Which entertainment agencies made remarkable moves in the Korean entertainment scene this year? One of the biggest issues that dominated the management business was that persistent demand on Hallyu contents, especially on K-pop, allowed singer and actors to expand their boundaries to overseas market. In the contents producing industry, it has become a matter of common interest that abilities to create and produce more diversified contents as viewers and audiences have higher criteria. There were bigger examples of middle and small sized agencies to make strategic alliance or have merger and acquisitions for retaining stable profit system. In addition to those, private life of stars became more in danger thanks to the Internet, which make the “risk management ability” as the top priority of the management firm should have.
As a wrap-up and recap of this year 2013, TenAsia picked up eight entertainment agencies that impressed the industry and found out their performance, strength and weakness and searched their right direction to go.
FNC Entertainment is our first batter (alphabetical order).
FNC Entertainment – The Center of Hallyu
This Year’s Performance
The biggest stars of FNC Entertainment are definitely CNBLUE and FTISLAND. Both of the groups displayed vigorous activities in and out of Korea this year. CNBLUE scooped up the first place on Billboard’s World Album chart with fourth mini-album “Re:Blue,” filled only with their self-written tunes, and continued their overseas activities with five-city Japan Zepp tour and world tour “BLUE MOON.” FTISLAND also proved their power through band performances in China, Hong Kong and Japan. The group’s 11th Japan single album marked No. 1 on Oricon’s chart. CNBLUE’s Lee Jung-shin (TV series “Seo-young, My Daughter” and “Blade and Petal”) and Kang Min-hyuk (“The Inheritors”) cemented their names as actors, while FTISLAND’s Lee Hong-gi made successful screen debut through movie “Rockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” FTISLAND’s member Song Seung-hyun again took on the role D’Artagnan in musical “Three Muskeeters.”
From left, AOA members Chanmi, Seolhyun and Yoona. [FNC Entertainment]
Girl group AOA, who has both concept as dance group and band, the specialty of FNC Entertainment, entered the second year of their debut. AOA Black, five-member dance sub-unit of AOA, released single “MOYA” and held showcases in Singapore and Japan, which are the steppingstone for their upcoming overseas activities. AOA members Seolhyun (TV series “Seo-young, My Daughter”), Hyejung (“Cheongdam-dong Alice”) and Choa (musical “Highschool Musical”) also expanded their boundaries to acting. Juniel also made remarkable performance to sing new graduate song in 67 years. She also displayed sweet harmony with Lee Jong-hyun of CNBLUE in duet Romantic J.
This year, FNC Entertainment marked the new beginning. Starting with Park Gwang-hyun in 2011, FNC scouted Lee Dong-gun, Yoon Jin-seo and Song Eun-I last year and strengthened their actor management department. Especially, FNC made the meaningful move to produce their first TV series “Marry Him If You Dare,” starring FNC’s talents Jung Yong-hwa and Lee Dong-gun. The drama’s ratings score is not satisfying but it is not right to expect too much from the first attempt. FNC also produced the original soundtrack to “The Inheritors,” continuing their existing specialty, while began to promote the FNC brand through reality drama “Cheong-dam Dong 111.” The firm has already finished preparations to get the company listed on the KOSDAQ, South Korean stock market, in the first half of next year. It was also impressive that FNC Entertainment’s company building, located in Cheongdam-dong of Seoul, was chosen as Beautiful Architecture by Gangnam-gu Office this January.
CNBLUE members perform at the Malaysia leg of their world concert tour “BLUE MOON.” [FNC Entertainment]
This Year’s Star
CNBLUE and FTISLAND are the two representative faces of FNC entertainment for sure. Both of them worked in local and overseas market actively, while each of the groups’ members widened their boundaries to stages, screens and TV variety shows. However, it was CNBLUE whose activities were slightly stronger than FTISLAND’s. Jung Yong-hwa filled all the tracks in the group’s sixth Japan single “LADY” with his self-written tunes, also cementing his filmography with “Marry Him If You Dare.” Despite of not-so-impressive score of the drama, he is still and alive. In addition, other CNBLUE members including Kang Min-hyuk and Lee Jung-shin have been recognized. Kang Min-hyuk grabbed noticeable popularity through “The Inheritors,” and Lee Jung-shin attracted attention from wider generations through “Seo-young, My Daughter.” AOA’s Seolhyun, co-star of “Seo-young,” contributed to promote the name of AOA.
