Why is Center 3 of SM Entertainment the worst among all?

SM Entertainment launched its multi-production center plan in 2023 as part of the so-called “SM 3.0”, promising better focus, management and promotion for the artists belonging to each center.

There are currently 6 centers, among which, Center 3 has been designated for the management of TVXQ! and Red Velvet, doing the poorest job among all the centers.

Center 3, known as “Red Center”, which has Kwon Yoon-jeong and Jooyoung Kim as Production and Management Director, is in charge of managing 7 artists in total: 2 members of TVXQ! and 5 members in Red Velvet. Both groups have a long history of suffering from neglect by SM, with TVXQ! in particular currently having notoriously the worst management for a group in all SM and Red Velvet seemengly heading for the same fate.

To name just a few examples of the neglect these groups are going through, it can be mentioned the poor management of social media, more evident when compared to other SM artists; or the scarce content outside of the short promotional period; or the poor and low-quality design of posters and merchandise.

Unlike other soloists within SM and even members of groups who have not yet officially debuted as soloists, no members of TVXQ! or Red Velvet have had fan meetings, concerts, or tours as solo singers.

They have not even participated in events as soloists except for Irene in January of this year for Supersound Festival. Birthday events (omitted this year) are certainly not activities of this type.

Recently both groups celebrated significant anniversaries that were barely acknowledged by SM. The Red Velvet members mentioned at the time how uncertain SM’s plans were for celebrating their 10th anniversary or releasing a commemorative album. On the other hand, TVXQ! celebrated their 20th anniversary in December 2023, the first active group belonging to SM to reach this milestone, the second in the entire kpop industry after Shinhwa, and this anniversary was barely acknowledged by SM. The release of the commemorative album after 5 years without Korean releases was barely promoted. No member of SM Entertainment’s management attended their concerts in Seoul and only one label mate group attended. The short tour in Asia was again barely promoted and the opportunity to have a concert in Japan with the same international song list once again was missed as well as the possibility of having concerts in other locations in Asia and other parts of the world.

A similar situation occurred in 2018 which marked not only TVXQ’s return after finishing their military service but their 15th anniversary which was again barely recognized by SM despite their artist’s effort to make it memorable. Particularly U-Know Yunho, the group’s leader, who became the first kpop idol to carry out a dance challenge by himself, prior to the TikTok boom in kpop, an initiative that once again found itself without the support of the company although it was not a surprise for fans since the constant sabotage towards TVXQ! and individually towards U-Know is so evident that it deserves a separate article.

Recently TVXQ! and Red Velvet became trending topics after their performances at SMTOWN 2025 celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary and again the opportunity to capitalize on the interest generated was missed. The plans for next quarter for SM have been released and there’s nothing planned for the two groups of the Red Center.

The question is: WHY?

Why has SM designated these two groups to a center clearly intended to neglect them?

Despite the years and the scarce promotions for TVXQ! and Red Velvet, both groups have good sales among their generation peers and loyal fandoms as well as successful tours despite the haste and precariousness in their organization and distribution.

TVXQ! in particular became the foreign artist with the most performances at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, all of them sold out. For a long time they were pointed out as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, breadwinner within SM and yet the company has demonstrated time and again its inability to give them good management and adequate promotion. TVXQ! holds the achievement to be the Korean artist to perform in front of the largest audience for a concert, at the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama in 2013, a feat repeated in 2018.

However, they still suffer from lack of proper management and staff deficiencies. For example, the recent problem with the outfits chosen for A-Nation 2024 in Japan stands out.

On the other hand, Red Velvet is the only SM Entertainment group that does not have a Japanese fan club which led to fans having to enter other SM Japanese fanclubs so they could get the benefits for events like SMTOWN concert; the name of their fandom was given after 3 years and they are the only group from their company that has not had the opportunity to perform at the Tokyo Dome among other things.

Center 3 has been rumored as the future center in charge of managing SM’s new boy group, which would be unfortunate given the poor work that this Center does with only 7 people in charge, incapable of even take action against the slander from online haters.