JYP Entertainment
JYP Entertainment Corporation is a South Korean multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate founded in 1997 by J.Y. Park. Operating as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management company, concert production company and music publishing house, it is one of the largest entertainment companies in South Korea. The company also operates subsidiary ventures and divisions internationally.
History
1997–99: Formation and first generation K-pop artists
JYP Entertainment was founded in 1997 by South Korean singer-songwriter Park Jin-young as Tae-Hong Planning Corporation. In 2001, the company was retitled as JYP Entertainment, named after his stage name, J. Y. Park. In 1997, the company signed its first artist – Pearl.In 1999, entertainment company SidusHQ introduced the future members of boy band g.o.d to Park, as their producer and mentor. In cooperation with SidusHQ, JYP Entertainment oversaw the formation of g.o.d, which would make their debut appearance on January 13, 1999. The group was managed by SidusHQ, with their first album, Chapter 1, being produced by Park.
2000–09: Early success and second generation K-pop artists
In December 2000, JYP Entertainment signed Rain as a trainee, who made his debut two years later in May 2002. Rain would then rise to become a commercial success throughout and beyond Asia, which was seen when his third studio album, It's Raining, went on to record cumulative sales of over 1 million copies in seven Asian countries, including South Korea.On December 27, 2002, the company's first boy group was a four-member vocal oriented group, Noel, which failed to attract popularity. The company then turned its focus towards the duo brothers in 2003. In 2004, after the boy band g.o.d's group contract with SidusHQ ended, they signed a contract with JYP Entertainment. Other artists that debuted under JYP Entertainment, from 2000 to 2005 were Park Ji-yoon, Byul, Lim Jeong-hee,, and Ivy.
In May 2006, the company formed its first girl group, Wonder Girls, who became a commercial success and was the first South Korean group to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009, with their song "Nobody". Their success lead to a management deal with the Jonas Group, which led the group to open the Jonas Brothers' world tour in select cities.
In 2007, Rain left JYP Entertainment and established his own agency called J. Tune Entertainment.
File:Wonder Girls from acrofan.jpg|thumb|alt=An image of the Wonder Girls on the stage, wearing identical clothes.|Wonder Girls in 2008. The first South Korean group to chart the Billboard Hot 100.|left
File:2PM_at_the_싸이월드_페스티벌_125.jpg|thumb|alt=An image of 2PM performing at the 2011 Cyworld Dream Music Festival.|2PM in 2011. JYP Entertainment's first and only act to win the MAMA Award for Artist of the Year.
In 2008, the competitive reality series Hot Blood Men aired, pitting male trainees against each other for the chance to debut. The winning group, One Day, was later split into two boy bands, 2PM and 2AM. Both debuted in the same year. 2AM was jointly contracted with Big Hit Entertainment. Later in October, the JYP Beijing Center was opened, as the company's China branch. In that same year, the Creative Artists Agency included JYP Entertainment in its roster of high-profile clientele.
Expanding its endeavors into the drama production industry following in the footsteps of SM Entertainment Group's SM C&C and CJ E&M's Studio Dragon – JYP Entertainment jointly established the television drama production company Holym with Key East Entertainment in June 2009. Holym later announced its first major television drama production, Dream High, in 2010, starring artists from JYP Entertainment.
2010–17: Joint ventures and third generation K-pop artists
In March 2010, JYP Entertainment made a joint venture with SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, Star Empire Entertainment, Media Line, CAN Entertainment and Music Factory Entertainment to establish KMP Holdings, the official distributor of releases from these companies. On December 28, 2010, JYP Entertainment became the largest shareholder of J. Tune Entertainment. The subsidiary AQ Entertainment was later formed and introduced the Chinese-Korean girl group Miss A.File:Miss A 2013.jpg|thumb|left|Miss A in 2013. The first act to have their debut song reach atop the Gaon Digital Chart.|alt=An image of Miss A, with the logo of Armani Exchange at the back.
