HYBE has faced ongoing scrutiny following a series of controversies, with one particularly contentious allegation being that the company manipulated media coverage to inflate the success of its artists. Amid these controversies, Korean netizens recently noticed that an article claiming HYBE had gifted reporters with luxury perks was suddenly removed from circulation.
On November 14, a Korean netizen shared an article posted on Yahoo Japan revealing that HYBE had reportedly covered flights and luxury hotel accommodations for approximately 100 reporters, along with providing explicit guidelines on the language to use in their articles.
The article claimed, "HYBE covered everything, from flights to luxury hotels. From July to September, HYBE held a four-city dome tour across Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka, impressing Japan’s music industry insiders with what was described as 'HYBE’s generous hospitality.' Nearly 100 journalists from sports newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets were invited to the Fukuoka Dome. HYBE provided round-trip flights in JAL’s Class J, along with accommodations at luxury hotels costing between 50,000 to 70,000 JPY per night (~321 USD to 449 USD). Meals were, of course, included. However, there were strict guidelines on ‘mandatory phrases’ that had to be included in the articles. As a result, most of the media outlets all ended up publishing similar articles. While some were pleased with the invitation, many in the music industry felt uneasy about HYBE’s influence.”
However, the article was quickly taken down from Yahoo Japan, leading netizens to speculate that HYBE may have been behind its removal.
Korean netizens joined the online community to discuss this latest discovery and commented:
"This is why HYBE only made a net profit of 1.4 billion KRW (~995,382 USD)."
"Wow... HYBE definitely removed that article."
"The original article is still up."
"I can't believe they did that."
"This is why you can't trust articles."
"This is probably what they do for Korean reporters as well."
"HYBE used all their funds buying out reporters."
"Nearly 100 reporters..."
"This is so dirty... I hope all their dirt is exposed."
"That's why they didn't make much profit."
"That's where all their money went I guess."
"This is so scary..."
"Treating reporters like this is so common in Korea..."
"There was a reason they made little profit despite the large revenue."
"I bet you they poured a bunch of money in the U.S. too."
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