Hybe Co Ltd

KRX:352820

[interpreted] Good afternoon. This is Lee, Jaesang, CEO of HYBE. Thank you for joining today's earnings conference call. In 2024, HYBE Group's artists entertained global fans through diverse activities around the world. First, BTS Jin and Jae completed their military service in June and October, respectively, and resumed activities. Also, HYBE artists, including SEVENTEEN, Tomorrow X Together and ENHYPEN conducted in total of 172 concerts and sand meetings in 2024 for their fans worldwide.

Furthermore, several new projects that HYBE had been preparing were finally reviewed, including Katseye, viewer's digital membership and game publishing. As a result, HYBE posted a record high annual revenue of KRW 2,224.5 trillion.

This achievement has been made possible, thanks to the solid recorded music sales as well as a significant growth in concert and merchandise sales. First, the combined L1 sales by HYBE's domestic artists were 23.8 million copies based on the circle chart accounting for 40% of all albums that entered the chart. Following last year, L1's released by HYBE Music Group's labels were most loved by fans in the market. By artist, SEVENTEEN who will celebrate the tenth anniversary in 2025, achieved a total L1 sale of more than 10 million copies for 2 consecutive years, having enjoyed year yet in 2024. ENHYPEN recorded a cumulative sale of 5.45 million copies last year, ranking in the eighth and ninth place in the annual album charts in the U.S. and Japan, respectively, demonstrating their global appeal.

Tomorrow X Together have 2 albums ranked on the annual top 10 Circle album chart and had all 3 albums released last year included on the Oricon annual chart, providing their status -- proving their status as a top-tier group among the fourth-generation idol group. NewJeans sold more than 3 million copies last year, taking up the largest share in the album sales by K-pop female artists. BoyNextDoor became a million seller in just 1.5 years since the debut and has shown the most notable growth trend. Their 2 albums ranked first and third on the Oricon Monthly album chart, respectively. And the most recent release, "If I Say, I love You" achieved the best results on the Oricon, Spotify and Billboard charts among the fifth generation K-pop boy group, showing the most significant growth trend among their peers.

We also witnessed great results by HYBE artists in the streaming market. Their music was streamed for a total of 5.2 billion times representing a 3.5% share based on the global Spotify 200 chart. Top 20 charts on the Global K-Pop chart that shows usage data from both the domestic and global streaming platforms included 15 songs by HYBE artists, demonstrating their influence in the streaming market. [indiscernible] tracks like BTS Jin, Jimin, V and Jungkook Group and Neva Play by Megan Thee Stallion featuring RM, all entered the Billboard Hot 100. And the LE SSERAFIM had EASY and CRAZY on the billboard Hot 100 as well.

Also, the new groups did well in the streaming market. ILLIT's Magnetic became the first K-pop debut song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and the official singles top 100 in the U.K. and it was the second most streamed K-pop song overseas in 2024. As another successful debut group, TWS had their debut song plot twist topped the Melon annual chart and became the only K-pop debut group to be ranked high on the TikTok's Top list and the YouTube popular song list in 2024.

Moving on to concerts. HYBE Group's artists held 147 concerts and 25 fan meetings in 2024, posting the highest concert sales ever. According to the K-Hub Concert sales chart announced by the Billboards, SEVENTEEN, and ENHYPEN and Tomorrow X Together were the top 3. SEVENTEEN held an encore show the Follow Tour that stated in 2023 and went on to the Right Here tour starting in October in [indiscernible] that included 34 shows in 15 cities, selling more than 1 million tickets. Tomorrow X Together entertained approximately 540,000 people through 33 shows in 17 cities. ENHYPEN attracted around 460,000 fans to 35 shows in 16 cities. ENHYPEN was also able to conduct a Dome Tour in 3 Japanese cities as a K-pop regroup in the shortest span of time since debut.

The number of concert attendees more than doubled compared to the prior year, showing an exclusive growth trend. &TEAM in their third year was able to hold 37 shows in 10 cities in Korea and Japan through their first-ever Arena Tour to meet with fans around 160,000.

In 2025, HYBE artists will continue to hold off-line events to greet fans worldwide. First, BTS will kick off the solo tour in late February in Korea, which will include shows in North America, Central America, Asia and Japan to meet with Europe BTS fans. SEVENTEEN, TXP, and ENHYPEN, who contributed the most to the record-high concert revenue in 2024 are preparing for new album releases and world tours. Having held the first tour in 2023, LE SERRAFIM is scheduled to go on a world tour this year and is working hard to offer more mature performances and stages. Also, there are groups that will hold their first-ever tours and fan meetings in 2025.

