The temperature wasn't particularly high, but standing outdoors for a while, one could feel the body heat starting to escape from the tips of the toes.
On such a cold day, Jiang Juyou was holding a "press conference" outdoors.
Faced with questions from fans, she could only sigh that the fans' perspective would never align with that of the staff.
Jiang Juyou wearily replied, "...There are sixty-three trainees. If we all did support events, are you trying to turn this plaza into a battleground?"
The fire that had been ignited in the fans suddenly extinguished.
"...Oh, right."
"This place is a bit small."
"I almost forgot we don't have an elimination system."
Everyone had a sudden realization, remembering that this show had over sixty trainees. Even if only ten people came from each family, that would be over 600 people, let alone the fact that these support events couldn't be limited to just ten participants.
The reason for prohibiting support events was certainly not just this one; this was only the most obvious current issue. For a deeper understanding, one would have to go back to the conversation between Jiang Juyou, Li Yao, and the others when the company was first established.
All three of them had years of experience as fans, and had been part of fan support groups. Yang Siyu had even been in management, responsible for running and managing a fan site for two years.
Only those involved could clearly explain these matters.
That day, they were discussing the issue of prohibiting filming at concerts, and somehow the conversation drifted to fansites. Li Yao had been a frontline big bar for a while and was familiar with many fansite admins, so she explained to Jiang Juyou how fansites made money.
"Very few actually make money from fansites. The vast majority can only earn back their travel expenses, especially since we were following an international group. We often flew all over the world, and plane tickets aren't cheap. Besides that, we had to secure tickets for events and pay for accommodation."
"Fans always think that when we post fancams and they get hundreds of thousands or millions of views, we must be making a lot of money. After all, you can monetize on YouTube with the partner program. But! But! All that music is copyrighted. Any fancam where you can hear the idol's music can't make money. There's no income. Only filming at airports and adding other royalty-free BGM can make money!"
Li Yao felt particularly aggrieved about this point because she had casually filmed a fancam during an awards ceremony and uploaded it to YouTube. Unexpectedly, it got over a million views. Fans from other groups were spreading rumors about them living in luxury, but only they knew that it couldn't generate any profit.
As someone else involved in fan sites, Zhao Xu was surprised by this, raising her eyebrows, "You really can't make money from it?"
"You think those reaction YouTubers are earning from view counts? No! They're earning from advertising fees," Li Yao said, her heart aching. She wished she could profit so she could use that money for fan support, but the platform wouldn't allow it.
Zhao Xu turned to ask Yang Siyu, still shocked, "Did you know about this?"
The person being asked nodded and said, "Well, YouTube doesn't work, but because there's not much copyright awareness in China, you can profit on certain video platforms. Haven't you noticed many fansites are opening accounts on those platforms?"
"Wow—mind-blowing!" Zhao Xu covered her mouth, shocked that she was learning this for the first time after being in the fandom for so many years.
Yang Siyu, sitting opposite Jiang Juyou, let out a cold laugh, "Hmph, there's even more shocking stuff."
As soon as she said this, the eyes of the others lit up, sensing there was some big gossip to be had.
"I was in management for a while, right? When my predecessor ran off, they left me with a pile of bad debts." Yang Siyu was still so frustrated about it that she didn't know where to begin.
She gave an example to everyone, "You know how they always release detailed accounts after each support event? When I took over, I found that some things didn't add up. Just auditing the accounts took me nearly a month. Every day I wanted to die, constantly wanting to slap myself for volunteering to take on this mess."
Every fan support group has its own mess, especially those that frequently raise funds for support events.
"I think I know what you're going to say," Li Yao said with a smile. She had once taken charge for three months, coinciding with the group's comeback. The management had left the fandom, and there was no one to take over in between. She and another graphic designer had to grit their teeth and handle it.
From initially negotiating prices to planning, designing merchandise, packaging, and shipping - it was all done by the two of them. During that time, she really wanted to die too, to the extent that her passion for being a fan quickly dissipated. As soon as someone else took over, she immediately resigned from the support group.
The other two's gazes darted back and forth, impatiently asking, "What? What is it?"
"Kickbacks, compound interest, you know," Yang Siyu casually dropped these two terms.
She continued, "Before Yu'ebao (a Chinese money market fund) set limits, support money could be put in there. Which fandom's fundraising doesn't reach millions? Putting it in there would earn eighty-plus yuan in a day. Moreover, fundraising always starts way in advance, for birthdays, anniversaries, comebacks - there are too many excuses. The support group doesn't even need to say anything; those verified big accounts would urge fans to pay in advance, to break records. There were even slogans like 'angry? donate money!' They were finding reasons to torment fans every day."
