[비즈한국] Kim Soo-hoon, CEO of SAMG Entertainment419530, the mastermind behind the "Teenieping" craze, is capturing the simultaneous attention of the content industry and the stock market. Thanks to the expanded target age group for "Catch! Teenieping" and the growth of its merchandise business, SAMG Entertainment successfully turned its performance around last year and emerged as the stock with the highest price increase in the KOSPI/KOSDAQ markets during the first half of this year. Furthermore, the global success of the Netflix original "K-Pop Demon Hunters" has heightened expectations for the domestic animation, video production, and entertainment sectors as a whole.
While interest is focused on share acquisitions by global investment banks like JP Morgan, recent assessments suggest that these moves may be driven by short-selling motives, leading to significant stock price volatility. How far will the challenge of CEO Kim, who dreams of building a "Disney of Korea," go?
Character
CEO Kim Soo-hoon, who is unmarried and has no children, created characters that shook the hearts of children through "Teenieping," earning him the title of "President of Elementary Students." Born in 1974, Kim is a young leader at 51 years old. After dropping out of college, he led the success of homegrown animation through "self-study."
With an interest in art, Kim enrolled in an engineering college in Busan, where he became obsessed with computer graphics (CG). 3D technologies featured in Pixar's "Toy Story" and the movie "Jurassic Park" became an important background for his entry into the production path. Although he earned scholarships as an electrical engineering student, a field popular for its high employment rate, he cut ties with his university after being discharged from the military to devote himself to computer graphics. He boldly dropped out around his sophomore year, marking the moment he stepped into the world of 3D animation without a college degree.
Career
While building his career at the organizing committee for the 1st Busan International Film Festival in his early 20s, Kim moved to Seoul to properly learn 3D. To afford his "Seoul study abroad" life—which cost 500,000 won per month in tuition alone about 30 years ago—working part-time jobs like assembling computers was essential. Seeking an environment where he could unleash his creativity rather than just learning technical skills at an academy, he founded his own company. He started a company called "Abacus Soft" with acquaintances from Korea IBM whom he met in Yongsan, but he suffered the aftermath of the IMF crisis and went through several more failures afterward.
Kim grew alongside SAMG Entertainment. SAMG Entertainment, whose primary business is developing animation intellectual property (IP), started in July 2000 under the name "SamG Animation." It has the longest history among domestic kids' animation companies and is considered a leader in the animation content industry. In a public disclosure, SAMG Entertainment stated, "We believe we have a duty to contribute to the overall growth of the Korean animation content market," and "We plan to support the development of the animation content market through investment."
The company has introduced dozens of IPs over 25 years. It possesses abundant production know-how through collaborations with overseas firms such as Disney, US Cartoon Network, French Zagtoon, Method Animation, and Japan's Toei. Significant IPs include "The Odd Family," cited as the first instance of a domestic company exporting a Korean animation in 2003, "Vroomiz" in the early 2010s, and "Mini Force" and "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir" in the mid-2010s. "Vroomiz," which was exported to the Middle East and France, won the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award in the animation category at the Korea Content Awards, and the girl hero "Ladybug" IP also gained popularity in South America, Europe, Brazil, and Canada.
CEO Kim received the Commendation for Overseas Expansion of Content in 2019 and has been serving as the Vice Chairman of the Korea Animation Producers Association since 2014.
Capability
CEO Kim proved his capabilities through the Teenieping series. First launched as a TV cartoon series in 2020, Teenieping is well-known as an IP possessing over 140 characters. A myriad of characters were devised based on emotions, ranging from the shy "Bugguping" and the narcissistic "Narcping" to the courageous "Ajaping." The result of actively combining the merchandise business with a domestic and international popularity base paid off in revenue. Based on his past experience and data from works like "Mini Force," Kim implemented a strategy of creating characters and stories that children would love and launching animations alongside merchandise like toys.
The announcement of new Teenieping content, which has an estimated "kids fandom" of 2 million, also affects the retail market. Immediately after the airing of Teenieping Season 4 in September 2024, E-Mart's sales of girl character toys increased by 32.9% year-on-year in October. Following the release of the theatrical film "Love of Heartsping," a prequel to the TV series, a year ago, the number of adult fans has also increased significantly, expanding into consumption. This is assessed as an evolution from a kids' character IP to a general character IP. CEO Kim served as the screenwriter and general director for the film.
Critical
SAMG Entertainment entered the stock market in December 2022. Although the IPO (Initial Public Offering) market was not easy, it proceeded through a "special listing" that prioritized business feasibility and vision over financial performance. Currently, CEO Kim is the largest shareholder, holding a 16.54% stake.
Until last year, SAMG Entertainment faced market criticism that it needed to strengthen corporate financial soundness and enhance shareholder value through stock price appreciation. Critics pointed out that while the company's scale was growing, it lacked internal substance, such as operating profit. Revenue increased from 68.3 billion won in 2022 to 95.1 billion won in 2023 and 116.4 billion won in 2024, but operating profit was only 364 million won three years ago; while it rose to 9.4 billion won in 2023 and then fell to 6.1 billion won last year, the growth trend remains relatively slow.
Entering this year, the company attracted attention by shaking off its chronic stock price sluggishness. The stock price, which was 91,900 won at the end of June, recorded a 621.9% increase compared to the end of last year. It showed the highest profit growth rate among individual domestic companies in the first half of the year. The market attributed this to factors like the popularity of Teenieping and the achievement of two consecutive quarters of surplus.
Challenges
Although it charted an exceptional upward trend, the recent intensification of stock price volatility is a burden for both the company and CEO Kim. Frequent share trading by foreign capital like JP Morgan and speculative demand in the market have caused the stock price to fluctuate sharply in the short term. While investor sentiment is overheated due to expectations of performance and IP growth, there is also an ever-present risk of instantaneous declines following profit-taking moves by global investment institutions. In fact, on the 18th, the stock closed at 61,600 won, a 16.19% drop from the closing price of 73,500 won on the 14th. At one point, the decline reached 14,000 won (19.04%).
This is interpreted as the result of dampened investor sentiment after the second-quarter earnings fell short of market expectations. However, some analysts say the reaction is excessive. Kim A-ram, a researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., analyzed, "SAMG Entertainment is successfully expanding from the existing infant/toddler center to the 1030 kidult (kids+adult) market, and its collaboration with SM artist Aespa has not even been unveiled yet."
For SAMG Entertainment to establish itself as a sustainable growth story, it must simultaneously solve the challenges of solid earnings, improvement of financial constitution, and stable stock price management in response to high external interest. Moving forward, SAMG Entertainment plans to continue its drive for expansion by releasing new content centered on the Teenieping IP, such as the sequel to the film "Love of Heartsping," diversifying its merchandise and licensing businesses, and engaging in global market collaborations.