BTS saved BigHit So BTS initially came from a super small entertainment
company that was in great debt. At the beginning of its operation, HYBE Labels (formerly Big
Hit Entertainment) was extremely difficult and stood on the verge of bankruptcy many
times. Its first headquarters was located in a shabby building with a downgraded office.
The company at the time had only 30 employees and carried a debt of up to 2,8 billion won
(about $24 million) while its value was at 6 million won (about $5 thousand).
However, during that difficult time, BTS was established. At first, BTS experienced many
struggles of being criticized and despised. Well, like people always say, the best revenge
is massive success. BTS, from being called a failure, now becomes a global K-Pop sensation.
So how did they erase their company’s debt? BTS had a sudden rise in 2015 with I NEED
YOU as they had their first win at “The Show” by SBS MTV. Their popularity yet again
increased with Run (2015) and marked their first win at Music Bank.
But the true hit that made them the most famous idols was Fire (2016). I must say BTS and
HYBE in general have been making money at a rapid rate since then. Can you guess how
many tours and music activities BTS made? Let me tell you! They have performed 5 tours
with three of them being worldwide, 11 concerts, 6 fanmeeting tours, 8 showcases, 6 joint tours
and concerts, and uncountable performances on award shows.
BTS’s Love Yourself World Tour (2018-2019) broke records with the rossing $196.4 million,
becoming the highest-grossing tour. Thus, they helped HYBE erase all its debt within
2 to 3 years, and also brought profits and gained reputation for themselves.
HYBE’s net profit in 2020 was calculated at 86,2 billion won ($77,6 million). Besides
acquiring a series of subsidiaries, HYBE also brought the ambition to “conquer the world”
when it cooperated with Ithaca Holdings – home of world-famous stars like Ariana Grande,
Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, etc.
MissA and Twice saved JYP In the early stage of JYP Entertainment’s
development, the company faced many difficulties, and the business couldn’t grow and expand.
After a few years of operating in the music industry, JYP Entertainment took on enormous
debts and it was reported that this company fell into capital erosion.
According to TMI News, JYP Entertainment once lost millions of dollars before its current
K-Pop groups debuted. Despite having Wonder Girls as a typical girl group of Gen2, JYP
still faced difficulties in expanding its business activities. TMI News also revealed
that after 3 years, JYP bore a loss of $9 million.
After the consistent and significant loss, JYP Entertainment introduced MissA as its
new girl group in 2010. MissA was considered one of the legends of K-Pop and an “assurance”
of JYP’s quality in training girl groups. The 4 girls released their first single titled
Good Girl Bad Girl, which quickly topped the Gaon Charts.
The song also marked their record of being the fastest girl group receiving the trophies
on Mcountdown and Inkigayo in multiple weeks. Things didn’t stop there as Bad Girl Good
Girl won the Daesang Song of the year at Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) 2010 and it became
the best-seller single in Korea in that same year.
There were many songs and albums dropped after that and of course, they did bring popularity
for the girls and JYP Entertainment itself. Besides the national awards, MissA was popular
in other countries as well. Its proof was that the group won the Best Rookie Award in
2011 of China CETV Asia Teen Star Ceremony and was nominated for the Most Popular Korean
Artiste of Singapore Entertainment Award in 2012.
Obviously, JYP Entertainment must have earned an enormous amount of money just by MissA’s
activities. It kept investing in other groups and got stronger, steadily becoming one of
the Big3. Of course, MissA did help JYP to erase its
debt, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to make up for all the loss the company had
made. A couple years later, MissA couldn’t maintain its reputation and disbanded. Luckily,
before this situation happened, JYP Entertainment had introduced Twice, and everything truly
prospered for JYP since then. Twice’s debut song – Like Ooh Ahh – impressed
everyone with an extraordinary comeback on digital music charts after 3 months of its
release. With the release of another hit “Cheer Up”
in 2016, TWICE has gone down in the K-Pop’s history by becoming the first K-Pop girl group
to achieve “Perfect All Kill”. This song became a phenomenon in South Korea and a trend
on social networks. It was also honored with “Song of the Year” Award on MAMA 2016.
TWICE’s subsequent songs like: TT, Likey, Signal, Feel Special were incredibly successful
as well. Just like that, the group has become the ace of JYP Entertainment by consecutively
conquering music charts. To date, TWICE owns 4 “Perfect All Kill”
songs, including “Cheer Up”, “TT”, “Knock Knock” and “Yes or Yes”. In
2017, the girls released four chart-topping singles in Korea, propelling them to become
the best-selling K-pop girl group of 2017. At present, TWICE is still the K-Pop girl
group with the best album sales, with a total of 10 million copies sold in Korea and Japan.
