South Korea-headquartered leisure powerhouse HYBE has printed its monetary outcomes for Q3 2024 (the three months ending September 30).
Through the quarter, throughout all of its divisions, the corporate generated 527.8 billion South Korean Gained (USD $389.2 million on the common trade charge for the quarter).
This represents a 1.9% YoY drop and a 17.6% stoop versus the earlier quarter (Q2), in response to the corporate’s newest earnings report printed Tuesday (November 5).
The corporate’s “artist indirect-involvement” phase, which incorporates merchandising and licensing, content material, and the Weverse fan platform, reported income of KRW 205 billion ($151.2 million) up 31.8% YoY and down 5.4% QoQ. In Q2, the phase reported double-digit development on a YoY and QoQ foundation.
Notably, the Weverse platform witnessed a slight enhance in its month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) to 9.7 million from 9.6 million in Q2. Through the reporting quarter, HYBE rolled out new options for Weverse together with darkish mode, a brand new neighborhood tab, content material suggestions based mostly on area/nation, and superior language translation options. The app has additionally built-in Weverse Store, which sells unique merch, books, photographs, and annual fan-club memberships.
Digging deeper into HYBE’s “artist indirect-involvement” phase, the corporate’s ‘Fan Membership, and so forth’ revenues rose 23.4% YoY to KRW 26 billion ($19.2 million).
Merchandising and licensing revenues climbed 15.7% YoY to KRW 99.1 billion ($73.1 million).
Elsewhere within the firm’s monetary report, HYBE reported that income from its “artist direct-involvement” phase, which incorporates recorded music, concert events, advertisements, and appearances, fell 15.5% YoY to KRW 323 billion ($238.2 million). On a QoQ foundation, the determine additionally plummeted 23.8%.
The corporate’s recorded music revenues declined 18.8% YoY in Q3 to KRW 214.5 billion ($158.2 million), whereas revenues from concert events have been down 14.8% YoY to KRW 74 billion ($54.6 million).
In the meantime, working revenue continued to say no in Q3, falling 25.4% YoY to KRW 54.2 billion. The working revenue margin rose to 10.3% from 7.9% in Q2.
For the primary 9 months of 2024, HYBE’s accrued income amounted to KRW 1.53 trillion ($1.13 billion), down from KRW 1.57 trillion within the year-ago interval. Nonetheless, HYBE mentioned in a press launch cited by native media that the corporate is poised to attain the KRW 2 trillion mark in annual income for the second straight 12 months.
HYBE attributed a part of the efficiency downturn to the Paris Olympics, which affected album launch scheduling. “There was a world occasion, the Olympics, so no albums have been launched throughout this era,” the corporate was quoted by Yonhap Information Company as saying. This reportedly affected the group’s “artist direct-involvement” phase.
The corporate additionally faces ongoing inside challenges, together with a authorized dispute with former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin, which just lately resulted in a courtroom dismissing her reinstatement bid on October 29. The dispute with Min has spilled over into the Ok-pop world, with ADOR woman group NewJeans expressing their help for the previous ADOR CEO.
Regardless of these headwinds, HYBE noticed underwhelming album gross sales from acts like Enhypen and Boynextdoor, whereas NewJeans achieved a brand new milestone with their Japanese debut single changing into a million-seller, Yonhap mentioned. BTS member Jimin and Le Sserafim additionally contributed positively to chart efficiency, the report mentioned.
Trying forward, HYBE initiatives improved gross sales in This fall, with deliberate album releases from a number of artists together with BTS’ Jin, Enhypen, Le Sserafim, and Boynextdoor. This outlook is backed by Seventeen’s current success, whose twelfth EP Spill the Feels achieved sturdy first-week gross sales of 3.16 million copies, in response to Yicai.
Throughout a convention name, CEO Lee Jae-sang vowed to “calmly proceed” HYBE’s enterprise, whereas specializing in “elementary values.” The manager additionally pledged continued help for NewJeans, Yonhap reported.
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