#ggdd contracts

[rainbowsky]

Wang Yibo is Wang Yibo, Renews With Yuehua

Wang Yibo - YIBO Actor, singer, notable works include 'Exploring the Unknown', 'Hidden Blade', 'Born to Fly', 'One & Only'

Yibo has updated his Weibo profile removing Uniq from his name and adding Exploring the Unknown to his representative works.

He has also renewed with Yuehua for an unspecified term. You can see the announcement document here.

A lot of fans are going to be upset about this, but I am not one of them. I believe wholeheartedly in his ability to make the right decisions for his career. Given his bargaining power with them I have no doubt that he would have secured extraordinarily favorable contract terms.

The text of the announcement:

As I had said previously, he has all of the information that we do not have. He knows his own goals and dreams, he knows the types of activities he wants to focus on, he knows his own resources and what is best for him, and he knows all of the terms and details that Yuehua is offering. He has worked with them for many years and knows what to expect from them.

I'm just glad that he will no longer have this hanging over his head, and can focus on other things. He has an important race coming up, and I look forward to whatever else he has in store for us 💚.

YH Entertainment Group

(Stock Code: 2306)

VOLUNTARY ANNOUNCEMENT RENEWAL OF THE EXCLUSIVE ARTIST MANAGEMENT CONTRACT WITH A MANAGED ARTIST

This announcement is made by YH Entertainment Group (the “Company,” together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) on a voluntary basis to inform shareholders and potential investors of the latest business development of the Group.

The board (the “Board”) of directors (“Directors,” and each a “Director”) of the Company is pleased to announce that the Group has completed the renewal of the exclusive artist management contract with Mr. Wang Yibo (王一博) (“Mr. Wang”), a managed artist of the Company.

Through continuous professional dedication and strong market appeal, Mr. Wang has built a powerful personal brand influence. Mr. Wang has been a managed artist of the Company for over a decade.

The latest contract renewal not only extends the long-term partnership between Mr. Wang and the Group but also represents a deeper alignment for his future career development.

The Company believes such renewal would also facilitate the Group’s operations and reinforce the Group’s position as a key market player in the entertainment industry in China.

The Board is of the view that the continuance of the strategic cooperation between the Group and Mr. Wang further injected strong confidence into the stability of the Company’s performance and its long-term development.

By order of the Board

YH Entertainment Group

DU Hua

Executive Director, Chairlady of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

[rainbowsky]

Yuehua "2026 share incentive plan" - what does it mean?

By now you have probably heard the news that Yuehua wants to create a "share incentive plan" and offer shares of the company to Yibo in an attempt to retain him as an artist on their roster.

Let's take a look at some of the implications.

Standard disclaimer: This is my own perspective on things based on what I've seen, and should be taken with a huge grain of salt. I obviously have no inside information whatsoever and I'm going by the same information everyone else has access to.

What is this offer?

If you would like to read the full document you can find it here.

So in simple terms, what is this document saying?

YH wants to create a new "share incentive program" whose sole purpose will be to reward YH shares to valued people connected to the company

The goal is to incentivize valued people to stick with the company and perform well for the company.

The maximum amount of shares to be offered as part of this program is 20 million (or about 2.4% of the company).

If this program is approved by the shareholders, YH will then offer Yibo an incentive package amounting to 12.5 million shares.

He would purchase those shares at a token HK $0.01 per share, or HK $125,000. Right now, based on the current stock price, the shares are valued at around HK $26 million.

He would not get all of the shares immediately - he'd get 25% per year for 4 years.

There are also terms in place so that if he violates his contract, leaves the company before the four years are up or if something significant happens to destroy his reputation or value, any remaining stocks that he has not yet received will be forfeited.

It is essentially a four-year contract extension for what amounts to about a million US dollars a year in stocks that could go up in value, but might not.

