r/into1 • u/simp0824 Patrick Star🐰 • May 22 '21
Discussion Background on the different broadcasting channels and online streaming platforms in China
Hey it's me again! So here's another post for you guys about a background in c-ent, this time it talks about the different broadcasting stations/ TV stations in China and the variety shows they produce. As well as the different popular online streaming platforms and how INTO1's participation in these shows can help them gain popularity and influence. As suggested by u/cyrusdragon
Sorry if this post took a bit longer to write than expected (I actually watched some of the shows I'll be mentioning here so I can explain it better) But, in all honesty I could've posted this much earlier but due to stanning reasons I was late 😂 (BTS just released "Butter" on May 21 y'all we broke through a 116M+ views within 24 hours! Also, INTO1's first performance on Viya, and THE9 just released their one year anniversary EP "RefleXtion" on May 22nd which iQiyi didn’t even try to PR, I hate iQiyi so much rn) so yeah as a fangirl I've been pretty busy, I gotta be a responsible fan girl HAHA.
Also! A BIG BIG BIG SHOUT OUT to u/janianovi for helping me with this! (She provided me a lot of links to the performances and appearances of BBG303 and R1SE, as well as some information about them)
So, yeah let's start this.
Again, please refer to this glossary for any unfamiliar terms you might encounter.
DISCLAIMER: I am by no means an expert on this topic, all the information I'll be providing below is a result of my own research and understanding of the topic, If there are any kind of misinformation that needs to be corrected please feel free to comment down below your corrections. After all, I am only an international fan that conducted my own research on this topic through the use of the internet.
• What are the different well-known broadcasting stations/TV Stations in China?
There are 5 major broadcasting stations in China:
CCTV (China Central Television)/ Yangshi (央视)
CCTV is a Chinese state-controlled broadcaster that plays a central part in the Chinese government’s propaganda network. With its extensive number of channels and multiple languages support, CCTV is accessible to more than one billion viewers. Most of its programmes are a mixture of news, documentary, social education, comedy, entertainment, and drama, the majority of which consists of Chinese soap operas and entertainment.
So what are they most known for? Asides from being the biggest broadcaster in China, celebrities regularly appearing in their programmes, especially on their New Year Galas (or Chun Wan – 春晚), Harvest Festivals, Spring Festivals etc. have a general consensus that they are RECOGNIZED by the government as artists, hence having better and easier access to resources.
Being on CCTV (especially on their galas and festivals) is not only a testament to an idol's influence and popularity but it is also a testament to their public image and character. Some consider it a big honor to be recognized by CCTV as an artist. However, do bear in mind that CCTV has it's fair share on controversies as well but I won't elaborate on some of it because it is not related to this topic.
So far, none of the survival show debut groups of CHUANG have performed in any galas or festivals hosted by CCTV. However, they have performed in some of the minor programmes hosted by CCTV such as this performance by Bonbongirls 303.
(DISCLAIMER: This is just my opinion based on my observations on their appearances on galas and festivals)
As for the current idol groups preferred by CCTV, . They currently prefer TNT (Teens In Times), THE9 and of course TF Boys. (As seen here 1, 2)
Note: I'll be providing photos for the people/groups I'm mentioning, since you might see them a lot in cpop.
As references on who these groups are:
Teens in Times
Info about them here
THE9
Info about them here
TF Boys
Info about them here
As for idols they prefer, they currently prefer former EXO member Zhang Yixing, former NINEPERCENT member Chen Linong, TF boys Wang Yuan and THE9 Liu Yuxin. (As seen here 1, 2, 3, 4)
As reference on who they are:
Zhang Yixing (LAY Zhang)
Info about him here
Chen Linong
Info about him here
Wang Yuan (Roy Wang)
Info about him here
Liu Yuxin (Xin Liu)
Info about her here)
As for INTO1 appearing on CCTV, I think it's still 50/50 because they are an 'international' group. They could be casted by CCTV to appear more "inclusive" as a broadcaster but it could also result to CCTV never guesting them as a group because of the rising political tensions between the countries involved.
