HYBE
HYBE is partnering with Grammy-winning producer and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder to form a new boy group, the company announced Thursday (Feb. 19). The project, to be led by Tedder alongside HYBE chairman Bang Si-Hyuk and HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun, will kick off with a global talent search. Once the members of the group […]
Artists such as Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion and Conan Gray helped Weverse, HYBE’s social media/fandom platform, grow its users by 16% in both the U.S. and Canada in 2024, the company announced Wednesday (Jan. 22). Weverse users also saw strong growth elsewhere, rising 21% in Brazil, 14% in Mexico, 22% in Japan and 54% in Taiwan. Originally a platform for K-pop groups, the platform has grown along with HYBE’s global expansion and posted 19% user growth across all territories.
Those statistics and more come from the new 2024 Weverse Fandom Trend Report, a recap of the platform’s tremendous growth and a testament to fans’ interest in their favorite artists. Joon Choi, president of Weverse Company, called 2024 “a transformative year” that expanded the platform’s artist communities, fan engagement and commerce activities. “Weverse remains committed to innovating its services to meet the evolving needs of artists and fans, solidifying its position as the center of global fandom culture,” he said in a statement.
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As much of the music industry begins to focus on better serving superfans, Weverse has already established itself as a money-making destination for fans of a select group of artists. The platform launched in 2019 and last year introduced a subscription tier that provides ad-free viewing, video downloads for offline access, high-quality streaming and language translation. “Digital membership, we believe, is the very first cornerstone of the future evolution [of Weverse],” Choi told Billboard in December.
Like a typical social network, Weverse allows artists to publish messages and content and gives fans an opportunity to leave comments. In 2024, Weverse Artists on the Weverse platform shared approximately 206,000 posts and fans generated 370 million posts. SEVENTEEN had the highest number of posts while ENHYPEN had the most comments. The platform also allows fans to send direct messages to artists — a perk for subscribers. Last year, artists sent 698,000 direct messages to fans and fans sent 96.36 million messages to artists. More than half (55%) of artists on Weverse send direct messages to fans at least every two days. Fans also sent 4.88 million personally decorated digital letters. Jung Kook received the most fan letters while LEEHAN of BOYNEXTDOOR responded to the most fan letters.
Weverse also hosted 5,787 live broadcasts on Weverse Live, the platform’s live streaming feature, totaling 4,779 hours of content in 2024 (artists don’t only live stream concert performances on Weverse Live and in fact usually opt for casual interactions and Q&A sessions with fans). Weverse Live videos were viewed 426 million times by 11.25 million unique Weverse users in 2024, while the top live stream of the year was “Missed You a Lot” by Jung Kook, which amassed 23 million real-time views.
E-commerce separates Weverse from a typical social network. Through Weverse Shop, Weverse sold 20.6 million pieces, a 13% increase from 2023. Physical merchandise such as albums and collectibles improved 10%, while Weverse Shop also sold 3.4 million pieces of digital merchandise, including artist memberships and online content, a 24% increase. Other than Weverse’s home market of South Korea, the United States and Japan were the top markets for merchandise. The top-selling digital items were artist memberships: BTS ARMY memberships were most popular in Oceania, Latin America and Europe while SEVENTEEN’s CARAT memberships were most popular in North America.
HYBE and JYP Entertainment were among the few music stocks to make gains this week as markets stumbled globally. HYBE, home to BTS and its members’ solo projects, rose 7.2% to 215,500 won ($146.19), its best closing price since Nov. 20, thanks to Friday’s news that BTS member J-Hope willsoon release new music and commence a world tour starting in Seoul on Feb. 28. JYP Entertainment, which has had global success with Stray Kids and ITZY, rose 5.6% to 71,600 won ($48.57) after the company announced it will launch a new boy band, Kickflip, on Jan. 20.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) slipped 1.4% to 2,126.33, marketing the fourth time in five weeks the index has lost value. Only five of the 20 stocks finished the week in positive territory. Other than HYBE and JYP Entertainment, only CTS Eventim (up 3.4%), Believe (up 3.2%) and Universal Music Group (up 1.1%) posted gains. Three stocks (Cumulus Media, Deezer and Anghami) were unchanged while 12 stocks had losing weeks.
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Music stocks were dragged down by numerous market forces this week. Stocks fell sharply on Friday (Jan. 10) following healthy employment numbers that investors likely interpreted to mean the U.S. Federal Reserve would not seek to lower interest rates at its meetings in January or March. Also, data from the University of Michigan released Friday showed consumers’ expectations for future inflation rose to 3.3% from 2.8%. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite fell 2.3% to 19,161.63 and the S&P 500 dropped 1.9% to 5,827.04. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 8,248.49. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipped 1.3% to 3,168.52. South Korea was an outlier as the KOSPI composite index rose 3.0%.
