How Much Money Do Idols Actually Make From Fan Communication Apps Like Bubble?

A pie chart outlining the distribution of the membership fees charged on fan communication apps, like Bubble, has circulated online—sparking heated discussion among K-Pop fans in Korea.

According to the chart, sourced from SM Entertainment‘s IT affiliate Dear U and Hanwha Investment & Securities, a single subscribing user’s membership fee (set around ₩4,500 KRW (about $3.32 USD) per month per artist) is split among three service providers.

The app developer (Dear U) takes 40% of the fee (₩1,800 KRW (about $1.33 USD)), while the app platforms—like the Apple or Google—take 30% (₩1,350 KRW (about $1.00 USD)), and the artist’s management takes the remaining 30% (₩1,350 KRW (about $1.00 USD)). It is assumed, then, that the artists are paid a portion of the 30% that the management takes—depending on how their contracts are drafted.

That said, K-Pop fans estimated an artist on such apps might make somewhere between ₩300 KRW (about $0.22 USD) and ₩600 KRW (about $0.44 USD) per subscribing user…

…and discussed if such “side income” would even matter to the artists. If an artist had tens of thousands of subscribing users, the side income would be substantial—said Koreans across online communities.

• “If I were an idol, I’d do it for free since I’d like talking to the fans. How much I make off it would have nothing to do with it. LOL.”
• “I don’t think idols are on Bubble to make a living. It’s more like to keep the fandom active. Otherwise, their popularities would dwindle.”
• “I think, in general, apps like Bubble works well for idols who aren’t comfortable with expressing themselves in public. Like, I subscribe to an idol who did not frequent their fan cafe or their social media. But once on Bubble, there were tons of messages—with little updates and sweet reminders… I found it worth the fee.”
• “Google and Apple taking 30% of the fee… Whenever an in-app purchase is made, like the membership fee, the ‘platforms’ take a portion of it no matter what.”
• “So… My biases probably aren’t making all too much…”
• “Wow. Talk about making easy money.”
• “You mean idols get to make money by dropping by an app and leaving a few messages every month? Wow.”

But for an artist with less than a significant amount of subscribing users, the side income would not be worth the “time and effort” going into being active on the apps.

• “I hate that K-Pop put a price on communication…”
• “If the management gets 30% and then splits it with the artist, then it means the artists aren’t making all that much from the apps. A couple of cents, at most.”
• “Platforms, like Google and Apple, are the real winners here… Anyway, I’m grateful that my bias comes by often even when they aren’t making a ton of money from the app.”
• “Assuming the 30% is split 5:5, that’d be like ₩600 KRW (about $0.44 USD) per subscribing user… Meaning the actor I subscribe to barely makes ₩60,000 KRW (about $44.20 USD) a month.”
• “An artist would need 1K subscribing users to make ₩675,000 KRW (about $498 USD), and that’s assuming the 30% is split even between the management and the artist. That’s nothing. Sure, for non-celebrities, sending a couple of messages a week and being paid might sound like easy money. But for celebrities… It’s an insignificant amount of money. I wonder if any idol is making over ₩3.00 million KRW (about $2,210 USD) from the apps alone. They would need over 5K subscribing users. Who’d have that kind of a paying pool of subscribing users?”
• “Based on how little they make from the communication… It explains why some of them are barely active on these apps.”
• “Doesn’t matter how much they get paid. The idea is that they do get paid. And some of them do have a subscribing user pool large enough to compare to a regular employee’s paycheck each month. To make that kind of money by sending a couple of messages? Yet it is rare for idols to send 10+ messages. I’d say 5+ is more common. And we accept that to be enough… like, we think 30 minutes of their time is acceptable. Something’s wrong there. How much they make off the apps shouldn’t matter; The nature of their careers come with communicating with the fans. If they want to charge the fans for it, then they better put in some work.”

The discussion remains heated, as it comes amid (G)I-DLE fans expressing discontent over the group’s inactivity on Bubble.

(G)I-DLE Fans Are Furious Over The Group’s Inactivity On Paid Communication Platforms