BTS, Bang Si Hyuk Highlight HYBE's Vision, Three Sectors in Latest Magazine Interview

On March 30, TIME released an article including the interview with Bang Si Hyuk and BTS, who both graced the cover of the said magazine as HYBE was included in the "100 Most Influential Companies."

During the interview, BTS and Bang Si Hyuk talked about HYBE, which started as a small company called Big Hit Entertainment but is now one of the biggest companies in South Korea.

BTS, Bang Si Hyuk Shares HYBE's Vision With TIME Magazine

At the beginning of the interview, Bang Si Hyuk told TIME, "HYBE's vision has always been ambitious - to the point of being presumptuous." He continued that the company's vision is to become the leading entertainment lifestyle platform in the world, with music as their main base.

From being a small record label and entertainment company, HYBE has expanded its business into various fields other than music production and management.

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According to TIME, HYBE acquired the U.S.-based media company Ithaca Holdings, which manages well-known artists like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and J Balvin - for more than $1 billion. The agency also invested over $420 million into crypto ventures and enlarged businesses in the US and Japan.

Moreover, BTS' agency also runs Weverse, a fan-to-artist social media platform with roughly seven million monthly users.

BTS, Bang Si Hyuk Touch On HYBE's Three Important Sectors with TIME Magazine

Later on, Bang Si Hyuk and BTS touched on HYBE's three sectors with TIME. The magazine said, "HYBE consists of three sectors: artist IP, technology, and world-building. BTS leaned on all of that infrastructure to find a new path to global dominance even in lockdown."

BTS RM said that the concept was to release new music to provide comfort to people and "heal their minds" through the group's music during the COVID-19 pandemic when it's hard to meet and interact with everyone physically.

He continued that the results of their idea were their smash English hits "Dynamite," "Butter," and "Permission to Dance."

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Bang Si Hyuk told TIME that BTS has been "the king of the K-pop scene for a very long time," but HYBE's newer artists, such as TXT, SEVENTEEN, and ENHYPEN, are at the crucial point of their breakout moments themselves.

The Big Hit founder then said, "The essence of our company is IP - we are a music business company. We need to make our IPs bigger and also create more."

BTS and Bang Si Hyuk also talked about HYBE's technology business, which "makes it possible to stream concerts virtually and own the artist-fan relationship."

Bang described Weverse as a "great innovation." Besides this fan community, HYBE also recently acquired VLIVE, a tech platform where people can do live video streaming.

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BTS RM commented that HYBE's technology business carried the group through the disappointment of canceled tours and kept their fans engaged.

His bandmate Suga added, "During the pandemic, the company put together online concerts and has been building the fan communities [across the globe]."

You can read the full interview on the TIME magazine website.

BTS Continues to Rule at No. 1 on Billboard Hot Trending Songs Chart

In other news, BTS steadily maintains their position at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Trending Songs chart.

For the week ending on April 2, the group's English song "Butter" spent its 15th week in first place after accumulating 4.7 million Twitter mentions in the March 18-24 tracking week.

"Butter" has again extended its record as the song with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Trending Songs chart.

Besides "Butter," the other BTS song on this week's list is "Dynamite" at No. 17.

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Written by Mhaliya Scott