YG Entertainment

*YG Entertainment(엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean entertainment company established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company, and music publishing house. In addition, the company operates a number of subsidiary ventures under a separate public traded company, YG PLUS, which includes a clothing line, a golf management agency, and a cosmetics brand.*

*Current artists include Jinusean, Big Bang, Dara, Akdong Musician, Winner, iKon, Sechs Kies, Blackpink, and Treasure as well as actors and actresses including Kang Dong-won, Choi Ji-woo, Cha Seung-won, Lee Sung-kyung, and Yoo In-na. Other notable artists include Somi and Anda who are under YG Entertainment's subsidiaries The Black Label and YGX respectively.*

## *History*

### ***1995-2005***

*In March 1996, Yang Hyun-suk, a former member of the first-generation K-pop group Seo Taiji and Boys, founded YG Entertainment along with his younger brother Yang Min-suk. The company's first artist was the hip-hop trio Keep Six. When they failed to attract popularity, Yang turned his focus to the duo Jinusean and in 1998 to the debut of 1TYM. Both were successful artists that Yang credits for bringing YG Entertainment and the hip hop genre into mainstream Korean music.*

*In 1999, YG Entertainment's artists released a collaborative album under the name YG Family. The label followed with releases from artists such as Perry, Swi.T, Big Mama, Lexy, Gummy and Wheesung. It also established the "YG Underground" label, which housed 45RPM and Stony Skunk. In 2001, a second YG Family album was released. Among others, it featured the 13-year-old G-Dragon, who was then a trainee.*

*The agency found success in both Korea and Japan with its first "idol" singer Seven in 2003, who became the company's first artist to attempt to cross over into the US music scene, though his US debut failed to gain momentum.*

*Following Se7en's success, YG Entertainment formed its first idol group Big Bang in 2006. Despite an initial lukewarm reception, the group's breakthrough the following year and their consistent popularity have made them one of the biggest and most bankable boy bands in the world. This was followed by YG's first successful girl group 2NE1 in 2009, who, prior to their split in 2016, were considered one of the most successful and popular girl groups in South Korea. Similarly to Seven, both groups conducted successful careers in Japan.*

*In 2010, YG Entertainment made a highly publicized move into a new building, while the old headquarters became a training facility. In the same year, the company unsuccessfully applied for listing on the stock exchange; it was suspected that this was because the company had too few active music groups and an unstable cash flow, despite an increase in earnings in 2009. Later that year, the label signed established artist Psy.*

### ***2012-2015***

*2012 brought YG international recognition when Psy's "Gangnam Style" gained worldwide popularity as a viral video. On August 21, it charted at number one on the iTunes Music Video Charts. This feat was a first for a South Korean artist. By November 24, "Gangnam Style" had become the most viewed video in YouTube history, and the first video to surpass a billion views. The song was credited as the main reason for YG Entertainment's share prices increasing by more than 60 per cent, with the record label subsequently filing its first annual report in 2012 with profits of over 50% after going public on the KOSDAQ the year before.*

*That same year, the label signed rapper and producer Tablo, leader of the hip hop group Epik High, relaunching his career after a musical hiatus following his Stanford controversy. Tablo's band Epik High later transitioned into the record label following his success.*
*2NE1 became the first major girl group under YG Entertainment to follow the footsteps after Big Bang during 2009.*
*Yang's increased involvement on competitive reality television series led to several record deals with contestants, starting with K-pop Star’s first season runner-up Lee Hi. Other participants on the show were signed as potential members of the label's future boy groups. On the second season of the show, both the winners, sibling duo Akdong Musician as well as runner-up Bang Ye-dam, signed under the agency. Additionally, the reality program Win: Who is Next was later launched by YG Entertainment, in which two teams of male trainees competed against each other for the chance to sign a contract with the label to debut as the company's next boy band. The conclusion of the reality series saw the formation of Winner.*
*Winner successfully debuted in 2014 and became the fastest K-Pop group to win #1 at music shows. They grabbed their first music show win just six days into their debut.Blackpink debuted in 2016 and became the first female K-pop group to have four number-one singles on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart.*
*In 2014, YG Entertainment acquired T Entertainment's staff and actors including Cha Seung-won, Im Ye-jin, and Jang Hyun-sung. Additionally, through the acquisition of modelling agency K-Plus, it expanded its acting division through the acting debuts of models Lee Sung-kyung and Nam Joo-hyuk. YG also signed a contract with actress Choi Ji-woo. French luxury giant LVMH's private equity arm, L Capital Asia, later announced that it would be investing up to US$80 million in YG Entertainment. Headquartered in Singapore, L Capital Asia would become the second-largest investor in YG with an 11.5% stake, second only to Yang Hyun-suk's 28%. In 2014 YG Entertainment also expanded into the beauty industry with the creation of its cosmetics brand Moonshot.*

*In 2015, YG Entertainment invested nearly US$100 million in a new Gyeonggi-do-based industrial complex which was slated to be complete by December 2018. Real estate in Seoul worth ₩16 billion (US$14 million) was also purchased for the purpose of expanding their headquarters. In that year, the company also saw the creation of two sub-labels, the first led by Tablo and the second headed by YG producers Teddy Park of 1TYM and Kush of Stony Skunk. Additionally, the members of the losing team from the reality series WIN: Who is Next regrouped and debuted as iKon, along with a new member.*

### ***2016-Present***

*Sixteen years after the group's disbandment, first-generation K-pop boy band Sechs Kies signed a contract with YG in May 2016 to relaunch their career. In the same month, Chinese technology enterprises Tencent and Weiying Technology announced an investment of US$85 million in YG. Weiying took an 8.2% stake in the company and Tencent a 4.5% stake. YG later added Lee Jong-suk, Kang Dong-won, and Kim Hee-jung to their list of actors.*

*YG Entertainment debuted the four-member Blackpink in 2016, followed by the solo rapper One the following year. Later that year, YG launched a talent show titled Mix Nine, a contest between trainees from different agencies. Although the winning team was scheduled to debut as idols, YG revealed that the debut for the male winning group had been cancelled. The failure of the show led to incurred losses of ₩7 billion won in the first quarter and ₩4 billion won in the last three months of 2017, causing JYP Entertainment to surpass YG as the second-highest valued K-pop company.*

*In May 2018, Psy left the company after eight years. Later that year, YG Entertainment announced YG Treasure Box, a survival competition show to determine the line-up for their next boy group. The resulting boy group Treasure debuted in August 2020.*

*Following the Burning Sun scandal involving Big Bang's Seungri, accusations of corruption surrounding Yang Hyun-suk and a drug scandal involving iKon leader B.I, Yang Hyun-suk stepped down and resigned from all positions in YG Entertainment and his brother, Yang Min-suk, resigned as CEO on June 14, 2019. Hwang Bo-kyung was appointed as the new CEO of YG Entertainment on June 20, 2019.*