South Korea’s Big Hit Entertainment Co., an unlisted agency behind K-pop superstar BTS, will strengthen intellectual property (IP) business by enhancing artists’ brand value, the company founder and chief executive Bang Si-hyuk said while announcing its record-high earnings in the first half of this year.

The company held a corporate briefing session on Wednesday and said its operating profit from January to June totaled 39.1 billion won ($32.5 million), achieving almost 60 percent of last year’s full-year profit of 64.1 billion won. Its revenue amounted to 200.1 billion won, nearing the 214.2 billion won of its annual sales last year.

In order to transform the music industry, Bang said he will “improve the quality of life of industry employees by upgrading overall system and bringing changes to the process of creating and expanding added value to increase sales and broaden the size of the entire market.” To that end, he said he will create novel business areas to deliver new experiences to customers, expand value chain and establish a customer ecosystem.

The entertainment agency will launch a TV drama based on the growing-up story of the seven members of BTS during the second half of 2020, as part of its business strategy to strengthen brand identity and value of artists to apply them to a variety of businesses. The company said it is casting actors who will play the members of the boy band because the BTS members will not appear in the drama themselves.

The company will also create various contents including webtoon, noble, game, animation, comics and dramas based on the stories of not only BTS but also other artists under its management.

By Park Chang-young and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]