Warner Music Group (WMG) shares dropped 5.4% to $29.33 after three analysts lowered their price targets ahead of WMG’s quarterly earnings release on Feb. 6. Guggenheim lowered its WMG price target to $40 from $44 after taking into account an expected 1.5% foreign exchange impact on the latest quarter’s revenue and a 1.7% impact on revenue for the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025. Guggenheim also dropped its recorded music licensing estimate while maintaining its recorded music subscription revenue growth forecast in the “high single-digit” range. Evercore lowered WMG shares to $35 from $36. UBS lowered WMG to $41 from $43 and maintained its “neutral” rating.
Spotify, which announces fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 4, fell 1.5% to $459.53. Goldman Sachs raised its Spotify price target this week to $550 from $490. Spotify shares have fallen in five of the last six weeks and are 9.3% below the all-time high of $506.47 set on Dec. 4.
Music streaming company LiveOne had the index’s biggest decline, dropping 12.4% to $1.20. Radio broadcaster iHeartMedia fell 11.7% to $1.88. SiriusXM continued its losing streak, sinking 6.8% to $20.83. SiriusXM shares fell 58.3% in 2024 and have dropped 16.4% in the last three months. K-pop company SM Entertainment sank 5.1% to 68,900 won ($46.74).
Four K-pop companies’ stocks fell in value by an average of 19.0% in 2024, a significant reversal of fortune after gaining an average of 30.0% the prior year.
Some of the K-pop companies’ declines can be attributed to the poor showing of Korean stocks in general. The KOSPI composite index, an index of all stocks traded on the stock market division of the Korea Exchange, fell 9.6% in 2024. Korean stocks especially suffered from political turmoil in the year’s waning weeks. Since South Korean Prime Minister Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3 through the end of the year, the KOSPI fell 4.3%.
But collectively and individually, HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment fared worse than the South Korean stock index. The South Korean companies are expanding beyond their home country, establishing roots in the Americas and exporting their K-pop model of artist development to local markets. Many of the new projects have yet to pay dividends, however, and a lack of new releases or concerts by major artists often resulted in lower revenue and profits in recent quarters.
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YG Entertainment, home to BLACKPINK and BABYMONSTER, fared the best, dropping 10.0% to 45,800 won ($31.07). In the third quarter, YG Entertainment’s revenue dropped 42% year over year while a 14.8 billion won ($10 million) net income in the third quarter of 2023 turned into a 937 million ($636,000) net loss.
BTS’s label HYBE fell 17.2% to 193,400 won ($131.18), with its third-quarter net profit dropping 99% on lower concert and recorded music revenue. In the second quarter, HYBE set a company record for quarterly revenue but its operating profit fell 37.4%. The company was also hampered by controversies in 2024. Chairman Bang Si-hyuk is reportedly being investigated by South Korean regulators over a profit-sharing deal with early investors that led Bang to realize a $285 million profit from the company’s 2020 initial public offering. HYBE has also been embroiled in an ongoing feud with Min Hee-Jin, the former CEO of HYBE’s ADOR imprint.
SM Entertainment, the home of aespa and NCT Dream, sank 17.9% to 75,600 won ($51.28). In the third quarter, net profit fell 95.6% on 9% lower revenue. In the second quarter, net profit was down 70.3% while revenue increased 5.9% from the prior-year period. The company has a new North American joint venture with Kakao Entertainment that launched in late 2023 and has produced a new British boy band, dearALICE, launched through a BBC miniseries.
Faring the worst was JYP Entertainment, home to Stray Kids and iTZY, which plummeted 31.0% to 69,900 won ($47.41). In the first three quarters of 2024, JYP’s revenue was down 1.6% and net profit was 30.4% lower than the prior-year period. In the second quarter, an absence of major artist activity caused the company’s revenue to drop 36.9% from the prior-year period while its net profit fell 95% year over year. JYP was able to rebound in the third quarter, however, as revenue and net profit were up 22.1% and 11.7%, respectively.
For all the value derived from social media, artists and labels have yet to generate revenue directly from their activity on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. In contrast, Weverse, a social media and e-commerce platform owned by South Korean company HYBE, changes up the typical social media dynamic by generating direct revenue from the fandom it facilitates.
This month, in an effort to generate even more revenue from superfans, Weverse introduced a digital membership tier that offers additional perks such as ad-free viewing, video downloads for offline access, high-quality streaming and language translation. The paid digital membership is separate from the fan clubs offered on the platform and Weverse’s own direct messaging feature that allows users — for a fee — to message their favorite artists.
