ANN/THE KOREA HERALD – K-pop entertainment giants such as Hybe and SM Entertainment have recently shown growing interest in the Middle Eastern music market. Hybe Chairman Bang Si-hyuk recently met with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to explore potential collaborations in K-pop initiatives at the president’s request. SM Entertainment, under founder Lee Soo-man, made early strides by signing a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture.
This agreement aims to establish a content creation studio and host a large-scale K-pop concert in Saudi Arabia in November 2022. Following Kakao Entertainment’s acquisition of SM Entertainment in 2023, discussions were held with Saudi Arabia Tourism Authority officials to explore opportunities for enriching cultural exchanges through its intellectual property. Nevertheless, the endeavours of K-pop companies to expand the market for K-pop in the Middle East have faced skepticism from numerous 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,” said a local entertainment company official. According to the Internation.
