It’s official: South Korean entertainment giant HYBE is planning to expand into India in the second half of 2025.
Speaking to MBW, a HYBE spokesperson said: “We’re actively engaged in market research and the logistical setup for a new subsidiary in India, targeting a launch between September and October 2025.”
The move is part of Chairman Bang Si-hyuk‘s strategy to export the “K-pop methodology” to international markets, they added.
The expansion also represents the next stage of what HYBE calls its “multi-home, multi-genre’ strategy,” which, according to HYBE, involves the company “aiming to achieve a dominant market position by seamlessly integrating local culture and characteristics”.
HYBE’s spokesperson said: “Our strategic expansion into India is driven by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk’s vision to export K-Pop methodologies, aligning with his conviction that the K-Pop business model must be adapted to other genres for sustained growth.”
Confirmation of the launch in India arrives a month after Yonhap reported that HYBE was planning to establish an office in Mumbai, India. The news outlet cited sources in the investment community as saying that HYBE is preparing to make a “full-fledged entry into the Indian entertainment market starting with a local office.”
“Our strategic expansion into India is driven by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk’s vision to export K-Pop methodologies, aligning with his conviction that the K-Pop business model must be adapted to other genres for sustained growth.”
HYBE
Also in late May, HYBE launched a subsidiary in China, the world’s fifth-largest recorded music market, to help K-pop artists expand into the market. HYBE is behind superstar acts including BTS, ENHYPEN, Seventeen, and others.
If completed, the launch of an office in India will mark HYBE’s fifth global market presence outside of South Korea, having expanded into China, Japan, the United States and Latin America over the past few years.
In a statement cited by Maeil Business Newspaper, HYBE said: “Chairman Bang’s usual philosophy is that K-pop should not simply mean music as a genre of pop, but should become a methodology in itself that accurately identifies the public’s tastes and creates super IP based on super fans.”
Bang Si-hyuk predicted that “the strategy of securing a foothold in the world’s major music markets and applying this methodology is producing results, and if the current trend continues, the landscape of the global music market dominated by the Big 3 global companies will change significantly,” according to the report.
His vision to globalize the K-pop method of discovering talent has led to the launch of a girl group called KATSEYE in the US last year through HYBE’s partnership with Universal Music Group‘s Geffen Records.
According to HYBE CEO Jason Jaesang Lee, KATSEYE “had the best year in 2024 with their debut album SIS,” with their title track Touch appearing on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 for two weeks and the Global Song Chart for 13 consecutive weeks.
In February, HYBE teamed up with Grammy Award winner Ryan Tedder to search for and create a new boy group. The venture aims to establish a “new standard for artist development” by combining HYBE’s K-pop training infrastructure with Tedder’s expertise in hit-making and artist development, according to an announcement at the time.
In April, HYBE Latin America partnered with Spanish-language television network Telemundo to launch Pase a la Fama, described as a first-of-its-kind music competition series focused on creating the next great Regional Mexican band.
The expansion into India is a significant growth opportunity for HYBE. India is the most populous country in the world, with more than 1.42 billion people, according to the US Census Bureau. India is the world’s 15th largest recorded music market by annual revenues, according to data from the IFPI.
The reported expansion also comes amid increased M&A activity in the market.
Last month, Reservoir Media’s newly established Mumbai subsidiary, PopIndia, struck its first catalog deal in the market with Musicraft Entertainment, less than a month after its launch in India.
In March, Primary Wave’s joint venture with Times Music acquired two companies in India.
Meanwhile, Warner Music Group recently made a minority investment in live entertainment and ticketing platform SkillBox, and acquired artist management and live events company E-Positive.
Elsewhere, Universal Music India recently took a majority stake in Indian music and entertainment company TM Ventures, while Sony Music acquired a major catalog in India from Eros.
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