BTS concert in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 15, 2022 (File photo by Big Hit Music, HYBE’s wholly-owned subsidiary)
South Korean game developer Neowiz sold its fan engagement platform unit, joining the move of local information technology giants such as Naver Corp. to withdraw from the business and allow HYBE Co., the label behind global K-pop sensation BTS, to dominate the sector.
Neowiz unloaded Neowiz Lab, its fandom platform subsidiary, in the second quarter, according to IT industry sources on Sunday. TNK Factory, Neowiz’s other subsidiary, has been operating the Fab, Neowiz Lab’s fandom platform, since 2022.
“The move was to focus on our mainstay game business,” said a Neowiz official when asked the reasons for the sale.
The developer of the action role-playing game Lies of P had been trying to expand its fandom platform business by attracting fans of South Korean celebrities such as Loona. The girl group of 11 members, which was dissolved, was the first artist to feature on the Fab.
Neowiz did not need to expand the business as the company secured a new growth drive in the game sector after the success of Lies of P while facing difficulties in hosting more celebrities on the Fab as a game developer, industry sources said.
Loona in February 2020 (File phot by Sung-Hyun Byun)
NAVER, NCSOFT
Naver, South Korea’s top online platform operator, transferred its fandom platform service V Live in 2022 to Weverse Company Inc., HYBE’s subsidiary operating the dominant fandom platform Weverse.
Naver bought a 49% stake in Weverse for 411.8 billion won ($311.8 million) in 2021.
A gaming behemoth NCSOFT Corp. sold its fandom platform Universe to DearU Co. whose largest shareholders are K-pop powerhouses — SM Entertainment Co. and JYP Entertainment Corp. – last year.
NCSOFT also dumped its 66.67% stake in its entertainment subsidiary Klap in January 2023.
WEVERSE
Such withdrawal is expected to cement the dominance of Weverse, which has been expanding its service with popular HYBE artists such as BTS. Its monthly active users (MAU) reached 10 million in June as 155 million users have downloaded the app.
Most Weverse users are foreigners as more than 90% of them log in to the app from other countries. It provides services on non-HYBE celebrities with 137 artists out of 152 on the app not working with the label of NewJeans. Last month, global pop star Ariana Grande joined the platform.
Ariana Grande (Captured from Grande’s Instagram)
Weverse Company plans to improve the platform’s profitability by introducing paid subscription services, which provide membership cards, offline video storage and ad removal functions.
DearU’s bubble is the only competitor, which could challenge Weverse.
Kakao Corp., SM Entertainment’s top shareholder, is supporting the fandom platform by selling the bubble subscriptions on KakaoTalk, the country’s top mobile messenger app.
DearU established a US unit in May to launch a fandom platform in the world’s largest entertainment market and started such a service in Japan in June.
The growth in the bubble app was stalled with the paid subscriber numbers staying around only 2 million, however.
DearU’s sales have fallen to 19.1 billion won in the second quarter from 20.3 billion won in the first and 20.9 billion won in the last three months of 2023.
By Ju-Hyeon Lee
deep@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.
