The popularity of Korean actor Gong Yoo reached another level after the the tremendous success of the tvN drama Goblin. The 37-year-old actor, who played the lead role in the 16-episode fantasy series, topped the reputation rankings, this month.
The Korean Business Research Institute released the reputation rankings recently on Feb. 18, Saturday. Reportedly, they compiled 72,745,586 pieces of data from Jan. 16 to Feb. 17, Friday. The compilation was done by including the brand notoriety index of the actors, communication, media coverage and community.
Based on the data, Gong Yoo nabbed the number one position with a total score of 10,728,767, pushing Jo In Sung to the second spot, and Yoo Hae Jin to the third spot, according to the Korean Business Research Insitute, as cited by Soompi.
Kim Soo Hyun was at the fourth place and The Legend of the Blue Sea star Jun Ji Hyun at the fifth spot and The King's Jung Woo Sung at the sixth spot.
Ha Jung-Woo and Kang Dong Won nabbed the seventh and eighth place, respectively. At the ninth spot is actor Lee Byung Hun and Hwang Jung at number ten, rounded out the top 10.
In other news, a representative from Management Soop said: "Currently, Gong Yoo is extremely busy filming for commercials. We think he will be taking a break away from schedules from mid-March and onwards."
The representative also added that the actor will be using this break to figure out what he wants to do next. However, there are speculations that the actor would take up a movie as his next project and not a drama.
Meanwhile, Gong Yoo's international popularity rose to such a level that he received several fan meeting offers from 15 different countries, including the United States, Japan, Australia, and China. However, it is not known if he is intending to or scheduled to visit the countries anytime soon.