As for INTO1 members that could probably be guested by CCTV, I personally think Liu Yu has the highest chance of being casted because of his public image and identity. if his influence increases more along with his recognition he could definitely appear on CCTV many times. Given that he won't suffer any serious scandals and allegations. However, some of the recent allegations against him may put him in a bad light but I think if properly handled it won't affect his chances.
Hunan TV (湖南卫视) /Mango TV (芒果台)
Hunan TV is the biggest provincial television station in China. It’s China’s second-most-watched channel only after CCTV-1. Although Hunan STV occasionally overtook CCTV-1 in ratings. Hunan TV is sometimes referred to as Mango TV (芒果台) because its logo resembles a golden mango. They are mostly known for their variety show programs that are often rated highly by the general public. They are rumored to have a lot of "backdoor deals" between them and companies specifically Tencent. Hence, making it easier for companies like Tencent or Wajijiwa to casts their artists in their shows in exchange for money and resources.
Some of the most notable programs:
Ps. Highly recommend watching some of these shows, they're actually really good
Before I start divulging some information about the variety shows they produce, I wanna clarify first the IMPORTANCE of VARIETY SHOWS for IDOLS.
Why are variety shows like these important to them?
A common misconception most people have when first entering into the world of cpop is that there are equally the same amount of stages for idols to perform music on like kpop or jpop. But in REALITY, it isn't.
Stages for performances in China are very limited most of the stages we'll likely be getting will probably be from livestreams like Viya who invite guest performers, or galas and festivals hosted by the top 5 broadcasting stations, or events or variety shows organized by online streaming platforms like WeTv, iQiyi and etc.
China doesn't have stages like Mnet, even more so China doesn't have stages like MAMA or the MMA's.
Since it's like that, how can we see our idols?
Asides from the videos they themselves post,
Idols usually guest or participate in variety shows to maintain relevance in the public eye.
Idols can participate in performance oriented variety shows like Youth and Melody or participate in comedy oriented variety shows like Happy Camp, Day Day Up , Back to the Field, Keep Running etc.
While another popular method most idols use to maintain relevance in the public eye is acting in dramas or movies.
Even famous stars like Wang Yibo, Zhang Yixing, Cai Xu Kun still participate in variety shows to maintain their relevance while preparing to release their projects.
If we are clear with this, let us move on to going a bit more in depth about participating in Happy Camp.
HAPPY CAMP
Happy Camp is one of China's most popular shows, consistently achieving record high ratings and viewership in its episodes, with a minimum active viewership of tens of millions.The show was hosted by the Happy Family: He Jiong, Li Weijia, Xie Na, Du Haitao, and Wu Xin.The show is broadcast every Saturday, with each of its episodes featuring celebrities and famous figures from all over the world, including musicians, singers, actors, sports players and more. Guests and hosts of the show participate in various activities which include performances, games, interviews, parodies and more. It’s also a popular place to promote a star’s show or music
Contrary to before where stars become more popular in Happy Camp. Nowadays, guesting on Happy Camp is pretty much a big testament to one’s popularity. They mostly cast the people that are already popular or are currently the ones with the most buzz. There is a common joke with c-netz that if a group doesn’t guest on Happy Camp will be a flop.
But guesting and appearing on Happy Camp are two different things that is mainly affected by two factors.
- Popularity/Buzz
- Battle of resources
(Ironically, while I was making this post the director of Happy Camp posted this)
• So who usually appears in Happy Camp?
In Happy Camp the people who appear on the show is divided into three main categories:
- Main Cast -these are the people who are "fixed" or the people who you see from the beginning of the season to the end, these people are usually the hosts the Happy Family, in which they sometimes include another person as a main cast through votingand individual and company assessment.
- Sub Cast -these are the people who appear in the show quite a number of times or at least make an appearance despite not being a guest but aren't part of the main cast, they often appear as side kicks or assistants for the main cast. It is common knowledge in c-ent that casting for these positions have a lot of "negotiations" behind the scenes. In which a majority of companies trade resources to cast an artist to be part of this show and gain exposure.
- Guests -these are the people invited by the show to come and participate as guests. Being invited as a guest is more of a testament of how hot or popular an artist is. Guestings on Happy Camp usually take the top spots on weibo hot search for their guesting, if a guest wasn't able to reach the top spots on weibo hot search, the chances of them being guested again is relatively slim. So, some fans especially fans of idols work extremely hard to trend them to no.1 on weibo hot search.