Given what he brings into the company and the somewhat paltry value of this offering, which would only give him something like a 1.5% stake in the company and whose value would be almost entirely dependent on him sticking with the company, it would seem like this is a very pathetic offer.

Then why is the company going so low?

Well, for one thing they are not at liberty to give much more than that in stock incentives. Any new shares that they issue as part of this program will dilute the ownership stake and the value of every other share in the company.

While the shareholders have some incentive to allow dilution of their stock to some degree in order to retain a key figure like Yibo, there is going to be a hard limit to their willingness to take a hit in hopes of retaining him and boosting the overall value of the shares.

The stock exchange also sets regulatory limits on this type of activity.

There's also the consideration that they have other artists that they need to negotiate with, and they will not want to set a precedent where huge public offerings create a standard for what other artists can try to haggle for or might come to expect from the company.

So while people are absolutely eviscerating YH online for the pathetic size of the offer, it is not within their power to go much beyond that with shares, and they're going to want to keep other incentives as private as possible.

The only reason we know about these shares is because any intent by a public company to offer shares in a program like this must be declared publicly.

They are likely offering him a lot more than that behind the scenes.

What else could they offer him?

Some of the other things they could offer him that would not have to be disclosed:

A bigger percentage of the contracts that he signs for projects and endorsements

More freedom and control over his career

More legal, industry or marketing resources

In fact, some of this is probably already part of his renegotiated contract with them.

Someone asked me a while back about Yibo Official, and whether that team would go with him if he were to leave Yuehua. It's likely that he already owns most if not all of YBO, but depending on how things are structured between YBO and YH, there might still be room for negotiation.

If contracts are signed directly with YH and revenue from them trickles through to YBO and then to Yibo, there would be room for him to negotiate a situation where that whole thing is reversed - where the initial contracts all go through YBO and they share a percentage of revenue with YH.

This would put him in a lot more control over his career, and would give him more control over his earnings. The percentage of revenue that he earns would go to an entity owned by him, so there would be more profits as well.

There is also room for percentages to change. I think it's likely that he is already making a high percentage of any revenue that is coming in from his efforts, but there is always room for tweaking that.

For example, if 70% currently goes to him and 30% goes to YH, he could renegotiate those percentages to work much more in his favor.

There's also a possibility that he could arrange it so that he is running YBO entirely independently while still publicly appearing to be an artist under YH, paying them some percentage of revenue and gaining legal, marketing or other resources from them, but in all other ways working totally separately.

This would put him in a position of being mostly independent, without some of the risk that goes along with that.

However, I suspect that's already probably been the case for a while now to some degree, and the only step left for him is to move on and launch his own studio and go entirely independent.

And I suspect that's what's going to happen at the end of all of this. It fits too well with everything that's been happening.

Over the past few years he has been focusing on endorsements and smaller projects that require shorter term contracts. This prepares him to be free of YH and not have any sticky contract situations at the end of his term. It also gives him income to build an independent studio or company.

He owns all of the trademarks connected with him, and has been focusing on projects that build him up as a name worth watching.

He has been distancing himself more and more from YH.

YH has been distancing itself from him as well - the most notable example being that they did not mention him in the 2025 interim report, after making him central in all of their previous filings. I talked about that in more detail here. They could be trying to limit the impact if he leaves the company. (The annual report should be coming out in the next few weeks, so that will be interesting to see.)

So what does all of this mean?

Everything I've seen up until now points to him not renewing.

He couldn't possibly be in a stronger negotiating position if he tried. The stock price has been going down, some major shareholders have pulled out earlier in the year, if he leaves the company will likely be in dire straits.

YH is very exposed here. If he leaves they are screwed on multiple fronts. Therefore they are likely offering him their first born children and every other thing they can think of to keep him.

In other words, I don't think he's holding out for a better offer. He has probably already been offered everything that they could reasonably give him without destroying the company.

Even with these shares, and even with any behind the scenes tinkering that could be happening to percentages and power, it seems unlikely to me that they have any ability to offer him something that would make it worthwhile for him to stay.

