Big Hit Entertainment just held their 2020 ‘Big Hit Company Corporate Briefing With The Community’ and revealed several major announcements, from new groups to new BTS content.
On February 4, the briefing session was held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza with executives from Big Hit Entertainment, Source Music, and Belift all present to make major announcements.
Bang Si Hyuk was the first to present, revealing Big Hit Entertainment pulled in a whopping ₩587.9 billion KRW ($486,908,737 USD) in revenue during the year 2019. ₩97.5 billion KRW ($82,006,567 USD) of that was profit for the company. The company’s revenue was nearly double of their 2018 amount, which was ₩301.4 billion KRW ($253,505,430 USD).
Big Hit Entertainment’s CEO of Business Kim Dong Jun, head of Big Hit Three Sixty which is in charge of performances, album distribution, and partnerships, commented on how the expansion of their performances and diversifying their structure in their performances has allowed continuous growth. Diversifying the different ways fans could watch BTS’s concerts has allowed more fans to watch, and with millions of viewers watching their content online and in movie theaters, more than the actual physical attendees for their tour dates.
Ha Se Jeong, Big Hit’s other CEO for business, commented on how the various contents using Big Hit Entertainment’s IP (Intellectual Property) has allowed great success in their Tour Pop-up stores. For example, BTS POP-UP : HOUSE OF BTS attracted 400,000 attendees: 180,000 in Seoul, 120,000 in Japan, and 100,000 in Mexico. Big Hit is also working to develop various lifestyle products under the theme of their artists’ hit songs, turning their music into merchandise.
BTS POP-UP : HOUSE OF BTS is not just a place to sell merchandise, but also a place that provides an experience, from music and music videos to on-site events, and we have confirmed the possibility of even expanding and developing into a ‘city theme park.’
— Ha Se Jeong
Seo Woo Seok, the CEO for beNX, operator of Weverse, commented on how Weply has helped create a greater synergy with the fans by integrating business into the fan community. By improving aspects such as adding a notification for waiting time for events, a real-time tracker for crowds and lines, and providing a complete seating map for concert venues, they have been able to improve convenience for fans. Another improvement Seo Woo Seok stated was the ability to order merchandise directly from the app, within a 2.5 kilometer radius of the venue. With this implementation, merchandise sales at the October 2019 concert were 2.1 times greater than sales at the August 2018 concert.
Big Hit CEO Yoon Seok Jun took the stage to stress that the fans are the centerpiece of “Big Hit’s Winning Formula.” He stated that the company will continue to focus on innovating fan experiences, and plan to introduce more pleasant, less inconvenient, and the best contents in 2020.
Yoon Seok Jun also stated that the company plans to expand their “Play Zone”, which was previously only available in Korea, to around the world. They plan on creating “tour villages” in the cities where concerts are held, with BTS themed hotel rooms, pop-up stores, and exhibitions. Fans would also be able to purchase limited-edition BTS themed food and beverages, and these experiences could also be tied in to local packages. They will also work with STUFISH, a stage design team that has worked with Jay-Z and U2 to create even better stages for BTS’s world tour.
Finally, Yoon Seok Jun announced a newcomer to Weverse, strengthening rumors that Pledis Entertainment would be joining Big Hit Entertainment as a subsidiary.
Based on our attempts, experiences, and success, we will modularize our business model to work with more artists, both in Korea and overseas outside the Big Hit Entertainment label.
Our first one, Pledis Entertainment group SEVENTEEN will be joining Weverse.
— Yoon Seok Jun
Shortly after the announcement, Pledis Entertainment shared their statement about SEVENTEEN joining Weverse.
세븐틴 위버스 오픈 관련 안내
Read: https://t.co/i5G0mF0KVJ
— 세븐틴(SEVENTEEN) (@pledis_17) February 5, 2020
Shin Young Jae, vice-president of Big Hit Entertainment, then came to the stage to announce Big Hit Entertainment’s plans for the future. After recounting the global achievements of BTS, who won a total of 81 awards from 22 different award shows, he announced that Big Hit Entertainment’s newest boy group, TXT, will be getting their own world tour.
In addition, Shin Young Jae announced that Big Hit Entertainment has plans to debut another boy group in 2022.
The stage then was taken by So Sung Jin, President of Source Music. He announced that the joint girl group produced by Big Hit Entertainment and Source Music is slated to debut in 2021. He also announced that Big Hit Entertainment and Source Music plan to grow into “the Number 1 Girl Group Label” through their cooperation together.
In another group announcement, Choi Yoon Hyuk, vice-president of Belift, a joint venture project between Big Hit Entertainment and CJ ENM, explained his visions to use the K-Pop system and introduce it to the global market, and making K-Pop a mainstream genre. With this he also announced his first project, a multinational boy group that is slated to debut within this year, 2020.
Finally, Bang Si Hyuk returned to the stage to present a number of new projects that Big Hit Entertainment is preparing for the new year. First, he announced the launch of a BTS themed drama, graphic lyrics, and new character items.
He also announced a new project catered towards international fans, who have difficulty enjoying their artists’ content to the fullest due to the language barriers. They will introduce Korean learning content called “Learn Korean with BTS”, where fans can learn Korean with BTS. The teaser video is expected to be release in March 2020. Also, Oh Min Hwan, CEO of Superb, announced plans to launch a new game using BTS as characters within the game.
We want to make sure that the fans, artist, and the business, the X, Y, and Z of the music industry, can grow together in a healthy and fair manner.
We will continue to make our efforts to ensure that Big Hit Entertainment’s models and methodology become industry standard.
— Bang Si Hyuk
What a set of announcements from Big Hit Entertainment! Which one are you looking forward to the most?
