Jay Chou fans rally to win Internet 'battle'
Pop singer Jay Chou (left) and teen heartthrob Cai Xukun.
Puzzlement over why it is so difficult to get tickets for a Jay Chou concert when his online presence barely registers kindled the flames of an Internet data traffic war between fans of the middle-aged singer and 21-year-old new generation idol Cai Xukun.
Chou, born in 1979 in Taiwan is a singer, songwriter, actor and film director. He released his debut album, Jay, in 2000. Since then his music has gained recognition throughout Asia, selling more than 30 million albums and receiving numerous awards.
In 2003, he made the cover of the Asian edition of Time magazine and was crowned the “New King of Asian Pop,” but he hasn’t released an album for three years and hasn’t even got a Weibo account.
His “rival” Cai Xukun is 21 and shot to fame on Internet talent show “Idol Producer” last year. A typical social media celebrity, unlike traditional pop stars such as Chou who wins fans through his work, he gained a large number of fans online before producing anything of any significance. He has long been near the top of Weibo’s Chaohua (super topics) which ranks stars according to their “influence.” The more active fans are, the larger their idols’ influence is deemed to be. It’s a thoroughly modern metric.
In today’s world, Internet traffic is the measure of a pop star’s popularity and big numbers can bring lucrative sponsorship deals. Inflating these figures is a task that fans are, for the most part, happy to take part in.
The two stars’ Internet “battle” began on July 16 when a question about Jay's tickets being hard to get while he seemed not to have many fans was posted on social networking site Douban.
“Does he really have so many fans eager to buy concert tickets when he doesn’t even register on Weibo's super topics list?”
This immediately provoked Chou’s fans into fighting to make him No. 1.
Jay Chou topped the Weibo super topics list on Monday with an "influence" of 13.56 million, a figure that is used by the platform to determine stars' rankings, while Cai Xukun dropped to third place with 8.86 million. The more active fans are, the larger their idols' "influence" is deemed to be.
However, most of his fans are middle-aged and admit they don’t know much about how to influence the chart or don’t even use Weibo. But they soon settled down to the task of learning a series of complicated procedures to increase Jay’s traffic and help him climb up the list by making, sharing and commenting.
One Chou fan said: “You can’t say Chou got no fans just because we don’t show up in data chart!”
Another said: “You can say Chou has gained weight and loves bubble tea, and you can say he hasn’t released an album for three years, but you cannot say he has no fans!”
At 12am Sunday, their efforts helped Jay surpass Cai to top the list, with an "influence" of 100 million.
One fan remarked: “The most important thing is not Chou topping the list, but that after 20 years, there are still so many fans who are willing to stay up late to do this for him.”
The People’s Daily commented twice on the battle on its official account on Sunday stressing that data traffic didn’t equal popularity but that charts were not only on websites but also in people’s hearts. It said that while the Internet rivalry between the two sets of fans was an entertaining game it was a reflection of the times.
On Monday morning, Cai’s fan group announced on Weibo that his fans will withdraw from all data competition on Weibo. “We will focus on the artist’s work and stage performances in the future.”
Gu Jun, a sociologist from Shanghai University, questioned the data carnival. “Who benefit from it? The media or agents that created this super topic. It is just a commercial operation.”
