Products of the internet factory

China Girl candidates during an audition. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Little surprise then that little more than 24 hours after YHBOYS first saw the light of day their video was reported to have been viewed more than 10 million times. They now have more than 27,000 followers on Sina Weibo, akin to Twitter.

Getting an early start in show business is not exactly new. After all, the late American child star Shirley Temple made her debut at the age of 3, but the sudden appearance and instant success of YHBOYS has raised some eyebrows in China.

First, there is the name, some suggesting that it has an uncanny resemblance to TFBoys, a Chinese teenage boy band put together by the Beijing company Time Fengjun Entertainment, and which gained rapid popularity, essentially through the internet, after putting out a debut promotional video, Ten Years, in August 2013.

However, for every person who raises questions about Yue Hua Entertainment's commercial intent with the youngsters, there seem to be 100 others who cannot get enough of them and eagerly await more videos - and the merchandise that is do doubt on its way.

In bringing the group together, seven boys from provinces including Jiangxi and Hebei, Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Taiwan, were chosen from more than 3,000 candidates who applied in an internet talent search, says Du Hua, founder and chief executive of Yue Hua Entertainment, which has been creating Chinese pop idol groups since 2009. Five of those boys appeared in the video released last month, and the two others will appear in two videos to be put out on the internet this month. Eventually more boys will be put into the group.