15 replies to this topic

[bontakun]

This forum probably isn't the best place to ask but I don't really know where else I could ask (no accounts in other forums). AKB48 and its sister groups used to make regular (well, semi-regular) visits to Singapore for performances. They never really got senbatsus but fans were happy enough with the undergirls even. However, there hasn't been any further performances since February 2012 despite promises in 2011 that it will continue for another year.

Information is sparsely available. The AKB48 SG page on Facebook mostly just announces member birthdays and photo set availability. Heck, I don't think anyone is even doing the birthday updates since Yuko's. The cafe girls haven't been updating their official blog since Takamina's visit. No Singaporean fan blog seems to be talking about it either.

Wandering if anyone has any further info on what has been going on over there. As a fan, I've mostly been solitary in nature mostly because I'm not exactly a hardcore AKB wota. I don't live in Singapore so I can't ask the shop/cafe staff over there. I just happen to make semi-regular trips to Singapore to watch J-pop performances, be it AKB48, Perfume (failed to get tickets, bah), or any other artist that I might be interested in. Since I'm not in touch with the fan community over there, I'm rather starved of news. Note that I only even occasionally lurk in other AKB48 forums online too which is why I'm so out of touch.

[Krusha]

I think Japanese management gave up on Singapore what regards future plans of anything really. Lackluster interest and participation from Singaporean fans.

[Ares13]

^
^
LOL .. I am going to the Perfume concert tomorrow ..

ok .. enough of that ... lol .. back to main topic ..

fact is .. we the fans in Singapore got no idea at all even ..

basically .. information have to be separated as 2 category ... 1) official information 2) plain rumour ..

For official news ... there isn't any at all ...

So .. everything .. I say is rumour .. and it could be totally wrong ..
my source are all over the place.. and have at time been unreliable ..

Back on 31 Oct ... they made no official word ..and closed the AKB48 cafe and shop ...
It was rumoured to be closed for good .. but ..They open again ..

Now the shop and cafe is open ... but they are selling what is leftover .. they don't seem to be restocking ..
The cafe no longer serve food but only serve drinks ..

The last announcement of the Singapore version photo set on facebook was for August set..
but the last available set is September ...

I have gotten news that tomorrow .. they are going to start the October set ..

Basically they have stop updating the site and Facebook page ..

In all .. their presences in Singapore has ended ..
It have all shifted to Jakarta Indonesia where JKT48 is doing very well ..

From what I heard .. they will keep the shop and cafe open until they lease contract run out at *Scape ..
which I got no idea when is that ...

I wouldn't be expecting AKB48 or their family to be here ever again ..

Base on what I heard .. because AKB48 and family operate on a 16 member show ..
it is too costly to bring so many people here ... So smaller groups will stand a better chance..

and I heard the people who ran most of the stuff here.. Sozo are concentrating on other Jpop/anime stuff ..
example like the recent AFA was a success and of course Perfume who are in Singapore now ..

basically .. we still would get some Japanese pop/anime culture here .. but ..I would think AKB48 and family wouldn't be here anymore ..

I know things wouldn't last ... but it kind of ended faster than I think it would ..
but I made the best of the time when they are here .. so I got no regret ..

and lastly ..
For the Singapore fans ...

Our numbers and interest can only grow .. if they come ...
but after months of disappearance ... the interest are disappearing too ...

and another sad fact is .. whoever that come .. will get hot here ..
The last is TGS .. and suddenly .. I see a rise in TGS fans ... LOL ..
and before that .. its Momoclo Z ... they didn't come Singapore but they went to our neighbours in Malaysia and that was good enough even .. lol

[bontakun]

Thanks for whatever you shared, even if you are not certain about the reliability. Nuts...at least I did manage to attend most of the stages in SG. Ah well...was fun while it lasted but without regular lives, I'm also losing interest in them. i have actually taken a greater interest in their rivals, both official and unofficial. Yup, MCZ and Nogizaka46. Less names to remember, fresher faces, and so far more preppy in that they don't do gravure (well, not of the swimsuit kind) so we don't seem so pervy as fans.