I suspect he's been spending recent years gradually building up his own resources, team and relationships to facilitate a smooth transition to an independent career.

In your opinion?

Yes it's just my opinion.

Of course all of this is speculation. We do not know what's going to happen, and this is just my take on it. I hope (and urge) that everyone forms their own opinion, or at least doesn't take mine too seriously.

It's possible he will renew in the end (and if he does the terms of that contract will be incredible, no doubt).

He knows what his goals are, he knows best what he needs, he knows all of the terms of all of these contracts and offerings, and he is surrounded by people who are professionally skilled with regard to every legal, professional, reputational and other consideration involved. I wholeheartedly trust him to do what is best for him.

Whatever Yibo decides, I will support him 100%. If he decides to stick with Yuehua, I will be in his corner and support that decision. If he goes on his own, of course I will be very excited for him.

Only time will tell.

Edit: And it didn't take much time at all! 😅 He has renewed for an unspecified term. More info on that here. It makes more sense to me now, because I could not have seen him holding out until October as the stock continued to plummet.

He has obviously been given an offer that covered the things that he was looking for, and I'm really happy for him.

I was expecting it to go in a different direction based on everything I outlined above, but I'm not all that surprised that he decided to stick with them. As I said, there is plenty of room for him to get a lot of Independence while still having the support and stability of an agency backing him.

[rainbowsky]

Hello :) I hope you are doing well!

I have a question regarding Yibo's close staff and bodyguards. I know it is still unsure whether Yibo will leave YH this year or not, but if he does in fact leave the company, do you know what will happen to his staff and bodyguards? Are they under YH and will stay working for the company or do you think they are directly working for Yibo and would leave with him and continue working for him?

They have been with him for so long and it seems like they have a good and trusting relationship. It would be sad to see them part ways.

Hi cloudsandbunnies, I'm getting by, thanks! Hope you're well! 😊

No one knows the details of the contracts for DD or his staff (which is as it should be - this is all very private stuff), but we do know that he has a very strong, close, trusting relationship with his staff - especially his bodyguards.

This kind of trust is essential for someone who is so much in the public eye and must rely on others for his financial, reputational, professional and physical protection and support.

It's impossible to know what will happen if he leaves YH, but I think it is likely that the key people will go with DD. It's hard to imagine it happening any other way.

It's possible that most of them are already directly contracted to DD, but if any of the key people who have been around for years are contracted through YH, I think they will probably find a way to transfer those contracts to DD.

All contracts involve negotiation, and I find it hard to imagine that DD and his staff wouldn't negotiate terms that ensure they can continue the work they've been doing together. In that industry trust is such an integral part of any team, and the years that they have worked together - nearly a decade by now for some of them - represent a very valuable asset to DD and his career.

However, for those same reasons it's possible he would want to start with a clean slate for some or even all of his staff roles, rather than maintain team members who until now may have been reporting directly to YH.

But all of this is entirely speculation. We'll find out soon enough, as his contract with Yuehua is set to expire later this year.

[rainbowsky]

Yibo's contract with Yuehua is in the news again

There has been a lot of discussion and speculation online about the status of Yibo's contract with Yuehua.

The story has been all over Chinese internet news sites, debates have been brewing among netizens, and hotsearches related to it were trending on Weibo.

The article that sparked it all can be found here. I did some further digging myself and found more information, which I will provide below.

This isn't the first time the issue has come up. Some of you might remember earlier this year there was a lot of speculation about it. At the time there wasn't a lot of available information about the situation, and his official fan club immediately refuted the rumors. Speculation simmered down eventually, but never truly went away.

However the evidence of a potential split between them is growing.

Yibo isn't mentioned in their 2025 interim report, but he appeared in their 2024 annual report and their 2024 interim report, in the 2023 interim report and 2023 annual report, and he was mentioned 22 times in the 2022 prospectus they filed prior to being listed on the stock market.

