Seoul:
Pop star Ariana Grande is becoming a member of Weverse, a superfan platform owned by HYBE, an leisure agency that manages Ok-Pop phenomenon BTS.
Here’s what we learn about Weverse and why extra pop stars around the globe are becoming a member of the app.
WHAT IS THE WEVERSE APP?
Weverse is an app that focuses on interplay between artists and followers. Artists on the app write posts, livestream and promote merchandise. HYBE described Weverse as a ‘tremendous app’ that additionally presents machine translation in 15 languages.
When Jin, the oldest member of BTS, spoke to followers on Wednesday after ending his 18-month-long army obligation, his preliminary livestream crashed earlier than resuming and racking up greater than 2 million views in 10 minutes.
Launched in 2019, the app had greater than 10 million month-to-month energetic customers on common within the third quarter of 2023, in response to HYBE. 9 of 10 Weverse customers are worldwide.
WHY IS ARIANA GRANDE JOINING WEVERSE?
Grande will be part of the app after signing a partnership with HYBE America, the leisure agency stated on Friday, with out offering additional particulars.
Her channel is but to launch, and HYBE declined to substantiate the opening date.
HYBE America, which additionally manages Justin Bieber and The Child LAROI, may also proceed cooperation with Grande’s cosmetics model R.E.M Magnificence, the corporate added.
The brand new partnership comes after Billboard reported final 12 months that Grande was parting methods with supervisor Scooter Braun, who she had been with since her debut in 2013. Braun is now the CEO of HYBE America after a $1.05 billion merger deal in 2021 between HYBE and the music govt’s Ithaca Holdings.
The announcement of Grande’s partnership was met with amusement from Ok-Pop followers on-line.
“Ariana unnie” one fan stated on X, referring to her with a Korean honorific for older sister.
Japanese pop duo Yoasobi, who attended a state dinner on the White Home with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April, additionally opened their channel on Weverse earlier this month.
WHAT DOES HYBE SEEK TO GAIN?
In a 2022 interview, Weverse President Joon Choi instructed Reuters that the platform’s customers are “superfans characterised by passionate engagement.”
“They purchased merch right here, watched movies there, communicated elsewhere … We did not have a database of our prospects. So, we started growing every service in-house,” he stated within the interview.
The app’s development comes in opposition to the backdrop of HYBE’s efforts to develop as a label together with its acquisition of Exile Music, a music label of Spanish language media firm Exile Content material, in its first main foray into the Latin music market.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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