As the year goes to its end, FNC’s another star is becoming FNC’s C.E.O Han Seong-ho. Along with TV show “Cheongdam-dong 111,” his extraordinary career is receiving attention. Let’s see if his name would become a new brand following SM Entertainment’s Lee Soo-man, YG Entertainment’s Yang Hyun-suk and JYP Entertainment’s Park Jin-young.
What’s Next?
“We’re going to expand aggressively by scouting more artists and training newbies. We’re also readying to go public next year,” C.E.O Han unveiled through recent interviews. They also diagnosed themselves to be in the stage of heading a big-sized agency. Compared to their artists’ name value, FNC itself had not caught much attention. Next year, the company will focus on letting their brand known as much as promoting their artists. CNBLUE will embark on Mid and South America tour for the first Korean band. Also, their actors will have more vigorous activities next year, including Lee Dong-gun, who resumed activities this year after being discharged from the military service. The idol-and-actors, namely Lee Jung-shin, Kang Min-hyuk and Seolhyun, will have more appearances on the small screen as well as Jung Yong-hwa and Lee Hong-gi who will continue their multi-activities. Following SM and YG Entertainments, FNC will establish its subsidiary firm FNC China in 2014.
About FNC Entertainment
FNC, a pioneer in the idol band market and a new player in the drama producing business, is considered as one of the entertainment agencies which have stable profit system. Since established as FNC Music in June of 2006, the company has recorded noticeable growth in album producing, artist training and management, producing TV series’ original soundtracks and stage producing. In April of 2012, it changed the company’s name to FNC Entertainment and expanded boundaries to a general entertainment company. C.E.O Han Sung-ho, who first started career as singer, wrote songs for WheeSung and SG Wannabe, taking charge of numerous popular TV dramas, including “You’re Beautiful,” “On Air,” “City Hall,” Gentlemen’s Dignity” and “The Inheritors.”
The firm succeeded in combining idol and band, training their singers to become actors. It has been acknowledged that C.E.O Han and FNC has great ability to produce albums and look at successful dramas. They produced refreshing duet Romantic J from Juniel and Lee Jong-hyun of CNBLUE. Although it has been delayed due to Lee Hong-gi’s unexpected injury, the firm boasted out their strength by planning to hold ‘Family Concert,’ considered as only possible by big-sized companies.
This year, FNC jumped into the TV series producing business. The result was a little disappointing but it is expected that FNC would build skills and know-how shortly based on their outstanding producing abilities. Last year, girl group AOA made debut and numerous actors joined FNC. This year seems to have been the stage to grow inner strength, more than scouting or finding out more new talents. AOA’s sub-unit AOA Black also showed less-than-expected outcome, while FNC actors didn’t show ‘exploding’ performances. For example, Yoon Jin-seo starred in several movies, all of which are set to open next year. It looks like they take one step back to make two steps ahead.
To stretching itself to a big-sized agency, it is important to not only let its artists known but also make the company’s brand known, such as SM, YG and JYP. In that sense, it has been a successful year to promote the name of FNC. FNC’s color has been more vivid and the company’s risk management ability is also great as seen in CNBLUE and Crying Nut’s legal battle.
FNC, which prepares to get listed on the KOSDAQ, is estimated to have the most stable profit model. After putting their hands into the TV series producing, FNC artists are expected to have more varied boundaries to work. As well as the management business, FNC’s academy business will expand. Following the Hongdae branch and Gangnam branch, FNC Academy opened in the city of Daegu this year, expected to play a big role in finding and training new talents out of Seoul.
The company’s overseas expansion will be more varied next year. FNC will expand their boundaries to all over the world not only Japan. CNBLUE will stretch its arms across Asia to Mid and South America and North America. FTISLAND and AOA’s overseas activities will be continued and FNC China, the company’s subsidiary firm, will lead the company’s ‘China invasion.’
JYP Entertainment – ‘Suzyache’ Continues
This Year’s Performance
Wonder Girls were once the symbol of JYP Entertainment and one-time favorite girl group in Korea. When Wonder Girls was taking slower track, it was miss A who replaced the position, technically it was Suzy of miss A. Starring in 2011 movie “Architecture 101” was a magic touch of both JYP Entertainment and Suzy. The starlet, who shot to stardom as ‘the nation’s first love,’ now became the star who is beloved from whatever she does. She led TV series “Kang Chi, the Beginning” to success, coming back to her original ground (?), miss A’s second studio album “Hush.”
