By Choi Jin-woo

The American investment bank Goldman Sachs has highly rated the influence and growth potential of K-pop.

The U.K. daily Financial Times on April 4 released the article headlined "Are we at peak K-pop? Goldman doesn't think so," saying "Without having to look too hard, evidence of K-pop's might and reach abounds."

Quoting the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the story said, "In its survey of the state of the global music industry in 2023, the IFPI reported that six of the world's top 20 best-selling artists last year were South Korean."

"Hybe, JYP Entertainment, SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment — have fallen over the past nine months in an across-the-board derating of the sector," it added. "Goldman Sachs sees this as a significant mistake and thinks that the shares of the three largest Korean management companies should be between 85 and 137 per cent higher than where they were in mid-March."

"The mainstream mindset, (Goldman Sachs) said, was wrong to focus on album sales because the really important metric for measuring the strength of the fan base was offline concert audiences," it said. "Acts run by Hybe, JYP and SM already command 7 per cent of Japan's live music market, and Goldman expects that ratio to double by 2026."

"The global appetite for K-pop, said Goldman, remains huge and the fan base will grow at a compound annual rate of 26 per cent over the next three years."

paramt@korea.kr