K-pop powerhouses such as Hybe and SM Entertainment have recently shown increasing interest in the music market of the Middle East. Hybe Chairman Bang Si-hyuk last week met with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss possible cooperation in K-pop ventures, upon his request. SM Entertainment, led by its founder and former chief producer Lee Soo-man, got its feet in the door early, signing a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture to cooperate on establishing a studio for content creation and hosting a large-scale K-pop concert in Saudi Arabia in November 2022.
When Kakao Entertainment acquired SM Entertainment in 2023, it met with Saudi Arabia Tourism Authority officials to discuss enhancing cultural exchanges utilizing its intellectual property. However, K-pop companies' efforts to develop the market for K-pop in the Middle East have been met with doubts from many industry insiders. “The Middle East, without a doubt, is now one of the interesting markets in the world and it has a large population of young people, which is attractive to K-pop companies whose customers are mostly young fans.
Still, the profitability of the music business there is too low at the moment. Its market size is small, too. Hybe and SM Entertainment are just leaving their doors open for the business,” a local entertainment company official said Tuesday.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's latest Globa.
