HYBE's 'Music Industry Weekly Trend Report' contains the company's reaction to NCT Haechan's indoor smoking issue, RIIZE Seunghan's hotel selca issue, & more

Additional pages of the 'Music Industry Weekly Trend Report', created by HYBE Labels for the purpose of briefing its company executives, have been revealed by Channel A on October 26 KST. 

The new pages are now garnering attention for containing detailed analyses written by HYBE employees, despite HYBE COO Kim Tae Ho's insistence during the parliamentary audit that these reports only contained comments by online users obtained through monitoring.

Continued from the earlier translation of the section titled "Suggestions for Viral Marketing and Updates on Public Opinions on Online Communities", below is a translation of the second page, containing HYBE's reactions to various online controversies.

-NCT Haechan

• Footage of Haechan smoking an e-cigarette revealed in behind-the-scenes content. He was filmed dead on through the practice room mirror, but some fans tried to argue that he was eating a chocolate bar and made a fool of themselves. While the footage has since been since deleted from the behind-the-scenes content, someone has reported him for smoking indoors. 
• This is not the first time that a member of NCT has become wrapped up in a smoking controversy, and it is problematic that the company is incapable of spotting such occurrences from being aired. At the same time, it's nasty to see the same communities who treated Jungkook like a wanted criminal for smoking outdoors in a designated smoking area, trying to let this incident slide.

<2023-05-17>

The interest from K-Pop idol fans on the team's comeback has increased noticeably following the release of the trailer. It is noteworthy that at the present moment, when new groups such as ZEROBASEONE and BOYNEXTDOOR have not established a strong foothold, those consumers who are wanderers are to a certain extent showing positive interest in ENHYPEN. There is the possibility of drawing in more fans domestically through viral promotions emphasizing that it's not too late to stan a group with visuals, performing skills, and a vision. 

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• Considering that Thailand's most top tier superstars perform at Rajamangala, the news that Seventeen is performing there itself is viral promotion-worthy material. Particularly so as these days, groups with high selling power face questions such as 'Where do they sell all those albums'. For reference, [blurred]'s concert in Bangkok earlier this year was held at Impact Arena. Other artists like [blurred], [blurred], [blurred], [blurred], and [blurred] all performed there. 
• At first, the fans said that it was cute, but eventually, a criticism post was shared on Theqoowith over 1,000 comments, largely negative. In truth, it's all because the response to V's album was mediocre. If it were Jungkook, it would have been a major controversy.
• According to rumors from the IVE case, there are some staff of [blurred] who stake themselves out on predominantly female-user online communities to discipline the fandom. It's rumored that the reason the team was able to establish itself as a team that is popular with female consumers age 20~30 was due to the response on female-user based online communities. 
• Haewon recently introduced a collection short stories she is currently reading to fans, and some users on a predominantly male-user community is calling it 'feminist'. It's a collection of short stories by young Korean authors. Among young Korean authors active in literature today, there are probably very few who aren't feminist. While it is difficult to say that this incident can affect NMIXX in a major way, it is material that can be used to troll people, claiming that Haewon tried to hop on the 'feminist train' since her group wasn't doing well but then it backfired.
• There was an issue surrounding Seunghan, who was revealed as a member of ROOKIES then later transferred to RIIZE, after photos of him kissing his girlfriend were exposed by an attacker account on Twitter. According to the original poster, the girlfriend was a minor at the time, and the photos contained evidence to suggest that they were taken at a hotel. What is frightening about these communities and their tendencies is that they do not wish to linger on this issue too long at all. Rather, on communities like Instiz, some are arguing that Seunghan himself is a victim since his private photos were publicly exposed without consent, and later on, others shut down the issue from being mentioned completely with comments like 'he is good at his job'. The issue itself failed to go viral on Theqoo. Considering their reactions, it is unacceptable that when TXT's Taehyun was filmed without permission at a club, they caused such an uproar.

Additional pages of the report's translation will be updated soon.