Fans are ANGRY: HYBE is shutting down VLIVE, BTS in the military by the end of this year?
Last year it was announced that Weverse which is owned by HYBE, will be integrating with Vlive which is owned by NAVER.
This was called a strategic alliance.
While at first Vlive told their users that no changes will be made to the app because of this integration, now they are announcing that Vlive will be shut down at the end of this year.
This means that all content viewing rights and artists’ channels will disappear.
So fans aren’t happy, especially since Vlive has been such a big part of Kpop culture.
Some Kpop fans feel like HYBE is “ruining the Kpop industry by trying to monopolize everything” and that the agency is “becoming a villain”.
The reason why HYBE is getting involved into so many industries is to replace BTS as the main income generator of the company.
As Jin, the oldest BTS member, will be drafter later this year.
Regarding this, the Korean minister of Culture
said they are committed to finalize the decision
on whether to exempt BTS or not by December.
So this means there’s still a change BTS will not have to do their military service.
The most important factor in making this decision is the public opinion. Whether the Korean population think it would be fair for BTS to be exempted or not.