Author: Times Finance As a dark horse in the entertainment agency industry, Taiyang Chuanhe's development seems to have been smooth sailing since its establishment in 2014.
In March this year, Taiyang Chuanhe received another 180 million yuan in financing from the upstart Internet company ByteDance. Its trainees participated in the popular "Youth With You 2" and successfully debuted.
But just when the situation was unparalleled, the dark horse was suddenly pulled on the reins.
html In April, Zhou Dongyu announced the end of the cooperative relationship with Taiyang Chuanhe; html In June, Yang Ying, the co-founder of Taiyang Chuanhe, also terminated the cooperation; html In July, Taiyang Chuanhe was subjected to large-scale accusations on social media - suspected of "Money laundering". Public opinion was in an uproar, and Taiyang Chuanhe was once listed on Weibo's hot search rankings.Taiyang Chuanhe subsequently issued a solemn statement on this, and founder Yang Ming also made a clarification in his circle of friends late at night. However, Yang Ming does not seem to be angry about the sudden and potentially fatal consequences for the company in the past three months. He said, "We don't want to analyze who we have provoked, nor do we want to guess who is the initiator." The
incident has been fermenting to this day. , still foggy.
The "billion-yuan remuneration" caused controversy
The cause of the incident was an inquiry letter issued by *ST Dinglong (002502.SZ, hereinafter referred to as "Dinglong Culture") on June 4 regarding the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's 2019 annual report. Reply to announcement. According to the announcement, Zhou Dongyu Film and Television Culture Communication Xinyi Studio (hereinafter referred to as "Zhou Dongyu Studio") was the largest supplier of Dinglong Culture in 2017 and 2018, with purchase amounts of 50.8491 million and 58.1132 million respectively, totaling approximately 10.89 million billion.
According to the 2017 annual report of Huawei Culture Co., Ltd. (the former name of Dinglong Culture), among the new TV series produced by the company in 2017, the only one related to Zhou Dongyu is ", the King Behind the Scenes". The TV series only received a mediocre rating of 5.9 on Douban.
Therefore, some netizens speculated that the above-mentioned purchase amount was the salary for Zhou Dongyu's "The King Behind the Scenes", and believed that such a high salary was suspected of "money laundering". A-list celebrities, dark horses in the industry, and money laundering, words like these combined quickly aroused attention and heated discussions on social media.
html On July 18, Dinglong Culture once again issued an announcement stating that "due to staff negligence, the relevant data of major suppliers in the company's "2017 Annual Report" was incorrectly summarized and presented." The corrected data fromshows that the total purchase amount of Dinglong Culture from Zhou Dongyu Studio in 2017 and 2018 was 72.6415 million yuan, which was nearly 30 million yuan less than before.
announcement screenshot. Image source: Dinglong Culture Co., Ltd.'s correction announcement on the 2017 annual report
html On July 20, Times Finance called the Dinglong Culture investor hotline to verify that Zhou Dongyu received extremely high remuneration through "The King Behind the Scenes". The other party responded cautiously that everything would be subject to the company's "correction announcement" and would not respond to anything else.In fact, in order to control the phenomenon of celebrities charging extremely high remuneration, the State Administration of Radio and Television has repeatedly proposed "salary limit orders" since 2014. During the period when Dinglong Culture was purchasing from Zhou Dongyu Studio, on November 9, 2018, the "Notice of the State Administration of Radio and Television on Further Strengthening the Management of Radio, Television and Online Audiovisual Arts Programs" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") was issued. The "Notice" clearly stipulates that the remuneration of all actors in each TV series and web drama (including online movies) shall not exceed 40% of the total production cost, and the main actors shall not exceed 70% of the total remuneration. "
Assuming that Zhou Dongyu is the main actor and has a salary of 72.6415 million yuan, based on the above standards, the total production cost of this 46-episode urban workplace emotional drama "The King Behind the Scenes" is as high as 259 million yuan, far exceeding the production cost of TV series of the same type. .
