On July 13, 2023, Jay Chou received the first IPO, and the "Superstar Legend" held by Ye Huimei on behalf of the company was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Superstar Legend rose nearly 50% on the day of its listing, and has generally maintained a high level so far. The listing price was HK$4.25, and as of the third quarter of last year, the share price of Superstar Legend had soared to HK$6.5, a cumulative increase of 56%, and the total market capitalization reached HK$5.2 billion. In the past six months, the shareholders led by Jay Chou's mother Ye Huimei have achieved amazing wealth appreciation. Coincidentally, in stark contrast to the superstar legend, Lehua Entertainment, which has also been listed for a short time, has seen its share price fall continuously after listing, from a maximum market value of 5.2 billion Hong Kong dollars to 4.1 billion, overshadowed. This comparison is emotional: lying flat for many years, returning is still the top stream. Of course, a single binding with Jay Chou in the capital market is not an absolute good thing. At present, many listed companies are deeply bound to popular artists, and the frequent "collapse" incidents of artists have worried many investors.
Why is it said to be a "Jay Chou concept stock"?
Take a look at the prospectus of Superstar Legend mentioning "Jay Chou" 462 times, and you will understand. The company's business relies heavily on Jay Chou, and the founders, shareholders and directors of the group are all from Jay Chou's "circle of friends".
Source: Superstar Legend Group Co., Ltd. prospectus
Her mother, Ye Huimei, and her agent, Yang Junrong, are the controlling shareholders of Superstar Legend, and Fang Wenshan also serves as the company's chief cultural officer. Yu Chengqing, Nanquan Mother, Liu Genghong and his wife have also joined the star IP library of superstar legends.
Many fans are familiar with Jay Chou's world tour, the reality show "Travel", and the exclusive rights of "Zhou's" related projects, etc., are all related to this company.
Backed by the top Jay Chou and his connections, Superstar Legend achieved a revenue of 344 million yuan and a net profit of 64.898 million yuan last year.
Source: Operation Superstar
Just the magic coffee endorsed by Jay Chou, yes, this advertisement that we can often see in "Travelogue" has made the superstar legend earn 780 million in 4 years. Not to mention, Superstar Legend has been participating in the planning services of Jay Chou's world tour since 2017.
Ye Huimei, who holds 12.45% of the shares, as the largest shareholder of Superstar Legend, has increased her net worth by more than 600 million Hong Kong dollars out of thin air. From an ordinary elementary school teacher to a shareholder worth more than 100 million, Ye Huimei is inseparable from her son's success. In addition to shareholder appreciation, the successful listing of Superstar Legend has also benefited the company's core team. It can be said that Jay Chou led the team all the way forward and finally reached the peak of the capital market.
The success of the superstar legend is the success of the super IP of "Jay Chou".
Jay Chou is undoubtedly one of the most profitable singers in the Chinese music scene, with the peak of his debut, amazing musical talent, and stable album production, and behind the predictable commercial value.
"Say It's Good and Don't Cry", which was launched in 2019, sold more than 15 million yuan in less than two hours, and on the day of the release of "The Greatest Work" last year, the sales were close to 145 million yuan.
Naturally, relying on album income alone, it may not be able to support this title, and the gold attraction of concerts and paid listening cannot be underestimated. For example, the "Carnival Concert" held in Sydney not long ago set a new box office record in Australia.
Jay Chou was also the first singer in China to implement music fees. His songs are marked with the VIP logo on the listening software, and they can only be listened to if they pay for it. Although this move met with a lot of criticism at the time, as the awareness of copyright in the music market increased, a large number of singers also joined it.
As the first person to eat crabs, Jay Chou, who has a huge number of fans, naturally benefits a lot. However, this is also the tip of the iceberg of Jay Chou's business empire.
His endorsement field is even more involved in the whole industry chain, but these are actually common extensions of the celebrity business map. The next layouts may show Jay Chou's true "ambition".
Jay Chou's business tentacles have extended to many fields such as fashion brands, catering, entertainment, and e-sports, and have blossomed everywhere.
PHANTACi, a personal fashion brand, sold out all of its NFT project "Phantasm Bear" last year, with a total price of more than $62 million.
The catering brands that have been invested successively, such as MR.J Yifa Kitchen, "DejaVu" Music Magic Restaurant, Tiantai Canteen, and J Daxia Chinese Restaurant, are also in continuous operation;
Most of the restaurants incorporate a large number of elements of Jay Chou's works, such as the name of the dishes of J Daxia Chinese Restaurant, which is named after Jay Chou's songs.
As a loyal fan of League of Legends, Jay Chou cooperated with IDG to create the "Mojie E-sports" brand and open an e-sports stadium. In October of that year, the revenue of the e-sports stadium exceeded 1 million yuan, which was at the leading level in the industry.
In 2016, Jay Chou became a shareholder of China Digital Culture Group and co-founded Ju Room Cultural and Creative as a co-founder. The company first tested the waters of the basketball competition show "This! is Slam Dunk", allowing Jay Chou to participate in the recording as a team leader, and then "privately customized" the variety show "Travels" for him, inviting Jay Chou's friends in the circle to travel around the world with him.
It was also this variety show that brought fire to Magic Coffee, making the net profit of the superstar legend rise from 22.7 million to 75.6 million within a year.
From endorsements to investments, Jay Chou has built a large and solid business empire centered on himself.
Interestingly, these highly personal commercial products seem to be not just for making money, but more like serving Jay Chou's hobbies.
Whether he has been lying flat in the music scene for many years or being questioned about Jiang Lang's talents, the "money ability" has already given Jay Chou the capital to be fearless and his own.
But in fact, the listing of "Jay Chou concept stocks" was not smooth sailing.
Four submissions, delayed listing, and risky prospectuses, all of which can show that Jay Chou himself is still reliable, but the future of concept stocks is uncertain.
At the same time, the superstar legend will inevitably face the problem of Jay Chou's lack of personal sustainability. Once the star effect fades, it will inevitably have an impact on the company. The pros and cons of the deep binding of listed companies and artists are obvious. The advantage is that you can use the artist's popularity and traffic to quickly build a brand and promote sales, but the disadvantage is that it is greatly affected by the artist's personal factors, and the artist's bad deeds and personality collapse may cause huge fluctuations in the company's business.
"It's not bad to think of celebrities as a gimmick for companies to go public, but if companies want to go public, it may not be a good thing to be too tightly bound to celebrities. ”
Tan Haojun, a professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, also said that being too tightly bound to celebrities is not conducive to the long-term development of enterprises, and investors need to pay attention to related risks. Listed companies and artists are bound, and the two are in a serious unequal relationship, the risks are concentrated in listed companies and their investors, while artists are relatively less constrained and restricted, so such a model has very obvious risks, which is not conducive to the formation of a stable foundation for listed companies.
Of course, as a senior fan of Jay Chou, I am still optimistic about the future of the superstar legend.