rather than the shipping regulations which could still be a factor, the biggest thing is that chinese kpop stans don't really wanna spend huge amounts on kpop groups who won't prioritize them if that makes sense? it's a widespread sentiment now across all fandoms that they'd rather spend money on flights to korea for their own stanning experience rather than for good numbers and breaking records for their idol, which i do support. you're right that many cbars are hiding numbers because they don't want there to be a public drop in orders, but that's more a result of fandom sentiment and honestly decline in number of chinese kpop stans overall than regulations
also baekhyun's solo cbar orders broke 200k albums in one day just a few weeks ago so numbers can still be high, it depends on whether fans are willing to spend for it which is realistically not gonna happen for non-solo orders since solo stanning is so prevalent in china
requeefiem
2024-08-24 04:00:51oh for sure I can see that and it's true that while stuff is declining it's possible to upkeep numbers if you try zb1 debuted in the middle of this decline but broke records because of the effort