Regarding the issue of remuneration, Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting, an entertainment industry research organization, recently revealed in an interview with Times Finance that currently few artists in the industry receive fixed remuneration, and generally choose to take a share of the sales revenue of film and television works. The share ratio is determined through negotiation between the artist and the company.
On April 30, just before the "100 million yuan remuneration" controversy, Zhou Dongyu announced through his personal studio the end of the cooperative relationship with Taiyang Chuanhe.
And just in early July, when rumors of "100 million yuan salary" were rampant, an even more bizarre rumor leaked out on social media again - Zhou Zhuohua (nick name), chairman of Macau Suncity Group Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Suncity") "Washing Rice") uses the casino business to launder money. He has a close relationship with the artist Zeng Guoxiang of Sun Entertainment Culture Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sun City, and starred in two movies directed by Zeng Guoxiang, "July and Ansheng" and "Young You". Zhou Dongyu was also implicated.
As public opinion continues to ferment, Taiyang Chuanhe has also been involved in this "money laundering" incident.
Leading artist left
On June 22, less than two months after Zhou Dongyu left, Yang Ying, co-founder of Taiyang Chuanhe, also announced the end of her cooperative relationship with the company.
Yang Ying Studio and Taiyang Chuanhe issued a joint statement saying: "We have new plans for future development, and regret that we cannot continue to work together. In the future, Ms. Yang Ying's work affairs will be independently operated by Yang Ying Studio." Two leading artists,
, have left one after another, and they were speculated on the Internet that they were "eager to clear up the relationship."
In response to the negative comments and serious accusations from the outside world, Taiyang Chuanhe’s official Weibo immediately issued a statement and claimed that it had arrested a total of 9 Internet users, including 5 Sina Weibo users, 1 Douban user, and 1 Zhihu user. The inappropriate speech was prosecuted to Beijing Internet Court .
Taiyang Chuanhe Statement. Image source: Taiyang Chuanhe official Weibo
html On July 18, the relevant person in charge of Taiyang Chuanhe emphasized in an interview with Times Finance that the artist’s departure “is the end of the cooperation, not the termination of the contract, nor the expiration of the contract.”As Zhang Yi, a practitioner who is familiar with the entertainment industry, told Times Finance that there is a "28 rule" in the brokerage company industry. Most brokerage companies have a very small number of top stars who control more than 80% of the company's income, and the brokerage company has no control over the stars. You can only rely on a piece of paper agreement. "But after celebrities become popular, it is difficult for the company to grasp their mentality, and it is difficult to control the impact of their departure on the company. This is very troublesome."
For the two major players of Taiyang and Chuanhe Zhang Yi believes that the departure of local artists Zhou Dongyu and Yang Ying illustrates two problems. "One is that there may be some problems with the company's incentive system, and the other is that the company's 'ceiling' has appeared, and its development space has reached its limit."
Yang Ying withdrew, and ByteDance entered the game.
In this public opinion storm, In order to make the "money laundering theory" seem more authentic, there is also information in the rumors that Taiyang Chuanhe's "shareholders behind it are not simple".
According to Tianyancha, Yang Ming, the founder of Taiyang Chuanhe, directly and indirectly holds 65.79% of the shares of Taiyang Chuanhe and is the actual controller.
Yang Ming worked in Zhou Xun's agency team for three years in his early years, and officially became Yang Ying's agent in 2011. Three years later, Taiyang Chuanhe was established.
Taiyang Chuanhe received two consecutive rounds of financing two years after its establishment. They were angel round financing from AB capital (Yang Ying’s investment institution), ZhenFund and Guangyuan Venture Capital in January 2017, and in April 2017. In September, it received RMB 120 million in Series A financing from Light Point Capital, AB Capital, Zhen Fund and Guangyuan Venture Capital.
