A scene from a music video for “Gee,” one of Girls‘ Generation’s most famous hits (Screen captured from YouTube)

As Tiffany, Sooyoung and Seohyun of Girls’ Generation decided to leave their agency S.M. Entertainment, the K-pop juggernaut is facing its biggest challenge in its 10-year career.

The change could have a huge impact not only on the agency, but on the K-pop scene in general, as the group ranked high on brand value rankings.

According to data collected and analyzed between Sept. 7 and Sunday by the Korea Reputation Center, the girl group was found to have the tenth highest brand value among 100 major K-pop idol groups with a brand reputation index of 3.35 million.

It is the sixth highest among girl groups, following Twice, Red Velvet, GFriend, Apink and Black Pink.

The organization’s latest individual brand value ranking shows Girls’ Generation members Yoona and Taeyeon being the second and third most valuable brands among major K-pop girl group members while its departing member Sooyoung landed at No. 5.

Released each month, the brand value ranking is based on participation, communication, media and community indexes.

By Kim So-yeon (syk19372@heraldcorp.com)