K-Pop Firms Expand Fan Experiences Beyond Fan Meetings

As K-pop fandoms grow in importance, the entertainment industry is staking its future on offering a wider range of fan experiences. Moving beyond conventional fan meetings, companies are expanding the enjoyment of fan activities themselves through real-time live chats, "after-work events," "fandom logs," and stages for rookie artists before their debut. The strategy aims to secure core fandoms and boost related content consumption.

According to the industry on the 5th, Berriz, the global fan platform operated by Kakao Entertainment, has drawn attention with its new "My Cabinet" service, which lets users record and decorate their fan activities in a digital space. The service converts users' activity history on Berriz communities—such as posts, comments, and likes—into cute digital items, which can then be used to decorate a personalized digital cabinet. Analysts say Gen Z users, who enjoy the culture of personalizing everyday items such as "dakku" (diary decorating) and "baekkku" (bag decorating), are enthusiastic about the service.

The music platform "Melon" has also created "Music Wave," a real-time communication service, offering special live chat events for core fandoms. Through the service, artists and fans can listen to the same music together and converse via real-time chat. In particular, a recent Music Wave live chat event featuring girl group RESCENE for one hour recorded a remarkable 560,000 cumulative channel streaming counts by the day after it ended. Kakao Entertainment explained, "As a new way to enjoy music while interacting with artists in real time, it is drawing positive responses from the platform, artists, and fans alike." In fact, Melon has continued to win listeners' favor on the strength of such fandom-oriented events. According to app analytics platform Mobile Index, Melon's monthly active users (MAU) reached 7.13 million in June, cementing its solid position in the music streaming market.

SM Entertainment is also expanding fan experiences both online and offline, strengthening close communication between artists and fans. SM's boy group RIIZE released its second mini-album "II" in June, opening a pop-up called "Archive 2." TVXQ's Yunho recently drew strong responses by holding an "Off the Record" event to talk with the audience after finishing his first solo concert, "Yunho Project 26: New Chapter One."

HYBE recently made headlines by inviting fans to the preview stage of girl group "TUIDE," which has not yet debuted, through its global fandom platform Weverse. This marked a departure from the previous approach of unveiling debut stages through media showcases. TUIDE is a seven-member girl group and the first act from ABD, a new label specializing in girl groups recently established by HYBE. The group is set to present a concept clearly differentiated from recent girl groups' "refreshing" and "Gen Z aesthetic" styles.

Regarding such fandom experience-expanding marketing, one industry official said, "In the process of offering more diversified 'fandom' experiences, both fans and artists can feel fresh enjoyment." The official added, "As this goes beyond simple event-driven marketing and can also be expected to create a lock-in effect for artists, content, and platforms, the industry's efforts to expand fan experiences will continue."