Among HYBE and "BIG 3" SM, YG, and JYP Entertainment, which company has the largest market cap or total worth? In the latest financial report about the four major agencies, YG Entertainment is revealed to have been "kicked out" of the Top 3 agencies - here's why.
On October 29, Media Criticism's Park Jung Hwan highlighted the current ranks of major K-pop agencies based on their market capitalization.
Along with the rankings, Park also discussed the reason why YG Entertainment was pushed down from the Top 3, and how SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment fight for the second position.
Which Company Has the Largest Market Worth Among HYBE, SM, JYP, and YG?
In terms of legacy and contribution, K-pop's "BIG 3" has always been SM, YG, and JYP.
However, in 2020, HYBE, which is home to global music act BTS, was No. 1 among entertainment companies, and JYP and SM trailed behind, respectively.
Due to this, YG lost its spot to SM, making it the 4th placer.
As of the closing price on October 28, SM Entertainment recorded a market capitalization of 1.8506 trillion won and JYP 1.8565 trillion won, and SM and JYP have been exchanging the No. 2 positions since 2018.
On the other hand, YG Entertainment recorded 1.2595 trillion won, showing a difference in market capitalization worth 600 billion won compared to SM and JYP.
YG, which once enjoyed the honor of "First place in entertainment" when BIGBANG enjoyed explosive popularity, gave up its second place in the entertainment industry to JYP, which was 3rd in 2018.
Over the past five months since May 2021, YG has not been able to reclaim its ranking in the top three of the entertainment teams, HYBE-JYP-SM.
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Reason YG Entertainment Demoted to Rank 4th Agency + SM and JYP Battle for No. 2
Park further explained that YG Entertainment is an agency that has been seeking various profits from sales through concerts. If offline concerts have been impossible since last year, they had to promote the smooth release of their artists' albums to create a profit structure other than concerts.
However, BLACKPINK only has four releases targeting Japan, including "BLACKPINK 2021: THE SHOW LIVE" and "How You Like That -JP Ver.-," as well as Lisa's solo album this year.
In contrast, AKMU's "NEXT EPISODE" was the only album released this year.
iKON is no different as its latest album has not released an album in eight months since the release of its digital single, "Why Why Why," in March.
WINNER has not even released a new album for a year and a half since the release of "Remember" last year, the reason for the company's poor performance this 2021.
With offline concerts impossible, YG failed to do so while SM and JYP were seeking an active comeback of their singers. And the result is that YG remained fourth in entertainment like FNC in the past, while SM and JYP compete for second place.
According to Gaon chart, NCT Dream, EXO, and Baekhyun are in the top 10 in the album sales rankings. Soloist Baekhyun even sold more than 1 million album copies.
NCT Dream also entered the rankings of two albums, with sales of more than 2.9 million copies combined. You can see how NCT Dream played a big role in SM's strong performance.
JYP's TWICE is also included in the top 10 album sales rankings in the first half of the year, based on Gaon Chart. JYP is also expected to shine in Japan's concert performance by TWICE and NiziU.
Even if the concert performance of YG singers is reflected in the future, it seems difficult for YG to intervene in the "entertainment trio" of HYBE where the popularity of BTS and SEVENTEEN, SM's EXO and NCT as well as JYP's NiziU and TWICE's fame are linked to stock prices.
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Written by Eunice Dawson