K-pop group 2PM members. [JYP Entertainment]
Although Suzy was known as ‘a girl breadwinner of JYP Entertainment,’ actually it is 2PM who earned higher profit than Suzy. This March and May, 2PM released studio albums each in Japan and Korea. In Japan this April, the group stood up on the Tokyo Dome stage and exuded charm of ‘Beast-like idol’ in front of some 110,000 audiences. The DVD album which included the live concert shot to No. 1 on Oricon’s DVD chart. Although local response toward 2PM was seemingly disappointing, the popularity of each 2PM member was still hot. Taecyeon grew enough to take on the main character in TV series “who are you” and expanded boundaries by making screen debut through “Marriage Blue.” Junho was acknowledged potential in debut movie “Cold Eyes,” while Chansung continued acting activities in drama “7th Grade Civil Servant” and movie “Red Carpet.”
After leaving Wonder Girls and coming back as a solo singer, Sunmi played the role as ‘JYP’s secret weapon’ by showing her unexpected sexy charms. Her single “24 Hours” swept real-time number one on numerous online music charts. Baek A-yeon, who joined JYP through TV audition show “KPOP STAR,” released album “A Good Girl” and participated in the original soundtrack of “Goddess of Fire.” Another “KPOP STAR” participant Park Ji-min paired up with Baek Ye-rin in singing duo 15& and released single “Somebody.” It leave a little regret that it was lacked to reach the dominance of Lee Hi, another “KPOP STAR” contestant in YG Entertainment.
JYP’s chief producer Park Jin-young also back to the stage with new album “Halftime.” From year-end concerts to jury of “KPOP STAR,” Park is still alive and strong as ‘veteran’ dance singer. JYP actors were also busying themselves, including Lee Jung-jin (TV series “ 100-year Legacy,” variety show “Cool Kiz on the Block”), Yoon Park (drama “Good Doctor”), Choi Woo-shik (movie “Secretly Greatly,” drama “TEN 2”) and Park Joo-hyung (drama “Two Weeks”).
Korean idol star Suzy of group miss A. [TenAsia]
This Year’s Star
Whatever they say, the star of current JYP is Suzy. She plays 100 people’s roles in singing, acting, appearing on TV variety shows and commercial films. It is not in vain that Suzy is ‘a girl breadwinner’ of JYP, nicknamed by the Internet users. It was also timely clever and successful step to star in TV series “Kang Chi, the Beginning” and come back as miss A, changing her image again to sexy one. From innocent looks to sexy charisma, it is not easy to imagine anyone to replace Suzy’s position, which allows ‘Suzyache’ to continue for a while.
Park Jin-young was still strong. It looks a bit unexpected but his activities with a new album feel pretty welcoming. Another glad comeback is Sunmi. Sunmi came back with a totally different sentiment from hers in Wonder Girls, which makes her more promising in the future. 2PM didn’t grab big response in the local scene but received ‘pass’ with members’ individual activities, such as Taecyeon, Junho and Chansung’s.
Korean singer and music producer Park Jin-young. [JYP Entertainment]
What’s Next?
Asie from Suzy, there were not many stars who created big issue in JYP Entertainment. Still, JYP is JYP. The company is not one of the three major K-pop agencies for no reason. It is sad that Wonder Girls is seemingly going their separate ways, but JYP-made idol groups will continue to pursue their ways. 2PM will continue musical and individual acting activities in and out of Korea. Suzy, miss A as well as Baek A-yeon, Park Ji-min and Sunmi will seek their new chances to shine. Moreover, JYP will introduce four rookie idol groups next year. As information on the rookie boy group begun to be revealed little by little, people are having more and more curiosity. Also, JYP Entertainment merged and acquired its unlisted company JYP, which runs its subsidiary firms in the US, Japan, China and AQ Entertainment, expecting a synergy effect from it.
