Bang Si-hyuk is one of the biggest names in not just the Korean music industry but also globally. He is credited with discovering, nurturing and building the biggest group in the history of K-pop — BTS. As one of tge most decorated record producers of all time, Bang Si-hyuk has pioneered a massive change in the music industry through his company HYBE (formerly Big Hit Music) and is also K-pop’s first billionaire by net worth thanks to it.
Today, thanks to Bang’s long-term creative vision, K-pop is a cultural juggernaut stretching from the land of its birth to every corner of the world. His ability to spot talent led to the discovery of a gifted 15-year-old boy named Kim Nam-joon, who would eventually be known to the world as BTS’ leader RM.
With RM and the six other BTS members – Suga, Jin, J-Hope, Jimin, Jungkook and V — Bang changed the landscape of music, building a group that stands as tall as the English rock band The Beatles and a company whose success has turned it into one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates.
Born in Seoul on 9 August 1972, Bang had a successful career in K-pop early on. He was the chief composer at JYP Entertainment and wrote music for acclaimed acts, including iconic Korean singer-actor Jung Ji-hoon, better known as Rain.
Due to his proclivity to produce smash hits one after the other, Bang got his famous nickname “Hitman.” Inspired by his nickname, he launched his own record-producing company, Big Hit Entertainment, in 2005. But two years later, the company was almost bankrupt. It was around this time when Bang met RM, and there has been no looking back for his company since.
Bang has succeeded where many other K-pop music producers could not also because of his marketing strategies which have helped BTS (and K-pop in general) rapidly grow beyond the boundaries of the East Asian countries and propel them to the top of the charts of the Western world.
His company Big Hit Entertainment was rebranded as HYBE Corporation in March 2021. It is the holding company of music labels Big Hit Music, Belift Lab, Pledis Entertainment, KOZ Entertainment and ADOR. Through these labels, HYBE manages K-pop acts such as BTS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, SEVENTEEN, BOYNEXTDOOR, NewJeans and soloist Lee Hyun.
Bang Si-hyuk is the chairman of HYBE and is the company’s single-largest shareholder with around 31.5 per cent of the company’s stocks.
According to Forbes, Bang Si-hyuk has a net worth of USD 1.5 billion, as of 13 August 2024. The amount is roughly equivalent to KRW 2 trillion. He continues to be the richest billionaire in K-pop, but he has seen his fortunes rise and fall in a very short period of time.
Bang instantly became a billionaire and debuted on Forbes’ list of ‘Korea’s 50 Richest 2021’ soon after HYBE went public in October 2020. According to Forbes, the initial public offering (IPO) was Korea’s largest in three years at that time. The IPO was oversubscribed by more than 1,100 times, indicating the confidence investors had in Bang and the K-pop industry.
This was the moment which gave Bang the sobriquet ‘K-pop’s first billionaire’. His net worth at the time was USD 2.7 billion.
The following year, in 2022, his net worth rose to USD 3.3 billion and Forbes placed him 12th on their list of Korea’s 50 Richest. But then, in June 2022, BTS announced that they were going on a hiatus due to the members’ mandatory military service requirements. This certainly had a bearing on HYBE and, thereby, on Bang’s net worth.
When Forbes released its list of Korea’s 50 Richest released in April 2024, Bang’s fortune had come down to USD 2.1 billion. Yet this was actually a rise of more than USD 300 million in his wealth compared to the year prior, which underlines the situation in 2023.
According to the April 2024 list, Bang is the 17th richest person in South Korea and the fourth-richest in the media and entertainment industry. Kwon Hyuk-bin, the co-founder of South Korea’s third-largest gaming company, Smilegate, is the richest in the industry, with a net worth of USD 3.5 billion. He is followed by the sisters Kim Jung-min and Jung-youn, who own a minority stake in their late father Kim Jung-ju’s online gaming giant Nexon. With a net worth of USD 2.9 billion, the sisters are among the youngest billionaires in the world. Their mother, Yoo Jung-hyun, who owns a 14 per cent stake in Nexon, is the third-richest with a net worth of USD 2.3 billion.
Nevertheless, as BTS prepares to return — their expected reunion as a complete group is in June 2025 — the net worth of Bang Si-hyuk is likely to show a positive upward trend. He continues to be K-pop’s biggest billionaire and, possibly, will go past the Nexon family members by the end of 2025, if all goes according to whatever grand plans his incredibly gifted brain has for HYBE and the K-pop acts it has under the labels.
Even though he ranks 17th on the Korean rich list, the equity holdings tell a better story for Bang Si-hyuk. According to a May 2024 report by The Korea Times, Bang was the sixth-wealthiest among Korea’s major conglomerate leaders by stock holdings.
The report said that research done by Korea CXO Research Institute found that Bang’s total stock holdings amounted to KRW 2.5 trillion (around USD 1.8 billion). This figure was higher than the holdings of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo.
Lee Jae-yong, the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics, was ranked first with approximately KRW 15.9 trillion (USD 11.8 billion) worth of shares.
