South Korea’s top search portal Naver launched on Friday its mobile live-streaming app “V” featuring 23 K-pop singers including Big Bang, SM Town, Beast, Wonder Girls and Kara. While the Android version has been unveiled first the iOS app will be released later in August.

Via the app, fans can see their favorite stars’ daily lives and interact with them in real-time anywhere, anytime. For global fans, English, Japanese and Chinese subtitles will be provided.

Stars have their own segment where they can freely communicate with their fans and host shows with diverse topics including special live, cooking, beauty, education and counseling.

2PM’s Taecyeon, Wooyoung and Nichkhun are scheduled to host a cooking show, AOA’s Hyejeong will share her beauty tips and Apink will provide counseling services.

Stars can surprise their fans and visit their segments without notice, even when they are not scheduled to broadcast.

Naver has set the timeslot of 10 p.m. to 12 p.m. daily as V-Time to highlight the shows of different stars. Users can check “Upcoming Tab” which updates the schedule of the star’s live broadcasts for V-Time.

The first stars of V-Time will be YG’s Winner and iKON. They will host a show titled “Winner & iKON’s win-win game with V” on Saturday at 10 p.m. Big Bang is also scheduled to have a live concert “Big Bang Countdown” on Aug. 4 at 11 p.m. and Bangtan Boys’ Thailand tour will be aired on Aug. 7 at 10 p.m.

Fans can increase the chemistry index with their stars through “Chemistry Beat” by following the stars’ V accounts. The index rises based on the activities between the fans and stars -- watching live-streaming videos or communicating with the singers. The fans with a higher index are more likely to win events hosted by the stars. The singers may mention their names on-air.

To enjoy “V,” users can simply download the app on Google Play and log in with their Naver, Facebook, Line and Twitter accounts. After following the stars’ V account, they will be notified about the stars’ schedules.

“It will be fun to see the day-to-day lives of the stars and to read the comments left by global fans in real-time,” said Park Sun-young, chief of Naver’s Entertainment and Life division.

“We will continue to add more celebrities including global stars,” she added.




By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)