About JYP Entertainment
“After the M&A [with unlisted JYP], we’re expecting four billion Korean Won [approximately 37.7 million US Dollars] of sales this year, going to reach 5.57 billion Won [approx 52.49 Dollars] of sales and operating profit of 1.1 billion Won [approx 10.36 Dollars] next year. We’re going to introduce three to four new idol groups in 2014,” said Jung Wook, C.E.O of JYP Entertainment. This June, JYP Entertainment merged and acquired its unlisted company JYP, which runs its subsidiary firms in the US, Japan, China and AQ Entertainment. Especially AQ Entertainment, established in 2008 with JYP Entertainment’s 100% share investment, had taken charge of management of miss A and other artists. Park Jin-young rose to the largest shareholder through the M&A, which is the sore reason of expecting JYP’s one another leap-up.
The answer is Park Jin-young, eventually. He introduced Sunmi in a totally different image and so did for miss A. He is still a real trait. Everytime JYP is in danger, Park Jin-young’s strategy and producing ability worked it out. Individual activities of miss A Suzy, 2PM Taecyeon and Junho also fared well. Their clever steps to slowly widen their boundaries based on their current ability is the good examples for numerous idol groups.
JYP Pictures, a movie department of JYP, also signed a contract of joint film producing with China’s stage producing company Dong Bang Entertainment Group and expanded boundaries to character licensing business and travel business with ‘OKCAT,’ Taecyeon’s self-invetned green cat character.
Despite of strengthened actors line-up, there is still needs for fans to watch more refreshing idols. Moreover, Suzy’s power overwhelmed other artists’ activities somehow. The nickname for Suzy, ‘a girl breadwinner’ is not welcoming for JYP. It is time to find a reasonable balance, and it could be the upcoming newbie idols.
Overseas activities of JYP artists are very stable. As one of the ‘big 3’ K-pop agencies, their know-how has been well-built. 2PM frequently flies from Korea to Japan and it looks like it is their one another chance to shot to the bigger market. After PSY, the US market became more realistic. But Wonder Girls had been far earlier struggled in the US. Some calls it a ‘failure,’ but the attempt itself was a big challenge and success. There are bigger number of people out there who want to observe the JYP-styled challenge.
SM Entertainment – Keeping the Top Spot
This Year’s Performance
Year 2013 was the meaningful year for SM Entertainment. SM continued their top influence in the K-pop scene and prepared new stepping stone with success of EXO, gathering surprising harvest through Go Ara and Lee Yeon-hee in the actors’ management, which SM had struggled so far.
Let’s taking a look at the singers’ performance: Girls’ Generation released fourth studio album “ I Got A Boy” on the New Year’s Day; SHINee scored a series of hits with third studio album’s first chapter “Dream Girl,” Chapter 2 “Why So Serious?,” third chapter “The Misconceptions of Us” and mini-album “Everybody”; f(x) came back with second full effort “Pink Tape”; and EXO. Along with those results, Super Junior-M’s Henry debuted with solo mini-album “Trap” as the first solo male artist of SM in 13 years after Kangta.
What’s significant is SM showcased music with high quality this year through Girls’ Generation, SHINee and f(x). The SM-made artists with firm fandom presented refreshing outcome through SM’s own production teams and foreign songwriters’ support behind the scenes. Especially, Girls’ Generation and SHINee introduced new idol music trend through their somewhat shocking sound, despite of their position as pop singers. Above all, EXO showed overwhelming power across this year’s K-pop scene. EXO, who had been a great talent in the making until last year, grabbed sweeping support from fans this year and marked themselves as the next boy idol group to lead the future of SM following the track of H.O.T., TVXQ!, Super Junior and SHINee.
K-pop group TVXQ! members MAX Changmin (left) and U-Know Yunho perform during “TVXQ! LIVE TOUR 2013 ~ TIME ~,” held at Japan’s International Stadium Yokohama on August 18, 2013. [SM Entertainment]
As a leader of Hallyu, SM showed the most outstanding activities in overseas K-pop concerts among Korean entertainment agencies. TVXQ! performed at the Nissan Stadium in Japan as the first overseas singer and attracted 144,000 audiences for two days, drawing in a total of 890,000 spectators in the country. This is the second biggest record on 2013 Japan concert ticket sales ranking after Exile who attracted 1,120,000 audiences. Along with the overwhelming record of TVXQ!, SM held brand concert “SMTOWN LIVE,” where all the SM artists perform in, at the Tokyo Dome for two days and drew in 100,000 fans, keeping their strength on and on. TVXQ!, Girls’ Generation and Super Junior has continued to hit the world through world concert tour.