Celltrion co-founder and chairman Seo Jung-jin, Kakao founder Kim Beom-su, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Chung Euisun, and Amorepacific Group Chairman Suh Kyung-bae rounded out the top five.
A major reason behind Bang Si-hyuk witnessing a rise in his net worth by April 2024 was an announcement by HYBE in February. That month, the company revealed that it had become the first South Korean entertainment company to surpass an annual revenue of KRW 2 trillion (around USD 1.5 billion). It came on the back of strong sales in albums of its K-pop artists and concerts through 2023.
According to its earnings report, HYBE’s net profit rose 288.8 per cent year-on-year to USD 144.5 million. Its operating profit of USD 229.1 million was 24.9 per cent more year-on-year.
Along with TOMORROW X TOGETHER, NewJeans, and ENHYPEN, K-pop groups signed to the HYBE label sold 43.6 million units through 2023, compared to only 22.2 million in 2022.
It was truly a remarkable year for HYBE. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) named its K-pop boy band SEVENTEEN the second best-selling global recording artist of 2023 after Taylor Swift. SEVENTEEN’s 10th mini-album FML was 2023’s biggest-selling global album, selling 6.4 million units. Two other HYBE groups, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and NewJeans, were also among the top 10.
As for 2024, it appears HYBE is set to expand its footprint and strengthen its hold over K-pop. On 15 May 2024, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) designated HYBE as a “publicly-disclosed corporate group,” technically defining it as a conglomerate — the first K-pop company to be so designated. The ground for the designation was HYBE’s total assets exceeding KRW 5 trillion (around USD 3.6 billion at the time).
But the designation also means that HYBE and Bang are subject to stricter rules for doing business in Korea. In June 2024, KFTC launched an investigation into HYBE over allegedly faulty documents related to mandatory annual filings. HYBE headquarters in Yongsan District, central Seoul, was visited by KFTC on-site investigators.
Irrespective of the investigation, HYBE’s second quarter financial information released on 7 August 2024 boosted investor confidence in the company. According to the information, the company posted a revenue of KRW 640.5 billion (around USD 465 million). The positive outlook took the company’s share prices up by 5.89 per cent from the previous day. But two setbacks followed in quick succession.
The first involved BTS member Suga, who was caught in a drunk-driving incident near his home in Yongsan District of southern Seoul. He said he was fined and his license suspended. Though the incident led to a decline in the prices of its stocks, HYBE still managed to close at a higher level.
The second incident involved Bang himself. The K-pop mogul was spotted with 23-year-old AfreecaTV streamer Juice Se-yeon (real name In Se-yeon) in Beverly Hills, California, the US. A video showing the two went viral, which led to a sharp fall in HYBE’s share prices by 6.31 per cent as criticism mounted for the 52-year-old, unmarried Bang at home.
Both incidents underline how deeply HYBE’s financial performance is connected to the personal lives of the people who are associated with it, largely because it is they who are essentially the true assets of the company.
Outside of Korea, HYBE has a 10-year expanded agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG) for exclusive distribution rights across the former’s roster of artists and labels.
HYBE also has a new joint venture with American record label Geffen Records to launch a new six-member group named Katseye later in 2024. The group will come through a unique system known as ‘The Debut: Dream Academy,’ which attempts to recreate HYBE’s K-pop system in the US.
Except for one, details about his properties are unclear. This one property about which information is publicly known is in Los Angeles. However, its ownership came to light only after the KFTC investigation into HYBE.
After the probe was launched, HYBE re-issued its financial report in which it mentioned a USD 26.4 million mansion in Los Angeles owned by Bang.
Late in July, the K-pop mogul admitted to the press that he was indeed the owner of the property which was purchased in 2023. He revealed that the property was purchased by US-based real-estate company Bel Air Stradella, which is 100 per cent owned by Bang.
“The omission was unintentional, and we have now made the necessary correction,” a HYBE spokesman told local media following the disclosure.
Reports suggest that the mega-mansion was owned by comedian Trevor Noah until 2022. Citing Dirt.com, real estate media outlet The Real Deal revealed that the property located on Stradella Road in Bel Air measures 1,059 square metres. Designed by architect Mark Rios, it has a Japanese-style spa, an open-air pavilion and an infinity pool beside a separate wine room with a door leading to a hidden elevator.
(Main and Featured images: Bang Si-Hyuk/@hitmanb72/Instagram)
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Singapore.
The primary source of Bang Si-hyuk’s income is his shareholding in HYBE Corporation, or HYBE Co., Ltd. He is the company's single-largest shareholder and the sixth-wealthiest among Korea's major conglomerate leaders by stock holdings of each.
Yes, Bang Si-hyuk is the richest K-pop CEO. He is the industry's first billionaire and has a net worth of USD 1.5 billion as of August 2024.
At least one major property owned by Bang Si-hyuk is publicly known. The property is located in the Bel Air neighbourhood in California, US. It was bought by him in 2023 for USD 26.4 million.
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare ..Read More
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