SM Entertainment에스엠엔터테인먼트

SM Entertainment (에스엠엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean entertainment agency, record label and music publisher founded by Lee Soo-man (이수만). Lee set up the business in 1989 as SM Studio in Apgujeong, Seoul, and renamed it SM Entertainment in February 1995.² The company was incorporated on February 14, 1995.¹ In 2000 it became the first entertainment company listed on KOSDAQ,² where its shares have traded since April 27, 2000, under the code 041510.¹ It is based in Seongsu-dong, in Seoul's Seongdong District.²

SM built its early acts through an in-house training system aimed at teenage audiences, launching H.O.T. in 1996, S.E.S. in 1997, Shinhwa in 1998 and the soloist BoA in 2000. TVXQ followed in 2003, Super Junior in 2005, Girls' Generation in 2007, SHINee in 2008 and f(x) in 2009.² Its current roster includes EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, aespa, RIIZE and Hearts2Hearts.² In February 2023 it announced "SM 3.0", a move to a system of several production centres and labels.² Ejae, the singer-songwriter behind KPop Demon Hunters' "Golden", trained at SM from 2003 without debuting.³

At the end of 2025 SM's largest shareholder was Kakao, with 21.61%, and Kakao's subsidiary Kakao Entertainment held another 19.89%.¹ For fiscal 2025 SM reported consolidated revenue of ₩1,174.9 billion, up 18.7%, and operating profit of ₩183.0 billion, more than double 2024's ₩87.3 billion; the company called them its best results ever. The parent company had 765 employees.¹