Despite the value derived from social media, artists and labels have yet to directly monetize their activity on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. Instead, Weverse, a social media and e-commerce platform owned by South Korean company HYBE, is changing the typical social media dynamic by directly monetizing the fandom it facilitates.
This month, in an effort to generate even more revenue from superfans, Weverse introduced a digital subscription tier that offers additional benefits such as ad-free viewing, video downloads for offline access, high-quality streaming and language translation. The paid digital membership is separate from the fan clubs offered on the platform and Weverse's own instant messaging feature that allows users — for a fee — to message their favorite artists.
“Digital inclusion, we believe, is the first cornerstone of future development [of Weverse]”, CEO of the company Jun Choi he says Bulletin board. He adds that in the first two weeks that digital subscriptions were available on the platform, 79 artists (out of 162 active artist communities on Weverse) allowed fans to subscribe to them.
Weverse is an anomaly in social media: a platform with a small number of high-demand musicians and not a large number of mostly unpopular artists. Weverse launched in 2019 and had 9.7 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of Sept. 30, according to HYBE's latest financial results, up from 10.6 million a year earlier. The platform is a swiss army knife of an advertising vehicle. Artists not only post media content and updates, but also live stream and respond — for a fee — to fans' direct messages, while the platform additionally sells concert live streams, music and merchandise. And HYBE's most popular artists can rack up amazing numbers on the platform: Earlier this week, BTS member Jung Kook set a Weverse record with 20.2 million real-time views of a 2.5-hour live broadcast in which he spoke to fans on a break from his military duty.
In recent months, Weverse has expanded beyond K-pop artists by welcoming such Western, English-speaking stars as Ariana Grande and The Kid Laroi, hinting at drooling possibilities from record labels. Goldman Sachs analysts estimated that improved monetization of superfans — including new digital platforms, a greater emphasis on vinyl buyers and higher-priced music subscription programs — could lead to additional revenue of $3.3 billion worldwide by 2030. Given the potential, it was not surprising to hear both Warner Music Group CEOs Robert Kyncl and CEO of Universal Music Group Lucian Grainge express interest in superfan products and experiences earlier this year. In September, CFO of UMG Boyd Muir said the company was in “advanced talks” with Spotify about a premium superfan tier – something Chinese music streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment has already launched with early success.
In the early days of its membership tier, Weverse is still figuring things out. “We are pioneers in this field, so we see a lot of unknowns,” says Choi. For example, he says Weverse has heard from several labels that it should combine the digital subscription tier with fan clubs already offered by artists at something like a premium subscription tier (of the 162 active artist communities on Weverse, 72 offer this fan club moment). He adds that Weverse wouldn't make the decision independently, but is discussing it with tags. “Their combination in the future, I think will be stronger than what we offer now,” says Choi.
However, membership level growth has not been without controversy. In October, an article in The Korea Herald quoted an email from Weverse to its label partners, in which the company said membership-level participation is “mandatory for all artist communities hosted on Weverse.” The article also cited a South Korean lawmaker who called on the country's Fair Trade Commission to investigate Weverse's “new forms of monopolistic practices and determine whether there is unfair treatment of affiliated companies using the platform.” Weverse says it has not been contacted or investigated by regulators.
Choi disputes the allegations The Korea Heraldsaying that artists on the platform are not required to offer a subscription level, contrary to the email the newspaper reported. “This is not mandatory,” he insists. In a separate statement to Bulletin boardWeverse said it “aims to roll out digital subscriptions to all communities” but that the decision “is the choice of labels and artists” and, in any case, fans will still be able to use many existing Weverse services free. Although Weverse plays an important role in marketing and promoting K-pop artists, Choi argues that it does not have enough market power to make such demands: “We're not in a dominant place where we can just present politics and dictate policy to the artist or the record labels as we wish.”
Weverse has also been criticized for its revenue-sharing splits with tags, with The Korea Herald further citing an unnamed source as saying the company proposed a “disproportionate” revenue share ranging from 30% to 60%, leaving the artist and label with anywhere from 40% to 70%. Choi declined to comment on the business arrangements that determine how much subscription revenue Weverse keeps, but noted that the platform invests money in the subscription tier to create features valuable to artists and their fans.
The pushback Weverse is facing foreshadows the challenges platforms and labels will face as superfan platforms proliferate and stakeholders fight over how to split the money. Labels and publishers have spent decades trying to get more value out of streaming services, and short-form video apps like TikTok required new conversations about how to compensate creators for the value they bring to the platform. As Choi says, “What we're doing is basically creating a new value by connecting the artist and the superfans in the same place.” In the process, HYBE pioneered a new model that could become standard practice for artists and companies in the music industry of the future.
MODERNIZE: This story was updated on December 21 at 3:31 am. ET to better reflect the intent of Joon Choi's quote about digital subscription.
