"Red Velvet's Irene Accused of Anti-Americanism?"... Overseas Fans Burst into Laughter Over Mistranslation

Mistranslation by Translation Program Causes Incident
Becomes New Content for Some Overseas Fans

K-pop fans overseas in Asia, Europe, and the United States use a chat platform called 'Bubble' to communicate with singers. Bubble is a platform where users can exchange text messages with artists, similar to messenger programs like KakaoTalk. For overseas fans, there is also a service that automatically translates the artists' messages into English in real time.

However, the automatic translation program is sometimes known to cause amusing misunderstandings. It can mistranslate slang or newly coined words, leading to distorted meanings or even translating messages into profanity. Such mistranslation cases have become a new source of enjoyment(?) for some overseas K-pop fans.

Mistranslations Become Content on K-pop Fandom Platforms

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Recently, the French K-pop-related issue newsletter 'Kpopalerts' introduced a famous Bubble mistranslation incident. The most representative case involved a conversation by Irene, a member of the group Red Velvet. Irene once wrote in the Bubble messenger chat, "I've been hooked on banh mi lately and eat one every day," where banh mi refers to a Vietnamese sandwich.

However, the automatic translation program translated banh mi as anti-Americanism, turning Irene into an idol obsessed with anti-Americanism overnight.

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There have also been cases where idols' messages were translated into profanity. For example, many idols slightly alter the phrase "What are you doing?" to "mohaeng" or similar, but the translator mistranslated "mohaeng" as the profanity "MotherXXXXXX."

[Image source= SNS capture]

Jungwoo, a member of the group NCT127, told overseas fans, "I'll kill (turn on) the messenger when I arrive," but the translator rendered it as "I'll kill you when I arrive," causing a commotion. This misunderstanding seems to have arisen because the pronunciation of "kilge" sounds similar to the English word "kill."

Operating Profit Margin in the 30% Range... Platform Business Driving the Fandom

However, such noise also demonstrates the global influence of K-pop platforms. Currently, K-pop fandom platforms are divided into Bubble and 'Weverse,' both of which act as driving forces for K-pop fans worldwide.

As of the third quarter of last year, Weverse recorded an average monthly visitor count of 10.5 million, while Bubble had 2.3 million. In particular, to use the messenger with K-pop stars on Bubble, users must pay a monthly subscription fee of 4,500 KRW. This means that the number of paying active users has surpassed 2 million.

DearU, the company operating Bubble, posted sales of approximately 75.6 billion KRW last year, a 53.9% increase compared to the previous year. Operating profit soared by 75.6% to about 28.5 billion KRW. Since turning profitable in 2021, DearU has consistently recorded a high operating profit margin of over 30%.