“Digital membership, we believe, is the very first cornerstone of the future evolution” of the music business,” Weverse CEO Joon Choi tells Billboard. He adds that in the first two weeks that digital memberships were made available on the platform, 79 artists (out of 162 active artist communities on Weverse) have given fans the option of signing up for them.
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Weverse is an anomaly in social media: a platform with a small number of high-demand musicians rather than a large number of mostly unpopular artists. Launched in 2019, Weverse had 9.7 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of Sept. 30, according to HYBE’s latest financial results, down from 10.6 million a year earlier. The platform is a Swiss Army knife of a promotional vehicle. Artists not only post media content and updates but also conduct live-streams and respond — for a fee — to fans’ direct messages, while the platform additionally sells concert live streams, music and merchandise. And HYBE’s most popular artists can rack up amazing numbers on the platform: Earlier this week, BTS member Jung Kook set a Weverse record with 20.2 million real-time views of a 2.5-hour live broadcast in which he spoke to fans during a break from his military duty.
In recent months, Weverse expanded beyond K-pop artists by welcoming such Western, English-language stars as Ariana Grande and The Kid Laroi, hinting at possibilities that have record labels salivating. Goldman Sachs analysts have estimated that improved monetization of superfans — including new digital platforms, greater emphasis on vinyl buyers and higher-priced music subscription plans — could result in $3.3 billion of incremental revenue globally by 2030. Given the potential, it wasn’t surprising to hear both Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl and Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge express their interest in superfan products and experiences earlier this year. In September, UMG CFO Boyd Muir said the company was in “advanced talks” with Spotify about a high-priced superfan tier — something Chinese music streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment already launched with early success.
In the early days of its membership tier, Weverse is still figuring things out. “We are pioneering this field, so we see a lot of unknowns,” says Choi. For example, he says Weverse has heard from many labels that it should bundle the digital membership tier with fan clubs already offered by artists into something like a premium membership tier (of the 162 active artist communities on Weverse, 72 currently offer fan clubs). He adds that Weverse would not make the decision independently but is discussing it with labels. “Combining them together in the future, I think it’ll be stronger than what we offer right now,” says Choi.
The rollout of the membership tier hasn’t been without controversy, though. In October, an article at The Korea Herald quoted an email from Weverse to its partner record labels in which the company said participation in the membership tier is “mandatory for all artist communities hosted on Weverse.” The article also quoted a South Korean lawmaker who called on the country’s Fair Trade Commission to investigate Weverse’s “new forms of monopolistic practices and determine whether unfair treatment is occurring against affiliated companies using the platform.” Weverse says it has not been contacted or investigated by regulators.
Choi pushes back against the assertions in The Korea Herald, saying artists on the platform are not required to offer a subscription tier, in contrast with the email quoted by the newspaper. “That’s not mandatory,” he insists. In a separate statement to Billboard, Weverse said it “aims to roll out digital membership to all communities” but that the decision “is the choice of labels and artists” and, in any event, fans will still be able to use many existing Weverse services for free. Despite Weverse playing an integral role in the marketing and promotion of K-pop artists, Choi argues it doesn’t have enough market power to make such demands: “We are not in a dominant place where we can just present the policy and dictate our policy to the artist or labels however we want.”
Weverse has also received criticism for its revenue-sharing splits with labels, with The Korea Herald additionally citing an anonymous source as saying the company proposed a “disproportionate” share of the revenue ranging from 30% to 60%, leaving the artist and label with anywhere from 40% to 70%. Choi declined to comment on the business arrangements that determine how much subscription revenue Weverse keeps but noted the platform is investing money into the subscription tier to create features valuable to artists and their fans.
The pushback encountered by Weverse foreshadows the challenges platforms and labels will face as superfan platforms proliferate and the stakeholders wrangle over how the money will be shared. Labels and publishers have spent decades trying to get more value from streaming services, and short-form video apps like TikTok necessitated new conversations about how to compensate creators for the value they bring to the platform. As Choi says, “What we’re doing is basically creating a new value by connecting the artist and super fans in the same place.” In the process, HYBE has pioneered a new model that could become standard practice for artists and labels in the music business of the future.
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service is investigating HYBE and its chairman, Bang Si-hyuk, over allegations he earned $285 million from the company’s 2020 initial public offering through profit-sharing deals with three large shareholders.
HYBE, then named Big Hit Entertainment, went public in 2020 after building its primary act, BTS, into global stars. The IPO raised approximately $820 million and confirmed HYBE’s arrival as a major player in the global music business. But while the IPO was a success for the company, many individuals who bought shares for well above the IPO price lost money as the price retreated in the following weeks.
