The four biggest Kpop companies in the industry are YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, YJP and Big Hit Entertainment . Let’s compare the big four from a financial point of view, who earning most in the industry, who has the highest rate of profitability, and is there any company in loss?
Let’s take a look at the financial positions for the third quarter of 2020 (July, August, September 2020) to compare the financial situation of the big four. In the table below the values are in Korean Won. 1 US dollar corresponds to 1110 Korean Won. The line “Revenue” in the table indicates the turnover, “Op Profit” refers to the operating profit.
We can see from the table that Big Hit had a turnover of 190 billion won (171 million USD) and a profit of 40.1 billion won (36 million USD). It has both the largest revenue and largest absolute level of profits. Indeed, if we add the three other companies into one, Big Hit still has greater revenues and profits. YG has the second most turnover, but its profit rate is low. A significant portion of the revenues of the agency may have gone into investments for its new buildings (below). JYP has the highest rate of profitability among the four companies; almost a third of its turnover is profit! Tremendous profitability indeed. SM is the second largest firm in terms of turnover but closed the third quarter with a loss. SM’s figures are really interesting.
According to the results, Big Hit Entertainment is the company with the highest revenue and profits in the Kpop industry, JYP is the one who knows its business best (according to the profitability rate), YG Entertainment is mediocre, and SM Entertainment seems to be doing something wrong or there is another story that we cannot read from this financial standing report.