"Now that Yu'ebao has set limits, everyone's switched to banks, putting money in three-month short-term deposits. The interest on a million yuan for three months is over seven thousand. Guess whether that money gets recorded in the accounts?"
"A couple of days ago, I saw my former bias's fandom fundraising for a solo. They've been saying he might go solo for three years now, and they've probably raised about two million. If you put that in the bank for a year, it's forty to fifty thousand yuan in interest."
As Yang Siyu spoke, she saw Zhao Xu's mouth slowly opening wide, while Jiang Juyou beside her had an even more exaggerated expression, looking as if she'd never seen anything like this before.
Yang Siyu let out another light snort, "You think that's the end of it?"
"After each support event, they always release detailed accounts, but honestly, no fan will read through it all, and no fan will go and ask about each price the support group negotiated at the time."
"In the mess I inherited, there was one where a big screen in Times Square only cost a few dozen dollars, but in the detailed accounts given to fans, it was written as tens of thousands of yuan. Guess where the money in between disappeared to? Did it evaporate?"
Bringing this up again, she still felt like she was going to lose it, "This is where I started to break down."
Yang Siyu clutched her heart, as if to prevent herself from being angered to death again.
On the other side, Li Yao took in everyone's expressions and said, "Then there are those special editions released during comebacks. The costs are actually not high, and the shipping fees - how could it possibly cost twenty yuan per person for such a large quantity?"
Yang Siyu helped her add, "Fans don't even think about where the support groups get the money to enter fansigns and fan meetings. And you think those daring managers only fleece ordinary fans? They even scam those wealthy fans. After I re-checked all the accounts, I was devastated. She had run off with over 900,000 yuan!"
As soon as she said this, the others knew which idol Yang Siyu had supported. This incident had caused quite a stir at the time.
The two insiders comforted the devastated Yang Siyu, while Jiang Juyou, the outsider, felt her worldview shattered.
"That's terrifying..."
It was so terrifying that even half a year later, Jiang Juyou would still shudder when she thought about it.
Looking at the fans around her, she reassured them again, "Promotion is something we should worry about. Everyone should just enjoy being fans happily."
Those fans didn't even bother hiding it after hearing this. They just turned their heads and started muttering criticisms of her, which Jiang Juyou heard clearly.
"Then why don't you actually promote..."
"Ha, as if your promotion is any good."
"Does she even hear what she's saying?"
"I didn't even know Random Entertainment had a PR department."
Jiang Juyou: "..."
Only fans know how to be so passive-aggressive.
As more and more people arrived, Jiang Juyou felt it wasn't appropriate to keep standing there. So she walked towards the venue entrance, got a staff vest, and took on the role of managing the order. After blending in for a while, Jiang Juyou successfully mixed back into the crowd of fans.
By this time, there were many people, and they were starting to line up to enter. Jiang Juyou hid herself in the crowd, experiencing the whole process.
After the upgrade of Galexy World, the ticket purchase process changed from verifying phone serial numbers to facial recognition. Scalpers lost all possibility of making money, and getting tickets became purely a matter of luck.
Not only did facial recognition occur when buying tickets, but it was also required when entering the venue. Jiang Juyou, who didn't have a ticket, was immediately stopped. Fortunately, she had just shown her face to the staff earlier, so she was able to enter directly through the employee entrance.
Some fans who hadn't recognized her were in a state of confusion when they saw this, almost bursting into angry shouts. It wasn't until someone pointed it out that they realized the person who had just entered was the great producer Jiang.
After Jiang Juyou went in, only then did someone dare to lower their mask at the back of her previous queue.
Liu Yue quietly let out a long breath, relaxing slightly before tightening her legs again to prevent the camera strapped to her thigh from falling.
She carefully peeked out from the queue and saw that someone's camera hidden at the bottom of their bag had been discovered. Liu Yue closed her eyes tightly and cursed under her breath, "How come there's even a security scanner..."
Not only was there a security scanner, but also a body scanning machine. The level of strictness was almost on par with the college entrance examination.
When it was Liu Yue's turn, she put her bag on the security scanner. As she walked towards the inspector, her mind raced, thinking of ways to prevent the camera from being discovered.
"Please raise your arms."
Liu Yue complied, and the machine beeped near her zipper, but the staff didn't question it. She immediately lowered her arms, using her phone to cover the location of the camera. The machine beeped twice more, and the staff member glanced at her phone without asking anything, letting her pass through.
"...That was scary."
Liu Yue had been checked like this many times before, and had even been patted down when following international groups, but she had never felt this nervous.
She took her bag and walked into the venue. It was already crowded inside, and her seat was in the stands, which offered the best view. Just as she was about to take out her camera to assemble it, she saw Jiang Juyou walk out wearing a staff armband.
"..."
Liu Yue: Lucky moms, say goodbye to your fancams this time~
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