After Min Hee Jin’s “historic” press conference on the afternoon of April 25, the HYBE civil war had many new developments. Not only did public opinion “reverse” a bit, ADOR’s female CEO’s press conference also “sparked” a series of serious doubts, causing HYBE, BTS and a series of junior groups to be caught up in fierce controversy. ILLIT – the person whose name was first called by Min Hee Jin was also not at peace.
NewJeans and ILLIT – the two loudest music groups in the HYBE civil war
The “mother” of NewJeans twice mentioned ILLIT, accusing the HYBE group of copying her successful formula to create a new girl group. Therefore, the process of forming ILLIT also makes people equally curious. Recently, on a radio show, economic critic Park Sidong shocked everyone with his statement “NewJeans invested 16.1 billion won, while ILLIT invested 150 billion won. They are a group that invested more money but were sprinkled with chili powder as soon as they debuted.” This information immediately caused controversy.
Economic critic Park Sidong shocked with the statement “NewJeans invested 16.1 billion won, while ILLIT invested 150 billion won”
NewJeans will be launched with a total capital of 16.1 billion won in the summer of 2022. According to recent revelations from Min Hee Jin, NewJeans is expected to be the first girl group to be selected and debuted. under HYBE. Initially, trainee casting and training were conducted at the subsidiary Source Music. After that, Min Hee Jin disagreed with Bang Si Hyuk about the plan to launch a girl group, HYBE personally invited two former IZ*ONE members, Kim Chaewon and Sakura, to join the group. Min Hee Jin and NewJeans parents objected.
NewJeans was launched with a total capital of 16.1 billion won in summer 2022.
Min Hee Jin asked to decide all issues related to the debut and management of NewJeans, HYBE invested 16.1 billion won in the female CEO to establish HYBE. In 2022, NewJeans appeared and took over Kpop like a whirlwind, mainly thanks to Min Hee Jin’s “upside down” strategy with fresh and unique music and image for the group.
But to do this, investment money and resources from the parent corporation and the title “BTS sister” play a decisive role. It can be said that NewJeans is one of the rookies that debuted with the most capital in Kpop, and also has the most advantages because it started as a leading entertainment corporation.
ILLIT is a group coming out of the survival show RU Next, under the management of BELIFT LAB
Meanwhile, ILLIT is a group that came out of a survival show RU Next, under the management of BELIFT LAB. Before ILLIT, BELIFT LAB had launched ENHYPEN – a boy group selected from the show ILAND. At this time, BELIFT LAB is the “common child” of HYBE and CJ. HYBE decided to acquire more than half of BELIFT LAB’s shares from mid-2023, manage ENHYPEN itself as well as decide on the strategy to launch ILLIT.
MV Magnetic – ILLIT
ILLIT’s lineup is finalized in September 2023 with a 6-member lineup. However, Youngseo – the most prominent member – suddenly withdrew from the group right before their debut. In early 2024, ILLIT regularly appeared in front of the media, causing controversy before even debuting when it attended Paris Fashion Week. On March 25, ILLIT officially debuted with the MV Magnetic and EP Super Real Me. The group caused a stir because of their image as “NewJeans’ little sister”, a concept created by former Vogue Korea creative director – Serian Heu.
The number of 105 billion won that Park Sidong revealed is actually HYBE’s money to buy back shares of BELIFT LAB, not ILIT’s debut cost.
Regarding ILLIT’s debut cost, no specific figure has been revealed. However, ILLIT’s debut is far inferior to NewJeans in terms of scale. “Daughter” Min Hee Jin invested in 8 MVs for 4 songs in her debut EP, promoted the double title track and “exploded” the job of luxury brand ambassador right from the first months. All of these are resources from HYBE. Meanwhile, ILLIT currently only has 2 MVs included Magnetic and Lucky Girl Syndrome New release. Members also slowly interact with the brand, without promoting the position of ambassador.
NewJeans is still the girl group that debuted at the highest cost in Kpop
In reality, the figure of 105 billion won that Park Sidong revealed was actually HYBE’s money to buy back shares of BELIFT LAB. This is a completely different investment category than launching ILLIT. Not only did the unfavorable news about ILLIT’s debut amount cause misunderstandings, the economic critic also caused people to protest by comparing ILLIT with NewJeans. On forums, many netizens who do not clearly understand the issue have left comments attacking ILLIT with content “HYBE invested 10 times more just to create ‘NewJeans clone’?” while the truth is that is not the case.
Netizen reaction:
– Don’t misunderstand, HYBE bought the remaining shares of BELIFT LAB from CJ for 150 billion won, what does it have to do with ILLIT?
– 150 billion won is the amount to buy back BELIFT LAB?
– HYBE has invested in ILLIT 10 times more than NewJeans, but if they can’t do as well as NewJeans, it proves that NewJeans is too great.
– Why did they spend 150 billion just copying NewJeans?
– Are you kidding, the money to buy back the label is now investment money for ILLIT?
