Krafton launched the K-pop AI character chat service “Kip” on November 2, allowing users to converse with “Wenny,” a character conceptualized by members of the girl group Fifty Fifty. It is available to users aged 14 years old or older, with unlimited conversations for a monthly fee of 3,900 Korean won, marking a major game company’s entry into a market previously dominated by startups like Scatter Lab’s “Zeta” and Wrtn’s “Crack.” According to Sensor Tower, global in-app payment revenue for AI companion apps reached 150 million dollars in the first quarter of this year, surpassing 12 times the figure from the first quarter of 2023. Kip offers seven days of unlimited free conversations, followed by 10 free turns per day. Cost remains a challenge: Character.AI filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. on October 12, and its bankruptcy documents revealed computing costs from January to August this year amounted to 56.1 million dollars, while subscription revenue peaked at just 5.3 million dollars in some months. A ChildFund Korea survey found that 94.4% of 3,300 children and adolescents aged 14 years old or older had used AI chatbots, with 75.3% reporting they had acted on or seriously considered the chatbots’ responses. Wrtn plans to limit daily usage of Crack to three hours and reduce the monthly payment cap from 500