[Herald Economy = Seunghee Ko] Military enlistment, dating rumors, scandals, members leaving — K-pop is an industry defined by risk. Because it revolves around people and emotions, every move an artist makes can quickly become a business liability. That reality leaves many agencies constantly navigating potential minefields.
HYBE, South Korea’s largest agency, hit its biggest test since its founding in 2024 when BTS entered their military hiatus. Revenue wobbed and operating profit plunged. But this pattern isn’t unique to HYBE: when a top group enlists or a high-profile act is caught up in scandal or romance rumors, companies’ sales and stock prices can swing wildly. At its core, K-pop is a “human IP” business.
Industry insiders say major agencies have been cautious about expanding IP in recent years because the business is highly exposed to artists’ comebacks, activity gaps and controversies.
Still, HYBE appears to be moving past the entertainment sector’s chronic “artist risk.” This year the company is on track to top 4 trillion KRW (approximately 3 billion USD) in revenue and 600 billion KRW (approximately 450 million USD) in operating profit. One of the reasons for that resilience: story IP.
Park Dae-ho, head of HYBE’s Next Entertainment division, says the company has been planning a story business for a decade. He noted that five years into full-scale webtoon development with Naver Webtoon and the SuperCasting project, HYBE’s efforts are finally coalescing into a single, large series IP.
The push began in 2015, when BigHit Entertainment — HYBE’s predecessor — started linking artists’ musical messages to broader narratives and worldviews, led by BTS. By developing themes that tapped into the universal feelings of youth and embedding those themes in music videos and other visuals, fans willingly entered BTS’s story world.
Building on BTS’s successful Hwayangyeonhwa (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life) universe, HYBE established an “original story model.” Since 2022, it has rolled out webtoons and web novels tied to six teams — including BTS’s 7FATES, TXT’s Crimson Heart, ENHYPEN, &TEAM, LE SSERAFIM and EYLIT — steadily expanding their narratives.
This year marks a turning point: HYBE teamed with Japan’s Aniplex to turn ENHYPEN’s webtoon-based world, Dark Moon: The Altar of the Moon, into an animated series. Though HYBE already earns powerful music revenue as the country’s biggest entertainment firm, story IP is fast becoming a strategic outpost for future growth.
HYBE’s bet on stories reflects market size. Industry estimates put the global subculture market — which includes animation and gaming — at roughly 10 times the size of the music market. Capturing even 1% of that space would deliver a meaningful uplift relative to music revenues.
Park points out that the animation market alone is four to five times larger than the music market, calling entry into that space the natural launchpad for HYBE’s original story IP.
But it’s not just about scale. Music tends to be consumed in moments; story IP allows for longer-term engagement. Stories don’t age, they aren’t interrupted by military service, and they face fewer cross-border limits. Webtoons can be translated, animation can be localized, and merchandise and games sell around the clock. Even an artist’s absence can be absorbed into the revenue model. “In theory, every story IP carries a semi-permanent lifecycle,” Park said. “In a shifting media environment, strong settings and compelling characters unlock wide expansion potential.”
HYBE’s story strategy pairs robust fandom-driven artist IP with original narratives. Park argues the combination doesn’t merely offset artist risk; together they act as a “chemical catalyst” that amplifies impact.
When HYBE develops stories, it aligns themes, worldbuilding and music with artists’ activities. Individual character arcs that can’t fit inside an album expand independently — a key feature of the approach.
Park Tae-ho said, “Over the next three to five years, our goal is to generate a large influx of new audiences into the K-pop industry to secure future growth, propose new fan-experience models that combine music, and create market differentiation. We’re emphasizing qualitative growth to build independent funding and teams for business expansion.”
The biggest risk for entertainment firms is gaps in artist activity. Story IP, however, runs 24/7. HYBE describes the artist–story relationship as “casting”: artists are cast as characters, and regardless of their activity, the stories can generate sequels, prequels and spin-offs indefinitely.
Independence is central to HYBE’s original stories. “An artist’s development shouldn’t be constrained by an original story’s setting,” Park said. “We share themes, but the format repeatedly separates and recombines so nothing becomes a limit.”
HYBE even labels works to show artists have been “cast” into narratives. Park says they mark webtoons with “with ENHYPEN” to signal a flexible relationship — the artist isn’t the entire worldview, but plays a role inside a larger narrative.
That system contrasts with the old K-pop model, which often relied heavily on individual stars. HYBE’s approach reshapes fandom around characters and stories. Rather than depending solely on the availability of “human IP,” the company cultivates IP that lives through characters and narratives, building a steadier revenue base.
ENHYPEN’s Dark Moon series is a prime example. After the main story ended, HYBE released prequels, spin-offs and sequels — Night Field Children (prequel), Blood of Barg (ancient epic) and Two Moons (sequel) — keeping fans engaged. The series topped Germany’s webtoon charts and ranked highly in North America and Latin America.
Park stresses that HYBE avoids pitting story expansion against artists’ growth. Instead, the company pursues maximum growth for each while building strong collaborations that create enjoyable fan experiences.
Notably, HYBE’s original stories have drawn general readers beyond the core K-pop audience. That payoff reflects a decade-long, patient investment strategy in IP rather than a focus on short-term returns.
“Growing story IP becomes a core driver for attracting new customers to the K-pop market,” Park said. “Nurturing compelling story IP opens a massive funnel to expand the K-pop fandom base.”
In practice, story IP is dissolving traditional fandom boundaries: story readers become K-pop fans, and K-pop fans become story consumers, creating a reinforcing loop. The Dark Moon series, for example, weaves ENHYPEN’s and &TEAM’s narratives together, drawing fans from different groups into each other’s worlds.
HYBE has been well placed to create this cycle because its global fandom infrastructure is more established than many competitors’. “Over the past 20 years, K-pop companies have built experience communicating with and managing global fandoms,” Park said. “Designing the entire customer experience matters as much as producing good content.”
Ultimately, webtoons, web novels and animation are more than simple IP extensions. HYBE aims to build a long-term narrative ecosystem that organically links music, merchandise, live events, technology and fan experience within a single worldview. “Our ultimate goal is to offer new experiences that combine music, technology and storytelling,” Park said.
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