Products of the internet factory

TFBoys. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The other members of the group are Guo Dianjia, Li Linma, Liu Guanyi, Sun Jiakai, Zhang Enshuo and Zhang Junyi.

Another priority for the company is ensuring that YHBOYS fans get every possible opportunity to see their training, rehearsals and minutiae of their daily lives, which in turn becomes fodder for live streaming on social media.

"It's all about communication," Du says. "The boys grow up and their fans are able to see the ways they are changing and how they are progressing. This kind of bond between the pop group and fans is important."

Girl band

Even as Yue Hua Entertainment prepares to put a girl band together, Nook (Beijing) Culture Media Co Ltd, which publishes the fashion magazine Xin Wei, whose target readership is college students and young female office workers, continues to seek the next Chinese female pop stars through a competition called China Girl.

The annual competition, China Girl, which started in 2010 as a beauty contest, sends top ten winners to go to Japan to receive training in being a model first and then possibly becoming a pop idol.

Xin Wei is the Chinese-owned Mandarin version of the Japanese magazine Vivi, one of Asia's top selling fashion magazines. Editions localized for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand are also published.