These mentions typically talk about his projects, his appearances and public welfare ambassador roles, the Yuehua Family Concert and (in the case of the prospectus) details about the earnings he brings in for the company.

It is normal for somebody who is so important to the company to appear in their earnings and business reports. It is unexpected for someone who had previously been the company's key selling point, mentioned prominently in every public document prior to now, to suddenly not be mentioned at all.

It's well known that Yibo has been the primary source of income for Yuehua for years.

So far there has been no official response or statement from his fan club, from Yuehua or from Du Hua, although she did make a post on Weibo that people assume to be a response to the rumors.

Absurd

It's notable that she made a personal post rather than an official statement, but an official response could still be forthcoming.

I feel that the decision not to mention him in the report is pretty compelling evidence that something's going on. What exactly that is, no one can claim to know, but the theory that he won't be renewing is looking more and more credible. No doubt people will be paying close attention to Yuehua's 2025 annual report, and to anything else that could give more clues.

Motos are claiming he will not renew, and they've been posting a pre-written response to every discussion thread about the rumors.

Please be aware of the following: 1 ] Wang Yibo is not a shareholder of Yuehua and does not hold any shares in the company. 2] After his ten-year contract ended, he renewed once in order to help Yuehua go public. His current contract ends in October 2026. 3] In recent years, Wang Yibo has earned billions for Yuehua. Now that Yuehua has successfully gone public and even bought its headquarters building, Wang Yibo has already fulfilled his obligations. It’s quite clear that he does not plan to renew the contract again when it expires. Hopefully Yuehua can part ways with him peacefully!

I think it's important to note that the claims being made in their statement are not verifiable.

While a public company has to disclose the names of all of their major shareholders, information about the remaining shareholders is not publicly available. It's possible he does own some shares of the company. Claims to know whether or not he owns shares are not credible.

He was introduced as a shareholder at Yuehua's IPO ceremony, and that is the only evidence we have either way. All that we can accurately say is that he's not likely to be a major shareholder.

It is true that his current contract ends in October 2026, but his motives for renewing were not publicly stated. The claim that he only renewed to help them with their IPO might be true, or it might not.

As for whether he intends to renew... again, that is completely unknowable at this point. It's not like he is making any public statements about it. The most we can confidently say about it is that renewal looks increasingly doubtful.

But it isn't surprising that motos are posting this kind of statement. They have long bitterly hated Yuehua*, and nothing would make them happier than for him to move on from them.

*This is standard fare for fans of any celebrity. One of the primary fan culture pastimes is critiquing and attacking a star's management company.

There are also discussions swirling about various companies he has an ownership stake in, but again, it is all pointless speculation. His intentions and level of active involvement in those companies are not publicly known.

Despite some of the claims being made online, it is not known whether he will form his own studio and go independent after his contract expires (although that seems the most likely to me).

There are also a lot of people claiming that he has been holding back on releasing new projects until he can be free of Yuehua (and any obligation to share profits with them). I don't even need to comment on this one. It is just so completely unknowable that it doesn't even warrant discussion.

His contract doesn't expire for another year, and I think most of us hope to see more releases come from him prior to then.

While some of this makes for interesting discussion/musing, ultimately our theories are irrelevant and unverifiable. I trust Yibo to make decisions that best support him and his goals, and whatever he chooses I will be 100% behind him.

For those who are interested, the documents mentioned can be found here:

Yuehua 2025 Interim Report

Yuehua 2024 Annual Report

Yuehua 2024 Interim Report

Yuehua 2023 Annual Report

Yuehua 2023 Interim Report

Yuehua 2022 Prospectus

[rainbowsky]

Xiao Zhan is Xiao Zhan

Weibo certification: actor, singer. Representative works "The Legend of Zanghai", "The Youth Memories", "The Untamed" and so on

The internet is losing its collective shit over the fact that Xiao Zhan has updated his Weibo profile. He is finally simply 'Xiao Zhan' after all these years. 🥲

He was the last member of X-NINE to remove the band from his name and profile. This is being taken to mean that all of X-NINE are finally fully free from their contract with WJJW.

