[K-pop 101] How 'homma' became little helpers of Korean celebrities' rise to stardom

"Homepage masters," also known as “Homma” among K-pop fans, are superfans who, armed with professional cameras with sophisticated lenses, take high-quality pictures of their favorite artists.

These superfans follow their artist’s official schedules such as fan meetings, concerts, end-of-the-year awards ceremonies and world tours.

They use the pictures taken at these events to create content of their favorite artists, which gets redistributed by other fans to different social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.

Talented homepage masters have millions of subscribers and followers on their social media accounts: Haewon of Nmixx’s homepage master boasts 55,000 followers on Instagram and 570,000 subscribers on YouTube.

At offline events, homepage masters take thousands of pictures, edit them for more than an hour, and upload only the best few.

Homma not only produce online content, they also make and sell merchandise.

“I make merchandise such as banners, stickers, photo cards and brochures of my favorite artist every season. Near the end of a year, I make ‘season's greeting,’ which is the next year’s calendar with the artist’s photos and schedule on it,” said a K-pop boy artist homepage master who has been doing this work for around three years.

Homepage masters use profit generated by selling merchandise to support their favorite artist.

“We show our support for our artists by gifting them with clothes, shoes, massage chairs and clothing management appliances. I once gave my artist a customized in-ear headphones that cost me 3 million won ($2,190). It’s a way we show our love and sometimes it becomes a competition among fans to show more love,” said a former K-pop girl group homepage master.

“To be honest, it does no good to us financially and it requires a lot of time and energy. But we do this solely because we love our artists and that’s what makes us persist.”

Homepage masters often contribute to boosting the popularity of K-pop artists by raising their profiles.

“For an idol to become popular, many people have to know about her or him. Homepage masters are good promoters in that sense. So, we keep in contact with homepage masters and sometimes ask them to attend certain events,” said an official from a K-pop agency.

This is part of a series that introduces aspects of K-pop that will help you better understand the music, artists, fans and business of K-pop. -- Ed.