The Korean press asked several entertainment industry insiders with over 15 years of experience.
On October 24, 2024 (KST), at the comprehensive government audit by the Committee on Culture, Sports and Tourism of the South Korean National Assembly, MOVES was questioned about an “internal document” that contained shocking criticism of other entertainment agencies and their idols.
Member of the National Assembly Min Hyung Bae obtained and revealed the aforementioned document: a “music industry weekly report” containing crude and low-quality reactions from the online community about K-Pop idols from other entertainment agencies, which was said to have been collected by HYBE employees.
Although Min Hyung Bae refused to reveal the entire document, claiming that its contents were “too disgusting” to share, some parts were made public. The report included explicit and blunt criticism of other artists, including underage idols.
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Kim Tae HoCOO of HYBE and CEO of Belift Lab, who participated in the audit on behalf of Bang Si Hyuk stated that the opinions contained in the document are “not HYBE’s opinion or an official rating” and that they were “collected and compiled for online tracking.”
This then raised questions from K-Pop fans. Do all management companies create such industry reports? If so, what information about competing companies is included in the reports presented to management? Do other companies also classify disrespectful comments on the Internet as “data”?
Korean print Joy News 24 asked several entertainment industry insiders with over 15 years of experience for answers to those questions.
An anonymous industry personnel, Interior Atold Joy News 24 that they “I have never seen monitoring material like this [HYBE’s]” Before.
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Having worked in the entertainment industry for a long time, I have never seen tracking material like this. To track effectively, you typically analyze successful teams, reporting something along the lines of “Here are the reasons why this team is doing well, so we need to improve in that area” or “Let’s review how this team responded to a crisis”. and learn what we should be more aware of.’ This would be what you might call an industry trends report. The documents revealed during the government audit seem more like a collection of community comments, just something to gossip about for a few cheap laughs.
– Internal A
Insider A added that monitoring competing activities is “natural.” That said, Insider A had a hard time believing the internal document was anything “sent to a C-level executive.”
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Another staff, Interior Bhe also stated that gathering criticism is an unheard of practice.
In all my time spent at various entertainment companies, I have never compiled data that criticized artists at other companies. While it is true that I checked the articles and community reactions to our artists’ debut, taking note of negative expressions or reports, I never reported the opinions of those individual netizens.
HYBE insists that the advertised material only shows the provocative parts put together. But this does not mean that the content was still included in the document. In most of the industry, relationships like this are “cut” or “killed.” If there is explicit criticism of other artists in a report, internal guidelines generally advise against recording or sharing it. Furthermore, I think the information collected from online communities is a very ambiguous data set to work with anyway.
– Internal B
A third staff member, Insider C, told Joy News 24 that most entertainment companies recognize each other as competitors, but also as partners. Why HYBE created such a document “who belittle and denigrate other K-Pop artists”, said Insider C, it is “Very dangerous.
There are cases where we share verbal evaluations of different artists and their companies after seeing their newly released content. But this is the first time I have come across a case where such assessments – negative ones at that – have been turned into official reports for company material. This is very dangerous. We may all be competitors in the same industry, but we are also partners in moving this industry forward. We should not create documents that belittle and denigrate other K-Pop artists and companies.
– Insider C
HYBE attempted to release an official statement regarding the document, although it was deleted after Kim Tae Ho was reprimanded during the audit. HYBE has since released a second statement, although not regarding the document itself.
Read more about it below:
HYBE issues an additional statement after being reprimanded during the audit for its first statement, now deleted
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