He also removed DAYTOY from his name.

The other notable item is the update to his representative works, and the fact that he kept The Untamed among them.

All of this is currently trending on Weibo and throughout the international fandoms.

[rainbowsky]

Marcus Here! on Chinese celebrity salaries

Marcus posted a video today about celebrity salaries in China. It's interesting to watch, despite being a bit click-baity.

A couple things about it:

He pulled this together primarily using AI and some online gossip sources. In other words, take with a HUGE grain of salt. Very little of this type of information is ever made public, so ultimately most of it is totally unknowable, and one can only ever speculate.

He asks at the end of the video, "What do you guys think - are these celebrities getting overpaid, or are they just getting what they're worth?" I find this kind of question impossible to answer.

Whenever we hear this sort of talk, all context is removed from the discussion. The focus is always on how much the celebrity/athlete/whatever is being paid, but rarely within the context of how much the production/league/whatever is making.

We hear things like, "WOW! Shohei Ohtani just signed a $700M 10 year contract with the LA Dodgers!" as though that's an outrageous amount of money, meanwhile the team is valued at $7B and makes more than $750/year in net revenue just from stadium-related profits (not including endorsements, merch, etc.).

The focus is always on individuals, but let me tell you - none of these organizations would be paying this much money if it wasn't highly profitable for them to do so.

I have a lot of thoughts about income equality and the ethics of money, and I don't think anyone should ever be a billionaire when others are starving*, but focus on celebrity salaries always seems to steal focus away from the big corporations and how much they're making.

The reality is, companies hate to pay a penny more than they absolutely have to for anything, and they're the ones really raking in the big profits. Celebrities are the public face of an organization or project and will always take the focus away from what's really happening behind the scenes.

These discussions also never talk about how much money the celebrity is actually taking home from that pay. Their salary doesn't generally go to them alone, but a significant chunk of it will go to their management and handlers and other assorted expenses. We will never know how much they're really making (nor should we, really - income is a pretty private thing).

*And I don't think celebrities - who are profiting from their popularity - are by any means the real problem, here. The real problem are the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos of the world, who are profiting from exploiting workers, gutting regulatory institutions and norms, evading taxes, engaging in wage theft, getting government handouts, abusing their reach and power and destroying the planet.

[rainbowsky]

Hiii :) first of all I want to thank you! I love reading your thoughts on many topics and through your posts I've learned a lot about Yizhan, the turtle fandom and many topics related to these. However, there is something I've been wondering. I've seen people speculating that Yibo will not renew his contract with YH. This might be a silly question but do you think there's any chance that he would join Xiao Zhan Studio? Is that even possible? Because it seems like they already work together or share resources in some way (there are too many "coincidences" with concepts, locations, people they work with, editing, etc.). Or is it totally impossible for him to sign a contract with XZS?

Hi cloudsandbunnies! Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog. 😊

This is a topic I feel I've already covered fairly thoroughly in this post and in this post. The posts linked from this one are also very related.

[rainbowsky]

Hi Rainbowsky,

Hope you had a good weekend, thank you again for all your posts and updates, myself and others really appreciate your time and efforts.

I hope my ask is ok for you to consider, if not, please accept my apologies.

I believe DD's contract with YH ends Oct, 2026, is GG's contract with wjjw still in effect? I may have this incorrectly, it seems as part of GG's attempt to break the contract a few years back, they did reach some sort of a settlement, albeit he may not have had enough funds to buy out his entire contract at that time.

My ask:

(1) Is GG still under contract with wjjw?

(2) It appears according to public disclosure with YH going public last year, DD accounts for 59% (or a significant %) of YH's total sales, and he is a shareholder as well. Do you think this will make it even more unlikely ggdd will reveal their relationship publicly? As any negative reactions from their solo fans will impact YH's market value, and thus directly affect ggdd's bottom line/market value as well.

