YGE outperforms SME in first half of 2011

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

In a first, talent agency YG Entertainment saw better business than top talent firm SM Entertainment during the first half of this year.

According to a report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service on Monday, YG's sales for the January to June period of this year stood at over 44.74 billion won, close to the 44.77 billion won the firm made all of last year.

The figure is also higher than SM's sales of 40.59 billion won during the first six months of this year, making it the first time for YG to surpass SM which has long been the most profitable entertainment firm.

Additionally, YG posted an operating profit of about 9.64 billion won with the net profit standing at a little less than 7.30 billion during the same term, while SM recorded an operating profit of under 4.82 billion won and a net profit of slightly over 3.92 billion won.

YG's improved performance can be attributed to sales the agency saw from concerts, amounting to 12.52 billion won, such as Big Bang's "BIG SHOW" earlier this year and the "LOVE&HOPE" concert held in Japan.

YG's report will become binding if the FSS does not request for a revision on YG's report within the next 15 days and YG will be listed on Korea's KOSDAQ market after an intial public offering.

YG, which stands for Yang Goon, was founded in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk, a former member of popular Korean group Seo Tai-ji & Boys.

Yang is credited with creating and managing the successful careers of many K-pop artists including 1TYM, Gummy, Jinusean, SE7EN, Big Bang and 2NE1.

The agency also manages several Korean actors including Kang Hye-jung and Ku Hye-sun of the "Boys Over Flowers" fame.

Source: Jessica Kim @ 10Asia

Comments

[subits.livejournal.com]

yay to Papa YG and YG Fam ♥

Big Bang (and all of it's divisions) were phenomenal this year.

[ms-rancha.livejournal.com]

yaaaaaay!

[analapana83.livejournal.com]

I wonder what it must be like to be able to bathe in bills rather than water.

[liarose.livejournal.com]

there would be no physical hygiene, only mental satisfactions gained~

[ggumd.livejournal.com]

Does this include Japanese sales too? Because I would think SM is doing better in that market, but with big bangs and 2ne1's comebacks YG did better in korea

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

no, from what I understand YGEX and SM japan are separate.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

i wonder how much JYPE & CUBE made, the last one probably made more than the first one

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

lol I'm just glad JYPE is no longer in the red OTL

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

The net profit is really low for both companies compared to the amount they brought in.

[amy.livejournal.com]

i think the pay their acts, producers, manager, dancers, etc get are taken out before the net profit and that might be a part of why the numbers seem low.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

I've always thought YG's business division to be top notch as it is, but this surprises even me. YG literally has one-third of the idol groups that SM does (BB and 2NE1 only in lieu of SuJu, SNSD, DBSK, SHINee, f(x) and CSJH) and those two groups don't do quite as many TV/variety appearances either. The fact that they keep using veterans already in the family like Teddy and Perry probably keeps costs down as far as not needing to spend extra to purchase rights to already composed songs too. YG just barely broke ground a brand new building/took in a bunch of new trainees as well so how they're able to still have such impressive cash flow is admirable.

Then again, YG does have a more "Western" approach (money mainly from music-related endeavors with the occasional commercial here and there) so it makes sense they're making ridic dough like a lot of Western labels do.

[deeinanutshell.livejournal.com]

I like YG's business approach too. It seems he tries to find what works best for individual groups/artists instead of applying the same formula for every one of them. For example, he knew 2NE1 sold better digitally so he basically released their whole album as singles. Also, his artists seem to have much more longevity (which is why he doesn't invest as much in trainees, I think). So even when Big Bang/2NE1 retires, they will probs still work under him as solo artists/actors/producers/whatever else he finds for them. And like you said, he has a much more western approach. I hope more companies copy his business model.

[inurbed.livejournal.com]

yay yay. Congrats YG & Fam

[chraka.livejournal.com]

lol that's sad

[suzieeq-luv.livejournal.com]

Always forget that Kang Hye-jung is part of YG xD
But this was a good year for them so this is good news :D

The second half of Kpop is about to be a hot mess tho. Those are gonna be some interesting numbers..

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

W/E as long as my idols are getting enough $$$ (and I think the peeps in YG are getting it) I'm ~happy.

[dysphoriia.livejournal.com]

woah, what they made all last year, they did it in half a year, impressive. the power of big bang, i must say. if gd releases a solo for the second half, i think they can really keep it up.

