On October 29, HYBE CEO Lee Jae Sang apologized for the latest controversy regarding the "music industry report."
On this day, CEO Lee Jae Sang wrote on the company's official website, "As the CEO of HYBE, I sincerely apologize to the artists, industry colleagues, and fans regarding our monitoring document.”
He continued, "This document was created to collect various responses and opinions on industry trends and issues after the fact. It was meant to be shared with a limited number of executives for gauging market and fan sentiment; however, the content of the document was highly inappropriate.”
Lee Jae Sang also revealed that HYBE had extended apologies to the artists and their agencies mentioned in the report and shared, "We sincerely apologize to the external artists who were mentioned in the report and who suffered harm and distress as a result. We have reached out to the respective agencies to offer our direct apologies, and we also extend our heartfelt apologies to the HYBE Music Group artists who have been subjected to criticism due to the company’s actions.”
Nevertheless, Korean netizens are continuing to express deep dissatisfaction and criticism toward HYBE. They commented:
"Just an apology doesn't let you off the hook. HYBE needs to go under."
"HYBE needs to explain about being a paid subscriber of Sojang."
"The employees below will be the only ones working hard, making all the phone calls. Meanwhile, the actual people who wrote the post will still be writing their reviews as usual."
"An apology is all?? HYBE get your act together!"
"Are you not going to apologize to NewJeans?"
"If you look at the NewJeans section just five days after their debut, instead of giving feedback on NewJeans, it laid out a strategy on how LE SSERAFIM should respond to the 'threat' of NewJeans. And they sent this to Min Hee Jin."
"This is like that X-file on celebrities that was controversial a long time ago."
"Min Hee Jin is the true winner in the end."
"Where is Bang Si Hyuk?"
"They need to apologize to NewJeans."
"HYBE will go under if BTS decides not to renew their contracts."
"They are so dirty. That expression is perfect for this company. They got sudden success thanks to BTS and they went crazy. It's like they won the lottery and are doing all sorts of dirty things."SEE ALSO: 'Squid Game 2' premieres today with global events and widespread excitement