Do you think HYBE will last long enough to make it to a 30 year anniversary?

I saw the articles about SM celebrating their 30th anniversary as a company, a significant accomplishment and testament to their sustained growth and stability as one of the biggest building blocks of modern K-Pop, and it got me thinking.

Will HYBE even be around long enough to reach this kind of milestone?

Any publicly traded company, especially one with the albeit rapidly declining but currently largest market capitalization in the industry, is always going to prioritize sustained long term growth and expansion over anything else.

But my take is that they grew too fast and flew too close to the sun, and their greed and hubris will ultimately lead to a precipitous downfall more rapid than their sudden ascension.

BTS can't save them forever, and a company that relies on one asset to carry them, in a field where it's paramount to have a diverse pool of profit yielding investments, is a red flag.

You know I can't make a HYBE thread without mentioning NewJeans at least once, so here is the obligatory name drop but for good reason.

As a hypothetical investor, before April, I couldn't be happier, and HYBE had to feel like the Thanos of K-Pop--they had done it. They were definitively set up to dominate with the next generation's BTS equivalent: NewJeans. The early return on that investment was historically immense, especially for a girl group.

And they threw all that away over the DUMBEST corporate in fighting. Alas, I'm not going to rehash this plot point, since there are a couple dozen threads to discuss it.

In fact, I'm done yapping. I'll write my full soliloquy titled: the Disastrous Downfall Of HYBE: A Lesson in the Harmfulness of Hubris some other day

Cast your vote

Quote from monalisalove

I think yes (?). While the controversy is still super fresh, I do think after some years they'll get back to producing new groups and they already have such company stans super loyal and their new groups still have years and years of activity like, I don't see them disappearing just like that.

Obviously I do think without BTS they'll get "smaller", but I also don't see BTS out of Hybe for now so they will be fine with BTS back while this scandal "dies" in some years.

BSH is currently investigated for what would be a major market manipulation and financial fraud if the rumors are true. Unlike most crimes that can be swept under the rug by the rich and powerful, market fraud in a highly regulated stock exchange is not something you can pull strings to bribe your way out of. He's screwed if they find convincing evidence he misled investors to pocket more profits.

And I don't think BTS will renew as 7 next time those contract discussions happen. I can see both Jungkook and V leaving.

Quote from catzi

I think a smart kpop company would want to debut their groups for each to be bigger than the next. A rookie bg to be labelmates with the biggest bg in the world would be obviously overshadowed no matter what. But a gg, after armys biggest fanwar being with bp? Massive hype. Extreme competition among kpop fans. Guaranteed numbers. And then after a while another bg to satisfy the crowd and the new generation while Bts is in hiatus.

Imo it can't go wrong.

That's why Hybe is stupid, they think only about money but not about strategy long term to stay relevant. And they're paying the price now.

I somewhat disagree

As long as you give the group a distinct concept, unique musical identity and an overall branding that clearly distinguishes them from their senior labelmates, you don't have to debut a girl group, if your latest, greatest act was a boy group.

You can even debut two boy groups around the same time and have great success.

The perfect example of that is YG debuting both Winner and iKon, and both groups had excellent rookie years. Amazing how a company even as frequently poorly managed as YG understands the simple principles of not debuting two groups with overlap formulas and concepts

I do agree that HYBE believes in profits margins and market cap over any dubious commitment to music (a phrase ironically coined by the ousted Min Heejin).

No company in this industry is getting nominated for any humanitarian awards any time soon, but HYBE have no real culture or ethics as a company, no matter what they spin in their PR statements, and that has been painfully obvious this year.

Quote from monalisalove

They can do a yge and remove Bang PD just to calm others down and then years later bring him back tbh, the powerful are dirty, they don't care about corruption and they have the power.

I can see V leaving, but I still don't know about JK and like I said it'll take some years before their next contract renewal, hybe can compensate these scandals with BTS cbs and after years people will "forget" their scandals.

Tax fraud is one thing. Financial fraud is another. Ask Martha Stewart.

Although I have to admit I'm not familiar with the rules and regulations of the Korean Stock Exchange

Here in the States, you'd get the book thrown at you for the kind of things BSH is accused of.

If even one member leaves HYBE completely, the magic formula will be compromised.

See: SNSD post-Jessica

Quote from dujuduju

I don't think any member will leave BTS...they may pull black pink move for solo activities.

After seeing V weverse update...they seems really excited for their reunion.

I don't keep track of boy group activity outside of the Kings, Big Bang. What did he say?

Quote from catzi

I get where you're coming from but at least iKon and Winner were directly set up as competition for each other which stimulated the fans; that's another smart strategy by YG, even if toxic too. If we pay attention to how the general reaction was when bighit was rumored to debut a new group, everyone, especially armys, had a big anticipation of being a gg. Txt debut didn't happen in the right timing, imo. And they weren't unique enough to stand out from bts, yes they had fans and were the most successful 4th gen bg for a while but that didn't last long, other 4th gen bgs including skz which debuted a bit later caught up pretty fast. So I think bighit only saw profit but didn't consider the right time. Depending on the right time, some things can skyrocket naturally or tank.

Well that's the thing. YG used smart strategy

When have we ever been able to say that about the conglomerate known as HYBE?

Big Hit made smart moves. OG ADOR made smart moves.

But HYBE?

I just checked. HYBE is three years old.

Three damn years and they're already imploding like this. At least SM and YG were long established industry stalwarts when their biggest scandals happened, and neither relied exclusively on one act to really carry them

Yes, to the fans of other HYBE groups in the room, I know other acts and labels were profitable, but I'm not convinced HYBE wouldn't collapse tomorrow if BTS announced they're terminating their contracts today.

And that's why I personally have zero faith they'll be around 27 years from now.

Quote from dujuduju

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