– – New designation of public disclosure target group on the 15th
– – No change in conflict between Min Hee-jin and ADORE despite discord
– – “First designation among major entertainment industry conglomerates”,
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[Edaily Yun Gibaek Reporter] BTS’s agency, HYBE, has been designated as a corporate group in the public domain for the first time among entertainment companies. The leader (same person) is Bang Si-hyuk, the chairman and largest shareholder with a 31.57% stake in HYBE.
On the 15th, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) designated and notified 88 corporate groups (comprising 3,318 affiliated companies) including HYBE as public disclosure target groups. The group ranked 85th (based on FTC’s fair asset total of 525 billion won). Despite internal conflicts with ADORE and Min Hee-jin representatives, HYBE’s designation as a major corporate group remained unchanged.
The FTC stated, “With the globalization of K-pop, the entertainment industry, where albums, performances, and content are major sources of revenue, has grown rapidly.” They also announced, “HYBE was designated for the first time among major entertainment industry conglomerates as a group centered around HYBE, which includes global fandom artists such as BTS.”
The FTC designates corporate groups as public disclosure target groups (publicly announced corporate groups) if their fair assets, which are the sum of the total assets of general affiliates and the total capital of financial affiliates, exceed 500 billion won.
According to the business report disclosed by HYBE in March last year, as of December 2023, the total assets were 5.3457 trillion won, total liabilities were 2.2358 trillion won, and total capital was 3.1099 trillion won.
HYBE, now designated as a major corporate group, is subject to various regulations including disclosure obligations and prohibition of profit-taking.
Established in 2005 as Big Hit Entertainment, HYBE changed its name to HYBE in 2021, setting its vision as an entertainment lifestyle platform company.
HYBE diversifies its business areas into three sections: labels, solutions, and platforms. In the label sector, they are operating a “multi-label system” with 11 labels under its umbrella. Under its labels, there are various labels such as Big Hit Music that BTS belongs to, Pledis for SEVENTEEN, and ADORE for NU’EST, as well as Source Music, KOZ Entertainment, Belift Lab, Ithaca Holdings, Naeko, HYBE Labels Japan, QC Media Holdings, and HYBE Latin America. The multi-label system is designed to reduce the dependency on specific artists or labels by ensuring each label operates independently, fostering competition and cooperation among labels. However, it also faces critical issues like the recent conflict with ADORE.
In the solutions area, they have HYBE IM, a game publishing company, and Superb Tone, an AI solutions company. In the platform field, they operate the fandom platform Weverse.
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