Last week, HYBE — the Korean label and music company behind BTS, among others — announced that Jason Jaesung Lee would become its new CEO, replacing Jiwon Park, as part of what it dubbed its “HYBE 2.0” strategy. Today (Aug. 1), the company unveiled more specifics as to what that will start to look like.
HYBE says the strategy kicked off at the top of the year, and will see the company lean into its superfandom platform, Weverse, around the world, while also partnering with other companies globally “to adapt to the fast-evolving market landscape,” the company said in a press release.
The priorities the company laid out will reorganize the company — which had previously been structured as Label, Solution and Platform — into a broader Music, Platform and “Tech-driven future growth initiatives” framework. As part of that, the company laid out four new initiatives and several executive-level appointments with new leaders atop its reformed division.
The first is the formation of HYBE Music Group APAC, which will encompass the company’s labels in Korea and Japan, which will focus on doubling down on the company’s strengths and strategies in that region and exporting them around the globe. The current president of BIGHIT Music, Young Jae Shin, who has helped oversee the success of BTS and Tomorrow X Together, will now take on the role of president of HYBE APAC and lead the Korean and Japanese labels’ global growth.
The second is a doubling-down on what the company calls its “multi-home, multi-genre” strategy in the U.S., Japan and Latin America. That will mean a new label service launched under HYBE America — which is led by Scooter Braun — that will bring in a management element to its current label operations, in a bid to “bring the K-pop methodology to the American pop scene.” As part of that, HYBE America says it signed a new U.S.-based group, KATSEYE, through its continued partnership with Geffen Records. The company also said that its HYBE Latin America division — whose CEO Jonghyun “JH” Kah recently spoke to Billboard about their plans — will ramp up beginning in 2025, while HYBE Japan will continue to roll out new artists as well under newly-appointed chairman Youngmin Kim, who until now had served as general manager of SM Entertainment.
The third is the launch of a subscription membership tier for superfan platform Weverse, which will go live in the fourth quarter of 2024 and be available to all artists who use the platform. That will include ad-free videos, digital membership cards and a private Weverse DM feature, while the main Weverse platform will begin incorporating ads. Weverse president Joon Choi spoke to Billboard two weeks ago (July 19) about the platform’s plans moving forward, as well as the onboarding of Ariana Grande onto the platform, joining many of the Korean artists already in the HYBE stable. (Grande, who cut ties with Braun and HYBE last year, resumed working with them in June.)
Finally, HYBE is planning to “merge content with technology,” which it says will “ensure mid to long-term growth” for the company. That is where HYBE’s investments in gaming, AI, audio and voice technology and integrated online/offline experiences will live moving forward.
“HYBE 2.0 focuses on fostering our future growth businesses centered on music, platform and technology,” newly-announced CEO Lee said in a statement. “HYBE will continue to excel in the music industry, solidify its position as the leading player in the superfan business, and secure long-term growth drivers through tech-driven future growth initiatives.”
