Featured Image: Joseph Ferris III from On a Ship/CC BY 2.0
K-pop entertainment company HYBE is set to launch a new set of higher-priced membership tiers for users on its fandom platform, Weverse, from December 1.
Current Weverse subscribers pay around $24 (£18/22) per year for benefits including exclusive content and announcements from their favourite artists.
The new launch, known as digital membership, will upsell fans into new tiers with prices ranging from $2 to $4 per month which will offer additional benefits such as offline access to music and advertisement-free video streaming.
HYBE has told its partner labels that it will be keeping between 30% and 60% of revenues from the new membership plan, depending on the tier.
Weverse emailed 130 partner labels informing them of the new subscription-based service and mandating their participation.
“Digital membership is a service offering fans exclusive digital benefits, primarily accessible through Weverse,” the email read, as reported by the Korea Herald.
“This membership is mandatory for all artist communities hosted on Weverse, allowing fans to subscribe to individual community memberships on a monthly basis and selectively access digital membership services.”
Weverse boasts 10 million monthly active users and has a dominant position as a result. It has been criticised for its monopolistic market structure, with some labels allegedly feeling pressured to comply with the new membership programme.
“Weverse, operated by Hybe, has been criticised as an irreplaceable, monopolistic platform in the K-pop industry, controlling everything from live content and merchandise sales to fan community management,” Rep. Lee Jun-mun of the Democratic Party of Korea said.
“Labels have become so dependent on Weverse that they can no longer conduct fan marketing without it. The Fair Trade Commission needs to thoroughly investigate these new forms of monopolistic practices and determine whether unfair treatment is occurring against affiliated companies using the platform.”
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