Edit: It can't be lacklustre interest and participation...at least all the stages i attended were pretty much sold out and wotagei were out in full force. The official shop not selling enough merchandise?

[Krusha]

Here's the thing:

Losing interest in them without regular lives? What about the many fans that lives in places where they don't hold lives and never had?

So, you see, these comments coupled with actual comments I have seen from Singaporans (like "Oh my favorite didn't come...", or "Oh, this girl again...") makes me think Singaporeans are very, very spoilt.

And thus I can only conclude AKS are doing the right thing with not wasting time on Singapore anymore. Whatever the reasons though, they are probably not making money. Which they are elsewhere.

[bontakun]

OK, now that's not a fair accusation to level at the SG fans. Myself, yes, but I already mentioned earlier that I was a casual fan. I am more of a general J-pop fan. AKB was just something that I kinda took an interest in. I went for the live in SG on a whim (mostly because they were the only jpop artist performing in SG at that time) and found it enjoyable beyond my expectations. You might say my interest in them peaked around the time I got to watch them live but has been declining since and is now back to its original level, which is to say...they are just one of many acts that I follow now. I bought a lot more AKB merchandise back than. Not anymore. Spending on other artists instead.

I had already calculated that the SG stage break even at best, but I don't think its because of me. I wouldn't even have bought any AKB goods if it weren't for those stages.

Edit: I also noticed that although there have been complaint about how so-and-so never came, it seemed to me that the SG fans took it in stride and have warmly welcomed those that did come regularly. As I recall, Maeda Ami and Abe Maria were rather well liked as they have made the most trips there. I'm not sure if this translated into merchandise sales though.

[Krusha]

I don't want to make it sound as if everybody said what I wrote, that would be wrong and incorrect. But it annoys me to see people say such things nevertheless. Even hearing about some people who skipped out on certain girls in handshake lanes.

My gripe is this: Singaporeans were given a fantastic opportunity, one that others were not (it's also impossible to do this for everybody). So, when I see above things, it gives you the impression of people being spoilt and not really appreciating it the way it should be. But of course there were many who did appreciate, and this is good.

For everybody else, one has to go to Japan to see them perform, or participate in events.

[Ares13]

Basically .. in Singapore ... we do not have our own music ..
Almost all our music is imported .. So we can choose anyone from anywhere in the world ..

We are multiracial country with our first language being English ...but we have a second language which is our mother tongue ..
the majority of races in Singapore is Chinese ..
So therefore ..songs from language we understand will have an advantage ...

but for songs from language we don't understand .. it depends on hype ..
now its obvious its the Korean that is dominating here ..

while some but few do stay at their genre forever .. most do not ..
We do move on ...

AKB48 coming to Singapore did do one good thing that I expect would happen ...
which is to raise the interest in Jpop ...

So moving to other group in Japan is normal ...
because once you get to know 1 group .. you would like to find out more about the genre..and would want to know the other groups ..

In all ..

You would think that I would disagree with Krusha especially on the negative points on my country... but ..
sadly to me .. its the truth ...

I been writing this and telling people I know this all the time ..

To me .. its a honor that the biggest group in Japan actually bother about Singapore ..which is a small red dot in the world map ..
If we allow them to fail or give up on us .. we could not expect the other smaller groups to have any confidence in us ..

furthermore ... what people do not realise is ... and I got to correct Krusha on that ...
we got something that even if you travel to Japan or even stay in Japan .. you would not get..

Our show is in a small theater which even if you are in the last row .. you can still see them clearly ..
During the show .. all of us are allow to stand ..and go crazy ...
After every show is handshake ... not high touch ...

You wouldn't get this even if you are a Japanese staying in Japan ..
that's why .. Japanese do come Singapore .. because they can't get any better in Japan even ..

In all .. I do think we wasted it ...
The show being sold out is a myth ..
come on.. the show is S$50 .. and yet some people are not willing to spend when most concerts here are more than S$100 ..

