{"id":152180,"date":"2023-04-17T19:54:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T18:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=152180"},"modified":"2023-04-26T15:10:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T14:10:42","slug":"hybes-weverse-helped-it-generate-over-50m-from-fan-club-activities-last-year-now-sm-entertainment-artists-are-joining-the-superfan-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/hybes-weverse-helped-it-generate-over-50m-from-fan-club-activities-last-year-now-sm-entertainment-artists-are-joining-the-superfan-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"HYBE’s Weverse helped it generate over $50m from fan club activities last year. Now SM Entertainment artists are joining the superfan platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

SM Entertainment’s artists will be joining Weverse, the mobile app and web-based superfan platform built by rival K-pop company HYBE.<\/p>\n

The platform brings together artist-related content such as music videos, teasers, movies and live streams. It also has a merch platform known as Weverse Shop.<\/p>\n

SM\u2019s artists \u2013 which include acts such as EXO, Girls Generation, Red Velvet and aespa \u2013 will move onto the Weverse platform in September of this year, according to a press release from Kakao Entertainment, as cited in Korean news media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The news arrives just a few weeks after the end of an intense corporate battle<\/a> between HYBE and SM Entertainment.<\/p>\n

Kakao Entertainment\u2019s parent company, Kakao Corp., last month became SM\u2019s largest shareholder, after a high-profile fight against HYBE for control of the music company.<\/a><\/p>\n

HYBE, the company behind K-Pop superstars BTS, announced on March 12 that it was giving up its fight against Kakao Corp. for control of SM Entertainment.<\/p>\n

Kakao, owner of the popular messaging app KakaoTalk, had made a bid for SM Entertainment at 150,000 Korean won (approx. USD $113<\/b>) per share, outdoing HYBE\u2019s bid of 120,000 won ($91<\/b>) per share.<\/p>\n

It had originally looked like HYBE could take over its biggest rival after SM\u2019s founder, Lee Soo Man, sold his stake in the company to HYBE, giving it a 14.8% share of SM.<\/p>\n

But Kakao emerged as the winner in the bidding war, with a 39.9%<\/b> stake in SM. HYBE pared its stake in the company back to 8.8%<\/b>, hinting at the time that it was working on a platform deal with SM.<\/p>\n

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That deal has now come to fruition, in what could prove to be a major win for HYBE, regardless of its failure to take control of SM Entertainment.<\/p>\n

The expansion of its Weverse platform to include SM artists could result in significant growth for the Weverse user base, at a time when HYBE is looking to expand globally, particularly in the US market.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2022, Weverse had more than 8.4 million monthly active users (see below), up 21% versus the prior quarter.<\/p>\n

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HYBE has made serious investments in the US, most notably its $1.05 billion<\/b> purchase of Scooter Braun\u2019s Ithaca Holdings<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

Also, on February 8, Braun \u2013 now the sole CEO of HYBE America \u2013 announced<\/a>\u00a0that his firm had acquired the company best known as\u00a0Quality Control (QC), the Atlanta-born hip-hop specialist created by local legends\u00a0Pierre \u201cP\u201d Thomas\u00a0and\u00a0Kevin \u201cCoach K\u201d Lee.<\/p>\n

The deal was worth\u00a0$300 million<\/strong>\u00a0in total, according to\u00a0Korean regulator filings<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 with\u00a0$250 million<\/strong>\u00a0of that figure paid in cash, and the rest in\u00a0HYBE<\/strong>\u00a0stock. (Raine Group<\/strong>\u00a0is understood to have priced QC.)<\/p>\n

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At an investor presentation earlier this year, SM Entertainment announced its own plans to expand into the US market, with an as-yet undetermined 200-billion-won ($151m<\/b>) purchase of a music company.<\/a><\/p>\n

SM has suggested it wants to get involved in the hip-hop and R&B side of the industry.<\/p>\n

SM is just the latest K-pop label to join HYBE\u2019s Weverse. YG Entertainment, another large player in the Korean market, has also moved artists<\/a> onto the platform, and in 2020, HYBE opened its platform to Universal Music Group (UMG) artists.<\/a><\/p>\n

News reports out of Korea on Monday suggest that the move to Weverse will mean the end of SM Entertainment\u2019s rival platform, Kwangya Club.<\/p>\n

However, it won\u2019t be the end of bubble, a platform run by SM subsidiary Dear U that allows users to send private messages to artists for a monthly subscription fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cSM Entertainment will upgrade its communication with global fans with its existing one-on-one messaging platform bubble, in addition to the new community opening at Weverse,\u201d Kakao Entertainment said in a statement quoted in Korean media.<\/p>\n

Weverse has proven to be a major success story for HYBE, allowing it to weather two storms that rocked its business:<\/p>\n