SM Entertainment is one of the ‘big four’ K-Pop powerhouses in South Korea – the others being Hybe, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment – and it continues to prosper as South Korean music surges worldwide.
The company announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 this week, reporting record revenues of KRW 319bn ($221.8m at current exchange rates). That was up 16.6% year-on-year.
This growth was about international success as well as domestic strength. Global tours from artists including NCT Dream, Aespa, Riize and NCT Wish were key factors in SM’s performance, as well as growth in merch and licensing.
The company said it expects the good times to continue this quarter, with new releases from Exo, Irene, Hearts2Hearts and NCT JNJM as well as the ongoing 20th anniversary tour of K-Pop veterans Super Junior.
In remarks for analysts, CEO Cheol-hyuk Jang also talked tech. “AI is not intended to replace creativity, but to serve as a tool to enhance production efficiency and decision-making,” they said.
“By applying AI across the content production process, we aim to reduce time and costs, while leveraging data analysis to deepen our understanding of fans and markets, enabling more sophisticated decision-making.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’
