Buldak Ramen has faith in becoming the 'bible of spice' amid global success

This article is by Yoo Ji-yoen and read by an artificial voice. Buldak Ramen instant noodles, or ramyeon, were once dismissed as too spicy to eat. Now, Samyang Foods has turned it into one of Korea's most successful global food brands. The brand's rise has been extraordinary in both scale and structure. Cumulative sales reached 8 billion units as of the first half last year, with about 80 percent sold overseas, and the producer of the ramyeon, Samyang Foods, has built a business around a single spicy noodle brand that now resembles the global model of food giants with export-heavy revenue. The company posted record sales last year and is expected to top 3 trillion won ($2.03 billion) this year, raising a broader question: How did one Korean noodle become a global category leader? "We must become the bible for spiciness," Kim Jung-soo, vice chair of Samyang Roundsquare, said at the opening ceremony for the company's second plant in Miryang, South Gyeongsang, in June last year. Samyang Roundsquare is the parent company of Samyang Foods. "As Buldak Carbonara currently enjoys the most love for its gentler heat, we will keep exploring and segmenting spicy flavors and broadening the range to show what a true bible of spice can be." The origin story behind Buldak instant noodles is now well known. Kim was inspired after seeing a long queue outside a spicy chicken restaurant in Myeongdong, central Seoul, during a visit with her daughter in 2010. After repeated trial and error involving 1,200 chickens and 2 tons of sauce, Samyang launched Buldak Ramen in 2012 to early reviews calling it too spicy for people to eat. Buldak measures about 4,404 Scoville heat units (SHU), placing it in a similar range to a hot jalapeño (2,500 to 8,000 SHU), typical Tabasco sauce, or Korea's popular Cheongyang chili peppers, which usually fall between 4,000 and 10,000 SHU. At first, the tongue-numbing heat led some people to dismiss it as a novelty. But the tide soon turned. Buldak became a regular feature in YouTube eating challenges starting in 2014. Its extreme heat triggered people's competitive instincts, and the dramatic reactions after eating it became entertaining content. Later, the rise of short-form video on YouTube and TikTok gave another lift to Buldak when the instant noodle began selling overseas. Because those platforms are global by nature, the brand benefited from natural viral exposure even without heavy advertising spending. With the rise in popularity of K-pop, Buldak naturally became one of the most well-known spicy Korean foods around the world. With more and more people being exposed to K-pop artists, celebrities and YouTubers consuming Buldak, its spiciness came to be seen not just as a flavor but as a challenge, an experience and a source of fun. Samyang reinforced that idea through what it calls a culture-based marketing. With Samyang Roundsquare's vice chairman calling to "make the Buldak brand a culture icon," the company has been pushing the #buldakchallenge — a viral social media trend where people film themselves attempting to the instant noodles without drinking water or other liquids — and opened Buldak timed eating contests and dance challenges. The ramyeon company also set up an experiential booth at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year, trying to position Buldak sauce as an experience as intense and enjoyable as the music itself for younger consumers. More recently, Samyang has tied Buldak to content aimed at global millennials and Generation Z. The company collaborated with an American media platform to release a dating show called "Heat Match," where contestants bond while trying the instant noodle's spicy flavor. Music video for "Hotter Than My EX," a song released by K-pop boy band BoyNextDoor in collaboration with Samyang Foods, has already surpassed 100 million views in just two months on Tuesday. "Buldak is a brand that earned global recognition with different challenges, so we value the e...