JYP Founder Park Jin-young: Won’t Acquire Companies Even with as Much Money as HYBE

On May 27, a topic about JYP founder Park Jin-young was published on the Korean forum “theqoo” and attracted over 60,000 views and 300 comments within just a few hours. 

According to the topic, during a livestream on the channel “Syuka World Comics,” when the host mentioned HYBE’s continuous acquisition of subsidiaries, Park Jin-young expressed his views.

“I can’t do that. Even with as much money as HYBE, I don’t think I would acquire other companies”, Park Jin-young said, adding, “It’s been 26 years since I founded the company in 1997. Over those 26 years, what I’ve focused on the most is building a company culture. I want the company to be a healthy environment where artists and employees can support each other and work equally.”

The JYP founder also stated, “We don’t engage in anything illegal while expanding our personal relationships healthily. I have worked very hard to create that culture for the company. Different companies will have different cultures. If we merge with a company that has a completely different culture, issues will arise between the companies. Corporate culture is very important to us.”

Upon reading about Park Jin-young’s viewpoint, many netizens praise JYP and criticize HYBE. Below are some comments from Korean netizens: 

• All company should learn this
• JYP is really amazing… The entertainment industry used to be so healthy…
• Meanwhile, the entire philosophy of HYBE is just money, money, and money
• Compared to the founders of the original “Big 3” who are all singers, HYBE is greedy because its founder is from the gaming/IT background
• Really, how are Park Jin-young and Bang Si-hyuk even friends LOL 
• Looking at the video, Park Jin-young has affection for the K-pop scene unlike anyone else.

Source: theqoo, VKR