Who owns SM Entertainment?
SM Entertainment is not wholly owned by any single company recorded here: Kakao (South Korea, KRX: 035720) has held a 41.5% stake since 2023.[1] Kakao and its subsidiaries together hold 41.5 per cent of SM Entertainment, of which 21.6 per cent is held directly by Kakao Corp. The holding is below half but Kakao consolidates the company rather than accounting for it by the equity method.
Evidence: Kakao Company Presentation, February 2026, Kakao Corp, 1 February 2026. Last checked .
Key facts
- Largest stakeholder
- Kakao Corp. (41.5% stake) reported
- Since
- Headquarters
- 🇰🇷 South Korea, Jeju
- Origin
- 🇰🇷 South Korea
- Category
- Media & entertainment › Music › Record labels
- Parent ticker
- KRX: 035720
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About SM Entertainment
SM Entertainment is one of the founding K-pop agencies and the label behind acts that defined the industry's early export success. Kakao acquired its stake in 2023, after a contested bidding fight, and runs it as the second pillar of the Music arm of its content business alongside Melon. The combined group holding is 41.5 per cent, less than half the company.
Ownership timeline of SM Entertainment
Where SM Entertainment sits in Kakao
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Kakao ownership tree →
See the full Kakao brand portfolio (6) →
Other brands owned by Kakao
Kakao controls 7 brands on Brandtree, 2 of them in media & entertainment.
Also in media & entertainment
- Kakao Friends (2012)
Other brands in record labels, and who owns them
The 18 brands in record labels on Brandtree belong to 6 owners. The largest is Universal Music, with 5.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Capitol Records | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Chrysalis Records | Reservoir | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Atlantic Records | Warner Music | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Columbia Records | Sony | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| BMG | Bertelsmann | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| VAP | Nippon TV Holdings | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Def Jam Recordings | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Interscope Records | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
About the owner: Kakao
Kakao is a publicly listed company headquartered in Jeju, South Korea.
Kakao is the South Korean internet group built around KakaoTalk, a messaging app with 49 million monthly users in a country of 52 million, and it monetises that position through advertising, gifting and commerce inside the app. Around it sit partly owned subsidiaries covering mobility, payments, banking, music streaming, webtoons and games, most of which Kakao holds well short of outright. Consolidated revenue reached a record 8.1 trillion won in 2025. Its web portal Daum, long the group's second pillar, was separated out as AXZ and left the group; it is absent from Kakao's February 2026 ownership chart.
🇰🇷 SM Entertainment and other South Korean brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 185 brands that began in South Korea. 7 of them (4%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; SM Entertainment is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns SM Entertainment?
No single company recorded here owns SM Entertainment outright. Kakao has held a 41.5% stake since 2023.
Does Kakao control SM Entertainment?
Not on the shareholding alone: a 41.5% holding is not a majority. Kakao and its subsidiaries together hold 41.5 per cent of SM Entertainment, of which 21.6 per cent is held directly by Kakao Corp. The holding is below half but Kakao consolidates the company rather than accounting for it by the equity method.
Where did SM Entertainment come from?
SM Entertainment originated in South Korea.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Kakao Company Presentation, February 2026 — Kakao Corp., Official document, published 1 February 2026; retrieved 28 September 2026.
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