Investigation of idol talent show variety show chaos: Who should manage the excessive funds of gray "funding"?
Our reporter Chen Wei
"The'fundraising' will begin before everyone knows it." Some fans reluctantly commented on this year's idol draft market to a reporter from the Securities Daily.
With the recent launch of Tencent’s "Creation Camp 2021" and iqiyi’s "Youth Have You 3", the "funding" activities launched by fans have once again sparked controversy.
Right now the schedule is not over half of the time, and the amount of over one million yuan for a single player is not new.
Regarding the risks brought about by fans "funding", there have been voices in the industry that the supervision should be strengthened.
Attorney Yang Guobin from Beijing Zhongtong Law Firm said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily that corresponding policies should be formulated to regulate such "funding" activities. The suggestion is to focus on the qualifications of the promoters of the "funding" and the "funding" funds. Restrictions on the amount of participation of participants in the management and use of "funding" participants.
And the high amount of "funding" is in sharp contrast with the slightly flat program enthusiasm.
The idol draft is in its fourth year. Has the industry gotten better?
It is difficult for most practitioners to give an accurate answer.
"It can only be said that the idol draft will never return to the level of 2018." An industry insider who did not want to be named told reporters in private.
The resources of mature trainees are exhausted, and getting together, quickly realizing, and disappearing silently is obviously not a benign ecology.
Is the draft "funding" also involved?
Since the first “Idol Trainee” in 2018 set off a domestic idol draft craze, various platforms have successively deployed and capital has swarmed, but the expected prosperity has not appeared, and even as multiple programs of the same type have been gathered and launched, "Aesthetics" "Fatigue" has become an inevitable topic.
"The convergence of the program model is due to the low cost of learning and following the trend." Bao Ran, secretary general of the Beijing Network Audiovisual Program Service Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily that variety shows have a certain periodicity and a long time. It will inevitably face the aesthetic fatigue of audiences and customers.
With the gradual decrease in popularity in the later period, the show can only choose "Sword Walks".
In fact, judging from the innovative cards played by various platforms this year, in addition to updating the mentor lineup and adjusting the competition system, the composition of players also seems to be more diverse.
Aside from the regular group of trainees, Internet celebrities, actors, and e-sports players have entered the game across borders.
But this also raised doubts to a certain extent.
"The platform invites Internet celebrities who have no basis in singing and dancing. Do you really want to make an idol talent show?" said the aforementioned industry insider who did not want to be named: "This has been'off the track' in a certain sense, not In order to improve the quality of the program, but only to blog topics and attention."
In Bao Ran's view, the internal logic of a good variety show is a great idea and human resources that match it.
When the human resources that can be matched in the market have been exhausted, the entry of Internet celebrities and celebrities with their own traffic can make up for the lack of professional ability with attention and topicality.
On the one hand, the platform side strives to use traffic players to drive the show out of the circle, on the other hand, the fan's "funding" activity once again attracted widespread attention.
In mid-March, a topic "Tao Ba is collapsed" appeared on Weibo's hot search.
It is understood that Tao Ba is positioned as a "transaction platform focused on the rice circle", on which fans can connect with support resources, customize celebrity surroundings, participate in charity donations, and even conduct so-called "funding."
In this hot search, many comments mentioned that Tao Ba's "collapse" was due to the "funding" PK of multiple draft players that day.
A reporter from "Securities Daily" logged on the Taoba platform to search and found that on the evening of March 14, "Creation Camp 2021" contestants Liu Yu, Zhang Jiayuan, Gan Wangxing and "Youth Have You 3" contestant Yu Jingtian's "Limited Time Battle" opened.
According to the data, in the 5 hours from 18:00 to 23:00 that night, Liu Yu’s fan club’s accumulated sales amounted to nearly 3.4328 million yuan, ranking first; Yu Jingtian Tony’s fan club ranked second with nearly 2.0232 million yuan; Zhang Jiayuan nationwide The sales amount of the fan club and Gan Wangxing's official fan club also exceeded 716,000 yuan and 529,000 yuan respectively.
