Explainer: What is Weverse, 'super app' joined by Ariana Grande?

HYBE

14/06/2024 05:58

By Hyunsu Yim
       SEOUL, June 14 (Reuters) - Pop star Ariana Grande is
joining Weverse, a superfan platform owned by HYBE  352820.KS ,
an entertainment firm that manages K-Pop phenomenon BTS.
    Here is what we know about Weverse and why more pop stars
around the world are joining the app.
    
    WHAT IS THE WEVERSE APP?
    Weverse is an app that specializes in interaction between
artists and fans. Artists on the app write posts, livestream and
sell merchandise. HYBE described Weverse as a 'super app' that
also offers machine translation in 15 languages.
    When Jin, the oldest member of BTS, spoke to fans on
Wednesday after finishing his 18-month-long military duty, his
initial livestream crashed before resuming and racking up more
than 2 million views in 10 minutes.
    Released in 2019, the app had more than 10 million monthly
active users on average in the third quarter of 2023, according
to HYBE. Nine of 10 Weverse users are international.
    
    WHY IS ARIANA GRANDE JOINING WEVERSE?
    Grande will join the app after signing a partnership with
HYBE America, the entertainment firm said on Friday, without
providing further details.
    Her channel is yet to launch, and HYBE declined to confirm
the opening date.
    HYBE America, which also manages Justin Bieber and The Kid
LAROI, will also continue cooperation with Grande's cosmetics
brand R.E.M Beauty, the company added.
    The new partnership comes after Billboard reported last year
that Grande was parting ways with manager 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 executive's Ithaca Holdings.
    The announcement of Grande's partnership was met with
amusement from K-Pop fans online.
    "Ariana unnie" one fan said on X, referring to her with a
Korean honorific for older sister.   
    Japanese pop duo Yoasobi, who attended a state dinner at the
White House with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April, also
opened their channel on Weverse earlier this month.
   
    WHAT DOES HYBE SEEK TO GAIN?
    In a 2022 interview, Weverse President Joon Choi told
Reuters that the platform's users are "superfans characterised
by passionate engagement."
    "They bought merch here, watched videos there, communicated
elsewhere ... We didn't have a database of our customers. So, we
began developing each service in-house," he said in the
interview.
    The app's growth comes against the backdrop of HYBE's
efforts to expand as a label including its acquisition of Exile
Music, a music label of Spanish language media company Exile
Content, in its first major foray into the Latin music market.

    

 (Reporting by Hyunsu Yim and Joyce Lee; Editing by Sherry
Jacob-Phillips)
 ((Hyunsu.Yim@thomsonreuters.com;))