[asteri5k.livejournal.com]

To be fair, last year YGE only really promoted during the 2nd half of the year, Se7en (July), YB (July), 2NE1 (Sept) and GDTOP (Dec25).

For all we know YG might not promote more this year. :\

[timetobegin.livejournal.com]

Well, SME was pretty much active in Japan for the first half of the year, so I'm not surprised. But who cares anyway, they both make enough money to keep their status as two of the biggest.

[gardenintheair.livejournal.com]

I got the money, money, don't you worry let's party!~ :D

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

Bbay knows what he's talking about!!

[asteri5k.livejournal.com]

This is BB's comeback year after a long hiatus + repackage album, add the profit made from the sub-units GDTOP & Seungri, the multiple title tracks, the Big Show Concert, then there was the YG Concert, and finally every song is a title track 2NE1 promos.

I'm not that surprised at all by the article. YG really earned that money.

I'm actually more stunned that YG is promoting so heavily. I still fear the day when YG will announce this year was just a test run and no more promotions for a year cause they're tired.

[eishastan.livejournal.com]

So basically they are bragging that they made just a little more than SM considering SM artists have been more active in Japan this year and the profit for SM in japan is not considered? and also YG has released more in Korea so far.. counting what both agencies have released and the profit they made SM is still cashing with less releases... but well it's YG they wouldn't let the opportunity pass, call me when you make a fair comparison and let's see who wins, or just take SNSD's japanese album profit alone and compare it to YGs overall and we'll see who's boss

And yeah i'm SM biased, but i'm just throwing facts since i feel this article is unfair and trying to imply something that is completely delusional, so don't get mad at me :3

[kawaiiairbender.livejournal.com]

um who is bragging?

is it really necessary to stan that hard? Are you on SM's payroll?

Re: i wonder how many fans will buy YG shares.

[kimiko1387.livejournal.com]

Honestly if I, as a fan, was going to buy shares the best time would have been a little bit after Heartbreaker or before Solar.

Hindsight.

[xalexandriam.livejournal.com]

omg flawless gif for this post. :')

[melonfucka.livejournal.com]

SM fighting! ;~;

death to YG >:c

[jibegajima.livejournal.com]

do u like kpop

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

They make BILLIONS (USD)
They don't, their last year net profit was $9.8 mil.

[the-erotomanic.livejournal.com]

Additionally, YG posted an operating profit of about 9.64 billion won with the net profit standing at a little less than 7.30 billion during the same term, while SM recorded an operating profit of under 4.82 billion won and a net profit of slightly over 3.92 billion won.

i think this is more important to consider rather than the sales. still, yge's profits are much higher than sme's. in 2010, yge's annual profit is US$9.8M (which is around 10.8B won? in today's currency exchange rate). hopefully they can surpass that. but i'm not sure how they'll do that since big bang and 2ne1 are done with their korean promotions. so i guess the solo albums from bigbang members, and the albums of yge's other artists are really going to have to come out on the 4th quarter.

sme's profits could still improve and probably overtake yge's profits, since there are still it still has other artists to promote. but expect more things to look cheap to maximize profits.

[the-erotomanic.livejournal.com]

and sme stans, you don't have to feel like sme was robbed of anything. sme stocks are in an all time high, which probably means that their actual earnings are beating estimates by a significant amount.

[sincronia.livejournal.com]

I love SME and YGE, as I've never been terribly dissatisfied with what each company as put out. Good work to the both of them!

Congrats to YG for beating f(x), HoMin and CSJH.

[taylorniw.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it was a difficult achievement, what with the competition.

Re: Congrats to YG for beating f(x), HoMin and CSJH.

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

LOL dying.

[vvvanilla.livejournal.com]

people seem to think that these companies only earn from how much albums they sell. they don't actually get that much from it. aside from concerts, big bulk of what they earn comes from endorsements.

i'm not familiar with SM's but YG artists endorse a lot of major brands who pay big bucks. They had Nikon (all artists), Adidas (2NE1), North Face (Big Bang), Gmarket (GD and Yoo Inna), Sunny 10 (BB), etc.

[kimiko1387.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the LG tablet that was in Seung Ri's video. I was thinking this too.

SM has had a few major ones, but not really this year (from what's caught my eye...I'm not a stan so don't quote me). SNSD did the whole Intel campaign last winter, Dior Face cream, and some other stuff and DBSK has a face cream this year. SHINee is doing jeans.

[a-perfect-shade.livejournal.com]

YG also put out a lot more than SM did