From their letter to shareholder. Do you see this succeeding and transforming Kpop? Groups will no longer just make money mostly from music but also make money from creating their own games/original films/webtoons? I mean we’ve had groups have games here and there but none make great impact, could Hybe be the first to change that?
With the new businesses in HYBE’s solutions division—the original story business (OSB) and the game and NFT businesses—we aim to keep ourselves ahead of the curve and always focused on the fans.
We believe our OSB, centered around HYBE’s self-produced story content, will be the root of all sorts of different creations that will take all different forms, beginning with webtoons and web novels. Earlier this year, we successfully published multiple webtoon and web novel series based on artist IP, with a combined total of 70 million views just four weeks after their release. Going forward, we plan to develop the business further by building up multiple storylines through a combination of webtoons, animated movies, and live action films.
HYBE has now taken things one step further and established a division to create our own games in-house: HYBE IM, short for Interactive Media, has a vision to create content that facilitates two-way communication between artists and fans, as well as among fans themselves. The organization consists of some 80 of the most renowned creators in the industry and gives us the ability to plan, develop, and operate our own games. HYBE is developing their first in-house game with a targeted release date of June this year: a casual mobile game featuring character management that BTS fans and light gamers worldwide will enjoy. We are working hard to be able to launch this game with which to expand the fan experience yet again.
