V Live, the highly influential live-streaming platform that brought South Korean pop music to global prominence, has shut down. The mobile app and desktop site hosted a public library of tens of thousands of live streams chronicling the growth period as the Korean music industry evolved from a regional phenomenon to a global market superpower. Following its merger with fellow fan-artist engagement app Weverse, the closure of V Live and its video database is tantamount to burning down K-Pop’s Library of Alexandria.
V Live was created by Korean tech company Naver in 2015 as a streaming platform for Korean music artists and actors. It was a pioneer in the live streaming industry, which was still in its infancy. In 2015, startups like Meerkat and Periscope emerged to compete with his Twitch. Facebook’s live streaming feature also launched that year, and YouTube and Instagram introduced streaming in his 2016.
As a niche platform for Korean artists, V Live provided a more controlled environment than any of its contemporaries. Widely used throughout the Korean pop industry, he had over 1,200 artists producing content on the app at the time of its closure. In addition to livestreams and their recordings, Vlive hosted original his artist content such as reality shows, performance videos, and livestreamed concerts during the height of his COVID-19 pandemic.
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Broadcast K-POP that broke overseas
V Live has played a key role in the global spread of K-pop, giving global audiences real-time access to the industry. The app has become very popular among viewers, with some famous groups gaining hundreds of thousands or even millions of live views per stream. After the broadcast ended, it was saved on V Live for on-demand viewing and was often subtitled in multiple languages for access by fans outside South Korea. The platform hosted its own subtitling service, V Fansubs, where users could submit translations. These subtitles have been approved by the service and uploaded to the platform. This has made several streams available in his 12+ languages.
No group has expanded the reach of V Live like superstar BTS. The band’s inherent authenticity was reinforced by the looseness and spontaneity of their lives, which they used as their primary means of communicating with their fans. At the time of its closure, BTS’s V Live channel had hosted over 860 videos with over 166 billion likes, 12 billion views, and over 2 billion comments. As their fame grew overseas, BTS rushed back to the hotel ahead of a star-studded awards show afterparty, streaming to millions on V Live.
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Gamify your fandom in real time
As part of its focus on artist-fan communication, V Live provided unique engagement and gamification features. Users were ranked within an artist’s fandom, dubbed “chemibeats,” and were able to climb the ranks by watching videos, sharing content, and participating in livestreams. was also able to earn ChemiBeat credit by commenting on the stream and quickly tapping a corner icon that sent colorful hearts across the screen. There was a time when we worked together to surpass 1 million hearts. This resulted in a congratulatory message on screen for both viewers and artists. Idols are often seen “hearting” their own livestreams in front of the camera.
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V Live offered several paid features and monetized its fandom with varying success. You can purchase digital currency called “V Coin” to access premium content such as concerts and original series. Until December 2021, users could also use V Coins to purchase live chat stickers. official light stickThe V Lightstick doubles the value of tapped “hearts”, giving users more support for chembeats and artists.
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Share the spontaneous thrill of live streaming
The unpredictable nature of live streaming greatly undermined the highly organized public image required for Korean pop idols. While some of the livestreams were carefully produced events monitored by staff behind the cameras, many were intimate and chaotic messages from the artists’ personal lives. , In the car heading to the performance, I was broadcasting at the hotel during the tour. They went live while drunk, eating, or visibly emotional. They argued, celebrated birthdays, and produced music. In one notable livestream, he lamented that BTS’ Jungkook was being stalked by an obsessed fan while sipping a bottle of wine, telling the audience, “I’m not drunk. I’m just buffering.” It’s just that,’ while looking for the right way, obviously getting tipsy. words to say.
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V Live provided a compelling illusion of privacy, and some idols have taken advantage of it to discuss topics they’d be discouraged from bringing up in official interviews. used to host a weekly live stream on a platform called ‘Chan’s Room’. There, he spoke candidly about mental health, relationships, and professional pressure from production studios. He also listened and responded to the music of his peers. This was a rare occurrence in an industry that prioritizes face-saving civility. It also tackled taboo topics like menstruation and fan wars. (He currently hosts a weekly stream on YouTube.)
Leave history in the hands of fans
V Live’s integration with Weverse was first mentioned in January 2021 and confirmed in March 2022. Weverse is owned by his HYBE, an entertainment conglomerate that also manages acts including BTS. Since August, HYBE artists Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen and Enhypen have been streaming exclusively on Weverse ahead of V Live’s closure. In his comments to Mashable in November, A Weverse rep said: Artists not part of the Weverse community were given plenty of time to download the archive for future use elsewhere. Artists also had the option to join Weverse and have their content automatically transferred to the app. This option may not have been viable for the dozens of major his artists who have already signed deals with competing artist fan engagement apps.
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The loss of V Live’s library is most heartbreaking for fans who believe the platform sparked their love of Korean pop music. When the app disappeared, so did many of my memories. Before the app was shut down, some fandoms were trying to salvage their favorite artist’s V Live content for themselves by recording each video and hosting it elsewhere. Ateez’s fan re-uploaded his V Live recording of the group to his Google Drive. There, they are neatly organized by group member and year. After October 31, 2022: Single YouTube Channel Created by the group’s fans, ACE has re-uploaded and archived over 580 bands’ V live streams to YouTube. another channel Uploaded more than 750 of SM entertainment groups EXO, NCT 127, NCT Dream, SuperM. A list of these fan-created archives can be found at reddit thread When Tweet.
In addition to Weverse, V Live is survived by K-pop-focused fan-artist communication apps JYP Bubble, Lysn, Universe, and Fab, as well as larger platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. The artist has already started using these channels as an alternative to livestreams, essentially recreating the intimacy of her V Live in a new setting. But while the app’s functionality can be replicated, its archive and influence cannot. His six years of sonic, stylistic, and personal development for hundreds of artists at a crucial time for K-pop, which has only existed in its modern form for nearly 30 years, has been the V Live library. was recorded. The app’s closure is a devastating loss to its history and the joy it has brought to millions.
