Snsd VS Exo

I voted SNSD simply because of how widespread their reach was. I mean, EXO had a massive impact too, but I don't know how to explain my thoughts!

I love both, EXO is the best male vocal group ever in Kpop, but I'm not sure if we can actually tell who's the #1 here without real numbers.

My guess is obviously SNSD, for one reason only (maybe 2), SNSD has 5 years of advantage, and maybe this will sound weird, but I think EXO is underrated, and compared to other boy groups their sales aren't as good either. Of course, it's better than SNSD's, but that's not even a competition.

Overall, SNSD is the biggest brand in Kpop. Even after 17 years.

Quote from David33

I love both, EXO is the best male vocal group ever in Kpop, but I'm not sure if we can actually tell who's the #1 here without real numbers.

My guess is obviously SNSD, for one reason only (maybe 2), SNSD has 5 years of advantage, and maybe this will sound weird, but I think EXO is underrated, and compared to other boy groups their sales aren't as good either. Of course, it's better than SNSD's, but that's not even a competition.

Overall, SNSD is the biggest brand in Kpop. Even after 17 years.

Definitely impossible to say without any numbers.

But even if we have numbers, quantifying how much SM "benefitted" is even more difficult. Like you could argue that SNSD is more recognizeable with the public, which boosted SM's brand higher than EXO did, also potentially contributing to the success of their future GGs in particular like Red Velvet and aespa. On the other side, many credit EXO for reviving physical album sales, when the market was previously all but dead. In that way, could we partially credit all future SM groups album sales to EXO? Maybe a stretch but I can see an argument.

But again, that's all moot if we don't have numbers. It could be that one just clearly had way more total revenue.

If it's just for SM benefit then likely Exo. Musical related sales like tours and albums Exo were bigger and SM would keep a larger share of revenue of those activities, I see figures like SM keeps 80%-90% is domestic albums sales

SNSD were the bigger brand and individually had more success in other other fields like CF, acting and TV but SM gets less share of those activities so SM don't benefit as much.

One thing in favour for SNSD was they were mega popular in Japan so sales and tours there would generate a lot of money than in majority of other countries Kpop was popular in. I think during their first tour in Japan they made $20m USD with a dozen or so smaller scale stops which was insane and unheard of at the time and those numbers kept rising with later bigger tours. SM was known to keep lower share of overseas activities as they shared with partners in Japan and China but still with high numbers like SNSD even 30%-40% (usually the number I see am keeps from overseas) is a nice $6-$8m (of $20m) in the bag which is probably more than they get from Korean album sales.

Now no matter how you feel about this it is logical that exo made more money for sm.

Active exo sold more than snsd and toured bigger than snsd (sometimes we can combine few of snsd tours and it still won't compare to numbers of one exo tour).

Now that sm liked to shelf sm for most of time, that's on them. People argue that snsd is the most impactful Korean girl group of all time but impact often doesn't mean more money. Exo as a group is just moneymaking machine. Their 4 show fanmeeting had over 90k attendance and (just for comparison sake) snsd biggest tour attendance is around 130k. You do your numbers.

But yeah, I also blame exo members themselves for having people doubt them, they were never show offs and they were never overly ambitious to show the world loud and clear what they are capable of and that's on them.

SNSD, duh. Up to this day they bring money to SM more than EXO does and only one member sued the company, longevity and less lawsuits wins.

And also, I'd like to point out that in term of image, SNSD did waaaaaaaaay less damage to SM compared to EXO. It's not about right or wrong, we're talking about money and market value.

If we are talking purely about who brought in SM the most money isn’t it EXO?

They were credited for funding SM’s new building with growl’s success alone

They toured better, had better sales, had tons of group cfs, even their solos sold more. When Baekhyun was still in SM he was a multi million seller and even his merch line was successful.

D.O had movies, dramas and those pay well

Exo after their peak still sold out fan meets and had 1-2 million album sales.

You can argue the SNSD brand was bigger but that’s not that the thread is asking. Exo still holds the record for most of their boy groups records while SNSD does not have the best records for sm’s girl groups anymore

Boy groups simply make more money cuz of the loyal fanbase, so in terms of money it would be EXO!

But by brand value SNSD>>>EXO!

But most money that SM made would come from TVXQ and NCT

Both ded by now so...

I don't know EXO really well and I may be biased, but I think it might be SNSD. I know that EXO was huge in their prime and had a big impact, but in my opinion SNSD was the first that huge group from SM and it bursted their position on the market. If it makes sense, for me it seems that it impacted the company more, and they really were and still are a group that other groups look up to and other companies tried to emulate. So in a way, their big success was what helped the future groups.

But they debuted in different generations and it's also hard to compare because of that. The promotions and the ways of putting the group out there was already a bit different. Just like it's different now, with the newest generation and the reliance on social media.

However, I can't be 100% sure without comparing real numbers and it's just my hunch.

If we talk about just the money that the group generated for SM, it's probably Exo. It's not just that they had better sales/touring numbers but also they peaked during the 3rd gen when the market was in general bigger and easier to make money. I think SNSD made more money with CFs in Korea but I still don't think it's enough to make up for the crazy amount of money big bgs fandoms can make.

However if we talk about "indirect" money I think SNSD wins. Some people have already mentioned SNSD had more impact but that doesn't translate directly into money. While I agree I think if we want to analyze the situation properly that's too simple. SNSD had a huge impact in Kpop being the top act for a long time, and the impact that had on SM's brand was also huge, making the debuts of the upcoming groups more anticipated and being acknowledged as the top company of Kpop for a long time (also thanks to other groups like SJ or SHINee ofc, but SNSD was the "face" without any doubt), actually EXO themselves and their super fast success were a consequence of SM's status those years.

Might be me but I tend to value this impact more than direct moneymaking, but I understand there will be many people that disagree.