Li Xiuman, born in 1952, is 67 years old this year. In South Korea, where the legal retirement age is 61, the words "retirement" and "longevity" still seem to be far away.
Li Xiuman spelled.
This year marks the third consecutive year that Lee has been selected as a "Global Leader" for Variety in the United States. On October 13, billboard official news, Li Xiuman launched sm entertainment's new boy band superm, with the first self-titled mini album, won the "billboard 200" list champion. This is also the first time that the K-pop ballad industry has achieved debut crown results in Billboard.
Known as the "Avengers" of the SM family, the "strongest boy band" brings together 7 members of the company's shine Taimin, exo Boxian and kai; nct Tairong, mark, lucas and ten, jointly created by SM Entertainment and its latest partner, universal music's cmg (capital music group), produced by Lee So-man, and officially debuted in the United States on October 4.
1
Li Xiuman's "American Dream"
As early as 2008, SM Entertainment had begun to officially declare war on the US market. That year, Li Xiuman set up a subsidiary in the United States. In the same year, the 8-year-old "sm sister" boa was selected as the company's first artist to enter the US market, released the album "Bright and Colorful" and "Boa", and she also ranked 127th in "Billboard 200" with the album "Boa", becoming the first Korean singer to enter the list.
But perhaps because of the difference in the music culture of the East and the West, as well as the difference in the consumption habits of the idol market, boa did not gain more results after that. As a result, her activities in the United States lasted only two years before they gradually stopped, and SM Entertainment's first "trip to the United States" came to an end.
In 2013, the super junior "super show 5" world tour spanned four continents in Asia, Europe, North and South America for the first time, making Super Junior the first Korean idol to tour in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. In 2018, the group released the title song of the follow-up album "lo siento" of the regular 8 series. The song is not only mixed with Korean and Spanish, but also invites local Latin artists play n skillz and leslie grace to participate in the collaboration. The song won the record of 13th place in the "billboard's latin digital song sales", and super junior also embarked on a non-stop tour of Central and South America.
In January this year, SM Entertainment held its first South American smtown family concert in Santiago, Chile.
Through Super Junior's tour of South America and collaborations with local artists, SM Entertainment has gradually opened up a market that was once overlooked by the K-pop.
Tapping into the U.S. market on the other side of the Pacific ocean is still a dream for all K-pop entertainment companies. And the once unknown big hit entertainment, with the bulletproof youth group (bts) turned around, becoming a net revenue profit more than South Korea's "big three" entertainment companies.
The popularity of bts in the United States has also allowed Korean entertainment companies that have never given up on conquering the American market to see the infinite possibilities of k-pop idols in the United States.
In 2018, SM Entertainment once again introduced the NCT boy band to the US market. Released the album "NCT #127 regular-irregular", starred in the American TV show "Jimmy Kimmel Live", "good Day La", appeared on the Red Carpet of the National Music Awards and a series of events, announcing their official debut in the United States.
As of September 20, as the group's two teams, NCT 127 has entered the billboard global single sales chart four times, the "billboard 200" chart is the highest 11th place, the "billboard artist 100" is the highest place is 6th, and the "billboard social 50" list is the 2nd place. NCT Dream's album "We Boom" won the highest "Billboard Artist 100" 7th place and "Billboard Social 50" 3rd place, and was selected as the "Billboard 21 under 21" in the United States in 2018 and 2019 consecutively.
2
"Star DreamWorks" in Asia
In the 1980s, Li Xiuman was infected by the perfect entertainment industry in the United States during his study in the United States, and returned to China with 200 million won (about 1 million yuan) as the starting capital, and in 1989, he established sm projects and began record production. At the beginning of 1995, sm planning was officially legalized, and sm entertainment co., ltd. was born.
In 1996, in order to meet the needs and hobbies of Korean teenagers at that time, sm Entertainment launched the first Korean first-generation idol group H.O.T. trained in the trainee mode. After the group debuted, it caused a warm response in East Asian countries such as South Korea, China, and Japan, and became the first Korean group to hold a concert in China. Take this as an opportunity,
Sm Entertainment has gradually established a new "star-making model" and become the first music company in Asia to cultivate artists through the construction of a vertically integrated management system and an industrial assembly line.
H.O.T's popularity brought great social fame and monetary gains to SM Entertainment at that time. In 2000, sm entertainment, which had only been in the army for 5 years, became the first music company to be listed on a Korean exchange, nearly 11 years ahead of yg entertainment and jyp entertainment listed in 2011.
"sm" is an abbreviation for "star museum", which means "star museum, hall of fame". Sm Entertainment, known as the "Star Dream Factory", was the earliest and largest among the "three major entertainment companies in Korea", and under the leadership of Lee So-man, it played a vital role in promoting the development of the Korean entertainment idol industry.
