King of K-Pop
The founder of the creative agency behind BTS has become South Korea’s newest billionaire.
Big Hit Entertainment, the creative agency behind BTS, the global K-pop boy-band sensation, went public in October, making its founder, Bang Shi-hyuk (above), South Korea’s newest billionaire. With his 35% stake in the company, Bang, 47, has an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion. The seven members of BTS, all of whom are in their 20s, also received an IPO windfall: Each now has a stake in Big Hit worth more than $10 million.
Nicknamed “the Hitman,” Bang was a cofounder of JYP, one of South Korea’s top creative agencies, before starting Big Hit in 2005. He enjoyed modest success with two earlier K-pop groups, 8Eight and 2AM. He later formed BTS by signing seven largely unknown young men who had never previously performed together. The group’s first single, “No More Dream,” debuted in 2013.
Today BTS is by far Big Hit’s biggest hit, accounting for the majority of its $510 million in revenue and $60 million annual profit. The group is also more popular than ever: In 2019, its tours reportedly pulled in nearly $200 million, more than any American band that year save Metallica.
The onset of the pandemic forced BTS to postpone all its concerts—usually major moneymakers—in 2020, but that hasn’t dented its success a bit: In August, it became the first Korean band to top the Billboard Hot 100 with “Dynamite,” its first song sung entirely in English. Its latest album, BE, a document of the group’s current “joys and sorrows” (as band member Jimin told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in September), was released November 20.