SM Entertainment

Also known as S.M. Entertainment, Star Museum Entertainment

South Korean entertainment company

Key facts

Native name: SM 엔터테인먼트
Formerly: SM Studio (1989–1995)
Company type: Public
Traded as: KRX : 041510
Industry: Music entertainment technology
Founded: February 14, 1989 ; 37 years ago ( 1989-02-14 ) (as SM Studio) February 14, 1995 ; 31 years ago ( 1995-02-14 ) (as SM Entertainment)
Founder: Lee Soo-man
Headquarters: SM Entertainment 83-21, Wangsimni-ro, Seongsu-dong , Seongdong-gu , Seoul , South Korea
Area served: Worldwide
Key people: Jang Cheol-hyuk (Co- CEO ) Tak Young-jun (Co-CEO) Jang Jung-min ( CFO ) Kim Tae-hyun ( CLO ) Hong Gil-hwa ( CHRO ) Kim Ji-won (CRO) Choi Jung-min (CGO) Lee Sung-soo (CAO)
Services: Artist management Album and digital music planning Record production Music distribution Music publishing
Revenue: ₩ 812.5 billion ( US$ 710.26 million) (2025 )
Net income: ₩ 124.6 billion ( US$ 108.92 million) (2025 )
Total assets: ₩ 2.01 trillion ( US$ 1.76 billion) (2025 )
Total equity: ₩ 1.36 trillion ( US$ 1.19 billion) (2025 )
Owner: Kakao (21.61%) Kakao Entertainment (19.89%) Tencent Music (9.66%) T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (5.78%) Others (56.94%)
Number of employees: 765 (2025 )
Subsidiaries: See subsidiaries

via Wikipedia infobox

~38 min read

Encyclopedic overview

SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. (Korean: SM엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the careers of many K-pop stars garnering huge global fanbases. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company, and music publishing house. SM Entertainment is known for having led the worldwide K-pop phenomenon and the musical side of "Hallyu", also known as the "Korean Wave", with early overseas successes such as H.O.T., S.E.S., and BoA.

The label currently represents K-pop artists such as Kangta, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls' Generation, Shinee, Exo, Red Velvet, NCT, Aespa, Riize, Naevis, and Hearts2Hearts.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “SM Entertainment” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.