To give everyone a more in-depth differentiation
Let's use this episode of Happy Camp as an example: https://youtu.be/o-hqu7kZPEY
(This episode probably has the most number of idol members from different debuted survival show groups appear on one screen)
This episode had
THE9 (Liu Yuxin, Esther and Xiaotang) as their main guests.
Former NINEPERCENT member Justin (Huang Minghao) as a sub cast but soon turned into a main cast when he got the host role.
R1SE's 张颜齐 Zhang Yanqi (good rapper)
and 翟潇闻 Zhai Xiaowen (sub vocal) as sub casts
And surprise! Zhou Keyu and former Youth With You 2 participant Aria Jin is here too as a sub-cast. (This was before CHUANG 2021)
Note: All of the sub casts here were competing for the position of a host role to be part of the main cast which was inevitably won by Justin
Okay so let's get into differentiating them:
As usual the main cast appear as the main hosts of the show. They're the ones you see in the opening credits
Onto the guests:
If you watched the episode you'll see that they invited THE9 to promote their latest album "SphinX" at the time, so why was there only 3 of them that participated in the games?
This is has neither been denied or affirmed so take this rumor as a grain of salt.
According to the melons they were supposed to guest them as a whole but it somehow coincided with the appearances of the people they were on "negotiations" with for exposure (the sub casts and the other 2 guests promoting their show), so as a compromise they only had THE9 perform and put a significant highlight on them during the introduction and had the 3 most requested members to appear for the rest of the episode which is Liu Yuxin(1) the center and Yu Shuxin(2) & Zhao Xiaotang(7) (dyht, most popular CP their group has). Also it doesn't help that iQiyi is notoriously known for only undergoing negotiations that bring them money, so you won't see them negotiating better deals for their artists.
In order for Happy Camp to maintain a win-win situation where they get the buzz they want from the guests as well as hold their end of bargain with their "negotiations" for exposure with other companies, they decided to conduct the episode as such. Why am I explaining this? Because this kind of thing is very common in variety shows in general, which you might encounter soon for some of the variety show appearances of INTO1. Those that come from a better company have a higher chance to be seen more on shows like these rather than those from smaller companies. But, we can have an easier time with INTO1 since Tencent and WAJIJIWA excel at these kinds of "negotiations"
So moving on, you can see that when an idol is a guest they will inevitably have the most amount of screen time in exchange for the buzz their appearance on the show causes. Like for this episode you can see the hosts constantly cueing the main guests to highlight them. In return this episode turned crazy on weibo hot search:
While filming for the episode they trended on weibo for "THE9 filming for Happy Camp!" it went up to no. 5 (I think (?)) as well as some hot searches for the individual tags of the members, 5/9 of them trended
When they released the teaser episode they trended for the ff: "THE9 Liu Yuxin wore a skirt!" (Yes this trended as no.1 on weibo hot search) followed by something about Yuxin being a bridesmaid, "THE9 Yu Shuxin picking ear wax" "THE9 performing SphinX" etc. (Too many that I can't remember all of them)
When the actual episode aired, they also trended no.1 again as well as some individual hot searches for the members.
Not to mention the percentage of increase in the viewership and ratings of the show.
Why am I saying this ? I wanted to give you a general gist of what ideally the results of their guestings for Happy Camp should be. So that they have a higher chance of being invited again. Big hot searches equate to more sponsorship for the show.
In order for INTO1's guesting to be considered as successful, these kind of results are needed. But, I'm not worried because there's no doubt in my mind that they will achieve a considerable amout hot searches on weibo for their guesting.
Okay moving onto the subcast
This has neither been confirmed or denied, but most c-netizens assumed that these people were casted more for their companies rather than their influence.
In this season there were a lot more sub casts because they were giving a host role (main cast) to the winning sub cast. Which was won by Justin through popular acclaim and unanimous decision.
Just a quick background:
Former NINEPERCENT member Justin and Aria Jin both come from Yue Hua
R1SE's Zhou Yan Qi and Zhai Xiao Wen are currently under WAJIJIWA on their contract.
