In less than a year, the highly renowned girl group IZ*One will be disbanding after their contracts run it’s due date
They originated from a show called Produce 48 which was a collaboration with Produce 101 & AKB48 to create Asia’s next big girl group
3 of the members Miyawaki Sakura, Yabuki Nako, & Honda Hitomi are members of AKB48 (with Sakura & Nako also being from HKT48, the Fukuoka based sister group of AKB48)
Other AKB48 members like Takahashi Juri, now in Woolim’s new girl group Rocket Punch, as well as Takeuchi Miyu, debuting with Mystic Girls, were on the program as well
It is speculated that after IZ*One disbands, AKB48’s management will not be finished with expanding towards Korea, and will make the next big girl group there under the AKB48 franchise
There have been many AKB48 sister groups not only in Japan, but all across Asia. China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia, and even India have sister groups. With further expansion, South Korea seems like on of the next choices
Fans speculate that there will be 1-2 sister groups named SOL48 & BSN48, one based in Seoul & one based in Busan (since both are the biggest cities in South Korea, yet are very far apart from each other, making it easier to take over the country)
Look forward to more information on the potential future AKB48 group
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I realize this author of this article is a HUGE 48G fan. But 48G groups based in Korea just wouldn't work. Otherwise, 48G would've been popular in Korea from the start, which they aren't. They didn't even make a dent in Korea even in their "golden age" when they had all their big name members still active within the group. The style from their music and such, that they create, just doesn't appeal to Koreans in general and even to most international music listeners as a whole. This is also why IZ*ONE's Japanese single's created by Aki-P aren't nearly as successful as IZ*ONE's Korean single's overall. Only IZ*ONE's Korean single's trend worldwide and even make it to the Billboard charts while also topping charts in various countries. And apparently, there's a lot of rumors and hints that IZ*ONE's contracts might be either renewed or perhaps become a permanent group. Some of these hints coming from the members themselves. Twice is one of the most successful groups right now and they still live in the same dorms they've been living in for the past 6 years. IZ*ONE is supposed to be a 2 and half year group, but they recently moved into a new and bigger dorm only a little after a year. Kinda tells you something there. It's all speculative, of course, but this is how I'm seeing it.
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IZ*ONE is a group that's just too successful to throw away over a contract at this point, whether you're a fan or not. Just even from a business perspective, it makes sense to keep them together to profit. They literally became the second highest selling Kpop group behind Twice in just a little over a year. People want to bring up IOI, but no matter how successful IOI was, what happened after they all debuted in their own respective groups? They all flopped. Chungha is the only one who really found success after IOI. WJSN was already doing okay before Yeonjung was added, so that doesn't really count.
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