South Korean pop groups Big Bang and 2NE1 are the most favored K-pop stars among French fans, a government poll released on Tuesday showed.

In the online survey of 3,755 French respondents conducted by the Paris branch of the Korea Tourism Organization, 49.9 percent picked the five-member hip-hop band Big Bang as their favorite K-pop boy band and 64.8 percent chose the four-member hip-hop group

2NE1 as the most favored K-pop girl group. Respondents were allowed to select multiple groups for each category.

Thirteen-member ensemble Super Junior took second place in the boy band category, with endorsements from 45 percent of respondents, trailed by SHINee and Beast, which received 35.5 percent and 33.8 percent respectively.

Nine-member Girls Generation was the second favorite girl group, gaining 45.4 percent support, followed by miss A and f(x), which garnered 31.1 percent and 29.4 percent respectively.

South Korean pop groups have enjoyed rising popularity in France over the past year, selling out concerts and putting on performances in Paris.

More than 90 percent of respondents said they have experienced Korean culture through K-pop music and Korean soap operas. However, only 69.6 percent have watched Korean movies and 15.8 percent have read Korean comics, the survey showed.

Meanwhile, 92.8 percent said they are willing to visit South Korea in the future, with 96.6 percent saying they would come for tourism and 80 percent wanting to attend K-pop concerts, it said. (Yonhap News)