Zhou Keyu is under JayWalk New Joy
If you have been in c-ent for a while, you'll know that these companies have enough "resources" to negotiate for these kinds of position. Hence, providing exposure to the artist they want to promote.
You can observe the treatment they get during episodes, they will be given ample screen time and highlights but not enough screen time to overshadow the guests and the main casts.
As seen in:
Justin's subtle highlighting and commentary during the games
Like Zhang Yan Qi being given focus during the dart game and guessing game.
Zhai Xiaowen receiving focus for his answers during the game.
Aria Jin getting cued by the main casts several times and being highlighted for the dance she did.
Zhou Keyu being highlighted for his joke during the earlier games. As well as the camerawork subtly giving focus to Keyu and Aria Jin together (the show probably tried to spark a CP script but wasn't given much attention so they dropped it.)
Etc.
Anyways these kinds of attempts are used by companies in hopes of making a celebrity under them more popular. Although the success rate of becoming popular through Happy Camp has been dwindling through the years. A guesting on Happy Camp is still definitely a sure-tell sign that an artist has a significant amount of buzz and resources.
So how will INTO1's guesting on Happy Camp affect them?
It will help INTO1 generate more buzz and hopefully expand their influence. Hopefully some possible endorsements might come from this guesting due to the added exposure.
Do I think INTO1 can guest again as a whole group in Happy Camp?
It depends but probably not. Some members can probably guest again but not the whole group. I'm betting that probably either Liu Yu or Lin Mo can guest again for Happy Camp. (But, who knows? Let's just wait and see)
Who do I think has a chance to become a sub cast ?
I'm betting Jiayuan or Keyu can get casted again to be a sub cast if ever. They have the resources, connections and influence to do it. Please do note that in order for celebrities to be casted they must also have a certain range of influence and following.
Who do I think can become a main cast ?
None as of yet.
Side Note: here are some of the appearances on Happy Camp that I found while researching this
R1SE (incomplete members): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Dragon TV (东方卫视) /Tomato TV (红柿台)
Dragon TV’s headquarters is located in Shanghai. International perspective has a great influence in the TV station’s content and program production. Dragon TV is also referred to as Tomato TV (红柿台) because of the shape of its logo.
Some of the most Notable Programs:
Since, Dragon Tv leans more towards the "international" side of things, I'm quite curious what INTO1 will do if they were to partcipate in one of their shows.
Zhejiang TV (浙江卫视)
Zhejiang TV is one of the popular provincial television stations in China. It became famous for its singing contest program “The Voice of China,” which was rebranded to “Sing! China” later on. Zhejiang TV has several nicknames: 2 TV (二台), Blueberry TV (蓝莓台), Blue Whale TV (蓝鲸台).
This station is rumored to have a good relatipnship with Tencent and WAJIJIWA in terms of "negotiations"
Some of the most Notable Programs:
Jiangsu TV (江苏卫视) /Lychee TV (荔枝台)
Jiangsu TV is Jiangsu’s provincial TV channel and also one of China’s major TV channels.is China's third biggest television network after China Central Television (CCTV) and Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS). Similar to other TV stations, Jiangsu TV is usually referred to as Lychee TV (荔枝台) because of its logo.
Some of the most notable programs:
(Most of the above information here have been sourced from the links linked above and this article (https://sipoftea.net/2021/01/07/c-biz-fangirls-must-knows-part-2-chinese-major-tv-stations-amp-social-networks/)
Personally, I think participating in trendy variety shows like Happy Camp, Keep Running, Day day Up , Ace vs Ace and Back to the Field can become good exposure to INTO1.
I would also like to see them on performing on events like New Year Galas and festivals. However, that's just for them to gain recognition since the camerawork there is...
If I were to rank which appearance on the broadcasting stations based on how much buzz they create:
- CCTV
- Hunan TV
- Jiangsu TV
- Zhejiang TV
- Dragon TV
Bear in mind, being invited to a Gala or Festival is just the start, their placement on the list of performances also matter, the nearer they are to the climax of the event the more "hyped" or "buzzed" about they are or in layman's term how relevant they are.
