YG Entertainment

YG Entertainment Inc.

Native name	YG 엔터테인먼트
Type	Public
Traded as	KRX:
Industry	Entertainment Retail
Genre	K-Pop Hip-hop R&B Electronic Dance Pop
Founded	February 24, 1996; 20 years ago (1996-02-24) in Seoul, South Korea
Founder	Yang Hyun-suk
Headquarters	Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Yang Min-suk (CEO)
Revenue	US$ 170.03 million (2015) US$ 156.31 million (2014)
Net income	US$ 21.11 million (2015) US$ 7.7 million (2014)
Owner	Yang Hyun-suk (19.1%) Great World Music Investment (L Capital Asia - LVMH group) (11.3%) Beijing Weiying Technology (8.2%) Tencent (4.5%) Yang Min-suk (3.9%) National Pension Service (3.6%) Samsung Asset Management (2.8%)
Number of employees	668 (2017)
Subsidiaries	YGEX YGKPlus YGPlus HIGHGRND (Sub-label) The Black Label (Sub-label) PSYG (Sub-label) NONA9ON moonshot YG Golf Academy 3geori Butchers
Website	ygfamily.com

YG Entertainment (Korean: YG 엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean entertainment company established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company, and music publishing house. In addition, the company operates a number of subsidiary ventures under a separate public traded company - YG PLUS, which includes a clothing line, a golf management agency, and a cosmetics brand. It is currently one of the largest entertainment companies in South Korea.

Formerly home to hip-hop group 1TYM and 2NE1, its current roster of artists include some of the biggest K-pop acts to gain international fame, such as Psy, Big Bang, Sandara Park, CL, Akdong Musician, Lee Hi, WINNER, iKON and BLACKPINK as well as actors and actresses including Kang Dong-won, Choi Ji-woo, Cha Seung-won and Lee Jong-suk. In terms of revenue contribution, Big Bang is the company's biggest act; their 2015 Made albums sold over 5.9 million copies in China and over 15 million copies throughout Asia. Official content posted by YG and its artists on YouTube have cumulatively garnered more than 8 billion views.

In March 1996, Yang Hyun-suk, a former member of the first-generation K-pop group Seo Taiji and Boys, founded YG Entertainment along with his younger brother Yang Min-suk. The company's first artist was the hip-hop trio Keep Six. When they failed to attract popularity, Yang turned his focus to the duo Jinusean and in 1998 to the debut of 1TYM. Both were successful artists that Yang credits for bringing YG Entertainment, and the hip hop genre, into the Korean music mainstream.