K-pop fan service Universe to shut down, transfer to Dear U Bubble

[NCSOFT]

Fan community platform Universe is shutting down its service, and all of its registered artists will be transferred to Dear U Bubble, a similar K-pop service operated by SM Entertainment.

Universe is reported to have notified other K-pop agencies it has signed with about the news on Wednesday. Currently, K-pop acts such as Monsta X, IVE, Cravity, Park Ji-hoon, Kep1er, (G)I-DLE, Viviz, Ateez and Astro are under Universe.

Created by game publisher NCSoft, the platform launched in January 2021 and recorded 21 million downloads globally in a year. The platform competed with two other platforms: Dear U Bubble under the affiliation of SM Entertainment and Weverse under HYBE.

Universe was actively perused by global fans as it promoted services such as “Universe Originals,” which would have early releases of K-pop artists’ new songs and music videos. It also provided a private chatroom service to receive messages and photos from the stars.

However, its Private Call service was controversial, as it was promoted as allowing fans to receive a "private phone call" from their favorite stars, though in reality the artists’ voices were only mimicked using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Although the voices were similar to the actual artists, it received criticism due to the awkward speech and the service faced backlash in that it manipulated fans who wanted to interact with the artists.

The platform also raised objections from fans who paid for a year subscription but were not notified beforehand that the contract between the artists and the platform may expire before then.

As the service became unprofitable, local reports last year said that NCSoft had put up Universe for sale.

The platform’s service will be transferred to Dear U Bubble, and notifications will be sent out to users soon.

Dear U Bubble, launched in 2020, services a total of 121 K-pop acts under 63 agencies.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]