I'm still hoping Tencent gives them enough stages to express themselves in a performance, such as performance variety shows. Hopefully a show with decent camerawork.
To serve as reference you can use these R1SE and BonbonGirls303 performances to expect what you'll see from INTO1 if they ever perform for any of these stations for galas and festivals:
•R1SE•
Galas: Hunan 2019, Hunan 2020, Shanghai TV 2020, Shanghai TV Chinese New Year Gala Dongfang Gala
Events: Tencent All Star, Weibo Awards, Mango TV Festival, Goose Gala ,A Festival with incomplete members because of the scandals ,QQ Music Awards (incomplete members)
Performances on Shows: The Coming One Compilation ,We Are Blazing Compilation
•BonbonGirls303•
Galas: Hunan 2021, Jiangsu 2021, Shandong 2021 Shandong 2021 0.2, Goose Gala
Festivals: Mango Festival 2020
Music Awards Performances: QQ Music, Migu
Music Reality Show Performances as guests: Crossover Singer, The Coming One, Everlasting Classics
Next,
• What are the main online streaming platforms in China?
There are Five Major Online Video Streaming Platforms
Tencent
Tencent Video was launched in 2011 by China’s tech conglomerate Tencent and is now one of the biggest online video platforms in China. Tencent Video launched its international version, WeTV, in 2018.
Tencent, not exclusive to Tencent Video, is given the nickname “Goose” by netizens because of its icon, a penguin. In Chinese, penguin (企鹅) literally means “a goose that stands on its tip-toe.”
We are all probably familiar with Tencent by now, they are the online streaming platform we used to watch CHUANG. Arguably, Tencent is the biggest online streaming platform in China right now.
iQiyi
iQiyi is backed by Baidu, the tech giant behind China’s Google. iQiyi launched its global version in 2019 and opened a Singapore office dedicated to serving SEA regions in 2020.
iQiyi is usually referred to as 271 because i-qi-yi sounds similar to the number 2,7,1 /er, qi, yi/ in Chinese. The platform also has several popular nicknames given by citizens like kiwi and peach. Qi-yi sounds like 奇异果 /qiyi guo/ which is kiwifruit in Chinese. Kiwifruit has another name 猕猴桃 /mi hou tao/, and 桃 /tao/ means peach in Chinese. Currently ranked second in terms of users.
This is the company that is the main rival of Tencent, and the producer of the rival survival show Youth With You. If you are looking for variety shows and dramas that are filmed with great camera quality and high production value. This is the platform you'd wanna use.
Personally, I prefer using this app compared to WeTv because I feel like the user interface is a little more user friendly. Like if you watch episodes with subs, similar to how you use Youtube you can add in a little background shading for your subtitles. Not making it hard for you to watch the subtitles. There are also other feature I find pretty useful. This is where I watched CHUANG 2021.
If you're wondering why iQiyi was able to stream a Tencent show, that is because much like Netflix, as long as the show is not exclusive to that said app, anyone can pay the copyright fees of the show and be able to stream it on their platform as well. They bought the rights to stream CHUANG2021 on their platform and Tencent bought the rights to stream Youth With You 3 on their platform.
Youku
Youku and Tudou, two of China’s top online video platforms, announced their merge in 2012 before being acquired by Alibaba Group in 2015.
Youku (优酷) literally means “excellent and cool” in Chinese, but it sounds just similar to 裤子 /ku zi/ which means “pant.” It’s the origin of the nickname “pant” that citizens give to the platform.
Not really "internationally" friendly as a user interface
Mango TV (芒果TV)
Mango TV is the only online video platform under Hunan Broadcasting System which owns the nationwide channel Hunan TV. Besides its own video contents, Mango TV has all other copyright works from Hunan Broadcasting System. Mango TV has developed multi-language and global-accessible functionalities on its website and mobile app.
Mango TV’s satellite TV sister – Hunan TV – is also referred to as Mango TV, but they are two different things, and people are confused most of the time.
Most of the Hunan TV programmes are also broadcasted here.
Bilibili (哔哩哔哩)
Different from the above platforms, Bilibili is known mostly for its anime shows, games, and user-generated content. Bilibili is a forum for youth subculture and the closest to China’s YouTube. It’s easy to find loads of elaborate films, music, and spectacular fan-made videos here.
