Welcome back to idol Weekly. This week, I'm excited to share some information about upcoming projects, relevant updates, and a bit more behind the scenes.
Scaling Up
In the past few months, we've faced challenges directly related to scaling up operations, company structure, and our team. As I've mentioned before, idol has grown rapidly thanks to our incredible fans, which presented us with challenges, some of which were unexpected. To put things into perspective, our core team initially consisted of 5 key members juggling numerous responsibilities—from managing hundreds of freelancers and launching large-scale projects for talents, to running auditions for future generations. Furthermore, we launched our clippers program, managed the community, prepared for the next investment round, undertook significant backend work, and worked around the clock to support our talents work, projects, and well-being in the best possible way.
Recognizing the need for expansion, we've recently welcomed 6 new key team members. This expansion includes key roles such as a Communication Manager, tasked with managing communications and ensuring better transparency with our fans. Moreover, we've implemented a strategic restructuring of our organization. Now, each generation benefits from the dedicated attention of their own Gen Manager, in addition to the support from talent managers. This unique structure ensures that each generation receives focused, prioritized care, addressing their unique needs and challenges.
These changes have positively impacted our operations, satisfaction and efficiency in managing projects and communications. They've enabling us to ensure equal treatment and dedicated support for all generations. This new structure also allows for quicker growth and smoother onboarding for future teams and talents.
I would like to use this moment to extend a warm welcome to all new managers who've recently joined idol. Our team has significantly expanded in the last few months, and our recruitment efforts continue. I also wish to express my gratitude to all managers who've navigated through this challenging period with us.
The present
Now that we've been through all the growing pains, we're excited to refocus on growth for the agency, existing talents, and future talents set to debut. Some major announcements and projects were pushed back, but now we're excited to enter March knowing that from March 2024 up until 2025, we have major announcements and projects almost every month.
We've put a lot of emphasis on how we can better support and grow our talents and create better content. This is why we changed our expense coverage for talents so that they get even more from idol, and so that we can cover exciting and large-scale projects for all talents regardless of their size, and make things more convenient, like for example providing company credit cards for talents. We will be revealing more details about our new expense coverage soon, but we believe it is a game-changer for talents who want to grow and undertake projects but don't have the financial means.
We also have a lot of exciting news when it comes to debut events. In fact, we have more incredible talents waiting to debut than actual affiliated talents. I believe you will find some of the future announcements to be very positively surprising.
Merch Update
We're still working on shipping all merchandise sold prior to February within Q1. We understand how frustrating it must be to wait so long for the delivery of merchandise. There have been a lot of challenges, and I appreciate the patience you all have shown. If you, however, do not wish to wait any longer, we've extended our offer to refund orders. However, once merchandise is shipped to you, we will no longer be able to offer refunds.
From February, Brave is handling our merchandise and will be shipping it from Japan according to the deadlines and timelines presented on the website. We apologize that our first attempt at merchandise has gone through so many difficulties, but we are confident that moving forward, things will go smoothly.
Digital Merch
We also recognize there's still some undelivered digital merch. Since February, merchandise offered in our store is available for instant download, and it will be like that from now on. We are working to solve the issues with the digital merch that hasn't been delivered yet. However, for now, as compensation, we will be refunding all digital merch that wasn't shipped by the end of 2023 while still working to deliver it, so that those who purchased it will get it for free. This refund will take place in the upcoming days automatically.
Thank you for your patience and for supporting idol. We are excited to move forward in a new chapter at idol as we enter March and hope you will look forward to everything we have been preparing.