Assignment #3
Johnny & Associates is the largest idol agency in Japan and the origin of the entire idol industry of Asia.
To know more about the agency, please click here
As a result of the agency’s tradition of harsh copyright restrictions, the singles and albums of its groups are hardly available for online streaming services. Fans must buy their physical CDs to get a copy of their songs and premium videos which results in certain inconvenience for overseas fans.
Unlike KPOP, there aren't any fansites for Johnny’s idols in China due to prohibition of the company and relatively limited fan base in China. So Chinese fans usually turn to procurement services on Taobao or make a purchase directly on major Japanese shopping sites such as Amazon.jp, Rakuten, HMV and Tower Records.
While procurement fee is usually high, fans would be able to save a lot of money by making direct purchases on Japanese shopping sites, only if they could successfully find someone else to split the shipping fee.
However, fans who do not know Japanese may find certain difficulty in the process of searching. Making comparison is also troublesome since prices, discounts and gifts vary between different sites. What's more, notices in seek of shipping partners are rather fragmented, which means you may have to visit several different platforms to find an ideal group.
Although apps such as 魔法集市 offer the option of shared shipping, orders can only be placed through their agency which means you'll have to pay a higher price compared to orders directly made on the japanese shopping sites. Also, these apps do not offer any price comparison services.
In order to facilitate the shopping experience of Chinese Jwotas (ジャニヲタ), helping them to pick the site with the lowest price and to find partners to share shipping, I came up with this proposal...
To learn more about it, please go to my journal. (click here)
