If they are saying there's only 100 release dates a year but they intend to debut 2 groups a year, who are they cutting to make room because there are so many groups and soloists and particularly in the gg space, they need to move faster to stay relevant. Also they've talking about debuting NCT Japan for like 3 years now. Even if I believe you could cut down some of the prep time, this seems ridiculous.
Most of this seems logical, esp around creating fan-driven platforms and better managing concerts and merch through a more centralized process, as well as better optimizing the digital music (hopefully they clean up the messy Spotify).
I wasn't aware there was a maximum concerts/fan meetings cap. Lord, this explains so much.
I don't think anyone wants webtoons, but merch distro is definitely money left on the table. They left a lot of $$ behind on the NCT-Sanrio deal by not distributing globally, and that's not the first time they've missed.
Also interesting to see the more focused plans to monetize the video content like OTT (streaming like Netflix.)
It all sounds great but I've been rolling with SM groups for many years an am not convinced here. Plus the sales growth feels pretty optimistic.