SM's secret weapon in China

Quote from the101

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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You do make great points which certainly play a factor but sm could certainly do better.

1. While the pandemic has hurt , it has not hurt promotion for other idol groups like the9 and oaca girls who got big during the pandemic. Yuehua is also a chinese-korean company and they've worked past it.

2. Cai Xukun started in 2018, Li wenhan and zhou zhennan started in 2019. Wang yibo and xiao zhan only really got popular in 2019. Most idols except tfboys started around that time. Even musicians like Mao buyi and GAI got big around that time

3. Exo started in a special time where they were the number one kpop group no question and there was little domestic competition. At any rate, they do their chinese promotions solo and by the time they entered china, luhan tao and kris had left sm.

Maybe breakup is too harsh, but sm should really be focusing their energy into the more popular guys and pushing them into dramas and survival shows etc. Spinning lucas/winwin the two most popular idols in china allows them to focus on the mainland market, while the rest can focus on the overseas market (mainly overseas chinese) which is also a very important but distinct market responsible for much of their current success.

A good example is yuehua, while uniq and nex7 had not disbanded technically, their more popular members are marketed seperately with their own regular varieties, dramas, and solos

Quote from htd85s

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.

My point is that acting is a sure fire way for idols to gain relevance compared to releasing hit songs in china bc the market for idol music isn't as important as it is in korea. All of china's most popular young celebrities do acting and singing but are known mainly from their dramas or survival shows, maybe except tfboys but they started really young. While weibo followers can be bought, when someone has 5x the amount of the other, it usually is a safe bet that one is a lot more popular. Anyway, if you count solos from any nine percent member it will

Quote from ct2

I don't care enough to look more into it, but basically you're saying she's had 7+ years to accumulate a fanbase in China, vs a group that debuted a year before covid started.

Don't think a singer who doesn't really speak chinese would accumulate much of a fanbase in china even if you gave her 20 years. Besides for most of the 7 years she was struggling with lyme disease

And not sure if covid really had an impact. Cai xukun and wang yibo pretty much went from nobodies to a listers in that time span