One thing we have also noticed is the growing popularity of HIT! Magazine in Japan, China, the Philippines, Chile, and other European countries. It is common to see numerous followers from other countries commenting on our articles and buying our magazines, even though they are in Brazilian Portuguese."
She added that HIT! Magazine also has a news editorial in the Sao Paulo subway, where it delivers K-pop news every day to more than 2 million people.
"As the only printed K-pop magazine in Brazil, we manage to bring official K-pop content to the Latin American market in a much more accessible way than any other portal has before," she said.
In addition to TWICE, HIT! Magazine has featured several A-list K-pop icons including B.I., a former member of boy group iKON, as well as The Boyz, (G)-IDLE, EXO's Chen and MAMAMOO's Solar.
HIT! Magazine provides content about K-pop and Korean culture in the Sao Paulo subway. Courtesy of Carolina Steinert
"For our digital magazines, we partnered with some record labels and companies to promote a group when it is releasing something, but we also take into account the size of the group measuring by its fanbase," she noted. "Since we established a great potential for the magazine by starting with B.I. and The Boyz, we try to maintain a lineup of big artists, especially for our printed magazines."
In the days ahead, Steinert hopes she can collaborate with other big-name stars such as Stray Kids, ATEEZ, Seventeen, NewJeans and BTS. These are the names that are currently standing out in Brazil as well.
"Brazil is a country that likes to enjoy many groups at the same time," she explained. "We don't have the culture of liking just one artist more than others, so we end up having a more general taste. The reason varies from group to group, as we have a diverse audience, but mainly, Brazilians like it when the idols are approachable."
Steinert, who has a lot of things on her plate at the moment, thinks big and aims high.
A digital cover of HIT! Magazine featuring K-pop boy group The Boyz / Courtesy of HIT! Magazine
"We plan to continue expanding HIT! within Brazilian territory, so that it becomes the No. 1 source of information and promotion of Korean culture in the country," she said. "We also aim to take HIT! Magazine to other countries while maintaining our essence, and set up an office in Korea to bring even more coverage and exclusive content of K-pop and K-dramas."
She also sets her sights beyond the magazine, seeking to perform more promotional activities for different K-pop shows in Brazil.
"We want to bring concerts, events, releases and more opportunities for Brazilian fans who dedicate themselves to their artists," she said, adding that boy group Omega X recently became the first K-pop group to have an official photoshoot for a Brazilian magazine by appearing on HIT! Magazine.
"So, we want to keep pushing those boundaries and create more of those opportunities, further strengthening the bridge between Brazil and Korea."