Starting with the Inspire Arena conference in December year, BoyNextDoor will go [indiscernible] to meet with global fans through 20 shows in 12 cities in Japan and Asia. Having released 3 albums last year, TWS sold out their fan meeting on February 14 and is planning on to hold a fan meeting in Japan in March. This year in the geography of tours will expand from Korea, the U.S. and Japan to include Europe and Latin America.

In 2024, our merchandise and licensing revenue were also record high as major HYBE artists, including SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN and TFC conducted large-scale world tours, their concert related merch and light sales made a significant contribution. It was encouraging to see that in addition to concert-related merchandise, BT21 [indiscernible] as well as product, such as SEVENTEEN's Mini team, CFC [indiscernible] BoyNextDoor's [indiscernible] enjoyed a lot of popularity. Going forward, we will continue to a diverse range of merch items that feature characteristics of artist members where they will participate in concept planning and design.

Let me now move on to HYBE America. SB Projects in management division of Hybe America has recently recruited Cade Hudson, who has a track record of handling top stars like Britney Spears, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez and CAA, the world's largest agency in order to strengthen our artist management capabilities. BMLG signed popular country music artists, including Ryan Herd, a 2-time gram nominee.

In 2024, BMLG artists topped a total of 10 Billboard charts and Carly Pearce was nominated for the Grammy Awards for 2 consecutive years. Finally, QC Music also acquired diverse new talent last year and their existing artists resumed projects, thus raising expectation for 2025. More specifically, hip-hop [indiscernible] and EJ Jones joined QC, while other major artists like Quavo, Lil Baby and Lil Yachty were also very active. In particular, Lil Baby had his 4 most recent albums top the Billboard 200 chart, with this album WHAM released in early January, topping the chart yet again. Also, 12 tracks in this album entered the Billboard Hot 100. Based on this popularity and success Lil Baby will go on a world tour in June this year.

Since the establishment in November 2023, HYBE Latin America has conducted business actively in the region. First, utilizing the local network, HYBE Music Group's artists are actually expanding into the Latin American music market. SEVENTEEN Will be the first K-pop artist to perform at Tecate Pa'l Norte 2025, the largest music festival in Latin America. And TXT will be the first K-pop group to perform at Ox Ceramonia, one of the most popular festivals in Latin America. Furthermore, HYBE Latin America is also expanding its influence in the Latin music industry, [indiscernible] Entertainment, a label of HYBE Latin America recently signed rising lighting artists such as Magna and [indiscernible] to expand the artist lineup.

This year, another Latin record label, Docemil Music was established, which has signed meme delinquent Real, a producer and member of a legendary Mexican rock band, Cafe Tacuna and Adrian Cota, a rising Latin artist. Like this we are making continuous efforts to expand the Latin artists line up.

With the goal of driving innovation in our industry by applying the K-pop system and know-how to other genres, HYBE has been working hard in new markets for several years. In Japan, we successfully launched a global group, &Team in 2022 through &Addition holding. Since debut, &Team has received so much support and love from Japanese fans and topped the Oricon daily ranking with 6 albums in a row. Last year, the group successfully concluded the first tour in Japan and Korea. Starting with fan meetings held in Tokyo on February 12 and 13, &Team will continue their activities into the year 2025, including 4 in Asia.

Building on this more than expected success of &Team in Japan, YX Labels, which is a new name of HYBE Japan Labels is going to establish a new pillar in the Japanese music market and is planning to launch a new generation of J-pop group this year through an audition program. The first episode of this audition program titled Sharing High Dream Hard lines aired on Nihon TV on February 15, which recorded the second highest rating among programs aired during the same time. We would like to ask for your continuous interest in this upcoming episodes.

In 2024, we produced meaningful results by applying the K-pop system to the mainstream music market in the U.S. After several years of preparation, Katseye debuted through an audition program called The Debut Dream Academy and had the best year in 2024 with their debut album SIS. One of the 2 title tracks, Touch was on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 for 2 weeks and the Global Song Chart for 13 weeks in a row and was included in the best 50 songs of the year by NME in the U.K. The group has received so much attention and affection from listeners and the music critics worldwide. The success of Katseye demonstrated that the K-pop system can work in the U.S.

