KPOP Meaning
A fan cafe is an online community where a star's fans gather and talk, hosted on a Korean portal site. A 2014 Korean report said fans had been active in fan cafes ever since portal services began. Besides official fan cafes there are ones started by fans themselves, and agencies sometimes post notices and unreleased photos in fan cafes first. A typical example is the "cafe" service of the Korean portal Daum. As of June 2018, Daum hosted about 700 official star fan cafes with some 11 million members in total. That month Kakao, which runs Daum, launched features for official fan cafes, including a star schedule that shows the public dates managers enter as a calendar or list, and a participation board used to pick public broadcast audiences and manage member levels.
Usage
Used for Korean fan communities, e.g. "the official fan cafe notice". Some fan cafes ask members to answer a few questions before moving up a level.
Examples
- On Daum's official fan cafes, managers can pick public broadcast audiences from members who answer questions on the participation board.
- According to a 2014 report, SM Entertainment had no official fan cafe at the time, and the main fan cafes for TVXQ and Girls' Generation were started by fans themselves.
In context
Sources
- Kakao press release (2018-06-27)
What we checked
Kakao press release (2018-06-27)
- TenAsia: Do idol fan cafes still matter? (July 12, 2014)
What we checked
팬카페, 아이돌 팬덤이 공식적으로 모습을 드러내는 공간이다. 포털서비스가 생긴 이래로 아이돌뿐만 아니라 스타의 팬들이 팬카페에서 활발하게 교류했다…SM엔터테인먼트의 경우에는 공식 팬카페가 없다. 유애루비(동방신기), 화수은화(소녀시대) 등 대표 팬카페는 자발적으로 만들어진 카페다…팬카페의 경우 가입절차가 까다롭고 회원등급 상승을 위해서는 몇 가지 질문도 통과해야…실제로 기획사는 팬카페와 SNS를 서로 다르게 관리하고 있었다. 스타와 관련된 공지사항이나 미공개 사진들을 팬카페를 통해 가장 먼저 공개