As the founder of the company, Lee So-man has a keen sense of smell and foresight, and he has long recognized the limitations of Korean music and the market.
Since H.O.T in 1996, sm Entertainment has begun to focus on creating groups and artists that can be exported overseas, and laying out overseas markets.
China and Japan, which have the advantages of geographical proximity to South Korea and similar social culture and aesthetics, have taken the lead in becoming the first footholds in SM's global strategy. Compared with the Greater China circle with a similar cultural atmosphere, the North American market means that it is necessary to cater to different musical preferences, and it is obvious that more tempering is needed to enter the mainstream circle. The Chinese market, where the fan base is expanding, is still a target that Korean entertainment companies cannot give up at this stage.
After H.O.T, artists under sm entertainment such as Boa, who debuted in 2000, Dongfang Shenqi, who debuted in 2004, Super Junior, who debuted in 2005, Girls' Generation who debuted in 2007, and Exo, who debuted in 2012, have won big victories in the Chinese and Japanese markets.
In June last year, Lee So-man was recognized as the highest operator award at the "2018 China-Korea Business Awards" co-sponsored by People's Daily Korea and the Korea Marketing Association for his contributions to the globalization of Korean mass culture and guiding the successful leap of k-pop. In his speech, he said that he hopes to integrate content products and artists with China, produce synergistic effects based on the direction of leading the world market out of Asia, and hope to create the highest level of Korean-Chinese integration culture in the world.
In February this year, sm entertainment took the first step into Indonesia. The company and the Indonesian CT Group announced the establishment of a joint venture, which plans to combine the experience of the Korean cultural industry with the Indonesian cultural industry to cultivate world-class stars. Super Junior has once again become the vanguard of "pioneering territory", and is expected to release a collaborative song with Indonesian national singer Rossa.
3
Uncle Man's ambition is the "smtown universe"
In addition to the expansion of K-pop, Li Xiuman's career territory has never stopped at the singing and dancing idol Aidou.
In 2012, SM Entertainment acquired BT&i to establish sm C&C, a cultural products company. The earliest signed by the company is now the national mc Jiang Hudong. After this, Shen Dongye, Li Xiugen, Quan Xuanmao and other big trend variety show mc signed into the company's umbrella. While expanding the industrial map to the production of content such as TV series, movies, and musicals, it has also opened an artist management section for actors and artists.
In recent years, the company has been laying out in variety shows and film and television. In March last year, sm Entertainment announced that it had acquired 19.45 million shares (25.12%) held by actor Bae Yongjun, the largest shareholder of Keyeast, for 50 billion won (2,570 won per share). In addition, it acquired 7.5 million shares of fnc add culture, a variety show production company owned by TV dramas and fnc, and increased its capital by 10 billion won.
In 2015, sm Entertainment created a 6-storey comprehensive cultural space "smtown@coexartium" in Sansei-dong coex. This is not a product experience hall under the traditional model, but an experience venue that cooperates with various industries to combine entertainment products with high-tech experiences. Smtown@coexartium is a new type of cultural industry jointly developed by the private sector and the government, as a cultural commodity industry in which it participates with dozens of other small and medium-sized enterprises, and jointly planned by the Ministry of Future Creative Sciences and the Information and Communications Industry Promotion Institute.
In 2016, Li Xiuman first proposed the concept of "nct" at the press conference, that is, "neo culture technology" based on the summary and update of "culture technology" since the establishment of SM Entertainment. Adhering to the three-step strategy of "export-cooperation-localization" to explore the global market and practice the "export-cooperation-localization", the company aims to launch a localization group suitable for the local market. The "openness" and "expansion" in the characteristics of the concept boy band NCT show Li Xiuman's ambition.
At the Upbit Developers Conference in Incheon, South Korea, Sm Entertainment announced that it was discussing plans with blockchain companies to issue its own cryptocurrency. Invest in artists' works through cryptocurrencies, using blockchain technology to solve the current inefficient settlement and payment problems in the entertainment industry. If sm entertainment's plan is implemented, it may become the first entertainment company to issue digital currency.
For the "Big Three", the rise of big hit entertainment and cj entertainment has made violent market fluctuations the norm in the Korean entertainment market. Since the end of October 2018, sm entertainment has ushered in a sharp decline in stocks. South Korean media reported that seeking a breakthrough in the blockchain business may be a countermeasure for the company to face a decline in stock prices.
At this time, Li Xiuman announced that he led the "Avengers" superm as a starting point to cooperate with Marvel, CAA, Global Citizen and other companies in film and television projects. Uncle Man spelled out his 24-year ambition to build a world-class idol group. Born in 1952, he is 67 years old this year. In South Korea, where the legal retirement age is 61, the words "retirement" and "longevity" still seem to be far away.
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