To continue this momentum, we will launch a new Boy Group project with Ryan [indiscernible], a multi-platinum producer who won 4 Grammy Awards and worked with global artists, including Beyonce, Adel and [indiscernible]. Based on our success in Japan and the U.S., we're also planning to debut a new team in Latin America. We ask for your support and encouragement for our new initiatives as we are currently developing a strategy that is tailored for the local culture and fandom attracting music.

Now moving on to Weverse, a new subscription service of Weverse called Digital Membership was launched in December last year. The digital membership offers personalized services based on diverse needs and preferences of super fans worldwide and provides diverse features to expand the fan experiences. To improve user experience of global fans, Weverse Life provides real-time translation in 18 languages, including English, Japanese and Chinese.

Furthermore, [indiscernible] off-line save option, which was a function highly requested by fans, artist voice enhancement feature, video viewing without ads, AI-powered video quality enhancement and other useful features were added to further enhance immersive viewing experiences. Also, additional daily accumulations, an exclusive patch for Digital Membership subscribers, a limited fan metering, selection of an app icon design of your choice and many other benefits are offered to the subscribers. More benefits will continue to be added in the future.

Weverse DM service is expanding as well. Tomorrow X Together first opened the Weverse DM service in September 2024, followed by the Le Serrafim in January this year to communicate with their fans. On February 11, SM artists opened Digital Membership as well. Thanks to Digital Membership, Weverse DM, an official fan, the subscriber base of Weverse has been growing. In addition, we will open a new service where artists and fans can communicate with one another while listening to music together, which is expected to strengthen connections between artists and their fans on the Weverse platform and expand the user base.

In 2025, we will improve services and provide more support so that the labels and artists can offer highly satisfying fan experiences and conduct more sustainable business through Weverse. We ask for your interest in Weverse's journey to innovation in the music industry.

Finally, I'd like to talk about our technology-based future growth businesses, which is an important pillar of the future entertainment business that HYBE has envisioned. First is gaming. HYBE IM started game publishing business in full swing in 2024 and became a comprehensive game company with both in-house development and external operation capabilities. Last year, HYBE IM received about KRW 110 billion of funds from investors such as Makers Funds and IMM Investment, demonstrating its game development and servicing capabilities.

Starting from this year, we will be more selective and focused on only those projects selected based on more sophisticated milestone criteria. After signing a contract for architect Land of Exile, which received a lot of attention from gamers at G Star 2024, we have strengthened our lineup by signing a publishing contract with Bonfire Studio founded by former developers of Wizard Entertainment. We're also focused on in-house game development to secure our own IP and strengthen the portfolio's competitiveness. Starting with Total 17, a mobile game that opened the early registration today, other in-house titles will be released sequentially to reinforce our position in the industry.

[indiscernible] the first Korean to be named in the Time 100 AI 2024 list, Supertone launched diverse services in 2024. After an open beta testing in April, SuperTone Shift was officially released in November, which offers real time voice changing technologies, attracting around 350,000 users. Also, Supertone Air was launched, which is receiving rave reviews from audio professionals for its reverb and EQ application to create the effect of voices in certain spaces like caves and stadiums.

In addition, Supertone Play started the official service on February 18. Since the open beta test that started in October last year, nearly 20,000 users in 160 countries so far have generated 350,000 sentences. After the official launch, more than 80% of the users are from overseas, demonstrating its global appeal. Supertone Play uses an advanced text-to-speech technology to create 150 different voices in 3 languages, which emotions can be expressed using text forms and natural voices are generated by learning from speech trials and emotional expressions of real people. Therefore, Supertone Play can be applied in multiple areas such as games, animations and drama dubbing. B2B sales in the form of AI chatbot are already underway, so it is expected to produce meaningful results this year.

Now Hyeonjeong Lim will report on the consolidated financial highlights.

[interpreted] Good afternoon. This is Hyeonjeong Lim. Let me report on HYBE's consolidated financial results for the fiscal year of 2024. The consolidated revenue posted KRW 2,224.5 trillion, up 4% year-over-year, a record high since our founding. Operating profit posted KRW 184.8 billion, down 38% year-over-year, with the OP margin of 8.2%. There are two main reasons why the OP margin declined despite posting a record high revenue. First, in our music business, our revenue mix by artists has changed with the absence of BTS and debut of new groups. Furthermore, investments related to the debut of Katseye in the U.S., lack of activity by artists under the management of HYBE America and expenses to establish human resources and infrastructure for HYBE Latin America holds down the bottom line.

