Netizens expressed their concerns over groups like GFriend and NU'EST disbanding shortly after HYBE Labels acquired their labels.

On February 28 KST, one netizen took to an online community and created a post titled, "HYBE is really destroying groups". Here, the netizen wrote, "After [HYBE] acquired GFriend's label, they disbanded. After [HYBE] acquired NU'EST's label, they disbanded. fromis_9 members are promoting, but are very risky. When [HYBE] didn't have enough groups [in their company], they acquired groups and used them. But when [the groups] run out of popularity and after [HYBE] got TXT and ENHYPEN, they automatically turn their heads on them."

This came after NU'EST recently announced their decision to disband next month, shocking many fans. 

Some netizens blamed HYBE Labels for poorly managing their acquired groups, leading to their disbandment:

"Doesn't HYBE have some responsibility to what happened to GFriend?"

"Be careful Seventeen."

"It's true that both NU'EST and GFriend turned out for the worse after [being acquired by] HYBE. There was no improvement."

"GFriend is the most unfortunate case."

"They should have just done well on their own, why did they have to touch other labels? I hate this."

"To be honest, the fact that already two groups ended up like this, you can't say HYBE didn't have any influence at all."

Others thought HYBE Labels shouldn't be held responsible:

"It's right to get rid of groups that don't make money, in the perspective of the company Lol They're not some charity organization."

"Why is NU'EST's disbandment HYBE's fault? Their contract ended, and only two members decided to stay. If the company was at fault, the two members wouldn't have stayed like in the case of GFriend."

"It was obvious they only pushed one member [of NU'EST], so this is the result of that."

"If it's been 10 years [since they debuted], then there's probably members who want to do acting, who want to do solo, and have different dreams."