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SM Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Company type	Public
Traded as	KRX: 041510
Industry	Music; Entertainment; Production; Retail; Travel;
Genre	Pop; Dance; R&B; Hip hop; Electropop; EDM; Avant-garde music;
Founded	February 14, 1995; 29 years ago in Seoul, South Korea
Founder	Lee Soo-man
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jang Cheol-hyuk (CEO); Tak Young-jun (COO); Lee Sung-soo (CAO);
Services	Licensing; Publishing; Record distribution;
Owners	Kakao (20.76%); Kakao Entertainment (19.11%); Hybe Corporation (8.81%); Treasury Stock (1.65%); Others (49.68%);
Number of employees	601 (2019)
Website	www.smentertainment.com
	Footnotes / references;

SM Entertainment is a record label and talent agency in South Korea. It is one of the main entertainment businesses in Korea. It was founded by Lee Su-man, a former singer. It was originally focused solely on entertainment management. Since then, however, they have expanded their business interests to establishing subsidiary companies and incorporating affiliates. They have foreign subsidiaries, such as SM Japan, Asia and USA.

Debut of stars

Known for their dedication to quality of talent, SM has produced many hit groups and solo artists since 1996. The first debut under the label was the boy group H.O.T. in 1996, followed by girl group S.E.S. in 1997. Being an influential contributor to the "First generation of K-pop", SM continued to produce hit artists such as Shinhwa in 1998, Fly to the Sky in 1999, soloist Boa in 2000 andTVXQ in 2004. A rising popularity of K-pop in the West saw further debuts become vastly successful like Super Junior in 2005, Girls' Generation in 2007, Shinee in 2008, f(x) in 2009 and EXO in 2012. The newest groups from SM are Red Velvet debuted in 2014, NCT in April 2016, WayV (a China based subunit of NCT) in 2018 and Aespa in 2020.

Artists

All of the artists under SM Entertainment are collectively known as SM Town, similarly to JYP Nation and YG Family.

Recording artists

Soloists

Suho
Xiumin
D.O.
Wendy
Joy
Elle
KD
Rosalyn
Ty
MeiLi

Groups

Sub-units

Project groups

S.M. The Ballad
M&D
Younique Unit (inactive)
S.M. The Performance
Toheart (inactive)
Super M
Girls On Top

Actors/Actresses

Elle Kim aka Kim/Shim MiRa (JADE)
KD (JADE)
MeiLi (JADE)
Ty (JADE)
Do Kyungsoo (EXO)
Lay (EXO)
Suho (EXO)
Oh Se-hun (EXO)
Byun Baek-hyun (EXO)
Chen (EXO)
Xiumin (EXO)
Park Chan-yeol (EXO)
Kai (EXO)
Choi Jong-yoon
Kim Ian
Kim Min-jong
Lee Jae-ryong
Lee Yeon-hee
Yoo Ho-jeong
Lina
Im Yoon-ah
Kwon Yuri
Sulli^[2]

Entertainers

Kim Kyung-sik
Lee Dong-woo

Studio artists

Pianists

Song Kwang-sik

Former artists

Former recording artists

Hyun Jin-young (1990–1993)
Han Dong-joon (1991–1992)
Kim Kwang-jin (1991–1992)
Major (Seo Yeon-soo and Im Bum-jun, 1994)
J&J (Jay Kim and Jay Kang, 1994)
H.O.T. (1996–2001)
- Moon Hee-joon (1996–2005)
- Lee Jae-won (1996–2001)
- Tony An (1996–2001)
- Jang Woo-hyuk (1996–2001)
Shinhwa (1998–2003)
Fly to the Sky (1999–2004)
Jang Na-ra (2001–2008)
M.I.L.K (2001–2003)
- Seo Hyun-jin (2001–2007)
Sugar (2001–2006)
Black Beat (2002–2007)
Shinvi (2002–2003)
Isak 'N' Jiyeon (2002–2004)
- Kim Isak (2002–2012)
TVXQ
- Kim Jae-joong (2003–2009)
- Park Yoochun (2003–2009)
- Kim Junsu (2003–2009)
TRAX
- Kang Jung-woo (2004–2006)
- No Min-woo (2004–2009)
CSJH The Grace
- Stephanie (2005–2016)
Super Junior
- Han Geng (2005–2009)
- Kim Kibum (2004–2015)
Girls' Generation
- Jessica (2007–2015)
- Tiffany (2007–2017)
- Sooyoung (2007–2017)
- Seohyun (2007–2017)
Chu Ga-yeoul (2002–2012)
EXO
- Kris (2012–2014)
- Luhan (2012–2014)
- Tao (2012–2015)
Zhang Liyin (2006–2017)
Jonghyun (2008-2017)
f(x)
- AMBER LIU (2009-2019)
- VICTORIA SONG (2009-2019)
- PARK LUNA (2009-2019)

Former actors/actresses

Yoon Park (2009–2013)^[3]
Go Ara (2003–2016)^[4]

Stocks

SM Entertainment was established in 1995 with initial capital of 50 million won. In 2000, their shares were registered on the KOSDAQ market. Moreover, SM formed a music investment fund with about 10 billion won in 2001. This was the first of its kind in Korea. SM Entertainment's revenues grew 53% in 2011 compared to the year before. The company recorded 1686 billion won. The largest shareholder is Lee Su-man, who owns 21.50% of SM The affiliates of SM Entertainment includes SM Culture and Contents, SM Entertainment Japan Inc., Starlight, Galgali Family Entertainment, Dream Maker Entertainment Limited, SM Amusement, SM F&B Development, M Studio City, SM Brandmarketing, SM Entertainment USA Inc., and SM Krage.