Their accomplishments contributed to reviving and developing JYP Entertainment from huge
debts. In early 2018, JYP Entertainment surpassed
YG Entertainment to officially become the second-highest valued K-Pop company.
The company rose 22% on South Korea's KOSDAQ and reached a market capitalization of 552
billion won (around $516 million USD). In 2019, the revenue of JYP reached 128 million
dollars, with a net income of 26.4 million dollars. Obviously, the immense and long-lived
popularity of TWICE had erased the company debts and made enormous profits.
Mamamoo saved RBW RBW Entertainment, established in 2010, has
been expanding its business since 2014 when Mamamoo made their debut with their single
entitled “Mr. Ambiguous”. Mamamoo is considered the biggest project
that the agency has ever promoted with the investment of approximately 2 billion won
(over $1,7 million). The four talented girls completely made up
for the total capital in just only 1 year and 8 months and have become popular in both
national and global markets. How’s that possible?
So, Mamamoo’s single was chosen to be one of the best debuts of K-Pop in 2014 by music
critics. After that, Mamamoo made a big splash and successfully held 5 tours from 2016 to
2019, and many music performances in different shows.
Besides, Mamamoo has become the first and only K-Pop girl group to have all members
release and create a solo album: Moonbyul's debut extended play entitled "Dark Side of
the Moon" with the title song “Eclipse”, Solar's album named "Spit It Out," Hwasa with
her debut extended play "Maria", which was able to sell 50,000 copies after being dropped,
and Wheein’s recent solo comeback with "Redd”, with also 50,000 copies sold since its release.
All the MAMAMOO members now have had immense success together as a group and as soloists,
which definitely brings huge profits for RBW. In 2020, RBW logged revenue of 37,2 billion
won ($32,5 million), up 33,6% from the previous year. Its operating profit jumped 48,3% to
7,6 billion won ($6 million). Mamamoo’s stable popularity is expected
to continue to boost RBW’s earnings. SEVENTEEN saved Pledis
Fans say the only reason for Pledis Entertainment to be surviving until now is because of SEVENTEEN.
Well, it’s not baseless. From having an auspicious start, everything
went downhill for the whole company, and it almost went bankrupt in 2015. Also in this
year, SEVENTEEN debuted, which was like a gamble for Pledis because the agency put all
its left money for these boys. I can even feel the pressure on their shoulders.
But thanks to SEVENTEEN, Pledis weathered the storm.
SEVENTEEN officially entered the music industry with “Adore U” of their first mini album
“17 Carat”. The song was produced by the members themselves and their meager outfits
in the MV somehow showed Pledis’s difficulty. However, this “simplicity” with their
impeccable talent were what made them shine. The mini album sold 20,000 copies after being
released in just the first week, placed 4th on Korean Gaon Chart. Remarkably, it was the
only album of a rookie nominated on the 10 Best K-Pop Albums in 2015 by Billboard.
Success again came to SEVENTEEN when their second mini album “Boys Be” became the
best-seller album of a rookie with over 120,000 copies.
They received 3 rookie awards from Golden Disk Awards, Seoul Music Awards and Gaon Chart
Kpop Awards. SEVENTEEN also became the only K-Pop group
in Billboard’s Under 21: Music’s Hottest Young Stars of 2015 list.
I might say this was an absolute win for Pledis in the gamble.
From 2015 to 2016, SEVENTEEN mainly focused on the Korean market to attract a sizable
following and build reputation. In 2016, they dropped their first full album
named “Love Letter”. Its title track Pretty U also brought the first music trophy in SEVENTEEN’s
career. This album helped the group have the nomination of selling the most albums in 2016.
Like a duck in the water, both SEVENTEEN and Pledis Entertainment have been making affluent
profit since then. While SEVENTEEN continued their success, Pledis Entertainment reinvested
in NU’EST and established its new girl group Pristin; both groups gained certain success.
According to the official web portal of South Korean, Pledis placed 6th in the top 10 K-Pop
companies list, and now it’s a part of the HYBE Labels. Pledis sure owes SEVENTEEN a
big thanks. Each group I mentioned above has done a great
job to erase its company’s debt. I can’t imagine how hard it was for them to start
from almost nothing, and now, these groups are dominating every music chart.
Every hard work will pay off eventually, doesn’t it? Comment down below to share your thoughts
with us. Oh, and remember to like, share, and subscribe to BeBossTV because we’ll
be back with more interesting content. Thank you for watching!