Prestige's withdrawal from Fanza and the shutdown of AVer, a platform newly established by the KMP Group, after only six months—if you're familiar with the adult video industry, you've probably sensed something amiss:
Yes, it's all related to Fanza being too powerful.
As the saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them. Just ask those muscle-bound NBA players whose salaries are millions of times higher than ours. The problem is that joining them and becoming one of them is one thing, but selling videos on someone else's platform and getting a cut is another. It's like being parasitized by someone else. You initially thought you were just putting your goods on a platform where they would sell easily, but then you realize that most of your income is being controlled by that platform. At that point, even without them making any moves, you'll feel very uneasy...
That's why The reason some production companies became part of the Will Group, while others sought to find or even establish their own platforms, is that Fanza was too powerful—so powerful that everyone both loved and hated it. They loved it because uploading their films meant more sales, and with the industry not fully recovered and the inability to leverage actresses' charm to collaborate with shops for sales, they were indispensable. However, the problem was that this meant handing over their life-or-death power. It's like running a business in a prime location with a landlord who might raise the rent at any time; if the rent does go up, you'll starve because your profits are wiped out, or even if it doesn't, it'll still scare you to death.
Therefore, Prestige chose to leave, but the question is, can they leave forever? What if their sales on other platforms can't compensate for the losses from leaving Fanza? As for why the AVer platform was shut down after only six months? Judging from the direction of KMP Group's productions, it seems the higher-ups chose to "join," rendering its existence unnecessary…
No matter the industry, a monopoly is never a good thing, but it's impossible for a force in the AV industry to emerge that can rival Fanza. So let's see how the production companies will survive.