Last week, The Korea Economic Daily broke the story that Bang personally pocketed about 400 billion won ($285 million) from agreements made with private shareholders STIC Investments, Estone Equity Partners and New Main Equity a few years before the IPO. Those agreements, according to the report, called for Bang to receive 30% of the shareholders’ profits from their sale of Big Hit shares following the IPO. But if Big Hit failed to go public before an agreed-upon time, Bang would have had to repurchase the shares plus interest.
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In a statement posted to HYBE’s investor relations website on Friday (Nov. 29), the company confirmed the existence of a shareholder agreement but dismissed the notion that Bang broke any securities law. “During the process of preparing for the listing, our company provided the relevant shareholder agreement to the listing underwriters, and the listing underwriters also reviewed the relevant shareholder agreement in accordance with the listing-related laws,” the statement reads. “In this regard, we have determined that our company did not violate any relevant laws during the listing process.”
A HYBE official provided more detail about the shareholder agreement in a statement to The Korean Herald. Prior to the IPO, one of HYBE’s investors requested to know the IPO timeline, which HYBE refused to share. Worried about unnamed uncertainties, the shareholder demanded a “put-back option,” or a right to sell an equity at a pre-determined price and time. But HYBE “couldn’t sustain itself under such conditions,” this person stated, and Bang “took on the risk himself” and personally agreed to the option.
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service was quoted in media reports as saying it’s investigating HYBE and Bang for possible violations of the country’s Capital Markets Act, including how a private equity fund acquired Big Hit shares prior to the IPO and whether Big Hit omitted information from its securities filing. The Korea Exchange stock market is also examining relevant documents for potential violations.
When Big Hit shares debuted on the Korea Exchange on Oct. 15, 2020, strong demand drove the share price from the 135,000 won ($118) IPO price to 351,000 won ($308) on its opening day. But Big Hit’s price fell 22.3% the next day and dropped another 29% over the next two weeks, leaving many individual investors with losses. (The stock rebounded over time. An investor who bought at the peak on the stock’s opening day could have sold for a profit had they waited one year.) The Korea Economic Daily article contended the drop-off was “largely driven” by the private equity fund’s “massive selloff” of Big Hit shares after the IPO.
Members of NewJeans have announced they are parting ways with their label ADOR, a subsidiary of HYBE.
In a late-night press conference on Thursday (Nov. 28), the five-member K-pop group, which formed in 2022, revealed that they are severing ties with ADOR due to allegations that the label had violated their contract.
“Once we leave ADOR, we’ll aim to proceed freely with the activities that we really desire,” member Danielle said, according to Reuters. “We really wish to be able to release new music for Bunnies, next year, as soon as possible, whenever,” she added, referencing the group’s fanbase. “We really hope that we have the opportunity to meet you guys from all around the world.”
NewJeans also stated that, after their contract termination, they may no longer be able to use their group name going forward.
In response, ADOR maintained that its agreement with NewJeans “remains in full effect.” The label urged the group to continue collaborating on upcoming projects. “We respectfully request that the group continue its collaboration with ADOR,” the statement read, according to Reuters.
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NewJeans’ announcement comes amid a months-long management dispute between HYBE and ADOR’s former CEO, Min Hee-jin, who also serves as the group’s creative director. Earlier this year, HYBE accused Hee-jin of attempting to take the company independent, a claim he denied. During Thursday’s press conference, NewJeans expressed a desire to continue working with Hee-jin.
Earlier this month, NewJeans sent a legal notice to HYBE outlining a list of demands, including the reinstatement of Min Hee-jin as CEO of ADOR. The group warned that if their demands were not met, they would terminate their contract, according to CNBC. NewJeans was previously bound by a seven-year contract with ADOR, set to expire in 2029, Rolling Stone reports.
In October, NewJeans member Hanni tearfully testified before South Korea’s parliament, alleging she had experienced workplace harassment at the company. The Seoul Regional Office of Employment and Labor announced on Nov. 20 that it had closed its investigation, concluding that Hanni could not be considered an employee under the law.
HYBE’s BigHit Music record label named current general manager Seon Jeong Shin to be the next president, following approval at a shareholders meeting and board of directors resolution on Tuesday (Nov. 26). Shin, who was named to Billboard’s 2022 40 Under 40 list for helping develop HYBE’s artist training system, played a role in the […]
South Korean K-pop giant HYBE said its net profit basically evaporated in the third quarter and total revenue slipped 2% after after the company earned less from concerts and saw reduced music sales, according to results published on Tuesday (Nov. 5).
