I have talked enough about BTS so I will talk about Hybe.
(Exchange rate in K-O-R-E-A changed a lot in 2022. It was about 1,150 won/1 US dollar in 2021, and now it is about 1,400 won/1 US dollar in 2022. )
Hybe went public and Mr. Bang was ranked quite high in the K-O-R-E-A-N rich list.
At the end of 2021, stocks owned by Korea's very rich (excluding their real estate, etc)
#1 J. Y. Lee, owner of Samsung after his father had died in that year - 14 trillion won, about $12 Billion with 2021 rates
2, 3 and 5 are other Samsung relatives.
#4, Kim Bumsoo, owner of Kakao, 6.7 trillion won, $5.8 billion.
#6, M.K. Chung, 5.3 trillion won, $4.6 billion
and
#7, Bang Sihyuk, owner of Hybe Entertainment, 4.478 trillion won, $3.9 billion.
Bang was in the same league with the owners of Samsung and Hyundai, and only behind the owner of Kakao among the non-mogul league.
Bang always had an inferiority complex against his cousin, Bang Junhyuk, who only had a Jr high education but became a billionaire after founding NetMarble, a game app company. But now Hitman Bang was a world figure and richer than his cousin (who owns some shares in Hybe, by the way).
Surrounding himself with game execs, he launched a plethora of acquisitions, and his already significant body weight continued to increase.
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Less than 1 year later, Hybe's total value is about 4.8 trillion won, or around $3.4 billion, a far cry from its height of about 17 trillion won in 2021, or about $14.8 billion.
Mr. Bang's shares are valued at $1.3 billion, about 1/3 of what it was less than 12 months ago.
While Bang is not going to collect welfare anytime soon, whether Hybe, whose entire success was possible because of BTS, could maintain its dominance in the market is very doubtful.
It seems JYP, which has SKZ and others, might have the last laugh. JYP resisted the temptation to expand too much and he kept his balance sheets cleaner , enabling to avoid interest costs in the current downturn.
It appears with the absence of BTS, SKZ will be the more dominant boy group coming from K-O-R-E-A, making JYP's elusive dream of having the biggest boy group of KPop true after all these years.
I seriously doubt Hybe, which has shown a lot of kinks and growing pains in the last few months, will be able to continue its current business model which was entirely dependent upon BTS' world domination.
Bang set up his model incorrectly ; he set up his model based upon Bts' continuous success while doing nothing to help it.
So he got to play a King for a year, but now reality would be hitting with him.
I think he might have to divest some of his acquisitions, end all the bullshit projects leading to nowhere and might have to restructure the whole compay to adapt to reality.
In other words, in my personal opinion Hybe will probably not be able to continue as it is now for more than one year because of the changed circumstances.
Whether he will part with his existing groups remains to be seen but I don't think he will be launching more than one group, which is scheduled, in the coming few years.