However, we expect our margin to improve starting from this year, driven by the comeback of BTS, economies of scale from the growth of HYBE Music Group artists, enhanced artist management capabilities with Cade Hudson and revenue contribution from HYBE Latin America. The second reason is related to the cost of investments for medium to long-term growth as new growth businesses were carried out in full swing in 2024, including Weverse and games. These new businesses are expected to produce meaningful results starting from this year and contribute to earnings improvement.

Let me now report on Q4 results. The consolidated Q4 revenue posted KRW 725.3 billion, up 19% year-over-year. Revenue with direct artist involvement including recorded music sales, converts and advertisement was KRW 481.4 billion, accounting for 66% of the total revenue, while revenue with indirect artists involvement, including merchandising, licensing content and fan cost sales recorded KRW 243.9 billion, taking up the remaining 34%. It is thanks to the album sales and world tours by major HYBE artists, such as SEVENTEEN, Tomorrow X Together and ENHYPEN. Operating profit in Q4 posted KRW 65.3 billion, with the OP margin of 9%.

Net income posted a loss of KRW 26 billion, mainly due to loss impairment recognition as goodwill of [indiscernible] is not operating loss.

Let me give you more detail by revenue category. In Q4, the revenue with direct artist involvement was the highest quarterly revenue ever as most artists of HYBE Music Group released albums and conducted concerts. Recorded Music sales were KRW 251.8 billion, down 9% year-over-year and concert sales were KRW 188.9 billion, up 111% year-over-year. Successful albums by SEVENTEEN, the only of triple million seller in 2024 as well as by ENHYPEN and Tomorrow X Together contributed to recorded music sales. Concert sales grew significantly in the fourth quarter, thanks to SEVENTEEN who attracted 45,000 fans to 10 shows in 4 domes, ENHYPEN who conducted dome tours in 3 cities in the shortest span of time at the K-pop Group and BoyNextDoor whose first solo concert was a big success.

Of the revenue with indirect artist involvement in the fourth quarter, merchandise and licensing recorded KRW 151.2 billion, up 156% year-over-year and content sales posted KRW 62.5 billion, down 39% year-over-year. A big increase in sales of concert-related merchandise and rising global popularity of character merchandise, such as [indiscernible] Mini Teens by SEVENTEEN, [indiscernible] by Le Serrafim and BoyNextDoor contributed to merchandise revenue growth.

Content revenue included [indiscernible], which became a huge hit with being #1 in the Japanese box office and #2 in North America in the opening week in September as well as Season's Greetings by HYBE artists.

Moving on to KPIs of Weverse, a global fandom platform, Q4 average MAU was slightly down Q-o-Q to approximately 9.4 million. ARPPU, which measures the average monthly revenue per paying user and the total payments achieved a Q-o-Q growth with an increase in L1 releases and higher sales of concert-related merchandise. The much awaited Digital Membership finally opened in December last year. It is in the beginning stage and its profits are expected to increase gradually. After one month of free subscription, revenue will be recognized starting from January and the newly introduced advertisement service is also expected to contribute to the bottom line of Weverse.

Finally, according to the planned policy we announced in early 2023 regarding shareholder return within 30% of the consolidated earnings attributable to controlling interest, the company decided to pay KRW 61 per share as a basic dividend, which is equivalent to 30% of the estimated net profit attributable to controlling interest as of today and pay additional KRW 141 per share as special dividend equivalent to 64% of the estimated net profit attributable to controlling stake. Therefore, our total dividend payout amounts to KRW 8.3 billion with a EPS of KRW 200. Even with special dividend, it is only about 30% of KRW 29.2 billion that we distributed to our shareholders in 2023. We are fully aware that this does not meet the expectations of the shareholders. Going forward, we will secure distributable profits through continuous business growth, and at the same time, we'll consider a new shareholder return policy that can enhance investors' ability to predict dividend and share buyback announced, and we will communicate it to the market at the appropriate time.

In addition, we're making efforts to further enhancing shareholder value, including the Board's resolution to confirm the closing date of the shareholder list after the decision on dividend payout is announced, to enhance shareholders' ability to predict their dividend income. So we ask for your continued trust and support.

2025 will be a year when various businesses that we have been investing in for several years will start to produce tangible results. We expect good results from our diversified music portfolio that we have been building through the multi-label strategy, our solutions business designed to offer new and unique entertainment to fans as well as platform game and AI business. We will continue to do our best to ensure that this new year will be the starting point of our bright future. Thank you.

