The prominent artists under SM Entertainment are on the verge of joining HYBE’s global fandom life platform, Weverse.
According to Weverse on the 5th, SM artists will officially open their communities on Weverse on the upcoming 12th.
The artists joining include a total of 13 teams, such as Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV, aespa, and the recently debuted RIIZE.
Through Weverse’s official community, commerce platform Weverse Shop, and the official fan club service, Weverse Membership, SM artists are expected to connect with a global fandom.
With SM’s inclusion, Weverse has strengthened its lineup to include artists who have built loyal fandoms not only in Japan and China but also globally, as described as “securing all the K-pop super IPs that SM has produced for about 30 years.” This solidifies Weverse’s position as the world’s largest global fandom platform.
Weverse already features HYBE’s major artists like BTS, SEVENTEEN, NewJeans, and LE SSERAFIM, as well as highly recognized global K-pop stars like BLACKPINK. Additionally, top-tier international artists such as Jeremy Zucker, New Hope Club, Hirate Yurina, AKB48, and Imasee are also interacting with their fans through Weverse.
Choi Jun-won, CEO of Weverse Company, expressed his expectations, stating, “With the inclusion of SM artists in Weverse, the platform’s global expansion, which has already surpassed 100 million downloads and 10 million monthly active users (MAU), is expected to accelerate even further.”
SM’s entry into Weverse resulted from discussions between HYBE, Kakao, and SM in March. HYBE, which initially pursued an acquisition of SM, halted the acquisition process and instead achieved collaboration with Kakao in the platform sector.
At that time, HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk expressed his personal satisfaction with the platform collaboration, stating, “I am very satisfied with the most crucial aspect of the K-pop industry, which is platform collaboration.”
Meanwhile, Weverse has established itself as the “daily platform” for fans both domestically and internationally. In June, it surpassed 100 million downloads and achieved a remarkable milestone of 10 million MAU (Monthly Active Users) in July.
Source: tvdaily
