Meet Weverse, a “super app” for pop stars to sell merch and connect with their fans

Pop star Ariana Grande is joining Weverse, a superfan platform owned by Hybe, an entertainment company that runs the K-Pop phenomenon BTS. Here’s what we know about Weverse and why more and more pop stars around the world are joining the app. What is the Weverse app? Weverse is an application specialized in interaction between artists and fans. Artists on the app write articles, live stream, and sell merchandise. Hybe described Weverse as a “super app” that also offers automatic translation into 15 languages.

15 languages. When Jin, the oldest member of BTS, spoke to fans on Wednesday after completing his 18-month military service, his initial live stream paused before resuming and racking up more than 2 million views in 10 minutes. Launched in 2019, the app averaged more than 10 million monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2023, according to Hybe. Nine out of ten Weverse users are international. Why Ariana Grande joins Weverse? Grande will join the app after signing a partnership with Hybe America, the entertainment company announced Friday, without providing further details. His channel has not yet launched and Hybe declined to confirm the opening date. Hybe America, which also manages Justin Bieber and The Kid Laroi, will also continue its cooperation with Grande’s cosmetics brand REM Beauty, the company added. The new partnership comes after Billboard announced last year that Grande was parting ways with manager Scooter Braun, who she had worked with since her debut in 2013. Braun is now the CEO of Hybe America after a $1.05 billion merger deal dollars in 2021 between Hybe and Ithaca Holdings, music director. The announcement of Grande’s partnership sparked amusement from K-Pop fans online. “Ariana unnie,” one fan said on X, referring to her with a Korean honorific for her older sister. Japanese pop duo Yoasobi, who attended a White House state dinner with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April, also launched 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 characterized by passionate engagement.” “They bought products here, watched videos there, communicated elsewhere… We didn’t have a database of our customers. So we started developing each service internally,” he said during the interview. The app’s growth comes amid Hybe’s efforts to expand as a label, including the acquisition of Exile Music, a music label from Spanish-language media company Exile Content, during its first major foray into the Latin music market. (Reporting by Hyunsu Yim and Joyce Lee; editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)