Recently, HYBE has been the focus of attention after announcing that first-quarter revenue and profit increased by nearly 50% compared to the same quarter last year. Although this has shown HYBE's business strategy and ability to dominate the K-pop industry, it seems that this group is still ambitious to make full use of the revenue from fans.

However, everything has its limit and when the limit is exceeded, HYBE is facing a wave of harsh criticism from users around the world. This stems from a series of adjustments the company recently announced regarding its upcoming operations. One of the most criticized changes involved changing concert prices depending on when they were sold, or so-called dynamic pricing for concert tickets.

Fans are now asking HYBE to review this issue and point out a bunch of negatives when it comes to this policy:

Since rising with the power of BTS, HYBE has increasingly proved its position as a big man, a leading company in Kpop. Although it started out as a small company with only one group, BTS and a solo artist, Lee Hyun, HYBE now owns many sub-labels and dozens of K-pop groups, including many groups. famous as Seventeen, Le Sserafim, TXT, New Jeans,...

Meanwhile, at the time when BTS was about to enlist in the army, many people thought that HYBE would have a big gap in revenue that could not be filled, but recently, after HYBE announced Q1 2023 revenue, they surprise the public. HYBE achieved huge sales and profits, even doubling compared to the first quarter of the previous year. This is due to the majority of the effective solo activities of BTS members along with the strong growth of groups from brands.

And most of the group's income comes from selling albums and holding concerts. Therefore, HYBE seems to be aiming higher to fully exploit these contents to further boost its revenue and profit. But it was this plan that got HYBE into trouble after introducing a dynamic pricing strategy for concert tickets.

HYBE's revelation about the change in ticket prices in the US was what ṩḧöċḳed fans the most. Dynamic pricing is when companies allow ticket vendors to increase the prices of tickets depending on demand.

In fact, in the past, K-Pop fans in general and ARMYs, in particular, have experienced many times when concert distributors suddenly increase ticket prices when fans are in high demand, but never have they made it public. Only recently HYBE is willing to go public about this and even see it as a strategy to be implemented in the future.

Specifically, a representative of HYBE mentioned this issue that: "We currently do apply dynamic pricing to the US market for performances by Suga and TXT. If any of our other artists do perform in the US, the same dynamic pricing will apply. Basically, to be able to apply this scheme, you have to have sell-out ticketing power and we think that all of our artists have that. It could apply to them if they are performing in the US."

However, not only the dynamic pricing of concert tickets in the US, but the HYBE representative also said that the company wants to test similar systems in other countries, depending on the market. They continued: "What about dynamic pricing in a non-US country? Well, we are considering our options, not just in terms of the pricing scheme but we’re also looking at what type of scheme best fits the characteristics of different markets. So, it doesn’t have to necessarily be dynamic pricing, but we’re looking into different means to boost concert and performance revenue overall. For example, in ̾j̾a̾p̾a̾n, the venue tends to have very sub-segmented seating arrangements. So, potentially, we can differentiate ticket pricing to achieve a similar effect that is consistent with dynamic pricing."

Before this statement, ḳöŕệän and international netizens were extremely indignant and repeatedly attacked HYBE for this capitalist strategy. Many people believe that HYBE has taken away the love of fans for K-Pop and idols, and then tried to take advantage of that fan to make a profit.

Not only that, even the founder of HYBE - Bang Shi Hyuk also became the focus of controversy. For many people, acknowledging that dynamic pricing to increase revenue goes against the core values that BigHit Entertainment originally aimed at, which is also the motto that President Bang declared: "We Believe in Music":

- bring back music & artist for healing!!!

- “We believe in music” was labeled as HYBE’s mission. And yet they applied Dynamic Pricing which betrays the relationship between fans and artist’s real music. What a hypocrite . #NoDynamicPricing 

- They’ve been too comfortable with our loyalty and our love as fans and out taking advantage of us by cashing out the money

- hybe mistook our endless love and support towards tannies as our weakness and thought they could unfairly benefit from us. we ain't here for you but for bts and we'll protest against everything that's unrighteous and unethical.

- taking benefits of our love for bts?

- Bts released so many songs only in soundcloud for us to enjoy them free. Jimin said he will love us regardless when one army said they watched the concert ilℓєgαℓly. Bts always does free lives. But look at their greedy company. #하이브티켓값뻥튀기반대. #NoDynamicPricing

- Biting the hand that feeds you @HYBEOFFICIALtwt?Stop this exploitation of our love and support for BTS, yes we love them enormous amount (that’s the reason you are to this level) but we aren’t stup!d and we are not your ATMs.

- what happened to music for artist & healing  ? Taking benefits for our love for  artist & dynamic pricing is utterly unjustifiable don’t take advantage of fans loyalty for company profit. @HYBEOFFICIALtwt

- Yes you have every right to make business decisions that you think may benefit your company. But you will also have to deal with the consequences that come with some of those decisions.

Not only becoming the center of controversy, but HYBE also faced with domestic and international fans boycotting products from Weverse. They cancel Weverse orders but do not cancel album-related orders, as it would directly affect their idols. They focus on merchandise and things that don't affect the group but still show the countermeasure to this plan.

While HYBE has always been known for its top-notch fan services, it's now causing netizens to question its authenticity. From a small company that focuses on music, artists, and fans, many netizens believe that HYBE has ̾l̾o̾s̾t ̾ what makes it special and has become a capitalist corporation that only cares about profits.

Previously, HYBE was also criticized when it announced changes related to the Weverse application. Some features that were previously free in the future will be subject to a fee, and there are some that are unacceptably ridiculous, such as subtitles, for foreign fans.

Naturally, taking care of and providing a good environment for fans to develop their love for their idols is what an agency needs to do. But HYBE seems to be seeing it as more of a tool to make money than the basic thing they have to offer!