[interpreted] [Operator Instructions] The first question will be presented by [indiscernible].

[interpreted] I'm from Bernstein. I would like to ask a question on your game business, which is one of the key business pillars of HYBE business operation. I'm asking this question because I'd like to be able to envision the future of HYBE for the next 5 to 10 years. As far as I understand, there are two different business models for fan-based business versus the game business because the fan-based business is all about having that emotional connection with the artist that they support. On the other hand, the game users are focused on having fun and passing time by playing games.

So in my view, I believe that there are differences between a fan based business and music business versus the game business in terms of the target user group as well as the nature of the fundamental business. So for instance, for K-pop fans, when there is issues such as the drunk driving by a K-pop artist, fans will still be forgiving, and they will continue to support the artists that they like. However, that's a different story for game users because they are focusing on fun and even though there is a game that is related to a particular K-pop group, they may not enjoy playing it if it's not fun to play. So there are different tendencies and characteristics and also the monetization model seems to vary.

So I'd like to understand your strategy behind how you would like to pursue synergies? And I would also like to understand your strategy in developing in-house game titles using your artists IP?

I'm Jaesang Lee, CEO of HYBE. Let me address your question. I agree that the key word for our music business is based on love and also the game business is based fun. So I can relate to these two tiers, love for music and fun for game. So music business is all about using this love of fans for their artists and their music, but then this concept of love can be interpreted differently depending on your music genres. Likewise, the concept and the definition of fun can be interpreted differently depending on different genres of the game.

And in this regard, I'd like to make three points. First of all, when it comes to the question of do we have enough synergies between music and game, I don't really think so. The reason why we launched in the [indiscernible] SEVENTEEN and Rhythm HYBE is not because we want to make some big results from the gaming business because -- but rather because we wanted to offer more content for our fans to enjoy related to their favorable artists. People have 24 hours a day, and they have to work, they have to go to school. They have to do other things while supporting their artists. So there is not a lot of time for game time, but it will be wonderful if they can play games that have some content related to their favorite artists. So that is not a core of our game business, but also to expand opportunities and effort in for our fans.

Then the second question is why are we pursuing this game business? As I mentioned in my opening speech, our focus is on publishing good titles. But as you may know, publishing business itself is not a very big cash cow. We will continue to develop our in-house titles, so that we will expand our portfolio that can add more value and strike a balance between our music portfolio and the game portfolio.

The third question is then, is there any absolutely no synergy between game and usage? I don't really think so. I'd like to approach this topic not in terms of the synergies between games and music but synergies between tech and music. There are changing patterns of music consumption and content consumption. And as such, consumption patterns change. I believe that there will be more synergies between technology and music. Indeed back in 2022, we consider developing some sort of meta artists, and we were almost there in terms of technology development. We decided to drop this idea because the market was not ready.

However, in the medium to long term, I believe that the market will be ready to free synergies between music and tech. And when that time comes, we will be ready to respond to this new and emerging market. So I have a lot of expectations for future synergies between technology and music. And we do have know-how and expertise within HYBE when it comes to using our fan base for music. So likewise, we can continue to cultivate users and fans who play games, and they may have different perspective and preferences. But I believe that there are similarities in terms of how fans an artists interact versus how game companies and game users and game players interact.

In the past, major titles were developed by certain houses and studios, but now it is a tendency for game developers open up their projects early in the market for open testing where they can continue to interact with users. So I think that this is very similar to how fans would love to interact with their artists. And we do have expertise in supporting and fostering such interactions between fans and audits, and that can be applied to our game business.

The next question will be presented [indiscernible] Investment Securities.

[interpreted] I'm [indiscernible] from NH Investment. I would like to ask 2 questions. The first question is related to the BTS. So BTS members will all complete their military service. So I have to understand their revenue contribution in the past versus your outlook for their contribution to your total revenue going forward after 2025. The second is related to your P&L. You recorded a very high revenue, but the operating margin is rather disappointing. And I note that there are several items in your SG&A accounts, including the external services and fees and other SG&A items. So if you can provide more details on these items, it will be great. And I understand that there's a continuous loss impairment recognition from EsacoHolding state, I'd like to understand how much is left as part of your nonoperating loss, and if you cannot provide that answer, it will be nice if you can give us some numbers in terms of amortization losses that we can anticipate on a quarterly basis?

