Japanese girl group AKB48 to join HYBE's Weverse DM

Japanese girl group AKB48 will be joining HYBE’s Weverse platform and Weverse DM, a private messaging service, starting Wednesday, Weverse Company announced Tuesday. Out of the 80-plus members currently in AKB48 ...

Japanese girl group AKB48 will be joining HYBE's fan community service Weverse starting Wednesday. [WEVERSE COMPANY]

Japanese girl group AKB48 will be joining HYBE’s Weverse platform and Weverse DM, a private messaging service, starting Wednesday, Weverse Company announced Tuesday.

Out of the 80-plus members currently in AKB48, 16 members — including Honda Hitomi, former member of the project girl group IZ*ONE — involved in the girl group’s upcoming single, “I like you no matter what” (translated) will first be joining Weverse on Wednesday.

“I am very excited and thrilled to be able to communicate with fans around the world through Weverse,” Hitomi said in a press release.

AKB48’s official Weverse community will be opened on Thursday, followed by the DM service on May 2.

Weverse will also be holding events to celebrate AKB48 joining the platform, which includes providing adding extra days free of charge for early subscribers to the girl group’s Weverse DM.

AKB48's existing Japanese subscription service, AKB48 Mail, will continue to operate separately from Wevesrse, Weverse Company told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Tuesday.

Weverse is a fan community platform launched by Weverse Company, a subsidiary of HYBE, on June 2019. K-pop artists and bands under HYBE, YG Entertainment, and others, including boy bands BTS, Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen and P1Harmony, and girl groups Blackpink, Le Sserafim, NewJeans and STAYC have all opened communities on the service. Earlier this month, SM Entertainment also announced that artists from its agency will be joining by Weverse by September.

Weverse DM is a subscription-based private messaging service where fans and artists can chat with each other, similar to Phoning, a private messaging and fan community service launched by Weverse Company last year, dedicated to ADOR’s girl group NewJeans and Dear U bubble, a private messaging service operated by a subsidiary of SM Entertainment.

Japanese girl group AKB48 will be joining HYBE's fan community service Weverse starting Wednesday. [WEVERSE COMPANY]

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]