i'm not knowledgeable about K-POP as you, by "3rd gen girl groups" (yes, i don't even fully understand that term) are you referring to TWICE, Red Velvet, IZ*ONE etc.? in that case, there's BLACKPINK on there
also, who wrote this article, and is this article based on valid market research? it's very hard to debate which group ranks where in such a easily fluctuating market, especially one such as China's where the population is huge and K-POP is popular
i'm not knowledgeable about K-POP album/concert/ etc. sales, amount of social media followers concerning each group in China either, if so, i'd be able to pick that article apart for lack of research; what i want to understand is this article's definition of "popularity" and how they're measuring it, how they're ranking stuff.
i mean, they have barely a few sentences below each group, that's not enough proof to me at all to even be convinced by anything they say. it's not of good quality.
okay sorry sorry, i'm reading through it, they've defined it in their title and at the top- "K-Pop groups have done well on QQ Music, the biggest freemium music streaming service in China, with 700 million users", that's the article's measurement of K-POP popularity in China, seems valid enough. does every K-POP fan in China have a QQ Music account though? they might be using other apps or services