I see Zpop as a sub-genre of Kpop or a spin-off of it. It's not Kpop, but strongly related. Because it was koreans(Zenith Media Contents)who created it in the first place. It's a great idea, but sadly executed poorly. If a bigger company was behind it, it could have made a better impact.
But what Zpop does is giving other asian nationalites a chance to experience something that resembles Kpop. Let's face it, Kpop is mainly for East Asia, and that's why you see agencies pick koreans, japanese, chinese and foreign born koreans 99% out of the time. With Thailand being a very special exception. There are some anamolies like BlackSwan Fatou and Secret Number Dita, but I have my doubt Kpop will massively move away from their primarly markets, Japan, China and Korea itself. That's why I think some people in the Kpop industry decided to come up with a alternative for other asians.
If Zgirls and Zboys were managed and promoted better, the Zpop genre could have evolved into something that is identical to Kpop. Imagine having their own music and variety shows similar to M Countdown and Knowing Bros. Maybe in a smaller scale, but could have worked.
If we see how Z-girls & Z-boys predebut show was building up to their debut, it's 100% identical to Kpop.