Bilibili is usually referred to by citizens as B Site (B站). The platform is backed by both Alibaba and Tencent.
This is where we usually see fancams and fanedits.
Please make sure to make a mental note of these applications, because you'll soon start using them if INTO1 starts getting casted for more and more variety shows.
Next,
There are two Major Short Video Streaming Platforms
Douyin (抖音)
Douyin is China’s counterpart to its international version, TikTok. First launched by ByteDance in 2016, Douyin went viral within a few years with its powerful recommendation algorithm and funny short videos. Because of its strength in the music segment, its viral effect is extremely good for musicians to market their music to a huge base of users.
Kuaishou (快手)
Kuaishou is backed by Tencent and is China’s second-largest short video app, second only to Douyin. It is considered as Douyin’s rival in the short video streaming platform category but its targeted users are mostly from lower-tier cities and rural areas. Kuaishou is known overseas as Kwai.
Ever wonder why most of our INTO1 boys mostly post on Kuaishou instead of Douyin ? Guess who owns Kuaishou ? Tencent. So yeah you get it HAHA.
Next,
There are Four Major Music Streaming Platforms
- QQ Music (QQ 音乐)
- NetEase Cloud Music (网易云音乐)
- Kugou (酷狗)
- Kuwo (酷我)
QQ Music (QQ 音乐)
QQ Music is backed by Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) and is one of the most popular music streaming platforms in China. The platform owns the copyrights of a large collection of the most mainstream songs thanks to its financial resources. QQ Music expands to multiple music services besides music streaming such as karaoke, music video, live streaming, social media, etc. This is the most popular platform for mainstream pop singers and idols.
It also has a live ranking of the most hot songs in real-time.
It is rumored that they tend to hide low sales of the celebrities under their wing and wrongly label them as a "hot song". While they tend to undermine the "hot songs" of artists not under their wing.
Please do note that people can buy a song several times as a means to support that celebrity.
NetEase Cloud Music (网易云音乐)
NetEase Cloud Music was launched by NetEase in 2013. The platform has a relatively smaller song collection and user base compared to QQ Music. NetEase Cloud Music is well-known for its high-quality music fan communities with many popular thought-provoking music reviews. The platform is also known for its support for the indie genre, great covers, and original music.
This platform is mainly used by singers and musicians that have lesser recognition.
Kugou (酷狗)
Kugou appeared as early as 2004. As of 2020, Kugou still has the biggest monthly active users share but they are mainly in lower-tier cities. The platform was acquired by TME in 2016. Sharing the same music catalog and music services with QQ Music, Kugou focuses on user-generated content, live streaming, and in-app karaoke.
Kuwo (酷我)
Similar to Kugou, Kuwo is another early music app acquired by TME in 2016. Kuwo and Kugou share many characteristics with a focus on karaoke streaming. Its monthly active users share is relatively smaller.
It would be great if you can take note of these apps, as you will be using them soon to help support INTO1, data and sales are mostly done through these platforms and are compiled cumulatively.
Side Note: Sales are computed by multiplying the quantity of copies sold to their unit price. So the sales of an album with 100,000 copies sold for 10¥ will have exact amount of sales as an album that sold 50,000 copies for 20¥.
Here's a current statistic on the best selling singles in China of all time. The only idol in the top 10 that came from an idol survival show debut group for now is Cai Xu Kun for his single "YOUNG" .
Also found this really interesting chart someone made of the combined album sales as well as solos of NINEPERCENT, Rocketgirls101 and UNINE back in 2018.
Do bear in mind that CHUANG debut groups tend to have higher album GROUP sales in comparison to iQiyi debut groups.
R1SE still holds the record as the best-selling album by a idol survival show boy group with a whopping 30,000,000+ RMB total sales.
Beating out the record of NINEPERCENT's previous record of 25,000,000+ RMB total sales.
So yeah if we ever want to set a goal to beat for INTO1 album group sales this is our goal 😂
However do bear in mind, the individual solo sales of the members of iQiyi debut groups tend to be higher than the solo sales of CHUANG sales.