’s third round of financing was in March this year. This time, Taiyang Chuanhe introduced the upstart Internet company ByteDance as the fourth largest shareholder, holding 8.85% of the shares. At that time, it was reported that Taiyang Chuanhe was valued at as high as 5 billion yuan and had plans to IPO in the United States.
But what is surprising is that when ByteDance came in, Zhou Dongyu and Yang Ying left behind, and various rumors of huge "lethal power" came and went.
As an investor, ByteDance’s attitude towards this investment project is also interesting – in an interview with Times Finance on July 15, the company’s relevant person in charge responded to all issues involving Taiyang Chuanhe, and even whether it has been Regarding the investment in Taiyang Chuanhe, they all expressed "no comment".
Regarding this financing, the relevant person in charge of Taiyang Chuanhe said in an interview with Times Finance: "We believe that ByteDance is not interested in the surface of Taiyang Chuanhe's business, but the overall core of the company, the way we do things. Context and even values can gain enough recognition from ByteDance.” As for the “IPO in the United States”, Yang Ming posted a message on WeChat on July 16 to clarify, saying, “We have no plans to go public, and it’s not that awesome.”
Times Financial Inquiry noted that in addition to ByteDance, Taiyang Chuanhe’s current shareholders include angel investor Xu Xiaoping, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen Municipal Finance Commission, Shenzhen Futian District Finance Bureau, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Hong Kong Central Clearing Company. figure.
As a co-founder, Yang Ying, her investment institution AB Capital withdrew earlier than herself. It had withdrawn its shares from Taiyang Chuanhe in December 2018 and March 2019 respectively.
Who will be the final survivor?
In the past five years or so, Taiyang Chuanhe has been in a smooth state. When
was first established, Taiyang Chuanhe was in the period of explosive growth in the film and television industry. As co-founders, Yang Ming, Yang Ying and Huang Xiaoming were all from Huayi , and the initial business was also centered on the resources of Huayi.
In addition to Yang Ying, Taiyang Chuanhe also signed Zhou Dongyu soon after its establishment. Since then, the artist team has continued to expand and now has nearly 50 artists including Chen He, Zhang Junning, Chen Songling , Zhang Songwen .
There are no longer pictures of Zhou Dongyu and Yang Ying on the artist management page. Image source: Taiyang Chuanhe official website
In the following years, Taiyang Chuanhe continued to integrate resources. First, in 2017, it took over papitube, the short video MCN agency founded by Jiang Yilei (Papi Jiang), and later participated in the investment and production of many explosive films. movie, and also launched two major labels, Taiyang Xinghe and Taiyang Xingxing in 2019. Newcomers Zhao Xiaotang and Kong Xueer successfully debuted in the popular variety show "Youth with You 2" at the beginning of this year.
At the company's annual strategic meeting in 2019, Taiyang Chuanhe also proposed the keyword for company positioning-"no boundaries".
In an interview with Times Finance, Taiyang Chuanhe was still confident in the company’s business development and explained the core business: “Our core capabilities are content creation and control capabilities; we are good at channel distribution and Adapt content to different channels; digitalization is our important productivity tool and an important helper to improve organizational efficiency. Customer service is the first priority, and content, channels, and digitalization are all for a better customer experience."
Regarding this incident, Taiyang Chuanhe said "It's so unfair."
html Late at night on July 16, Yang Ming denied in WeChat Moments that he was involved in the news about "having a Hong Kong capital background", "money laundering", "manipulating the media" and other news circulating on the Internet, and implored the outside world not to continue Make associations.Picture source: Yang Ming’s WeChat Moments
Yang Ming seems not to pursue the origin of this storm. He left such an intriguing sentence in his WeChat Moments: “Since we are under the same sky, who will be spared in the end? "Where is the person?"
In just three months, leading artists have left, been accused of "money laundering", and been trapped in a vortex of negative public opinion... No one knows where this crisis started and when it will end.
The unknown is the most terrifying thing.