I'm CEO, Hyeonjeong Lim. Thank you for your questions. I will entertain your first question, while the CFO will address for a second and the third question. When it comes to the revenue contribution from BTS and our music business, as you may know, we do not disclose any specific artist by artist breakdown of the revenue. However, BTS was how HYBE started and HYBE has been growing together with BTS. So ever since the IPO of 2020, I'm sure you have some ballpark figures as to how much revenue contribution has been made by BTS. And what I can say is that the percentage has been going down from, let's say, 95%, especially as members of the BTS started their military service. There were some solo activities, but the percentage in their revenue contribution has been lower because there was no concert.

I cannot give you any specific number at this point, but it is slightly below 20% as of 2024. But as the CFO mentioned, the BTS members will finish military service, and will make a comeback and resume concerts and other activities. Therefore, their revenue contribution is expected to increase going forward. But at the same time, our other artists have been growing as well in their popularity and activities, so we will be able to have more balance in our gas portfolio going forward. And secondly, even though the revenue contribution or percentage by BTS may go down, we recognize that BTS has a lot of symbolic significance for HYBE because BTS was there from the very beginning of this company.

So regardless of how much contribution they make to the total revenue, we believe that BTS is a representative for this group. And so we will continue to provide the best kind of support and assistance, so that they can continue to perform, excellent stages and produce global results going forward.

[interpreted] Let me answer the rest of your questions. You asked the reasons behind the increase in outsourcing and other fees and SG&A items. And you may be asking this question because you want to know the impact of the recent scandals that we had in 2024. The impact is not significant. What I can say is that we have had an increase in these expenses because we have had an increase in the revenue.

Furthermore to add more, to help you better understand our profit and loss situation in 2024, we had a big increase in the number of concerts and that has led to some increase in the cost elements, but we are making -- we're taking action to address this cost issue, so this is not going to be repeated in 2025.

And moving on to your question on loss impairment on EsacoHoldings, we have been continuing to recognize our impairment losses from the goodwill of [indiscernible]. There has been a bigger impact from the exchange rate changes. So there has not been any significant decline in intangible assets. So the PPA amortization will not decline significantly. And you may wonder whether such loss impairment will continue going. As we mentioned in our management presentation, we have strengthened the management capabilities. And also, there are earnings contributions we expect from other business pillars. So the amount of loss impairment or recognition in 2025 will be reduced.

I'm CEO, Hyeonjeong Lim. Let me add some comments. There are some structural aspects that you need to understand to better grasp the nature of our business. For the U.S. business, there is loss impairment as well as a PPA recognition. As the CFO mentioned, it is mainly because of the lack of activity by major artists under the management of our U.S. business. However, you can see that there has been significant growth in the labels business as well as the new businesses. These may be translated into numbers right away, but there are a lot of intangible benefits that we are taking advantage of.

For instance, Katseye was able to make a huge success as the group in partnership with [indiscernible] record. And we are now able to work with Ryan Heather, a super famous producer for our new project. And in Latin America, we're also prepared for a great audition with a wonderful team of people. And we have been able to do this, all these things because of the intangible value that we acquired in the past. This may not be shown in the specific numbers. In the U.S., we're alreaady feeling the impact and the positive effect of having this intangible value. And so this has been very helpful in terms of strong sourcing and partnership for our K-pop artists in the U.S. and Latin America market.

And we were able to find a distribution contract with Universal Music. And in many areas, we were able to produce a lot of synergies. Unfortunately, these are not shown in the short-term earnings numbers, but I'd like to mention once again that these are very valuable. Just like developing a new K-pop group, which takes a lot of investment, it will later lead to revenue contribution and earnings contribution in the long term. So such investments are needed so that these groups can continue to grow and make greater contributions.

For the past 2 to 3 years, you can see that HYBE's profitability has been declining because of all these investments that we have to make for branding and nurturing and developing these new groups. So it has had a negative impact on the OP market itself in the short term, but I believe that this will lead to greater success in the future. For instance, BoyNextDoor only sold 300,000 copies of albums in 2023, but the number increased to 1 million last year. ENHYPEN is growing very well as well. And these will all be rate into future earnings and the same goes for the game business and other business areas. We will continue to secure good titles. And when we have a sizable business for the games, we will have economies of scale, which will be later translated into our earnings results. So I hope that you will see this, the current situation as our process to rebalance our portfolio in our business.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]