(3) What do you think of the possibility of ggdd setting up their own company similar to YH or wjjw (or buyout YH)? They can work in front and behind the camera, cultivate new talents and produce their own work.

Again, thank you for your time and effort, and hope you are doing well :)

Hi Dottie, thanks for your kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog. 😊

These issues are frequently discussed by fans, although it's all just speculation. In reality, no one knows - or should know - the details of their contracts. Contracts, income, etc. are very private and personal matters.

DD's current contract term is known because of financial filings that were made when Yuehua was listed on the stock exchange. His current term ends in 2026.

The situation with GG's contract with WJJW is unknown. There are people who will swear it is still in effect in whole or in part, while there are others who swear it's over. It's true he sued the company, and shortly after that XZ Studio was formed. It's believed that was part of the settlement they reached. Based on the timing of his debut, his contract with WJJW - if all or part of it is still in effect - is believed to be expiring in 2026 as well.

2026 is a significant year for turtles because GG once said in an interview that he won't marry until he's 35.

So, on to your questions:

I believe I've answered that. No one knows for sure what - if any - contract terms he still holds with them.

The likelihood of GG and DD ever coming out publicly as long as they are both stars is pretty much zero. There are a lot of reasons for that. Financial/business considerations are definitely one of the biggest reasons. I've talked about this a lot in the past. Both GG and DD are deeply beholden to the business interests that are invested in their success. Not just the investors and management companies, but also all the brands and the stakeholders for every project and endorsement they've done. Anything that could harm their popularity - including coming out with any relationship, let alone a gay one - would be potentially catastrophic to the continued prosperity of their past, present and future projects and endorsements. Not to mention all the people GG and DD personally employ. GG and DD both represent the livelihood of a hell of a lot of people. YH doesn't need to be on the stock market for this to be the reality.

Very unlikely for the reasons I discussed above, at least not publicly. It's not outside the realm of possibility that they'd do something like that through proxies or under pseudonyms, but I don't see them attaching their names together publicly behind a joint venture anytime soon. Buying out YH is a definite no. It's the life's work of Du Hua, and DD aside, it isn't particularly successful as a company. There's no good reason why GG and DD would want to take on someone else's headaches when they could start fresh with something new.

I do believe GG and DD will go into business together, if they haven't already. That's a possibility they even discussed pretty openly in interviews during The Untamed promo. There have been many rumors and speculations over the years about companies they've started, brands people believe they might jointly own, etc. but there is no concrete proof of anything.

However, the likelihood of them doing any of this openly, and attaching both of their names to it, is extremely low at this stage in their careers. They've both got too many years ahead of them in the industry to take such risks, and the financial/business considerations loom large. As does the enmity between their fan groups. It's just too risky.

As long as taking on acting projects is a central interest of theirs, I don't see them changing gears in any major way. Such activities have too much potential to jeopardize their ability to land the best projects and the biggest backers, or to pack theaters and attract viewers, and producers are extremely risk averse. Especially in this economy.

I think we also need to consider that they are individuals building their individual careers. There's no compelling reason why they would want or need to build a joint management venture together, or to join forces in any further way than what we already suspect (sharing some resources between YBO and XZS), just because they're a couple. Their separate projects are separate. There's no need for it to be otherwise.

Unless their future plans are significantly more extreme than I imagine, I think it's highly unlikely. Some turtles might find it sweet to imagine them joining forces in some big public way, but that's not how the real world works.

All of this is just my opinion. Only GGDD know for sure what their plans are.

Regardless, I trust them both to manage their careers and protect their best interests, and I leave it in their capable hands. They're both surrounded by experts whose entire job is to help them make the most of their assets. I don't need to know the details of that.

I hope this was helpful! You can find more on these topics under my 'ggdd contracts' tag.