Jay Chou's Concert Criticized as "Seriously Phoning It In" - Fans Call for Caution
Jay Chou is facing widespread criticism and trending on social media after fans complained that his recent concert in Hangzhou only featured 90 minutes of singing during a scheduled 3-hour event. Tickets for the concert sold out quickly, with prices skyrocketing on the resale market, but attendees reported a poor experience. Simultaneously, the listed company deeply tied to Jay Chou, Star Legend, is facing a financial crisis with significant revenue and profit declines.
Text | Zhang Ao, "BUG" Column
However, the high ticket prices combined with a poor experience have become the root of audience anger. One audience member told the "BUG" column that the concert experience was extremely poor, with it being difficult to hear live vocals for about 20 minutes after the start, with almost all sound coming from the sound system. Social media even saw the emergence of "Jay Chou Concert Cautionary Posts," with many audience members expressing dissatisfaction: "Completely phoning it in, don't buy tickets," "Very bad, barely sings a few songs," "Too much time spent changing clothes and resting."
At the same time, Star Legend, the listed company deeply linked to Jay Chou, is also facing a crisis: revenue for 2025 was 472 million yuan, down 19.1% from 584 million yuan in the same period last year; gross profit was 184 million yuan, down 43.9% year-on-year; even more serious is the net profit, which was a loss of 51.05 million yuan, compared to a profit of 50.24 million yuan in the same period last year, a decrease of 202%.
Looking back to July last year, when Jay Chou officially announced his entry into the Douyin platform, it once drove up Star Legend's stock price by more than 162% to HK$17.64 during trading. As of the most recent trading day, its closing price was only HK$6.6, a drop of 62%.
The concert was criticized for "phoning it in," with "Jay Chou content" accounting for less than half.
Recently, Jay Chou's "Fireworks Hangzhou・Carnival II" 2026 World Tour concert held in Hangzhou was labeled a "nostalgia harvesting site."
Reports claim that the concert, originally scheduled for 3 hours, actually featured less than 90 minutes of singing, with "Jay Chou content" accounting for less than half. What made the audience feel even more perfunctory was that a large amount of concert time was occupied by various "phoning it in" segments, such as guest appearances, VCRs, and casual chats. In addition, many old songs were frequently transposed, and the stage extension in the rain was too short, causing some audience members to not be able to see the performance throughout the entire show.
Public information shows that the official ticket prices for Jay Chou's Hangzhou concert ranged from 780 yuan to 2380 yuan, with 780 yuan only being for seats at the edge of the stage. Obtaining a relatively good location generally cost more than 1,000 yuan. Even with expensive ticket prices, tickets sold out quickly once they went on sale, and some audience members had to buy scalped tickets to enter.
One audience member said that seats priced at 1080 yuan were being resold for 4000 yuan on the scalper market, and supply was insufficient.
Ticket prices are high, but the experience is poor. One audience member told the "BUG" column that Jay Chou didn't seem to be in the zone for the first few songs and sang poorly, including classic songs like "Qili Xiang" (Seven Miles Fragrance).
Another audience member who purchased a 1080 yuan ticket also said the experience was poor, stating that they couldn't hear live vocals for about 20 minutes after the start, with almost all sound coming from the sound system, and the seating arrangement was uneven. "For old fans who genuinely came, the price should be proportional to the quality."
Another audience member also complained that they were stunned by the live singing at the beginning, and really felt that Jay Chou was getting old, "We can only say that our youth is eternal, this is just comforting ourselves." Another audience member said that if you're a die-hard fan, the experience is just average, but if you're a casual fan, the value for money is really poor.
Star Legend's annual revenue declined by 20%, and IP revenue was "halved."
Jay Chou's performance on and behind the stage has deeply impacted a listed company – Star Legend.
As a company whose core business is operating Jay Chou's IP series, Star Legend has a close relationship with Jay Chou. Its founders include Jay Chou's mother, Ye Hui Mei, his agent, Yang Jun Rong, a director of the agency, Chen Zhong, and long-time partner Ma Xin Ting.
Last July, when Jay Chou officially announced his entry into the Douyin platform, it once drove up Star Legend's stock price by more than 162% during trading. As of now, Jay Chou's certified account "Zhou Xue Sheng" (Zhou Student) has published a total of 61 videos and has 24.604 million followers.
However, even though Jay Chou is still "top-tier," Star Legend's performance has shown signs of fatigue. According to its recently released 2025 annual report, Star Legend's revenue for 2025 was 472 million yuan, down 19.1% from 584 million yuan in the same period last year; gross profit was 184 million yuan, down 43.9% year-on-year; even more serious is the net profit, which was a loss of 51.05 million yuan last year, compared to a profit of 50.24 million yuan in 2024, a decrease of 202%.
In addition, the single business structure that heavily relies on Jay Chou's personal influence has also encountered growth bottlenecks.
It is reported that Star Legend's IP creation and operation business revenue in 2025 was 156 million yuan, down 50% from the same period last year. Among them, film and television program copyright production revenue fell to 69 million yuan, compared to 168 million yuan in the same period last year; celebrity IP management revenue was 33 million yuan, compared to 65 million yuan in the same period last year; event planning and management revenue was 5 million yuan, compared to 28 million yuan in the same period last year.
Regarding the poor performance, Star Legend explained that the decline in film and television program copyright production revenue was mainly due to the impact of overall marketing budget adjustments by brand customers and the continued diversion of attention from short videos to long videos, putting pressure on the group's content production business and IP licensing business centered on long videos. At the same time, with the increasing investment of leading IP companies and the continued emergence of new market participants, competition is intensifying.
In addition to being deeply tied to Jay Chou, Star Legend has also tried to seek recognition from the capital market by enriching its star matrix and opening up new businesses. For example, Star Legend signed an exclusive agency agreement with Liu Genghong and his wife, Wang Wanfei, and is responsible for managing their commercial activities in China, further expanding the celebrity IP matrix.
In addition, Star Legend announced last year that it had reached a cooperation with the popular robot company Unitree Technology to produce "Star Dog" and received a purchase order of 5,000 units from YunGong Factory Technology Holdings Limited, with a total contract amount of over 100 million yuan. Earlier, it also received a multi-million yuan order from Kingston Technology.
Star Legend revealed that in addition to product sales, the company will also deeply explore the commercial value of intelligent robots in concerts, performances, and other scenarios through cooperation with Unitree Technology, thereby enhancing the company's business competitiveness.
Although Star Legend is actively diversifying its business forms, its recognition in the secondary market still needs to be improved in terms of its current stock price. As of the most recent trading day, Star Legend's closing price was HK$6.6, a drop of 62.5% from HK$17.64 when Jay Chou joined Douyin.
Regarding Jay Chou being criticized for "harvesting nostalgia" this time, internet analyst Zhang Shule said that if a singer's songs are classic enough and their singing skills are excellent, even if they don't "phone it in," using quantity and duration to measure the quality of a concert can only apply to some ordinary singers, not top-tier singers.
He also said: "As a 'Jay Chou concept stock,' Star Legend needs to get rid of the 'Jay Chou concept' that started it all. Although Jay Chou is evergreen, the risk of a single IP is too great. In fact, Star Legend's diversification efforts in recent years, even entering the tide-play field, are all aimed at achieving this goal, but the effect has not been good."