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The Korea Times

By Pyo Kyung-min
Thanks to the digital age, 20-year-old college student Kim has been able to chat with her favourite idols Yejun and Noah, of K-pop virtual boy band Plave.
Dear U Bubble is a platform that offers a one-on-one messaging service between fans and artists, with a monthly subscription fee of 4,500 won (US$3.38). Kim, who joined the service last month, enjoys the communication aspect and its exclusive content.
“Bubble has a lot of exclusive content, even though they eventually get leaked somehow,” she says. “I can even set the name I want to be called by my favourite celebrity and communicate with idols in a more informal, friendly way.”
In addition to Plave on Dear U Bubble, Kim follows other K-pop groups like &Team and Enhypen on the platform Weverse. Introduced by Hybe in 2019, Weverse allows fans to communicate with artists, access announcements from agencies and directly purchase albums and merchandise.

This sort of real-time communication between idols and their fans is on the rise. Weverse, as of November last year, boasted around 113 million app downloads, while Dear U Bubble reported around 2.3 million subscribers in the latter half of 2023.
Capitalising on this trend, CJ ENM recently launched PlusChat 2.0, a service on the K-pop culture platform Mnet Plus.
Covid-19 can’t stop these K-pop fans meeting to celebrate their idols
The desire for this sort of fan-artist interaction is not new – it has been around since 1990s groups H.O.T and Sechskies became famous.
Fan engagement, however, has changed since then. In the past, such interactions mainly occurred offline, at events like fan meet-and-greets and concerts, but the emergence of online fan cafes and official websites in the 2000s has allowed for communication regardless of time and space.
With the advent of mobile technology, official fan platforms have further streamlined this communication, making it accessible from anywhere as long as you have a phone.

This shift has transformed fandom culture and helped foster closer connections – but it has also raised concerns over the commodification of fan-artist interactions.
Private communication with artists has become the primary focus of fan activities, overshadowing the traditional camaraderie between fans, contributing to a gradual decline in their scale.
Experts also note that the monetisation of communication channels could alter the dynamics of fandom engagement.
K-pop is for cool kids – this cafe in Paris proves it, says founder
Kang Shin-kyu, a researcher at the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corp, stated in a 2022 paper that the emergence of fan platforms has transformed fandom in a more “convenient but passive” direction.
“Even if fans don’t make much effort or create something for artists, fan platforms automatically provide everything,” Kang explains. “As a result, fandom as a single community is dispersed, and proactive and creative fans are decreasingly likely to be discovered.”
The monetary value attached to communication with idols has also changed the relationships between stars and fans, as platforms like Dear U Bubble require payment for exchanging messages with their idols.

Despite the convenience and level of intimacy these platforms offer, they spark debate over the implications of monetising communication and the expectations placed on artists to maintain engagement with their paying fans.
The frequency of communication within artist fan platforms has become a measuring tape for assessing the authenticity of their engagement with fans. Some even scrutinise the number of messages sent by artists in chats, and critique those who do not communicate frequently enough.
For subscribers like Do, a woman in her 20s who follows K-pop boy band The Boyz’s members through Dear U Bubble, the evolution of communicating with idols raises questions about the nature of fandom in the era of paid platforms.
What to buy your K-pop-loving loved one this holiday season
“I think the way of communicating with idols has changed a lot now. I believe there’s now an increasing expectation for artists to prioritise communication beyond their official activities,” she says.
“However, with the shift of all platforms towards paid services, it creates a sense of obligation to pay in order to be a fan. I’m not sure this is the right way of change.”
Read the full story at The Korea Times


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Lifestyle

K-Pop

Entertainment

Culture

Music

Dear U Bubble offers a one-on-one messaging service between fans and artists – for a fee. Weverse offers the same, as well as selling albums and merchandise
While such websites allow idols and their fans to forge closer connections, this need to instantly access artists has become the primary focus of fan activities


The rise of K-pop fan platforms like Dear U Bubble and Weverse encourage direct communication with artists, which helps fans feel closer to them – but it has had an impact on fan activities, and it has not all been good.


K-pop idols

Korea Times