After overcoming the "7-year curse" of Kpop and entering their 12th year of operation, the girl group TWICE is facing another important milestone when preparing to enter the second contract extension phase with management company JYP Entertainment.
Information that members Jeongyeon, Tzuyu, Chaeyoung and Jihyo are contacting management companies outside JYP has sparked speculation that the group may apply a similar model to Blackpink: each member operates individually under the management of their own company, while group activities are still under JYP's responsibility.
Blackpink is currently the most typical example of this model. After ending their personal management contract with YG Entertainment at the end of 2023, they still maintained group operating contracts, but Jennie, Lisa and Jisoo established their own companies, while Rosé signed a contract with The Black Label.
Since then, the members have expanded their solo careers in many fields such as music, fashion and acting, and continue to operate with Blackpink, including a world tour lasting from July 2025 to January this year.
TWICE extended their contract with JYP with all 9 members in July 2022. However, attention is now shifting to the question of what will happen in the next extension.
Korean media recently reported that Jeongyeon is in talks with Varo Entertainment, the management company of her sister, actress Gong Seung Yeon.
Taiwanese (China) member Tzuyu is also said to have links with a company founded by her mother in her hometown.
Meanwhile, other reports say that Chaeyoung and Jihyo are also considering opportunities outside of JYP.
However, music critic Lim Hee Yun believes that copying Blackpink's original model may not be suitable for TWICE.
In essence, Blackpink and TWICE are two very different groups. Blackpink from the beginning has built a very clear personal image for each member, moreover, the group only has 4 people, so it is very difficult to directly compare with TWICE.
TWICE's strength always lies in collective strength, while the number of members is also significantly larger (9 people). Although each member has their own number of fans, the level of personal influence is still not comparable to Blackpink," he said.
This difference is also clearly shown through the level of personal career development of each group.
Each Blackpink member is a global ambassador of a major luxury fashion brand - Jennie with Chanel, Lisa with Louis Vuitton, Jisoo with Dior and Rosé with Saint Laurent - and successfully built a solo singer career on a global scale.
Meanwhile, TWICE members like Nayeon, Jihyo and Tzuyu have also released solo products, but no one has achieved international influence at the personal level like Blackpink members.
Team size is also another challenge. Coordinating the schedule of 9 members from many different management companies will certainly be much more complicated than the case of Blackpink with only 4 people.
According to Mr. Lim, the change in the social media environment is also a factor that makes idols consider separating personal management.
Currently, there are many opportunities to earn income through brand cooperation, sponsorship and activities as influencers (people with influence on social networks).
If members are still attached to a single group contract, those revenues usually have to be shared. But if they manage personal activities themselves, they can keep all profits. This is not only true for TWICE but almost every member of any idol group thinks about it," he analyzed.
However, critic Lim believes that the fact that members operate under independent management companies does not mean that the group will weaken. On the contrary, according to him, the members themselves understand very well that their long-term value largely comes from the TWICE brand.
Looking at it from the opposite perspective, the members all understand that TWICE is what brings them the greatest value. And that awareness can become the reason for them to continue to stick together as a group," he said.
