A Letter to Our Users

Dear CHOEAEDOL users,

We understand that there is a strong request among the GOT7 fans community wanting CHOEAEDOL to readmit GOT7 back into our chart. Over the last weekend, we surely heard you all.

In CHOEAEDOL we never hide any rules and regulations to our users, and details of those could easily be found in the notice board inside our app. In the notice board, we have openly shared to our users the rules related to idol exclusion and (re)addition.

We understand that part of the rules might not be as clear as we anticipated due to different reasons, thus we would like to take this opportunity to explain the rules and the rationale behind those rules.

1. Regarding “Disband or Withdrawal” under our [Idol Exclusion Rules]

What we mean by that is whenever an idol or an idol group announce their disbandment or withdrawal from entertainment industry, we would exclude them from our charts. The spirit of the rule is that we would exclude any idol or idol group that is rendered inactive due to disbandment or withdrawal. We realised that we have mentioned “contract expiry” in our [Notice about the end of GOT7’s contract] which was not originally stated in our [Idol Exclusion Rules]. We understand that we should have also mentioned that in our [Idol Exclusion Rules] in order to minimise any chance of misunderstanding, but effectively, contract expiry is the same as disbandment and withdrawal, in terms of they all render the particular idol or idol groups inactive, whether it is permanently or temporarily.

2. Regarding “Idol who is currently active” under our [Idol Addition Rules] and “release an album” in our [Notice about the end of GOT7’s contract]

We understand that “currently active” and “release an album” could be interpreted in many ways, so we would like to take this opportunity to clarify that.

For “currently active”, we have a relatively wide standard of it. We include activities such as, include but not limited to, releasing albums, featuring on TV programs or holding concerts. The spirit of this part of the rule is that we need a clear signal of re-active from a temporarily inactive idol or idol group for us to readmit them into our charts. This can be done by them announcing their comeback through TV programs or radio programs, to name a few. The reason we refrain from making a judgement solely according to posts from idol’s SNS is because we would like to make our decisions only after being 100% certain that the idol or idol groups would re-engage in entertainment business. We understand that it might sound conservative, but we would rather be slow but accurate than quick but inaccurate. We believe if an idol or an idol group decides to comeback even after a temporary hiatus or inactiveness, they would announce their comeback and make their comeback eventually. And in the Korean entertainment environment, the announcement of such comeback would certainly come with announcements in public media such as TV, radio, or through other public channels.

We would also like to explain the reason why we insist excluded idols would have to release a physical album, instead of just a digital release, to be readmitted to our charts. It is because we would like to avoid any grey area. Sad as it might seems, but in many cases, a digital release could be a one-off release, even though it may not have always been the case. Hence, in order to avoid any confusions, we would like to reserve our judgement until we have a certain and clear signal, that is, a release of a physical album, or in some cases, solo debut of an idol group member as a singer. However, as mentioned above, we would readmit idols under other circumstances, for example, holding a concert, instead of solely releasing a physical album.

We would like to emphasise that the above rules and explanations apply to all idols big and small. However, we also understand that our rules, no matter how detail we wrote and explained them, due to the ever-changing environment of K-Pop, its business practice, and entertainment industry as a whole, we would not be able to cover all possible circumstances. Thus, we will review our rules and regulations from time to time, and according to different circumstances, we will give our explanations accordingly in the future if we think it is necessary.

We are also going to start the process of reviewing the English version of our rules to minimise further confusions.

Going back to the GOT7 situation, as we have mentioned above, we surely heard from GOT7 fans around the world wanting us to readmit GOT7 back to our charts. We also understand that GOT7 themselves have stated that it is not a disbandment and they would continue their entertainment activities in the future. However, after reviewing and discussing the current situation internally, we have come to a conclusion that there is not much we can do, because as readmitting GOT7 back to our charts at this stage would not be the appropriate action to be done at this very moment, since it might induce confusions. However, we can promise every fan that GOT7 as a group or individual members of GOT7 would be added back to our charts with no hesitation as soon as the situation allows us to do so.

I would like to sign off with a few personal note.

Everyone here who is working in CHOEAEDOL serving fans around the world is a fan of K-Pop. We are fans ourselves. We have the idols we love, and we love K-Pop, and most importantly, we love working to provide an enjoyable environment to other fans.

K-Pop is a powerful media and every fan, including everyone from CHOEAEDOL, knows that, and it is not just about the music, but the emotions, the supports, the fans, and fan communities. Personally, K-Pop has supported me through one of my hardest moments in my life and K-Pop has supported my dreams, and that is the sole reason why I am able to talk to you through this letter right now. In terms of that, I have no difference from any other K-Pop fans around the world, including you, who is reading this letter right now. I wouldn’t say I totally understand the feeling of GOT7’s fans, but I am sure that everyone from GOT7 would be so happy, and the same time, touched to see you all fans showing this huge support for them.

We are sad to say that we are not able to readmit GOT7 back to our charts at this very moment, but we can promise every GOT7 fan that GOT7 would be added back to our charts once the situation allows us to do so.

Once again, thank you very much to all of you who support K-Pop and CHOEAEDOL.

Yours Truly,

Jamie

Marketing,

CHOEAEDOL

2021-03-08