© Richard Shotwell / Invision/Associated Press
HYBE has announced its financial report, which reported a fruitful second quarter. The company has raked in over 640 billion won across all divisions for the three months ending in June, notching up 3.1 percent year-on-year and 77.5 percent from this quarter’s previous period.
Their ‘artist indirect involvement’ segment, focused on merch, licensing, content, and fan platform Weverse, saw particularly strong growth. Revenue was up 17.4 percent year over year, at more than 216 billion won, to recover from a previous drop in the first quarter. Weverse monthly active users came back to over 10 million in June, driven by celebrations for a BTS member’s military discharge, which translated into higher average spending per paying user.
HYBE will add subscriptions and advertisements on Weverse as part of their new strategy dubbed ‘HYBE 2.0’ that is expanding globally. They have also added Western artists like Ariana Grande on the platform.
Music sales and concerts have some dips though physical album sales in Korea fared very well driven by HYBE artists’ comebacks. Their songs’ streaming also dominated charts worldwide, excluding Korea.
Though profits were adjusted downward by investments, revenues indicate the company is recovering its momentum following recent challenging events, such as the pandemic. HYBE has a clear belief in new initiatives in technology, gaming, and entertainment, which would further drive growth ahead. With leadership backed by a roster of mega-stars, the future seems bright for this Asian music powerhouse.
