china’s Tencent Holdings Signs Deal With YG entertainment

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

Tencent Holding’s latest weapon to expand its online entertainment business in China:

The Internet giant said Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with YG Entertainment, a South Korean artist management powerhouse whose roster includes Psy, Big Bang and girl group 2NE1.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclose but under the agreement, Tencent, whoseonline games and social networks have hundreds of millions of users, will become YG’s exclusive online distributor in China. While YG’s songs and music videos are currently available on multiple online platforms in China, those contracts will expire by the end of the year and Tencent will be the sole online partner from Jan. 1, according to the Chinese company.

In China, young consumers have a huge appetite for Korean pop music and TV shows, creating an incentive for Tencent to team up with YG. While “Gangnam Style” remains popular in China, teenagers closely follow Korean boy bands and girl bands. Korean romantic comedy TV series “My Love From the Star” became a major hit in China this year. As consumers also pay attention to Korean stars’ fashion and makeup, YG has launched clothing and cosmetics brands over the past few months and is looking to market its products in China.

Tencent will use its own online and mobile platforms, such as QQ Music,Wechat and Tencent Video, to distribute YG’s offerings. Tencent’s games can also use YG’s music as part of their alliance.

Tencent’s partnership with YG is the company’s latest attempt to move ahead of rivals in online entertainment, a major battlefield for China’s technology firms. Last week, Tencent announced a deal with Time Warner Inc.’s HBO to distribute its TV dramas and movies through the Chinese company’s online video site. That followed another entertainment deal last month with Warner Music Group, which chose Tencent as its Chinese online distribution partner.

In China’s Internet sector, Tencent competes with e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding and search provider Baidu. Both Alibaba and Baidu have been trying to increase their presence in online entertainment through new investments and alliances.

The latest deal follows other moves by YG’s K-Pop competitors that are also trying to expand in China. Earlier this year, SM Entertainment, a major Korean agency behind girl band Girls’ Generation, teamed up with Hong Kong’s Media Asia and Taiwan’s Fubon Group to set up an investment fund with $20 million in seed money to support film and TV projects, focusing on China and other Chinese-speaking markets.

wall street journal

Comments

[ironicmustache.livejournal.com]

woooow look at bobby representing ikon. is b.i still in the dungeon for his scandal or somethin?
ksy looks real cute here.

it's kind of weird that yg stuff will only be available from one company, but maybe that's common in china? i get all my shit illegally, but i think in america people want to be on as many platforms as possible, right?

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's weird to me too. You'd think as musicians, you'd want to be on every platform so that people will always be able to find your music instead of not being able to find it on their preferred platform, so they end up not purchasing it or download it illegally. idk, maybe by being on only one platform, they can get more number ones on it's charts from fans only having one place to purchase from. Maybe YG's hoping they'll expose themselves to more potential fans by having their music be in the games.

[kicking-tenshi.livejournal.com]

The one about his dad?

[bulleusekat.livejournal.com]

Tencent is big in China so it does make sense to me: WeChat is the most popular app for messaging coupled with the QQmusic app Chinese pple are already using everyday. I am not sure it would be necessary for them to distribute on as many platforms as possible as K-pop is only popular among young people living in urban areas.

Chinese kpop fans get their (illegal) stuff illegally anyway so I guess it's not only about music but all the other stuff such as goodies, emoticons packs ... that can be promoted on all Tencent's products.

[adlyeith.livejournal.com]

It's amusing to me that while SM is essentially shooting itself in the foot in China, YG seems to be expanding there.

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

hmmm @ how no women from the company were there. was none of them available?

[fukkthedumbshyt.livejournal.com]

I'm happy I'm not the only one like "where's the female reps?"

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

+1000

[kingpsyborg.livejournal.com]

probably not? this is from dec/nov 2014.

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

and there were no women in YG in dec/nov 2014?

[kingpsyborg.livejournal.com]

indeed they all sprung into being in january

i just meant iirc cl was in america then, i thought? and lbr she's the only one yg would use to ~show off~.

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

Literally every other of the girls was available tho? Lee Hi made him crazy money and has been mia ever since, if the unwashed undebuted creature can attend why can't she?

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

hayi didn't make him crazy money lol, but dara should have gone imo

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

ok that was an exaggeration but her debut went well. and she's one of the ~next generation artists of the company. and as I said if the unwashed undebuted creature can be there, there's no excuse why she should be locked up.
Dara would have been a good option too seeing how her web drama's gonna air in China as well but let me not rn...

