New Generation K-Pop Stans Will Never Be Able To Relate To These Old School Daum Fancafes
Back in the day, when second generation K-Pop was all the rage, there were no such apps as LYSN and Weverse. Instead, many fans used Daum fancafes as a place to communicate with their idols. Entertainment companies would link up with these fancafes to create an “official” one, with the admins being higher-level fans who acted as post moderators.
Here’s f(x)‘s fancafe back in the day, named Charmant.
Girls’ Generation‘s was called Hwasu Eunhwa.
SHINee‘s official fancafe was often visited by the members, who would leave posts to fans.
Of course, as Daum is a Korean search engine and community site, international fans had to struggle through it all. While Weverse and LYSN are offered in English, Daum fancafes were all in Korean. Fans who spoke the language would create user guides to help international fans register. What was tricky was there often was an “upgrading” page where regular fans had to complete a quiz on the members to be upgraded to the next level, which allowed them to write posts to the members on the fancafe.
Ah, new generation K-Pop fans have it made! With K-Pop growing internationally, it is only natural that companies offer English options to cater to a wider audience.