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Agency · Entertainment company, Seoul

SM Entertainment

SM엔터테인먼트

The agency that helped invent the idol group. From H.O.T. in the nineties to NCT, aespa and RIIZE, SM has shaped every generation of K-pop.

Founded
1995, by Lee Soo-man (it grew out of his SM Studio, started in 1989)
Headquarters
Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Stock market
KOSDAQ, since 2000: the first entertainment company there
Largest shareholder
Kakao, since 2023
CEOs
Jang Cheol-hyuk and Tak Young-jun

Lee Soo-man, a singer and radio host, founded SM Entertainment in 1995. A year later SM formed H.O.T., one of the first idol groups, and their success in China in the late nineties is often named as the start of the Korean Wave. S.E.S., BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior and Girls' Generation followed.

SM calls its way of working "culture technology": finding trainees, training them for years and building a group around a concept. The idea comes back in the name NCT, Neo Culture Technology, a group that started in 2016 with an open number of members and units in Seoul, Tokyo and China. Every year the agency brings all its artists together in the SMTOWN LIVE concerts.

In 2023 Lee Soo-man's time as sole producer ended. SM moved to SM 3.0, with several production centres and its own music publisher, and after a battle for the company Kakao became the largest shareholder. Since then SM has debuted RIIZE, NCT WISH and Hearts2Hearts.

With SM now 17

Labels and partners

  • Label VThe label of WayV, announced at the end of 2018.
  • NCT WISH with AvexThe Tokyo-based NCT unit, run by SM together with the Japanese company Avex.
  • Kreation Music RightsSM's own music publisher since 2023; it supplies songs to the production centres.
  • STEA joint venture in Beijing with Tencent Music, announced in August 2026, for a new Chinese idol group.

Before, at SM 3

Sources: Wikipedia: SM Entertainment, Korea JoongAng Daily: 30 years of SMTOWN, The Korea Times: culture technology, Korea JoongAng Daily: SM goes global, Music Business Worldwide: Kakao largest shareholder, SM 3.0 (SM's own site), Korea JoongAng Daily: Billboard Global Power Players 2026, Korea JoongAng Daily: SM and Tencent Music joint venture. Last checked 28 October 2026. Only the groups and artists that have a page on this site are listed.