Some days ago bts announced that it will retire for a couple of years so that its members can fulfill the required military service of South Korea. However, the Army are not the only ones who mourn this pause in the K-Pop stars, because believe it or not, this brake will cost their country billions.
The label of the band responsible for hits like “Dynamite” and 6 number one on the Billboard charts announced that the members will be off the stage for three years. You might be wondering what a boy band has to do with the economy, but BTS is intimately tied to South Korea’s income.
“BIGHIT MUSIC is proud to announce today that the members of BTS are currently moving forward with plans to fulfill their military service,” the record label wrote on Instagram. The group will use the hiatus to further their solo music projects.
BTS and the South Korean economy
In June of this year, BTS had already announced that its members would be taking a break. The next day, the South Korean stock market crashed.
After the group’s breakup announcement, shares in HYBE, its management company, lost a quarter of their value, Fortune reported. After BTS announced that they would be doing their military service, HYBE’s stock fell 2.5 percent.
According to a study by the Hyundai Research Institute, BTS is responsible for raising more than 3.6 billion dollars and its fans were 1 in 13 tourists who entered the country.
Likewise, Hyundai’s analysis indicates that from 2014 to 2023, the band could have generated 29,000 million dollars in profits.
The 7 members of BTS (MR, Jimin, Jin, v, Suga, J Hope Y Jungkook) started singing in the group in 2013. A case of Harvard Business Review found that “by some estimates, the BTS ecosystem accounts for a staggering $4.9 billion of South Korea’s GDP.” In 2020 the GDP of South Korea was 1.64 billion dollars, which means BTS helped with 0.30% of their country’s profits.
Yonhap News Agency estimated that $1.1 billion worth of consumer goods exported from South Korea were related to BTS, such as clothing and cosmetics.
It’s not the end of BTS
But neither the Army nor the cosmetics, collectibles and resort dealers need fear. According to the record company, “BTS members hope to reunite as a group around 2025 after their service commitment.”
Military service in South Korea by law provides that all physically fit men complete at least 2 years of training for the defense of their country.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.