For our events ...
For S$30 ..you get food and drinks and get to spend about an hour up close with them .. which would end with a handshake at the end..
In Japan ... people pay about the same price for a ticket just to handshake them for 3 seconds ..

Its a huge huge waste to me .. sorry to say that ...

[bontakun]

In all fairness, I would like to say that I believe AKB is able to sustain its current momentum and popularity mostly due to its 'idols you can meet' concept. Without the regular stages, handshakes, and other fan events, I'm pretty sure many Japanese fans would have moved on to other interests too. Why so surprised if the same happened in Singapore?

I'm not quite sure what Ares meant by the shows not being sold out though. As I recall, I attended most of the stages (had to skip some due to other commitments) and they were all pretty much full, as in all the seats were taken and even some in the standing area at the back. Many fans even watched both shows on the day.

Not so sure about being able to seem them clearly despite in being in the last row though. The fact that they allowed people to stand actually made that rather tricky unless you were very tall. I went for both NMB shows and found myself in the back for both due to luck of the draw and I couldn't see anyone's legs at all. Still, I did make the front row for 1 AKB show once and had Rabutan right in front of me. Good times, good times...

I have, however, noted that sales in the shop can be rather lackluster even during stage days. The stage t-shirts for the day don't get sold out, and it looks to me like many of the posters, other t-shirts, flags, keychains, etc. don't move at all. My suspicion is that SOZO lost interest in bringing in AKB not because of the lack of interest in the shows but because they weren't shifting enough merchandise in the store. I think the only item that gets sold out regularly are the limited edition photosets. I note that during the later stages they were giving away those small flags (whatever they are called) free to certain corporate guests simply because no one was buying them.

Tickets were SGD50 and a supposed hall size of 500 (that was the seat count for SG shows) means about SGD25k per stage, and there's 2 stages whenever they do come so the total in ticket sales would be SGD50k (approx ~USD40.9k). I do not know how much the girls get paid for coming here, but I can see most of the costs going towards hotel, airfare, and hall rental. If there's any profit to be made, it would be from merchandise.

I would say that it all fell to pieces not because the fans failed to appreciate the group and the performances there. More like we failed to appreciate the franchisee for the Singapore operations. The fans considered their own grey market purchase of DVD and CDs to be sufficiently supportive of the group. We were rather less interested in paying for overpriced merchandise at the store and mediocre food at the cafe. No amount of the AKB48 girls shilling the food there as 'oishii' was enough to convince me that it was, sorry. However, in all fairness to the fans, I believe many have also complained about the poor selection to be found at the store, and that many would rather buy from the grey market partly because its cheaper but mostly because they will get it before the store gets round to stocking the CDs.

[kidafohs]

Don't worry @bontakun AKS is the biggest con going and is based on the premise that everyone fan is a fool, they don't see fans they see Yen, dollars or whatever currency is used. In the UK we have a saying that 'A fool and his money is easily parted' and AKS apparently agree with this, which groups in other countries bring out five versions of the same record just to make money from their fans and artificially inflate sales. Honestly, would their sales be so high if fans weren't buying multiple copies of the same record to get hold of voting tickets etc their actual real sales would fall to the 100,000 level if 1 version and no gimmicks were involved. As an aside Singapore people are nice and honest and really it was wrong for AKS to try to con them, there was even talk of a Singapore AKB, all a myth to increase revenue.

[Krusha]

You dolt

It's a business! You don't start a business with the idea of not making money. This is so basic it shouldn't be worth mentioning. If they can't make money in Singapore, they won't spend time in Singapore. It's that simple.

Obviously selling the concept to Indonesia worked better than selling it to Singapore. At least so far. But maybe that could change in the near future. Who knows.

As far as sales tactics goes, you might want to open your eyes a little bit more, as it's not just AKS which does this in Japan, but virtually any idol act, even pop acts. Multiple copies rules the landscape of popular music in Japan.

