"Commercialization, long training periods and contracts are necessary for entertainment companies to compete in the global market with sufficient investments and we wish that the public would understand and support this cause". Lee Soo Man, founder and chairman of SM Entertainment recently flew to Kazakhstan to attend the U-Altaic Culture Creation Network Forum. He also attended the SM Entertainment audition at Tchaikovsky College where he held an interview with Yeonhap News and asked for the public's support and understanding for special needs and requirements needed in the entertainment business. Lee Soo Man spoke of his dream to create the Hollywood of Asia together with Japan, China, and other Asian nations. The following is a Q&A session with the founder of SM Entertainment: == -'SM Town Live World Tour' recently took place in Paris and brought a hot reaction for K-pop. What were the incentives for the concert and what were the expectations on it's reception?'

-"Concerts have been continuously taking place around the world and Asia was only a part of it. Last year, we held a concert at the Staples Center in America and this time around, we held one at a cultural center in Paris. However, we didn't know nor expect that European fans would gather for flash mobs to request concerts from us. The reaction was greater than we expected and we're happy that everyone was pleased".

-"All the efforts in networking with producers and choreographers all around the world, and all the work for the past decade have all finally paid off. The efforts of the young artists have finally come full circle to complete the work. In reality, Europe and the US don't really have solid systematic training systems. SM Entertainment on the other hand has trained kids starting from a young age through the SM training system. This is Asia's strong point, as it is also SM's strong point".

-"Cultural exchange with other nations is important, and I believe that the potential to produce great unique sounds are yet to be found in the nomadic people's DNA. Also, looking at Eurasia as a whole, there's a huge potential for growth in resources, so we decided to participate in the Korean Culture Industry Forum's cause to exchange cultures".

-"The focus is cultural exchange and we're looking for global entertainers. We will have to later fully evaluate the talent, but it's better than expected".

-"SM Town's Youtube is the most viewed channel in all of Asia. We opened a SM Town Facebook as the concert in Paris was happening. There were a total of 87 million viewers in 3 days. As the Internet has quickly become one of the top outlets for media, we were lucky to be the leader and it opened quicker roads to the world. We were able to be efficient as we're a strong IT / technological nation. My degree in Computer Engineering may have also helped".

-"I'm relieved that the public understands that great artists are the products of long effort and training. As America has a lot of agencies but weak management, investments are pretty rare. But Korea and Japan have solid management bases so there's many investments. SM took that path and although it may cause misunderstandings, we hope that the public can understand a bit more now. Commercialization, long training periods and contracts are necessary for entertainment companies to compete in this global market with sufficient investments and we wish that the public would understand and support this cause".

-"I believe we need to create the Hollywood of Asia by working together with Japan, China, and other Asian nations. It seems that Asia's version of Hollywood has the potential to be bigger than the US. And when this Hollywood of Asia is fully realized and created, I hope that Korea would be in the center, while SM Entertainment is looking to take the biggest role".