K-pop powerhouse HYBE is set to establish a subsidiary in India in late 2025, further accelerating Chairman Bang Si-hyuk’s “Multi-home, Multi-genre” global strategy. According to an official announcement on June 30, HYBE is currently conducting market research and preparing for the legal launch of its India office, targeting a rollout between September and October.
This move aims to tap into India’s population of 1.4 billion, one of the largest untapped audiences in the world, by applying K-pop’s production, training, and marketing model to the local music scene.
What Is the “Multi-home, Multi-genre” Strategy?
Coined by Bang Si-hyuk, this strategy involves establishing physical bases (“homes”) in key global markets and adapting HYBE’s proven K-pop system across multiple genres and local cultural contexts. “To survive, we must export the K-pop business model—not just the music,” Bang has repeatedly emphasized.
In fact, this vision is already showing results in major music markets as follows:
- In the U.S., HYBE’s girl group KATSEYE, developed via K-pop’s rigorous trainee system, debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 within their first year.
- In Latin America, HYBE has launched joint auditions with Mexico’s largest broadcasting station Telemundo via band selection show “Path to Fame” (Pase a la fama) and plans to debut a Latin boy group using K-pop-style training and management. The label even acquired Exile Music to strengthen its South American foothold.
- In Japan, HYBE Japan (now YX Labels)’s &TEAM achieved triple platinum status with their third single, while new boy group “aoen” topped the Oricon charts immediately after debuting via a televised audition show.
Why India Now?
HYBE’s India expansion is seen as a bold move to preemptively secure a presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing entertainment markets. With Bollywood’s global influence and a burgeoning youth population increasingly consuming K-pop, the timing is ideal.
Just as HYBE transformed the U.S. market with its acquisition of Ithaca Holdings (home to Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber) and partnerships with Universal Music and QC Media Holdings, the company appears poised to replicate this infrastructure-driven growth model in India.
In its expansion, HYBE said, “K-pop should not remain at just meaning music as a genre of pop, but should become a methodology that accurately identifies the public’s tastes and creates super IP based on super fans. This is Chairman Bang’s usual opinion,” adding, “The strategy of securing a foothold in the world’s major music markets and applying this methodology is producing results, and if the current trend continues, the landscape of the world music market dominated by the global Big 3 companies will change significantly.”
With India on the horizon, HYBE isn’t just exporting music, but rather is exporting an ecosystem. And in doing so, it may redefine the future of global entertainment.