Did AKB48 have multiple copies and handshake events in the early days? Yes. Do they have that today? Yes. And please don't patronize Singaporeans, saying they're so nice and sweet, how dare the evil AKS trick them like this how unfair and rude and mean of them!!

It's rather implicit that for any Singaporean group to start there, one needs a sort of foundation, a basis of which it will grow in. If they consider that there's no such basis, or potential for it, then it might be difficult to start a domestic version of AKB48. And that has nothing to do with how the nice and honest Singaporeans supposedly got conned by the mean and evil AKS. It's just basic business, nothing else.

If you like the product, buy it. If you don't, you don't buy it. Very simple that.

[dominique]

I abhor the convenient thought of blaming the stopping of the project on Singapore fans.

Who is to judge that the existing fans have not contributed as much as they could, financially, emotionally, energetically and also the time spent, into supporting the project?

The simple truth is that the idol fanbase is a small community to begin with. There can only be that much output from milking these fans.

To succeed, the project had to grow and rope in new fans but this is where it failed.

First, outside of media interviews, there were little resources spent on promotion and marketing the lives to bring in new fans.
Second, it did not help that the media was so decidedly biased against J-Pop and that the majority of reporters thrashed marketing efforts by comparing AKB to Kpop, degrading SDN, making a big deal about hand sanitizers during handshakes, and other stupid antics.
Third, this was also a collaboration that came outside of Sozo's main business speciality; which was targeting into the larger community of anime fans.

It is my opinion that there is an underlying mentality, "This is Japan's biggest act. Just saying that they are coming and bringing them here should be enough to fill the numbers," that was in the air. But reality became obvious that it was not going to be sufficient without both AKS and Sozo investing more resources and growing the project.

They had to battle the media, the influx of Kpop and then at the same time grow new Jpop/AKB fans and convert anime/Jpop/Kpop fans. After a year's trial. I think it is fair to say that AKS and Sozo lost interest and stopped the project.

Sozo and Dentsu SG has since then moved onto bringing J-Rock acts, with fewer lives but from what I've gathered, they have been sold out and seems to show more promise. Perfume is a success too. You could say that these made better business sense for them.

A lack of interest can also be a simple way of explaining why it failed, and I agree.

But it is not fair to put so much blame on fans here. Not when you have met them, gone out with them, cheered twith them, jumped together and cried with them. How can anyone describe that gaping pain to see the people that you like stop coming and keep going further away from you?

Yes, there are small pockets of people who refuse to go to lives because "so and so isn't coming." I don't like the idea of it either.

But in the overall picture, the reality after a year's trial is that the whole collection of idol fans here is that small to make a sizeable difference. The companies had to do more in order to get more in return.

Perhaps it would have been different if a company other than Sozo handled it.

[bontakun]

Hmm, good point. Everyone starts off with the default opinion that AKB are creepy. it has always pissed me off, yet I have pretty much given up trying to convince people otherwise myself. Nobody is really that interested in wanting to listen even if you try to explain.

I got a friend to tag along on a whim though, and he actually had fun once he got over the whole 'this is so pedo' mindset. Wasn't enough to make him a fan though.

I am honestly pissed off at the widespread influence that K-pop has in Asia but that's another story...sigh...

[Ares13]

Another rumour ...

The AKB48 cafe and shop will finally close somewhere in December ..

guess that may be the end then ...

....

Anyway ... its Singapore ...
To succeed here needs more thinking ...

You cannot just put things here and except the the people to go crazy on their own ..
In some bigger countries .. maybe you can do that ...
with a bigger population ... all you need is a small percentage of people and that is more than enough ...

But Singapore is a small country ..
You need to win a bigger percent of the population over ..

To me ... there are a few business mistake ..

They should have research and know that a pure theme or concept cafe can't work in Singapore..
they should spend more effort to make the AKB48 cafe more like a regular cafe ..
when I eat at Kenny Rogers Roasters .. I am definitely not a fan of Kenny Rogers...

they are nowhere near the standard of even a regular cafe..
they have really small menu and sold really very few items..and they overpriced food too much for that standard ..

they started with the cafe and shop on different location in the building ..
It took them a while to realise that its better to have them combine in 1 location ..

