SM Entertainment to join HYBE's Weverse platform

HYBE may have failed to take over SM Entertainment, but the K-pop giant might see new highs with its Weverse fan community platform. SM Entertainment announced Monday that its artists will join Weverse as a result of collaboration between ...

Girl groups Red Velvet and aespa at the ″SMTOWN LIVE 2023″ concert on Jan. 1, 2023 [SM ENTERTAINMENT]

HYBE may have failed to take over SM Entertainment, but the K-pop giant might see new highs with its Weverse fan community platform.

SM Entertainment announced Monday that its artists will join Weverse, the fan community and merchandise service developed by HYBE as a result of collaboration between HYBE, SM Entertainment and SM’s new largest shareholder, Kakao.

SM artists — including EXO, NCT, Girls Generation, Red Velvet and aespa — will join the HYBE service by September 2023, opening Weverse communities dedicated to each act and members, as well as joining the Weverse Shop.

Artists from SM Entertainment had been using Kwangya Club, a similar fan community service launched by SM Entertainment in June 2022. The artists will still be available on bubble, a platform run by SM entertainment’s subsidiary Dear U, where users get to send “private messages” to artists with a monthly subscription fee.

“SM Entertainment will upgrade its communication with global fans with its existing one-on-one messaging platform bubble, in addition to the new community opening at Weverse,” Kakao Entertainment, the tech company subsidiary, said in a press release Monday.

“The bubble service will let fans feel like they are sending private messages to artists, while the community service, media content and official merchandise will give fans around the world a chance to communicate on a wider and deeper level.”

The move will include relocating all fan club memberships and livestreams of SM artists to Weverse.

"In the near future, the Weverse platform will provide all activities related to the 'SM Artist Official Fanclub,'" read a Kwangya Club announcement posted on Monday.

When asked if HYBE artists will join Dear U’s bubble or Weverse will start a messaging service like bubble, the company said that “nothing has been decided yet.”

Boy band BTS [BIGHIT MUSIC]

Boy band NCT [SM ENTERTAINMENT]

HYBE — BTS's agency — hinted at the platform deal on March 12 when it officially walked away from its month-long battle with Kakao to acquire a majority stake in SM Entertainment.

The company said that it agreed to abandon further efforts to buy SM Entertainment’s shares in return for collaboration on the platform.

Monday’s announcement has officially crowned Weverse as the largest fan service in K-pop, with artists in three of the largest companies signed: HYBE’s BTS, Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen, Enhypen, Le Sserafim and NewJeans; SM Entertainment’s newly joining artists; and YG Entertainment’s Blackpink, Big Bang, Winner and Treasure.

Last year, Weverse merged with Naver’s V Live video streaming platform to start a “video phone call” service similar to live sessions on Instagram and YouTube. Weverse will also start a paid subscription business during the third quarter of this year, as announced during a conference call held earlier this year, although details have not been disclosed yet.

Weverse is estimated to have around 10 million monthly active users currently, according to analyst Kim Hyun-yong of Hyundai Motor Securities, a number that is expected to significantly increase with additional artists.

With the agency's artists performing and releasing new music, HYBE is in for a blowout quarter from April to June, according to the analyst.

“During the second quarter, BTS’s Suga will release an album and hold a tour for 350,000 concertgoers,” he said. “The company is expected to see the highest operating profit yet in the second quarter, with 8.24 million albums and 780,000 concertgoers from all HYBE’s artists in total.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]