After success in the charts and on the internet, the South Korean boy band BTS is now also a hit on the stock exchange. The IPO of parent company Big Hit has brought the group many millions.
The price of the shares, listed on the Korean KRX index, had already more than doubled at launch, to 200 euros each. This gives the company a total value of 7 billion euros. It earned the seven members of the band $ 13 million per person.
The stock launch was broadcast live on the group’s YouTube channel. The prize was immediately driven up by fans worldwide who seized their chance. The ‘BTS Army’ is known as a loyal and fanatic supporters.
Corona no problem
BTS accounts for about 88 percent of the Big Hit company’s revenues. The seven-member group scored international hits like Savage Love in Dynamite, which recently became the first video clip ever to gain more than 100 million views on YouTube in a day.
Even the corona crisis does not seem to bother the group: BTS switched to virtual concerts, which hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide turn to. In June the group made it Guinness Book of World Records with the most watched live stream ever, 757,000 viewers from 107 countries.
The members of BTS will have to deal with South Korean conscription in the coming years: every man between the ages of 18 and 28 has to join the army for 20 months. There are already voices to exempt the BTS members, because according to fans they can do more for the country as an artist.
Two years ago the band gave a performance in Amsterdam. Some fans queued for hours:
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