Every company has a limited set of funds to invest in their groups. Even rich companies like Hybe have strict budgets. So If one dollar invested in a group gives you two bucks in profit, and the same dollar invested in another group gives you ten, what will a company typically do with their precious investment dollars?
After going through the worst non personal breakup of my life (Izone disbandment) i dont envy Fromis9 fans right now. I think there should be some real concern regarding what Hybe will do with them.
Even though they're profitable, selling 200k albums per comeback, which is plenty enough to pay bills and earn a profit, they're competing with NJ and now Illin for every precious investment dollar. We saw how quickly Hybe ended Gfriend, and that was a veteran group with a stable fanbase, stable sales, but Hybe crunched the numbers and figured out they could sell 1M albums with LSRFM instead of only 80k with Gfriend.
While the red light is clearly shining on Fromis9, i think the yellow caution light should be on at Source. I am a little concerned about LSRFM's future. They just had a big breakthrough national hit with PN getting 6 weeks at #1 and still charting top 15. But with the crazy rise of Illin and with LSRFM's sales noticeably dropping probably 20 percent from its peak, there could be a real debate in the near future about who will give Hybe a greater return on investment....LSRFM or Illin? And who knows what the contracts are like for both groups? Maybe LSRFM costs Hybe a lot more money, maybe Sakura/Chaewon especially get a much bigger chunk of profits than the rookies in Illin, which means less for Hybe?
These are all questions and concerns that are bouncing around in my head.