Meanwhile, SM’s subsidiary firm SM C&C has merged with Woollim Entertainment, which manages careers of INFINITE, Nell and TASTY, and took one step further to become a big-sized label company. Through this movement, SM is planning to jump to Asia’s No. 1 music group to vie with Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music Entertainment.
Korean actor Go Ara. [SM Entertainment]
This Year’s Star
SM’s distinguished talents this year are undoubtedly EXO and Go Ara. EXO has been reported to sell out 970,000 copies of their first studio album “XOXO (Kiss & Hug)” (including the repackaged version) by December 10. It is hard to be recognized as the exactly same score with selling solid album in 1990s since it is combined number of the standard version and repackaged one. However, it is still amazing to surpass album sales of 400,000 copies only with the standard version when the album market is totally broken. Through this record, EXO has reached three billion Korean Won (approximately 28.29 million US Dollars) of sales in their second debuting year, creating some kind of syndrome with their die-hard fandom. The 12-member idol group is now considered to take SM’s music and performance to the next level with their musical-like bold and sophisticated stage design.
SM’s actor Go Ara has spent the most brilliant year since her debut ten years ago. In tvN drama “Reply 1994,” she displayed distinctive acting skills and recover SM’s past slump in the actors’ management division. Go, walking into the 11th year of her debut, has starred in numerous works but failed to show herself which exceeds tom boy Ok-rim in her debut hit “Sharp.” However, Go has done excellent job to portray her character with strong dialect, named Sung Na-jung, in “Reply 1994” and led the popularity of the drama.
What’s Next?
The most anticipated issue in SM Entertainment next year is TVXQ!’s comeback. TVXQ! is set to release the seventh studio album early next January, marking the tenth debut anniversary on coming December 26. Following the male duo, super stars Girls’ Generation and Kangta are also known to make comeback soon. It is also highly expected that how EXO will show new sound and looks next year after exhibiting such nice performances this year. SM Entertainment will also focus on discovering new faces after launching “SM ROOKIES,” SM’ new project to introduce pre-debut rookies.
About SM Entertainment
Established in 1995 with a starting capital of 50 million Korean Won (approximately 47,200 US Dollars), SM Entertainment is considered as one of the most influential entertainment agency in Korea. Starting as a music production company, SM scored a series of hits with boy band H.O.T. and girl group S.E.S. in mid and late 1990s, offering a new way of K-pop. Afterwards, SM developed the first Hallyu concert in China through H.O.T. and expanded boundaries into the Japanese music market with BoA.
After the overwhelming success, SM has continued to introduce K-pop singers with huge followings in and out of Korea, such as TVXQ! and Girls’ Generation. Recently, SM Entertainment’s subsidiary firm SM C&C work actively on general management business not only for singers but also for TV actors. SM C&C also runs businesses in singing rooms (karaoke) and restaurants, whose total sales reached 168.6 billion Won (approx 159.1 million Dollars) in 2012.
This year, SM showed their stable performance in the music producing business. SM exhibited good outcome to satisfy both the market and the musical completeness with records of Girls’ Generation, SHINee and f(x). Especially, EXO created powerful fandom with sensation.
In the drama producing business, SM produced KBS series “Prime Minister & I,” starring YoonA of Girls’ Generation, and MBC drama “Miss Korea,” starring actress Lee Yeon-hee. Since SM has never been successful in the business, it receives attention that the firm could collect result this time.
In the overseas market, SM has continuously held K-pop concerts and kept their top spot. Especially, TVXQ! attracted a total of 890,000 audiences and stood at No. 2 on Japanese concert ticket sales ranking. Girls’ Generation and Super Junior also kept up their concert tours around the world.
When looking at the management, SM showed stable figures with concerts profit from TVXQ’s Japan Dome tour to Girls’ Generation’s Japan Arena tour and SMTOWN LIVE. Along with diverse contents producing from game and hologram to TV shows, SM plans to keep up their continuing growth. Meanwhile, the merge with Woollim Entertainment, the firm takes charge of INFINITE, Nell and TASTY, will fasten SM’s way to make itself a big-sized label.