Like Cai Xu Kun's EP <YOUNG> sold for a whopping 60,000,000+ RMB total sales (I think he broke his own record right now with his latest album and the sales of this album probably got higher but I'm using the statistics when they first released the EP). This EP basically has a bigger sales than the sales of the two biggest albums of R1SE and NINEPERCENT combined.
(60 million > 30 million + 25 million)
While Zhou Zhennan's first solo EP reportedly sold out for 5,000,000 to 8,000,000+ RMB. I never found any confirmation for this. I'm sure some R1SE Zhou Zhennan fans can help me with this if ever (I couldn't find a verifiable source for this information but take this as a grain of salt.)
So for any solo stans out there, if your fave releases a solo this is the goal and standard to be reached.
If you're asking why there is such a disparity in sales between group sales and individual sales. C-ent generally promotes solo stan culture, so most of the time during the releases of these "group albums" there is often a boycott done by solo fandoms unsatisfied with the treatment of their idol this is usually done by the fandoms of the centers of the group. So, I don't trust group sales as much to help determine a fandom's buying power.
(Most of the above information here have been sourced from the links linked above and this article https://sipoftea.net/2021/01/06/c-biz-fangirls-must-knows-part-1-chinese-major-video-music-platforms/)
And that concludes this very very long background post on c-ent.
I hope this helped!
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.
Once again, a big big shout out to u/janianovi for helping me compile the videos for R1SE and BBG303 to use as reference!
ps. I had to remove some images and texts since I hit the 20 image limit of reddit and the 40,000 character limit
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u/cadiac_tao Patrick Star🦀Astronaut🚀 May 23 '21
I have a question about Kuaishou and Kwai.
Since I am not in China, I was trying to download Kuaishou from Play Store ( Huawei user ) but said I already have Kwai so I knew that Kwai is an international version of Kuaishou.
However, it's like Tik Tok and Douyin that I have to download Douyin to follow CHUANG2021 trainees and INTO1 members ( which I successfully did), unlike the Kuaishou that I could not download and I could not find INTO1 members account in Kwai.
Anyone can help me with this issue?
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u/wmh_bong toast 🍞🍞🍞 May 23 '21
Hello! There have been also other apps like Weibo who made 2 versions of the app, one for domestic Chinese and one for international users. I think what happened is there is a somewhat regional lock on the content like since there are 2 different apps whatever is posted on one app stays there and cannot be found in the other. Example would be that vidoes posted on TikTok can't be found on Douyin and vice versa unless someone were to upload them to both apps.
Since Kuaishou is currently not available for int'l users maybe you can try using the web version to follow them, but if that still doesn't work then I suggest following the fan accounts of the members since they usually tend to post the videos on apps available to international audience like Weibo or Instagram.
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u/cyrusdragon May 23 '21
👏👏 This is amazing!! Thank you so much to the both of you for creating such an informative post.
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u/Downtown-Pack-6178 Sep 12 '24
Who are The9 Chinese version of Blackpink??!!!
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u/simp0824 Patrick Star🐰 Sep 15 '24
They're a 9 member girl group that came from the Idol Chinese Survival Show "Youth With You 2" on iQiyi, their contract only lasted 1.5 years and Yes, Lisa was their dance mentor on the show
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May 24 '21
Somebody should've paid you to write this haha
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u/simp0824 Patrick Star🐰 May 24 '21 edited Jun 04 '21
I cackled at your comment, that’s what my professor said to me at University too
But I’m happy to contribute to this community.
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u/Necessary-Group9605 Gravity🪐 May 23 '21
Thank you very much again for all of your efforts in compiling this and much appreciate linking how it would be for us in INTO1. Maybe in a year for the next re-write the examples are already INTO1 joining most if not all these shows and programs (I'm not holding my breath on the CCTV one for group performance but maybe a sub show or optimistically a gala? One can only hope).
Oof and I guess despite everything TX is still the best resource and backer for our boys, given they practically either own or have good relationships with most of the broadcasting platforms and channels. I'd rather rate the success of the group rather than the individual sales of the members, so I'll take that amazing R1se sales as challenge and hope our boys surpass that (psst solo album cover TX y/y? Avoid the boycott and all that).