For the past three years, JYP Entertainment kept announcing the promise of debuting a new K-pop idol girl group. Such words by the entertainment label famous for Wonder Girls were sweet to K-pop fans because the last time JYP Entertainment debuted such a group was in 2010 with miss A. Many stayed on the edge of the seats, scouring the web for the latest details on what JYP Entertainment would bring.
All came to fruition on October 7, 2015, when TWICE made their debut. Not only did JYP Entertainment deliver on their promise, but it seems all their blood and sweat in producing a new group returned tenfold. TWICE has become an international phenomenon since their debut. With that in mind, did TWICE just become the new leaders in the K-pop industry in less than two months?
The above question is starting to make its rounds among K-pop fans who love to analyze the K-pop industry’s business and financial side, as well as enjoy the music. To be fair, such a question isn’t just empty fandom given the accomplishments TWICE has achieved in less than two months.
TWICE’s first accomplishment has to do with their debut album The Story Begins along with its featured single, “Like OOH-AHH.” Since the release of both on October 20, 2015, they have garnered substantially positive numbers. The Story Begins peaked at No. 3 in South Korea, No. 46 for Japan, and No. 2 for Taiwan. Physical album sales total more than 22,000 total. As for the “Like OOH-AHH” music video (attached below), there have been over 15 million views as of December 3, 2015. That many views is phenomenal given the fact more established K-pop groups don’t have such numbers for most of their music videos.
The second accomplishment TWICE achieved happened yesterday, December 2, 2015. Millions of K-pop fans around the world either attended or tuned in to watch the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards or MAMA 2015 . TWICE was nominated for two categories this year for “UnionPay Artist of the Year” and “Best New Female Artist.” They did not win the former, but they won the latter in which they beat out CLC, Lovelyz, and Oh My Girl. The biggest surprise was they beat out GFriend, a very popular rookie K-pop idol girl group that got a huge boost when a recording of GFriend members Yuju and SinB falling a total of nine times during a live performance went internationally viral.
Finally, TWICE has already signed a number of endorsements, reaching into double-digit territory. According to AllKpop , a representative for JYP Entertainment confirmed TWICE is signed into 10 CF contract deals .
“TWICE has contracts as the CF models of a total of 10 brands, in sectors which only the top stars endorse, including a mobile communications brand and a global makeup brand.
“What’s even better is that we keep getting calls for CFs in new business sectors too. We have debuted a lot of new groups, but TWICE is the first group that has become CF models for this many brands in such a short time.”
It was also revealed that TWICE is confirmed to earn a total of 1.8 billion won, which exchanges to almost $1.55 million USD. It is unknown how much JYP Entertainment will get out of those contracts but if it were half, TWICE still gets $775,000, which is roughly $86,000 per member.
The aforementioned accomplishments are an amazing accomplishment for any rookie K-pop rookie group. However, such an accomplishment for a K-pop rookie group that is, as mentioned earlier, not even two months old is unheard of. If this impact is a sign of what TWICE’s career will be, K-pop fans will surely have a lot to look forward to. Thus we come back full circle to the original question at hand. Is TWICE the new leaders of the K-pop industry? Even with the aforementioned accomplishments, it is still hard to tell. Yet, TWICE now being dubbed as the new Girls’ Generation surely does help sway the answer towards “yes.”
[Image via via TWICE’s Official Website]