South Korea’s leading search portal Naver said on Tuesday its new live-streaming app “V” hit 610,000 downloads from 170 nations just a day after its release.

The app featuring K-pop singers’ live broadcast has drawn global fans including from the Americas and European countries beyond its strong fanbase Asian regions. The downloads outside Korea account for around 50 percent of the total, according to the tech giant.

The first special broadcast of K-pop boy groups Winner and iKON made on Aug. 1 achieved over 120,000 views. After the live broadcast, its highlight video was watched over 680,000 times.

Through the new form of media, some stars including Bangtan Boys, Eric Nam and Apink made a broadcast without notice to surprise their fans.

The live-streaming app, launched on Aug. 1 targeting global K-pop fans, provides a real-time subtitle service in English. It is set to provide Chinese and Japanese services within this month.

“V” was first rolled out on the Android version on Aug. 1 and it became available on the iOS version on Tuesday.


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