Lee Jaesang Highlights HYBE's Vision for Leading K-Culture
Three Key Strategies That Helped HYBE Overcome Crisis and Achieve Growth
Lee Jaesang, CEO of HYBE, which has fostered global artists such as BTS and now dominates the global entertainment market, stated, "I believe it is the role of a leading company to create a virtuous cycle that enables not only the industry it belongs to but also the related ecosystem to grow together." He added, "HYBE will continue to fulfill its responsibilities and mission as a company by excelling at what we do well, what we can do well, and what we must do well."
Lee Jaesang, CEO of HYBE, is delivering the keynote speech at the "2025 Korea Economic Association CEO Jeju Summer Forum" held at Lotte Hotel Jeju on the 16th. This forum, held from the 16th to the 19th at Lotte Hotel Jeju, is themed "Entrepreneurship Turning Crisis into Opportunity, Challenge and Innovation," and about 500 business leaders are expected to participate to explore entrepreneurship and future strategies. Photo by Korea Economic Association
On the 16th, at the opening of the "38th Korea Economic Association CEO Jeju Summer Forum" held at Lotte Hotel Jeju, CEO Lee delivered the keynote speech and made these remarks.
In particular, CEO Lee drew attention by expressing his determination to further strengthen the rising status of "K-culture" in the global market and to drive the growth not only of HYBE but also of the entire business sector, thereby leading the global market as a whole.
Looking back on the process by which HYBE overcame the so-called K-pop crisis of 2023 and reached its current position, CEO Lee introduced three key drivers that enabled the company to turn crisis into opportunity and achieve sustainable growth: multi-home multi-genre, multi-label, and fandom platform. He explained these with specific examples.
First, CEO Lee described the "multi-home, multi-genre" strategy as a way to strengthen HYBE's tangible presence and influence in the global market. According to his explanation, instead of establishing its own subsidiaries overseas, HYBE entered foreign markets by forming joint ventures with leading local companies or acquiring local firms. Subsequently, HYBE implemented its unique "fandom business model" as the core of its business strategy in each region, achieving notable results. The most representative success story is "KATSEYE," which CEO Lee said proved that the K-pop system and methodology can succeed locally.
Next, regarding the "multi-label system," he described it as "a healthy and effective operational method for continuously producing superstars." Since introducing the multi-label system in 2018, HYBE now operates more than 16 labels across Korea, Japan, the United States, and Latin America, and manages over 100 artist teams active in various genres such as K-pop, Latin, country, and hip-hop. Through this, the company has achieved a mutually beneficial trickle-down effect and strengthened its tangible presence and influence in the mainstream U.S. market.
Finally, by introducing the global superfan platform "Weverse," he explained that HYBE has continuously evolved the platform, believing that simultaneously strengthening content and platform competitiveness is both industrially meaningful and beneficial for fandom life. Currently, Weverse has established itself as a unique fandom platform, attracting 10 million monthly users from 245 regions worldwide.
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