In November 2011, the American based subsidiary JYP Creative was established. Park invested approximately US$1.2 million in the branch. After a year of operation, the company saw a net loss of around US$1.5 million by the end of 2012, leading to the liquidation and closure of the branch, including the New York branch. The same year, Park Jimin, winner of the competitive TV series K-pop Star and Baek Yerin, a female trainee and contestant on the show Star King, debuted as the duo 15&.
In 2012, JYP Pictures signed a contract with China Eastern Performing Arts Group to co-produce a movie Hold Your Hand, featuring actors who were signed to JYP Entertainment.
On June 20, 2013, the merger plan for the publicly listed JYP Entertainment and the non-listed JYP was announced. The merger was approved on October 17. Miss A and Baek A-yeon, also joined JYP Entertainment due to the merger. On August 25, 2013, JYP Entertainment and KeyEast terminated their joint production enterprise, Holym. On November 17, 2013, the company partnered with Smilegate to promote the video game Crossfire with 2PM and Miss A.
In January 2014, the seven talent agencies behind KMP Holdings formed a collective bond partnership and bought 13.48% of KT Music's stocks, leaving KT Corporation with 49.99%. In the same month, Got7, made their debut. 2AM's joint contract of Big Hit Entertainment with JYP Entertainment later in April ended, after three of the 2AM members returned to JYP Entertainment, and member Lee Chang-min stayed with Big Hit Entertainment, to continue his career and as part of the duo Homme. In August, JYP Pictures and Dongyang World Culture Communication produced the drama Dream Knight, starring Got7 members. Season three K-pop Star winner Bernard Park signed a contract with JYP Entertainment to start his solo career, and making his debut on October 6. On December 17, J.Y. Park sold the company's headquarters building in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul to Choi Ki-won, for approximately $7 million, on the term that JYP Entertainment will still use the building for three years on rent.
The subsidiary Studio J was formed on January 9, 2015, in line with JYP Entertainment's goal to "promote free and deep artists that create authentic music rather than appealing to the mainstream demand." The first artist on Studio J's roster was G.Soul, who debuted on the same day. In March, 2AM members Seulong and Jin-woon departed from the company following their contracts' expiration, while Jo Kwon renewed his contract. The company stated 2AM remained intact and would be promoting as a group. On April 15, the company signed a contract with Jax Coco, a Hong Kong-based coconut product company. Both companies planned to launch coconut oil, coconut flakes, and other related products at major department stores and supermarkets in South Korea. In September, rock band Day6 debuted. In October, the girl group Twice debuted. The members of the group were chosen from the competitive reality show Sixteen.
In February 2016, JYP Entertainment established a music distribution partnership with China Music Corporation. It was followed by JYP Entertainment jointly establishing Beijing Xin Sheng Entertainment Co. Ltd. with Tencent Music in the same year, which oversaw the debut of the Chinese boy band Boy Story.
In July 2017, JYP Entertainment acquired a property worth 20.2 billion KRW in Seongnae-dong, Gangdong District, Seoul to be used as its new office. A partnership with Dailymotion, Europe's largest video platform, was signed to open its artist channel on its platform to secure a more global fan base.
