According to Yonhap News, recently, the entertainment company HYBE announced that they have achieved a revenue of 640.5 billion won in the second quarter of 2024. This is the highest quarterly revenue in HYBE's history. This figure increased by 3.1% compared to the same period last year (621 billion won in the second quarter of 2023).
In the first half of this year, HYBE has recorded a total revenue of 1.014 trillion won, marking the second consecutive year that the company has exceeded 1 trillion won in the first six months.
This achievement is particularly noteworthy because BTS, one of the key artists of HYBE, has not been active as a full group due to its members' military service obligations.
The record-breaking revenue in the second quarter of 2024 was driven by sales revenue, including albums and online music, which reached 423.9 billion won. Although album sales in the K-pop market have decreased since the second half of last year, albums by HYBE's major artists continue to achieve good sales.
In the first half of 2024, HYBE's artists sold over 15 million albums, accounting for 34% of total album sales in South Korea.
HYBE also achieved strong results in online music streaming. According to Spotify, 8 out of 10 most-streamed K-pop songs worldwide (excluding South Korea) in the first half of this year are by HYBE artists.
However, HYBE's operating profit in the second quarter was 50.9 billion won, down 37%, and net profit was 16.5 billion won, also down 85.9% from the same period last year.
HYBE attributes the decline in profit to initial costs related to the launch of new business activities and the expansion of new artist teams.
HYBE revealed that Jin BTS will release a solo album in the second half of this year. Seventeen will release a new album and embark on a world tour. NewJeans will also announce a world tour next year.
Lee Jae Sang, HYBE's new CEO, said: "The second half of 2024 marks the beginning of a new era led by the new leadership. This is a time to lay the foundation for long-term growth by driving future growth businesses based on music, platforms, and technology”.
Recently, HYBE has been experiencing internal instability, particularly the conflict with CEO Min Hee Jin of the subsidiary ADOR (managing group NewJeans), and issues related to personnel changes and management succession.