From the perspective of the contribution rankings, there are many participants who have purchased more than 100,000 yuan, and the highest of them has invested more than 170,000 yuan.
Such "funding" activities are obviously not alone.
Some fans pointed out that the "funding" of this year's draft "come early, and the amount is large."
It is understood that up to now, the above two programs have only completed the first round of elimination, and the schedule is not over half of the time, but "funding" activities are not uncommon.
Take a popular foreign player in "Creation Camp 2021" as an example. As of March 27, since the program was launched, there have been more than 16 related "fund-raising" activities initiated around it.
From the point of view of the amount of money, breaking one million yuan is not new, and even a number of players’ fans have "funded" a total of more than 5 million yuan.
"Everyone says that many industries are facing internal rolls, and now it seems that even fans' fundraising is also involved." A fan told reporters in private: "From the perspective of popularity, this year's idol talent show hasn't exploded. But judging from the amount of'funding', it seems to be very hot."
Wandering in the gray area
Who manages the huge amount of money raised by fans?
How to store it?
How to calculate the interest generated?
Is the expenditure details announced by the initiator credible?
All kinds of problems are hard to avoid.
Previously, relevant industry insiders told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the "funding" of fans has always been regarded as a "grey area."
"In practice, there are many situations that wander between sin and innocence. But from a legal perspective, this behavior is often regarded as a voluntary act of personal donation."
Yang Guobin said that at present, the law does not explicitly prohibit the behavior of "funding" crowdfunding by fans, and behaviors that are not prohibited by the law are not illegal.
Attorney Wang Ying from Beijing Tengyu Law Firm told the "Securities Daily" reporter that fans should accept that their financial donations through the platform are used for a series of activities organized by the support club for the stars. Participating in such "funding" requires participation. The person has full capacity, otherwise his participation in the behavior requires the consent of the guardian.
"It's their own business for fans to spend money." Some fans also bluntly said to reporters: "This in itself is a matter of willingness to fight and suffer."
The reporter noticed that the Taoba platform risk warning indicated that “supporters should judge project risks by themselves, such as project operation problems, market changes, authenticity of the project, and the sponsor’s failure to use the funds for designated purposes, etc., which lead to actual project progress. Tao Ba does not bear any responsibility if it is inconsistent with the promise or description of the initiator, and only undertakes the obligation to cooperate with the supporter to defend the rights."
In fact, in the "funding" activity chain composed of initiators (backup clubs), platforms, and participants (fans), the role of initiators is crucial.
In recent years, there have been occasions when the back-up clubs run away with money.
"The risks are both civil and criminal, and they are related to the promoters of the fundraising and the fund controller." Yang Guobin mentioned that the civil risk lies in the opaque and improper use of fund management after the fundraising, which may infringe on the participation in fundraising. "People's right to know.
The criminal risk is that the funds raised are illegally punished, and may be suspected of fraud or embezzlement.
It is understood that the more formal support club "funding" will establish a QQ group to monitor the use of funds throughout the process, and even ask a professional auditor to calculate and publicize the accounts after the support is over. But in the eyes of fans, "This kind of thing is still based on conscience".
"I can't make sure that every penny of my participation in'funding' is spent on idols." A fan confessed to reporters that if the support club wants to make false accounts and borrow "funding" for profit, the way is very simple, but since it chooses If you participate, you can only trust.
The aforementioned industry insiders stated that if the initiators ran away from the payment, participants can protect their rights through related channels. However, in actual operations, there are few and more difficult to protect rights.
"The initiator of the'funding' activity must use the money obtained from the'funding' for the specified behavior, otherwise the crime of fraud may be involved, and the person participating in the'funding' can recover the donated money through criminal procedures." Wang Ying believes , It is necessary to introduce corresponding policies for supervision or adjustment. “I think the source of supervision should be the promoters of the activities. At present, many sponsors of support activities are individuals or support associations. If the promoters of support activities can be limited to companies Or within the scope of social organizations, supervision may be easier."