Starhaus Entertainment – In The Name of Lee Min-ho
This Year’s Performance
Starhaus Entertainment’s growth this year is summarized to prepare the stable steppingstone in the Chinese market. Although the drama didn’t hit air through broadcasting stations in China, his recent starrer and hit SBS series “The Inheritors” received great response in the country as much as in Korea. Through Youku.com, Chinese answer to YouTube, accumulated 700 million Chinese Internet users (by December 18 afternoon’s total) watched “The Inheritors” real-time, while Lee Min-ho secured the top spot on Shanghai’s media interest ranking search firm Vinkage for last six months as the first Korean actor to do so.
Also, Lee Min-ho was invited to the 2013 Baidu The Hottest Awards, held in Beijing as soon as “The Inheritors” wrapped up its air. The organizing committee of Baidu rated Lee as ‘the rank one star including Chinese stars’ and ‘top-tier star with skilled acting and great influence.’ What makes Lee’s outcome special is that he grabbed that much popualrity although he didn’t star in any Chinese drama. He became the good example of Hallyu stars since the main factors of his popularity is tight connection with overseas fans through Chinese Twitter Weibo, Facebook and fan meetings.
This Year’s Star
Actor Lee Min-ho proved his star quality in and out of Korea through “The Inheritors.” His stable character portray and deep acting skills in the TV series also make his potential broader. It was true that there were some amount of worry for him to come back to the school-set drama after “Boys over Flowers,” which shot Lee to stardom. However, being in the more clear comparison board, he showed off definite growth. Especially his fast growth in the Chinese market will play a role as the matchmaker for Hallyu to move to China from Japan.
Korean actor Lee Min-ho. [Kim Youngjun]
What’s Next?
Lee Min-ho will star filming director Yoo Ha’s new movie “Gangnam Blues” next year. Industry insiders are showing huge interest in the movie since it is Lee’s first film after he shot to stardom. His choice also shows that Lee’s firm plan to broaden his competence as an actor to the wide channel based on existing star quality. Also, he still has plan to focus on the local market as he has done so far, despite of great popularity overseas.
Starting with upcoming Korean fan meet-and-greet scheduled next January, Lee will continue to connect with overseas fans through global tour, which includes China, Japan, Singapore and even South American region. Setting the goal to become an influential actor around the Great Asian region, Lee will broaden his boundaries to the Latin America and the third countries.
Year 2014 is also the important year for rookies of Starhaus Entertainment. Jung Seong-woo has been cast in JTBC’s “Noblewoman,” set to premiere next January, while Shin Dong-mi and Kwak SI-yang are each revving up to promote “Going to the Grave” (both translated titles) and filmmaker LeeSong Hee-il’s queer movie, respectively.
About Starhaus Entertainment
Stahaus Entertainment has been established by president Jang Yeong-hoon in March of 2006, taking care of careers of Lee Min-ho, Park Sol-mi, Shin Dong-mi rookies Jeong Seong-woon and Kwak Si-yang. Organized in five departments including artist management, global business, contents business, marketing department and the head of management support, Starhaus is planning to steadily expanding businesses sectors including drama producing and distribution, music producing and contents distribution. The designed business focuses on picture books and photo books, aiming at Lee Min-ho’s Hallyu marketability.
The growth of global business has been distinctive this year. The Hallyu promotion activities, which has targeted the Japanese market so far, switched its way to China. Different from existing Hallyu stars who are popular in China, Lee Min-ho proved his star quality even though he hasn’t actively worked in the country. His close connection with overseas fans through Weibo, Chinese answer to Twitter, and Facebook is also rated as good promotional strategy.
Therefore, what is worthy of notice is the social network service promotion targetting at overseas market. Lee’s Weibo account has surpassed 13 million followers, which was enabled that he kept on updating news in Chinese through the channel. His overall followers via Facebook and Naver’s mobile messenger Line reach 30 million in total. This tight communication came from the promotion philosophy that highly regards close connection and intimacy than mysticism that Starhaus’ president Jang Yeong-hoon insisted at the first place.
In the management division, the company has focused on slow expansion in the Hallyu market with Lee Min-ho rather than impractical extend. Starhaus’s rookie actors Jeong Seong-woon and Kawk Si-yang has also been receiving positive response in the industry.
source: tenasia 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
it has diagrams!
i divided it into two parts since original post was said to be too long :) also idk why tenasia decided to write only about 8 agencies on their english site, while korean site has 15...