Why HYBE Created ABD — and What It Means for Girl Groups in 2026

HYBE has never been shy about expansion, but the announcement on May 8 of a brand-new label called ABD — short for "A Bold Dream" — carries a different kind of weight. This is not simply another division in an already sprawling entertainment conglomerate. ABD was built from scratch with one purpose: to launch a girl group in the second half of 2026, and to do it with the people who arguably know how to build them better than anyone else in the industry.

Leading the label is Noh Ji-won, former head of the artist planning division at Pledis Entertainment, who will oversee overall management. But the announcement that generated genuine industry attention was the confirmation that Han Sung-soo — the creative mind behind SEVENTEEN, After School, IZ*ONE, and TWS — will serve as executive producer, controlling the new group's music, concept, and performance direction from the ground up.

On paper, this looks like a calculated reinforcement of existing HYBE strengths. In practice, it signals that HYBE is making a deliberate structural decision about where its girl group future is going — and who it trusts to get there.

The Company That Made Girl Group History — Twice

To understand why ABD matters, it helps to trace HYBE's girl group trajectory since 2022. In a single calendar year, the company launched two of K-pop's most consequential fourth-generation acts in rapid succession. Source Music introduced LE SSERAFIM in April 2022, with a debut that immediately signaled a harder, more performance-forward aesthetic than what the company had historically been associated with. Three months later, ADOR — led by CEO Min Hee-jin — debuted NewJeans with an approach so distinct in its lo-fi, nostalgia-driven philosophy that it effectively redefined what a K-pop girl group concept could look like.

Both groups broke records. Both became globally recognized. And then the corporate dynamics behind them became just as famous as the music itself.

BeliftLab added ILLIT to the portfolio in March 2024, and the group's debut became K-pop's most-streamed girl group debut week that year. Yet the headline story at HYBE through much of 2024 and 2025 was not the music — it was the legal and corporate conflict between ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin and HYBE's leadership, a dispute that put the NewJeans brand, the ADOR label structure, and HYBE's entire multi-label philosophy under intense public scrutiny.

Why ABD Is Specifically Designed to Start Clean

Against that backdrop, ABD's framing becomes deliberately pointed. The label's stated philosophy — "imagines D instead of C after A and B" and "pursues the pure joy of music" — reads as a creative positioning statement as much as a corporate one. This is a group being built without the weight of an existing controversy, without the inherited expectations of a predecessor, and with a team that has proven results and zero recent headline baggage.

Han Sung-soo's involvement is the clearest indicator of ABD's ambitions. His track record is among the most consistent in K-pop over the past decade. He co-founded Pledis Entertainment and was instrumental in launching After School in 2009. He shaped the creative architecture of SEVENTEEN, whose multi-unit structure and self-producing identity became one of K-pop's most studied models. He guided the development of IZ*ONE — the pan-Asian project group formed through the Produce 48 competition — and most recently oversaw the debut of TWS in 2024 under Pledis. Each project carried his signature preference for structured creative teams, strong performance identity, and audience proximity.

What distinguishes ABD's announcement is that Han Sung-soo is not just advising or lending his brand name. He is listed as the executive producer, overseeing music, concept, and performance from inception. This is the fullest creative role he has taken with any HYBE project since SEVENTEEN's early development. HYBE is not just deploying a reliable producer — it is signaling that ABD will be a flagship creative investment, not an exploratory side project.

The Competition ABD Is Walking Into

The K-pop girl group landscape that ABD will enter in late 2026 is arguably more competitive than it has ever been. Beyond HYBE's own portfolio — which already includes LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, and the returning NewJeans — SM Entertainment is backing aespa toward a major global push with LEMONADE. JYP Entertainment has NMIXX and ITZY active. YG has BLACKPINK and BABYMONSTER. The emerging generation, including UNIS, MEOVV, and others, continues to grow an already crowded market.

Within that environment, a new group from HYBE does not automatically win by showing up. What ABD promises is a specific creative identity built around Han Sung-soo's proven formula: strong internal cohesion, distinctive performance vocabulary, and a debut concept that does not replicate what already exists in the HYBE portfolio. HYBE's Q1 2026 results — revenue of KRW 698.3 billion, a record 39.5% increase year-on-year — confirm the company's financial capacity to support a sustained, multi-year debut campaign. The capital is there. The question is whether ABD's creative vision is distinct enough to claim its own space.

What to Watch in the Second Half of 2026

ABD's girl group is expected to debut before December 2026, placing them in direct competition with the K-pop fourth-quarter season that has historically produced some of the biggest debut performances in the industry. The team has not yet shared a group name, member lineup, or concept direction — which means the debut, when it arrives, will carry the full weight of accumulated anticipation.

If Han Sung-soo's record holds, ABD's debut should arrive fully formed: with a clear identity, a disciplined concept, and a fanbase already invested in the journey before the first music drops. That is the standard HYBE's own history has set. Whether ABD meets it will be one of K-pop's defining stories before the year ends.