They no longer trust the company…
Koreaboo
Group of rookie girls YOU have reached an impressive milestone with their latest mini-album, I WILL LIKE YOUselling over 350,000 copies in just five days. The achievement is especially notable as it marks the group’s first major comeback since debuting their viral TikTok hit “Magnetic.”
However, what could have been celebrated as a great achievement was instead met with widespread skepticism among netizens, largely due to growing distrust of the sales figures reported by HYBE.
Earlier this year, during a legal dispute involving former ADOR executive Min Hee Jin, allegations surfaced that HYBE was inflating album sales. The claims suggested that HYBE would strategically purchase large volumes of albums from retailers to artificially boost first-week sales figures, only to then return them.
Fan sign event deals have reportedly been made with these retailers, resulting in many of these albums being sold in bulk but not truly reflecting first-week organic sales. Fan cues, typically timed later in promotions to boost album sales, were allegedly manipulated to favor first-week numbers – figures often seen as critical to establishing a group’s popularity.
Netizens Call for Investigations Against All HYBE Groups After Allegation of Explosive Chart Manipulation
These claims were inadvertently confirmed during a recent audit before the National Assembly, when HYBE COO Kim Tae Ho reportedly acknowledged that similar practices had been used. His unexpected admission fueled ongoing distrust among fans and netizens, making them reluctant to accept the company’s sales numbers at face value.
HYBE allegedly accidentally admits to Sajaegi for album sales
When a post highlighting ILLIT’s impressive album sales went viral, it quickly attracted doubt and backlash.
- “How can we trust this company’s sales data?”
- “Do they only listen to physical albums and not streaming? Streaming ratings should gradually go up now lol”
- “No, don’t believe it”
- “How can you trust the numbers of a company where everything is a complete lie?”
- “They really failed, huh… I guess they will magically increase 200,000 sales in the last day like they did with LE SSERAFIM?”
- “How can you trust that company’s numbers”
- “At this rate they will perform at Gocheok [Sky Dome]pfft… [sarcastically]”
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