// EXCERPT 1 //

MINTING THE FANDOM

Come March, V Live will integrate with Weverse as part of a merger deal that was signed between the parent companies, Naver and HYBE, last year, making the integrated Weverse app the largest fandom platform of its kind. International fans comprise 85% of their combined userbase, as per company statements. An NFT platform is set to be launched soon, as per multiple media reports. In an interview with the news site Asia Today, Park Ha-kyung, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, pegged the value of Weverse to be worth 6 trilion won, equivalent to $4 billion, and predicted that "Weverse will strengthen the solidarity of fans based on content, and he NFT platform will increase the number of users based on tangible rewards"

"If HYBE can successfully convince the existing VLIve (30 million) and WeVerse (6.4 million) monthly active users worldwide -- many of whom willingly pay monthly fanclub fees and/or purchase music merchandise items from these apps -- to convert to its newly revamped K-Pop fandom community app, it could very quickly and very disruptively debut as a global top 10 paid music service platform," Seoul-based Bernie Cho tells Mint. He's president of DFSB Kollective, an artist and label services agency that specializes in providing digital media, marketing, and distribution solutions to 1,500+ Korean music artists.

// EXCERPT 2 //

A TIGHT KNIT COMMUNITY

So what makes these fandom platforms thrive?

"Korean fandom platforms have been able to grow alongside, rather than at the expense of other international social media platforms because they often offer a differentiated, more direct, and far deeper interactive experience between K-Pop fans and artists," says Cho. "In many ways, these apps bundle the best aspects of other popular social media platforms -- live streaming, posts, chats, paid subscriptions, exclusive content, e-commerce, etc -- into a unique music-tech kimbap (Korean seaweed rice roll)."

Ishan Agarwal, a 19-year-old ARMY, agrees with the best-aspects concept. "I love the fact that you are notified about or can access communities of only the artists you want to follow. No other artists are pushed on you by any sort of algorithm," he says. This is what many users expect from Twitter : to only see the tweets of users they've followed. These apps also make fans feel that they are part of a tight-knit community, says a BTS ARMY who goes by the Twitter handle @Diyankilaco.

https://www.livemint.com/industry/media
By Shephali Bhatt

Featured Commentator : Bernie Cho [DFSB Kollective]