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A fandom platform is an online space where fans can enjoy the artist's content and engage in fan activities. Berryz also introduced a service where artists can share live broadcasts, performance videos, posts, etc. and communicate with fans. It is expected to include commerce functions such as selling products using the artist's intellectual property (IP). A Kakao Entertainment official stated, "We are preparing the service, but the specific direction or release schedule has not been determined." The reason why this movement is drawing attention is because it will create a new competitive landscape in the fandom platform market. Currently, the market is virtually dominated by Weverse. Weverse, operated by Hybe's subsidiary (Weverse Company), surpassed 10 million monthly visitors in 2023. Sales grew rapidly from 78.2 billion won in 2019, the first year of its launch, to 337.9 billion won in 2023. Among the services that can challenge Weverse, 'Bubble' is considered. Bubble, operated by SM Entertainment's affiliate Dear U, focuses on a service where artists and fans exchange messages one-on-one. By the end of 2023, it had secured 2.3 million paid subscribers and sales of 75.7 billion won, which is still a large gap.
Kakao Entertainment's strength is that it can actively utilize artists from entertainment companies under the group. It can secure K-pop star content through subsidiaries such as SM Entertainment (espa, NCT, etc.), Starship Entertainment (Ibe, etc.), and Idam Entertainment (IU, etc.). It also has actor management companies such as Soop Entertainment and BH Entertainment, which include actors Gong Yoo and Lee Byung-hun, and advertising model agency Ready Entertainment under its umbrella.
In particular, as it is expanding its overseas network in the music business, it can expand its reach to overseas artists. Last year, Kakao Entertainment signed partnerships with major U.S. record labels Columbia Records and RCA Records, as well as QQ Music and Wang Yiyuan Music, a music streaming platform under China's Tencent Music. American entertainment company Gamma, which is collaborating with pop stars Snoop Dogg and Usher, and British entertainment company Moon & Bag are preparing for the global debut of a British boy group.
Berryz is aiming for a global service. It will provide services in various languages other than Korean and English and will have an automatic translation function. Since Weverse, a strong player in the fandom platform market, has more than 90% of its users overseas, it is targeting overseas markets from the beginning.
This is also a decisive move for Kakao. Kim Beom-soo, founder and chairman of the management innovation committee of Kakao, announced the ‘Beyond Korea’ strategy in 2022 and stated that he would increase overseas sales to 30% by 2025. However, due to a series of domestic and international negative factors, overseas sales as of the third quarter of last year amounted to only 21.6%. Some analysts say that Berryz is being rushed to launch in order to maintain this goal.
Global fandom platforms have great growth potential. IBK Investment & Securities estimated the fandom economy size in 2020, when BTS first entered the Billboard Hot 100, to be 7.9 trillion won. The industry believes that the market has grown even larger in the past five years. This is because the target of the K-pop global fandom has expanded from small groups to rookies, and related spending has also increased. As the K-content craze such as Squid Game blew, the fandom base has also expanded to include actors and models.
However, market growth does not guarantee service success. There have been cases where IT companies that entered the fandom business have withdrawn one after another due to poor service performance. Naver transferred ‘V Live’ to Weverse in 2022, and NCSoft sold ‘Universe’ to Dear U in 2023. Neowiz also disposed of its fandom business subsidiary last year. The growth of existing services has also slowed down recently. Last year, the number of Weverse users fell to 9 million, and the bubble has stagnated in the 2 million range.
From Kakao's perspective, legal risks related to SM Entertainment, which requires collaboration to secure artists, could be a stumbling block. An industry insider said, "The global fandom market is still growing and it is clear that it is expanding to K-culture in general," adding, "Ultimately, the ability to consistently recruit artists and service differentiation are necessary."
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