HYBE’s net profit for the third quarter was 1.444 billion won ($1.05 million), a figure 98.6% lower than the third quarter of 2023 when the company reported of 99,690 billion won ($72.3 million). Total revenue for the third quarter of 527.9 billion won ($382.6 million).
HYBE’s biggest release of the quarter was the debut album, SIS, from KATSEYE, a six-member girl group formed over the summer as part of The Debut: Dream Academy, which spent two weeks on the Billboard 200, the company said.
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HYBE’s direct revenue — which comes from its recorded music business, concerts, and things where artists are directly involved — fell by 15.5% to 323 billion won ($234 million). Revenue from its recorded music division declined by nearly 19% to 214.5 billion won ($155.5 million), while concert revenue fell nearly 15% to 74 billion won ($53.6 million). Revenue from ads and appearances rose by nearly 10% to 34.5 billion won ($25 million).
HYBE’s business lines that operate independently of their artists — like merchandising and sync licensing — performed much better, with revenue from artist-indirect involvement business lines rising by 32% to nearly 205 billion won ($148.5 million). Revenue from merchandise and licensing song rights rose by nearly 16% to 99 billion won ($71.9 million), contents revenue rose 64% to almost 80 billion won ($58 million) and fan club revenue rose by more than 23% to 26 billion won ($18.8 million).
The company’s operating profit margin saw significant improvement — up 4% — from the first quarter this year to 10.3% for the third quarter. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a measure of HYBE’s profit from its operations, fell by 16.4% to 81 billion won ($58.7 million).
HYBE has had an eventful few months. In July, the company appointed Jason Jaesang Lee as its new CEO and announced its “HYBE 2.0” growth strategy, which reorganizes the company, pushes a global expansion and focuses on tech-driven initiatives.
The company has also been embroiled in a dispute with Min Hee-jin, ex-CEO of the company’s label subsidiary ADOR — home to chart-topping girl group NewJeans — regarding HYBE’s claim that Min tried to take control of ADOR and NewJeans.
Min Hee-jin’s mission to be reappointed as CEO of NewJeans’ label ADOR just hit another hurdle. On Tuesday (Oct. 29), a South Korean court dismissed the embattled executive’s application to be reinstated in the position, according to reports from Korea JoongAng Daily and Mael Business Newspaper.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the dismissal means the court ruled in favor of HYBE and terminated the case without a judgment on its merits — essentially not conceding or accepting Min’s filing to begin with.
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Min originally submitted her application for reappointment on Sept. 13. In it, she asked the court to order HYBE’s internal board to re-elect a “new” CEO (a.k.a. herself), arguing that she needed to be in the position in order for NewJeans to continue its activities. However, the court’s latest decision has weakened that argument, the source says. Should Min continue her push to be reinstated as CEO, she will likely need to use a different argument to have any chance of her case moving forward.
For the time being, Min is expected to stay on as an internal director of ADOR. She was replaced as CEO by Kim Ju-young, HYBE’s head HR officer, in August.
“We acknowledge and appreciate the court’s wise ruling,” a representative for HYBE tells Billboard in a statement. “In light of this decision, HYBE is dedicated to normalizing ADOR’s operations, improving our multi-label capabilities, and supporting the activities of our artists.”
The development is the latest event in Min and HYBE’s months-long power struggle over ADOR and its powerhouse act NewJeans that stretches back to April 2024. Following an internal audit of ADOR, HYBE — also home to acts like BTS, Seventeen and Le Sserafim — called for the immediate resignation of Min as CEO, accusing her of trying to hijack the label imprint as well as NewJeans. The conflict has since devolved into a tangled web of he-said-she-saids, multiple lawsuits, and ultimately, Min stepping down from her position on Aug. 27.
Throughout the process, the members of NewJeans have become increasingly involved in the conflict, publicly sharing their support for Min during live performances and in a since-deleted 27-minute YouTube video in which they alleged mistreatment and a toxic work environment at HYBE. Most recently, NewJeans member Hanni, 20, appeared in court to testify to South Korean lawmakers about alleged workplace harassment, saying, “I came to the realization that this wasn’t just a feeling. I was honestly convinced that the company hated us.” During her testimony, she cited instances when she felt HYBE undermined the band and senior managers of the company deliberately ignored her.
While Min hasn’t yet released an official statement regarding the latest court decision, she’s gone on the record to South Korean media saying that she plans to “go all the way” in her legal pursuit to be reinstated.
Following the court’s decision, ADOR’s internal board again voted against reinstating Min on Wednesday (Oct. 30).