SM's secret weapon in China

    Its no secret that LSM wants to expand in China however its not very going smoothly. If we look at weibo followers, their most followed member winwin at 4 million has less followers than Avril Lavigne at 4.5 million who isn't exactly relevant in america at the moment. Predictably winwin has more than twice as many followers as wayv itself with only 1.5 million None of the wayv members are on the forbes 100 list to join relevant chinese idols like tfboys, cai xukun, yibo, and zhou zhennan. Anecdotally when I went to china, nobody, even my tfboys obsessed aunt knew who they were.


    However, the way up for them is simple. The chinese market are usually solo stans rather than group stans. Even TFboys, the most popular chinese group at the moment mostly does solo activities because the vast majority of their fans only stans one member. SM would do best by following yuehua blueprint with wang yibo, promoting one member by putting him in talk shows and dramas and letting him impress the crowd. Luckily, sm has their guy.


    Enter winwin. Much of yibo's early claim to fame was his dance which is in fact really good. However winwin is also a very skilled dancer who has even entered the Beijing dance academy which is only available for the best of the best dancers in china so its safe to say that he likely is in the same tier as yibo in terms of dance. While I'm not sure about his acting, the next step would need to be to put him in a drama. It would be better if SM could get lay into the drama as well as lay is one of the biggest idols in china and is an instantly recognizable name. In addition, winwin seems to be the one that fits chinese visuals the best. (tall 180+ and sharp features)


    If sm wishes to get wayv relevant in china, they likely should split wayv up and focus on solo activities with most of the energy on the already popular members lucas and winwin because likley only 1 or 2 would actually make it big in china. The other members can form their own subunit to appeal to overseas chinese communities which is also a big and seperate market

    Edited once, last by bigsmhit ().

    also sm is under nct, their whole idea is too be a big group

    so why would sm just change that 2 years later???

    Quote from bigsmhit

    If sm wants to get big in china, they can't do a big group. Chinese stan culture always focuses on one member. Even the tfboys and nine percent do mainly solo promotions

    i feel like you don't understand, sm isn't targetting just china with nct. they're going global. and wayv is currently one of the most popular if not most popular group in china rn anyways, i see no reason they would need to change their tactic.

    Quote from zuzuhhaa

    i feel like you don't understand, sm isn't targetting just china with nct. they're going global. and wayv is currently one of the most popular if not most popular group in china rn anyways, i see no reason they would need to change their tactic.

    Thats fair, but wayv is honestly pretty irrelevant in china right now. In terms of weibo followers, wayv members are nowhere near a lister celebrities and none of them make the forbes top 100 chinese celebrities which is full of other boy group members. If nct wants to penetrate mainland china, they will need to change their tactic.


    Chinese Idols In terms of weibo followers:


    winwin (most popular wayv) 4 million

    Avril Lavigne - An american who doesn't speak chinese who isn't even relevant in america at the moment 4.5 million

    Li wenhan uniq 13 million

    Zhou zhennan r1se 18 million

    Xiao Zhan Xnine 20 million

    Cai xukun 9 percent 34 million

    Wang yibo uniq 38 million

    Wang junkai tfboys 80 million

    Jackson yee tfboys 88 million


    Compared to other idols, winwin, the most popular wayv member is very far behind everyone else. They are far from being the most popular boy group in china and frankly if they just catered to a chinese audience, they'd be flops without the international fanbase

    jackson wang was weibo? he's relevant? weibo followers don't determine that lol. avril lavigne is an American artist, its given she's going to have a bigger impact consider her current status as an artist. she's popular, and people know her. i also don't understand why you're stuck on winwin when he was the first Chinese member introduced (other than chenle and renjun from nct dream) ofc he's going to be the most popular out of wayv. winwin is a popular bias of many.

    Quote from zuzuhhaa

    jackson wang was weibo? he's relevant? weibo followers don't determine that lol. avril lavigne is an American artist, its given she's going to have a bigger impact consider her current status as an artist. she's popular, and people know her. i also don't understand why you're stuck on winwin when he was the first Chinese member introduced (other than chenle and renjun from nct dream) ofc he's going to be the most popular out of wayv. winwin is a popular bias of many.

    Your point? Jackson has 27 million weibo followers still way more than any wayv member although he honestly isn't that popular in china compared to overseas, his forbes ranking is only 41. The point is that none of the wayv members have much relevance since the rest of them have less popularity than winwin who himself isn't that popular.


