Naver and Big Hit Entertainment, the fan community platform’Big 2′, will join hands. It is interpreted that the two companies have turned from competition to cooperation in the rapidly growing fan community platform market.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 22nd, it is known that Naver is considering investing a stake in Big Hit. Negotiations are underway on investment methods and investment scale, such as simple equity investment and equity exchange. The idea is to promote cooperation in the fan community platform that has recently been focused through investment. The fan community platform is an online space where artists and fans communicate through postings and comments, and share performances and music contents. As offline performances were canceled in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the fan community platform is rapidly growing as an alternative.
The two companies are referred to as’second class’ in the fan community market. Naver started operating’VLive’ in 2015, and the cumulative downloads exceeded 100 million last year. It invested 100 billion won in SM last year, and is expanding the platform by recruiting SM artists.
Big Hit, a latecomer, launched’Weverse’ in June of last year. The number of downloads has exceeded 17 million, growing rapidly by promoting the singer BTS (BTS). There are 4.7 million active members alone.
Reporter Mingi Koo [email protected]
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