Photo Credit: HYBE
After posting a 59.8 percent year-over-year revenue jump during Q1 2022, BTS agency Hybe (KRX: 352820) has doubled down on its commitment to the famous K-pop act, indicating that “we will be with them until the end.”
Seoul-headquartered Hybe just recently unveiled its performance specifics for 2022’s first three months, and higher-ups emphasized their support for BTS during the corresponding earnings call. Of course, these comments are particularly noteworthy given the quick-approaching deadline for BTS members’ mandatory enlistment in the military.
Beginning with Hybe’s financials, the company generated ₩284.97 billion ($225.38 million at the present exchange rate) during January, February, and March of this year – up 59.8 percent from Q1 2021, as mentioned, but down 37.8 percent from Q4 2021 and its ₩459.95 billion ($363.77 million).
Within the Q1 2022 total, Hybe said that “artist direct-involvement” turned in a 130.2 percent YoY revenue hike, at ₩153.64 billion ($121.52 million). As part of this category, albums accounted for ₩64.64 billion ($52.12 million), up 18.5 percent YoY, against ₩61.31 billion ($48.48 million) for concerts and ₩27.69 billion ($21.9 million) for “ads, appearances and management,” a 126.7 percent YoY improvement.
The remaining ₩131.34 billion ($103.86 million) of Hybe’s total revenue for Q1 2022 derived from “artist indirect-involvement,” consisting of ₩68.25 billion ($53.97 million) for merch and licensing, ₩48.54 billion ($38.36 million) for “contents,” and ₩14.55 billion ($11.5 million) for “fan club, etc.”
Notwithstanding these YoY boosts, every segment except concerts and fan club experienced a quarter-over-quarter revenue dip.
Hybe’s net profit for the quarter totaled ₩30.82 billion ($24.37 million), though the business’s stock price declined by about three percent during today’s trading hours, to ₩247,000 ($195.36) per share. On this front, Hybe also communicated that monthly active users for its WeVerse social platform fell from 6.8 million to 6.4 million during Q1 2022.
And as mentioned at the outset, Hybe execs during their Q1 2022 earnings call doubled down on their support for BTS in the long term.
“The journey of BTS is only at the beginning. It’s hard to gauge how far they will go, and we will be with them until the end,” Hybe relayed, according to a translation from AllKPop.
Per the same translation, Hybe CEO Park Ji Won stated: “BTS is planning to come back with a new album on June 10th. Being able to be with BTS is a great blessing to Hybe. They should not be taken for granted, so we will focus on supporting BTS so that they can expand without stopping.
“There is a misunderstanding that Hybe is intentionally reducing its dependence on BTS because of the recent decrease in the proportion of BTS in Hybe’s total revenue. However, the sales proportion of BTS was relatively reduced as the sales of other artists in Hybe increased.”
Regarding Hybe’s efforts to develop acts besides BTS before Jin must enlist with his country’s military in December, the company last year partnered with Universal Music to form a new K-pop girl group. Also worth noting is that Roblox’s just-announced Spotify Island is set to zero in on K-pop music and artists later this spring.