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

true but he seems to have forgotten about her, she doesn't even have a comeback planned this year if those plans are right. which is such a shame bc despite it's over/rose not doing well as 1234, first love was a really good album. then again, yg treating his female artists like crap, what else is new. and ikon is def his new lovechild, esp bobby and b.i (surprised he's not there, probably bc of his dad)

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

I hope if/when he lets her out of the basement she can bounce back but it's doubtful. she lost a lot of momentum and it's sad. it's become so apparent in the past year that compared to the women in the company, the men have it so much easier. just look at the treatment the two boygroups get. I hope they both flop and lee hi/the bully's girl-group/etc rise from the ashes.
bi can stay gone tbh, what a flop

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

yeah mte, i think yg wanted a iu fandom for her but it's over was a really bad follow up single to 1234. shame bc she has a really great voice and her stage presence has improved.
lol i actually like winner and b.i, but i'm more looking forward to the new girl group (with the new overlord kim jisoo amen). hopefully yg has learned from 2ne1 and will know how to market them properly but probably not.

[hurtmybones.livejournal.com]

they totally dropped the ball on her. as a company they rely too much on the "we'll drop a good song that the public will buy so no need to bother with building visibility and a fanbase" which sometimes can help (if Bom/2NE1 ever bounce back it will be because of this) but more often than not it leads to dwindling relevance.

I'm not gonna get invested bc judging by how they're already handling them their future looks bleak. I'm surprised more trainees haven't started peacing out. it sucks that Jennie's had that whole bully thing because she has the most memorable face in the group, sth which I see is lacking in all the new ~visuals. ppl always rag on visuals for looking basic but I think the "older" generation with Yoona/Sulli/Suzy/etc have distinct looks while the ones from the new groups look like lesser versions or a mix of faces. for me Jisoo is included, she looks like Yewon ide.

[kingpsyborg.livejournal.com]

hayi has been in high school, she just graduated this month. no clue on the others, it'd have been nice to see dara out more tho. :/

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

They had this press con day before MAMA in HongKong, so I guess only guys were available for free.

[overflowers.livejournal.com]

This conference took place in Hong Kong, a day before MAMA. The ones from YG who were MAMA-bound were GDYB, Epik High, Winner, Bobby, BI, Yoo Inna and Choi Ji Woo. Epik High/Yoo Inna/Choi Ji Woo arrived in HK the day of the conference (Dec 2), while the others arrived in HK a day earlier (Dec 1).
Although the conference focused on the music aspect of the partnership (QQ Music), YG definitely could've asked Yoo Inna, especially since My Love From Another Star was huge in China (and she shot a Chinese-Korean film that year too with Godfrey Gao).

The conference started with a video clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_FYKW0oSyU) of YG artists (PSY, Lee Hi, AKMU, Epik High, Bobby/BI, Winner, GDYB) talking about the QQ Music/Tencent partnership. (I don't know if 2NE1 were included in the clip prior to Psy's talk or not because the video starts in the middle of his segment. It would suck if they weren't included though).

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

Can somebody please hold down taeyang so I could shave his head (and steal a kiss) please

[gigabytexx.livejournal.com]

i'm still wondering are UNIQ is actually a part/under YG in korea or its subsidiaries? are they a part of YG's plan too

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

I think they only have a deal of being able to use YG's facilities in Korea as I'm sure that if YG was actually involved with the group they would have got a lot better song to promote in Korea.

[lily-of-west.livejournal.com]

They are not and never were, the connection is that YG and YGE helped train the kids and basically when he realized he wasn't gonna need Sungjoo he helped him get picked up by Yuehua and joing Uniq like what he did for Spica's Bohyung.

[gigabytexx.livejournal.com]

And what is their official company? like the real ones behind the group. I think it's Yuehua because not once their korean company being mentioned or something lol.
I wonder why did YG let their name being used as a promotion for this group.

[lily-of-west.livejournal.com]

Yuehua is their official and only company. They do use YGE facilities to practice when in SK and they actually work with dance groups that are known for their work with YGE (Crazy, HiTech, etc.). They don't have a Korean company, they're fully represented by Yuehua.

YG and YGE is helping them because they have a partnership. Yuehua if I'm not mistaken also has a partnership with Pledis which results in them basically managing some Pledis artists in China like AS and Nu'est-m. The partnership with YG is probably more of a financial one I guess but I could be wrong.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

XD Tae and GD look like the actual CEO

[hunbin.livejournal.com]

TRUE DAT they are dressed really nicely & they have this odd aura of dominance xD also partially because of Yang's fashion sense...

[bulleusekat.livejournal.com]

Too bad Seungri was missing, I can picture him in the pic with wide open arms.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

He would XD

[bulleusekat.livejournal.com]

Wow great deal ! I guess I will see some YG ads on my QQ apps now...