2018–present: Further success and fourth generation K-pop artists
On January 31, 2018, JYP Entertainment entered into a music business agreement with SM Entertainment, Big Hit Entertainment, and SK Telecom to launch a new music platform Flo, which will utilize various new technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G networking. SK Telecom affiliate Iriver Inc would be responsible for handling the music distribution. In the first half of 2018, JYP Entertainment became the second largest entertainment company in South Korea, mainly due to the success of Twice and Got7. On March 26, a new boy group Stray Kids debuted, named after the 2017 reality show of the same title. In May, the company became the sole South Korean entertainment company to rank in Financial Times magazine's "FT 1000: High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific" list. On August 30, the company's shares closed at 31,300 KRW, pushing the company's market capitalization to 1.09 trillion KRW.On January 21, 2019, JYP Entertainment announced its next girl group, Itzy. The group released their debut single album, It'z Different in February, featuring the single "Dalla Dalla". On January 24, the program Super Intern premiered on Mnet, which featured the internship process at JYP Entertainment, with the goal of turning the interns into permanent marketing management staff. The show premiered on Mnet on January 24. On January 29, plans of creating a Japanese girl group, under their vision "JYP 2.0: Globalization By Localization" was announced. On the season finale of Nizi Project, the line-up for the new girl group, NiziU, was revealed. The group is a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment Japan, for its activities in Japan. The group made their debut on December 2, 2020. On March 11, 2019, JYP Entertainment made a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment's The Orchard. JYP Entertainment would distribute both digital and physical releases to key markets in the internationally through The Orchard in order to "expand the label's presence around the world." On June 8, Fanling Culture Media trainee Yao Chen placed 5th in the finale of Produce Camp 2019 has made the final lineup of project group R1SE. The group made their debut on the same day. On June 17, JYP and Make-A-Wish Korea signed a memorandum of understanding to help support children's wishes under JYP Entertainment's "Every Dream Matters!" campaign as part of their corporate social responsibility. Under the agreement, the company would be carrying out various social responsibility activities with its artists, employees and fans in order to support campaigns and initiatives for children with incurable diseases. On July 24, JYP Entertainment announced the closure of their acting division and would jointly manage its actors with the new start-up company, Npio Entertainment, created by JYP Entertainment Vice President Pyo Jong-rok. Actors Jang Hee-ryung, Park Si-eun and Ryu Won left the company. Actors Yoon Park, Kang Hoon, Shin Ye-eun, Kim Dong-hee and Lee Chan-sun stayed in the company for the remainder of their contract periods.
On January 6, 2020, Shinhan Card collaborated with JYP Entertainment to release four "JYP Fan's EDM Check Cards" – JYP, Got7, Day6 and Twice. Certain percentages of the amount used when making payments using the check cards were to be donated to Make-A-Wish Korea. On February 24, Twice was signed under Republic Records for American promotions. On August 4, a collaboration with SM Entertainment to establish Beyond Live Corporation, a joint company for virtual concerts was announced. On November 17, JYP Entertainment invested 5 billion KRW in Naver Z, the developer of the online avatar app Zepeto.
On January 10, 2021, all members of Got7 left JYP Entertainment upon the completion of their 7-year contract. On April 26, JYP Entertainment and P Nation announced to form their new boy group in Loud. It premiered on June 5 on SBS. On July 12, the second season of Nizi Project was announced as a Global Boys Audition. On November 1, JYP Entertainment announced its new rock band Xdinary Heroes. The band released their debut single "Happy Death Day" on December 6.
On January 26, 2022, a new girl group Nmixx was announced for a February 22 debut, with their debut single album, Ad Mare. After Twice's success in the U.S., JYP Entertainment expanded their partnership with Republic Records in February, by signing both Stray Kids and Itzy under Republic Records for promotions. In April, the market cap of JYP Entertainment had risen from 1.33 trillion KRW in the previous year to 2.24 trillion KRW, an increase of 1 trillion KRW in the first three months of 2022. The company's stock prices soared to 66,200 KRW on April 8, surpassing company's record. On July 12, all nine members of Twice renewed their contracts with the company. On September 26, all members of Day6 renewed their contracts with the company. In December, Jinni both left the company and the group Nmixx, due to personal reasons.
In 2023, the competition show A2K and the second season of Nizi Project both aired. A2K led to the formation of the group Vcha, a joint venture between JYP Entertainment and Republic Records. The second season of Nizi Project concluded with the line up for the boy group Nexz, a joint venture with Sony Records Japan. Both groups released their debut single in 2024. In August 2024, Innit Entertainment was established – the company's management subsidiary for actors and artists.
In 2025, the company's newest boy groups KickFlip and CIIU were launched. The girl group Vcha was rebranded as Girlset in August without original members KG and Kaylee, both of whom left JYP Entertainment. By September, all five members of the girl group Itzy renewed their contact with the company.