[theqoo] NCT DREAM'S 200K COPIES FIRST WEEK SALES DINE AND DASH BY KTOWN4U

bypannchoaJune 05, 2022
It sounds like an impossible situation but it's actually true

Most of NCT's fans "reserve" their albums on Ktown. As you can see, about half a million went out from Ktown in total. Even the Chinese bulk buyers buy them from there.

However, in reality, on May 30th, the day of the comeback, due to the supply and demand disease that is rampant in SM, it wasn't reflected on the sales. On the first day of the comeback, their albums got sold out and even offline, it was announced that they were sold out.

There was especially a high demand for the Digipack versions of the album since the members decorated them themselves. However, they were stuck in a situation where there was no supply of it.

Meanwhile, on Ktown4U, they announced that they couldn't reflect the bulk buying from the Chinese fans. Ktown4U said that "We don't know when it will be in stock, we can't reflect the results.". However, if you looked at the Chinese bar's official statement, it was clear that Ktown4U were the ones responsible for this.

Summary:
1. China bars were aware that Hanteo changed their criteria for counting albums sales
2. On the first day, the Chinese bulk buying groups asked Ktown and Ktown said that they will be reflecting all the sales of the first week
3. On the first day however, only 110K copies out of 300K got reflected. They asked Ktown why it was the case
4. Ktown suddenly changed their words and said "I don't know when it'll be stocked, so we can't reflect [the results]."

-> It begs the question why they didn't notify them in advance? It's not like China bars only have Ktown as a choice to reserve their albums

What's even funnier is that Ktown said they couldn't reflect it, but other websties are able to reflect the numbers just fine

"Is the product you inquired about correct? It is confirmed that it will be reflected after the closing of the group purchase this Saturday. SOS consultation is not available for other group purchase consultations, so please contact the customer center at 1661-1112 for additional inquiries.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us on the Hot Tracks website. thank you"

It's clear that Ktown just dined and dashed in this situation

graph columns left to right: date, singer (album name), daily sales, cumulative sales)
graph chart: blue: Beatbox, grey: Glitch Mode

What's even more annoying is that they had surpassed way beyond 800K in their first week sales. If only they had counted the extra 200K copies, they could've became a 'million seller in the first week'.

It would've been NCT Dream's first 'million seller in the first week' for a repackage album.

I'm not only talking about Dream fans, but can we even trust Ktown in the future for other idols albums?

original post: here

1. Crazy what a f*cking shame... It's not like 200K albums is trivial, do you know how much that would be in monetary amount?

2. Wow what an unfair situation, they could've reached 1M...

3. But is first week sales that important?? I don't think that for someone at the level of NCT, they would still fuss over first week sales?? Don't they sell a lot anyways?
> It's written in the post itself, it could've been a new record for us
> Of course it's important, those 200K copies could've made the difference between a million seller or not
> First week sales will stay as a lifetime record, if they surpass 1M, it would've been a new record they broke. As a singer, it's more important than anything

4. F*ck Ktown flop...

5. But this is indeed Ktown's fault, but the other issue is production companies not being able to hit that level of production... I don't think I've ever seen production companies make this much...

6. Who would even bulk buy from Ktown in the future anymore? F*ck I'm not a fan and I'm freaking pissed off

7. Wow... They could've surpassed 1M...

8. For fans, first weeks sales are so important... SM's production for idols is so severely poor. I don't know when they'll wake up. Anyways, I'll pass on Ktown from now on

9. Huh? This is freaking oba. This could've been such a strong record for them, do they not know how important this is? This could've meant a million seller for them or not. But they got the title robbed away????

10. Don't they know why the term 'first week sales' exists in the first place? How dare they still act like that?