Establishment Of HYBE Latin America “Bang Si-hyuk, Expand Light Fans”

Establishment of HYBE Latin America “Bang Si-hyuk, expand light fans”

HYBE, led by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, is growing its influence in the Latin American music sector by launching the new local subsidiary “HYBE Latin America”. This approach intends to boost its footprint in one of the world’s fastest-growing music markets
HYBE Latin America will act as a hub for accessing the Latin American market, focusing on the entry of HYBE Labels artists as well as fostering new talents and material. The subsidiary wants to concurrently participate in artist management and cultivating fresh talents. To do this, it will recruit top-tier producers, build a localized Training & Development (T&D) and Artist & Repertoire (A&R) system, and study integrating established commercial techniques from K-pop into the Latin genre.

Isaac Lee, a figure known for his influence in the Latin content industry, will join as the Chairman of the board of HYBE Latin America. Isaac Lee, the founder of Exile Content, has expertise as Chief Content Officer for Univision Communications, one of the world’s major Spanish-language content television channels, and as a producer for Netflix, Antena 3, Amazon, HBC, National Geographic and Disney.

With Isaac Lee’s addition, HYBE Latin America and Exile Content will develop a holistic collaboration, where Isaac Lee will play a bridging role. This collaboration will contribute to developing content optimized for the Latin market and forming collaborations with global media businesses.

Before its formal launch, HYBE Latin America bought Exile Music, a label under Exile Content, to hasten its entry in the Latin market. The Latin American music market was predicted to be over $1.3 billion as of last year, indicating a growth rate of 26.4% compared to the previous year. HYBE emphasized the Latin market’s fast development trajectory compared to the 9% increase in the global music market during the same period.

The approach corresponds with Chairman Bang Si-hyuk’s recent discussion on the ideas of “Super Fans” and “Light Fans” on tvN’s “You Quiz on the Block”. While K-pop fandoms revolve around Super Fans (emphasize deep absorption and intense consumption), genres like Latin and Afrobeat attract both Super and Light Fans. HYBE’s entrance into the Latin music market intends to adapt the advantages of Latin music to K-pop, noting its potential for broad client bases.

The strategic move underlines HYBE’s efforts to diversify its portfolio and harness the capabilities of Latin music to offset potential constraints in the spread of K-pop