The shop are poorly stock and its ridiculously overprice ..
people are not stupid ...
How can you sell magazine that is more expensive than the Kinokuniya that is in the building across the street ...
How could you sell CDs that is more expensive than HMV that is across the streets ..

The funny thing is they didn't bother to sell the international version which is cheaper ..
but its available at another record shop in Singapore ..

The fans here spend a lot on idol goods ...
but its all purchase from overseas orders from 7-net, SKE48 online shop, NMB48 online shop ..etc ..
and worse of all .. its our own fans milking off our own people ..selling imported 48 stuff at ridiculous price ..profiting themselves

All this money could go to the operations in Singapore if the AKB48 shop here can stock the shop with items that is sold in Japan on a timely and reasonable price basis ..
All we had was overpriced and outdated items from the Hong Kong shop and Japan shop ..

they tried to produce Singapore version items but there is just not enough variety .. and not enough stock available ...

Basically ... it is all basic business mistake that have fail any business venturing overseas ..

Furthermore .. oversea theater isn't a good idea ..
JKT48 is a better idea because the performers are local ..
They don't have the additional cost of flying them in and the expensive lodging ..
AKB48 and their staff have flown in with the 2nd and sometimes the most expensive airline ..
AKB48 and their staff stay in nothing less than good 5 stars hotel ...

They should have just do what every foreign artist do ...
come less often but do it big every time they come ..

I have heard rumour that this is what they were planning ...to do ..
but i guess it was a bit too late to put it to action ...

We all heard rumour about an Asia tour that was scrap ..
It was suppose to be in a place bigger than Shibuya AX ..and much bigger than the scape theater ...

From what I heard .. they suffered huge losses ..
Not in the millions but in the hundreds of thousands ..but that is painful enough ..
(if you put it in yen .. its tens of millions yen loss ..lol)
They had a meeting and decide to stop activities in Singapore ..

lol ..as I say .. all this are rumour .. I don't know how true are this ...
I still have hopes that all this are just pure rubbish ..
and note that these may be big big BS from people who want to sound smarter than the rest ..

====================================

About the fans here ... lol

To start with there is not much AKB48 fans here before they come ..

The fans are mostly anime fans ..
and all the bad habits of the anime interest ..sort of rub off into the AKB48 fandom here

back then ... the H!P fans are more active in Singapore .. if you talk about pure idol fans ...

when AKB48 first come .. we all kind of all join forces ..

I still remember us gathering at one place ..so that we can all practice doing the mix ..lol

In all ... I am so glad to be part of all this when it was here ...
I would always had good memories of all this ..

I will always be very grateful for what have happened ..
there are just so many highlights ...

For me ..
they are already the no.1 idols in Japan ...
they came when they had no good reason to ..

They came and let me experience a good Japanese idol lifestyle and culture ..
I am always grateful ..

that's why .. I will always stand for them .. even if one day the 48 family decline ..
hey anyway .. I was a H!P fan during H!P decline ..its not like I need to support the top dog ..
and its not like I am not used to supporting the declining groups ..

[ItsukiKurasagi]

Actually, I saw the AKB shop in January, and it was supposedly on a somewhat hiatus stage...

I was rather upset as I called to ask about some merchandise which they said they had, but when I arrived they said that it was out of stock.   

It was really disappointing!   I'd actually like to know what's going to become of the shop now...

Don't think AKS actually knows what to do with it. 

As a Singaporean AKB48 fan, this is really upsetting. It's so hard to get merchandise, I might as well be getting it from CDJ or any other online store.   Ironic, especially because there's a store here... 

[Hollywood]

If I recall, many if not most of the overseas AKB projects aren't actually owned an operated by Akimoto. He franchises the name and concept out to other interested parties.

I think what happened was that the buyer/franchise owner(s) of the potential singapore unit ran into problems or was undecided on going ahead with the project.

So now the project sits in limbo...