    This list is pretty accurate for judging relevance in china. There's no wayv members on it. Idk why you think wayv is relevant in china. They are a pretty niche group there

    https://www.dailycpop.com/forb…elebrities-list-for-2020/

    Quote from bigsmhit

    Your point? Jackson has 27 million weibo followers still way more than any wayv member although he honestly isn't that popular in china compared to overseas, his forbes ranking is only 41. The point is that none of the wayv members have much relevance since the rest of them have less popularity than winwin who himself isn't that popular.


    This list is pretty accurate for judging relevance in china. There's no wayv members on it. Idk why you think wayv is relevant in china. They are a pretty niche group there

    https://www.dailycpop.com/forb…elebrities-list-for-2020/

    so why do you think they'll be better broken up? wouldn't they be flops without winwin then? winwin is helping them grow in popularity then, if im following what you're saying correctly. and if i am, then that also means that sm's strategy is still working for wayv.

    Quote from zuzuhhaa

    so why do you think they'll be better broken up? wouldn't they be flops without winwin then? winwin is helping them grow in popularity then, if im following what you're saying correctly. and if i am, then that also means that sm's strategy is still working for wayv.

    The point isn't for wayv to be popular in china, the point is for a sm representative to. In China, fans usually stan one guy rather than an entire group. In keeping up with the local culture, it would be better to promote winwin or lucas, the two most popular idols as solo artists and give them solo opportunities like variety shows and dramas which is what gets these solo artists popular which is what yuehua has done with yibo, what jyp did with jackson, and sm with lay

    Quote from bigsmhit

    The point isn't for wayv to be popular in china, the point is for a sm representative to. In China, fans usually stan one guy rather than an entire group. In keeping up with the local culture, it would be better to promote winwin or lucas, the two most popular idols as solo artists and give them solo opportunities like variety shows and dramas which is what gets these solo artists popular.

    that's what they're doing tho??? lucas goes on so many variety shows lol lucas and winwin are the face of the group rn

    Quote from zuzuhhaa

    that's what they're doing tho??? lucas goes on so many variety shows lol lucas and winwin are the face of the group rn

    They aren't doing it enough, its one thing to be a guest on an variety show after all, there's a different guest every week on the many variety shows out there, but its the other to star in a well received drama or be a regular host of a popular tv show.

    Quote from bigsmhit

    They aren't doing it enough, its one thing to be a guest on an variety show after all, there's a different guest every week on the many variety shows out there, but its the other to star in a well received drama or be a regular host of a popular tv show.

    they're artists, how much do you expect from them? they practice for hours on the daily

    :pepewhat:

    I think there's a lot to unpack here.


    First, WayV launched during a period of time of restrictions between China and Korea, which severely curtailed their ability to promote there initially, and then additional promotions were curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.


    Second, WayV just launched in 2019. If you're comparing the amount of followers any WayV has to someone like Jackson, who started in a group that debuted in 2014, that's not an apt comparison. Similarly TFBoys launched in 2013. I'd expect all those artists to have considerably more followers than WayV members.


    Third, three of the artists in the top 100 sprang from one specific kpop group (EXO), which shows that while there is certainly opportunity for solo success, it often begins with creating awareness through a group. The fact that WayV was able to top different QQ charts recently shows there is buzz happening around the group, even if they are not blockbusters yet in China. It's certainly too soon to talk about breaking them up as they obtain momentum to zuzu's point both inside China and outside China.

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    It ain't that serious. They're doing their own thing in multiple countries and they're doing fine.


    Also the comparison to Avril is misguided. Her biggest target market has been in Asia for a long time now. I first heard about her being huge in Japan, apparently she's big in China now too.


    https://1billionfans.wordpress…igne-so-popular-in-china/

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    Quote from bokeh

    Avril is not popular in China. That random blog post is from 7 years ago.


    OP is right. Wayv is unknown in China.

    Yes, but OP's original argument is that WayV should break up because they are unknown in China. I don't think anyone on the thread is saying WayV is tremendously popular or well known in China, but rather that they are still a newish group that is growing its fanbase inside and outside of China. They're doing fine and growing is the general sentiment on the thread, particularly as they have increasing opportunities to promote in China again as borders reopen.

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    Quote from bigsmhit

    Will it be that hard for them to get a drama especially with sm behind them? Xiao zhan and wang yibo got one with no issues. Kinda need them to be okayish actors though

    Xiao Zhan became a serious actor once XNine went into a hiatus and since then he had focused 100% on acting and not singing.

    Also weibo followers mean nothing when most people buy them. Buying power of fans and selling tickets is the what gives you an accurate view of how’s real popular.

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