SM’s fan club platform Kwangya Club to end services on Sept. 11

Kwangya Club, SM Entertainment's fan club platform [SCREEN CAPTURE]

SM Entertainment’s fan club platform Kwangya Club will end its services on Sept. 11 and move to Weverse, the agency announced Wednesday.

SM Entertainment announced back in April that its artists will join Weverse, the fan community and merchandise service developed by HYBE, in September. This was a result of collaboration between HYBE, SM Entertainment and SM’s new largest shareholder, Kakao.

Artists from SM Entertainment had been using Kwangya Club, a fan community service launched by SM Entertainment in June 2022.

ACE Memberships, which refer to the paid fan club membership offered by the agency, can still be purchased until next Tuesday, but users will see their paid memberships expire on Sept. 11 alongside the application’s community service, and be eligible for a refund for the remaining period.

Fan club memberships like ACE Membership, usually cost around 35,000 won ($27) and last a year, giving access to priority ticket sales, fan club-only events and more.

SM Entertainment’s artists will still be available on bubble, a platform run by SM Entertainment’s subsidiary Dear U. The monthly subscription-based service allows users to send “private messages” to artists with a monthly subscription fee.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]