Page 66 - #62 eng e-mag

c Opinion

Story/ Yiping
Baristas

and the Fan

Economy

A s the specialty coffee industry started to take off globally around the bor-
derline of the two centuries, barista as a job title has also started to move
away from the traditional sense of a general hospitality role. Nowadays,
especially for people who are aware of the specialty coffee development, the
image of a barista is someone who is highly skilled and knowledgable in coffee, while
also interesting as a person. Customers admire baristas who devote their career in the
thing where their passion lies, baristas as such represent many people’s idea of pursu-
ing and realising a pure dream in life. They see the youthful fearless courage in baristas,
especially when their ambition does not only require a relatively high opportunity cost
comparing with most regular office jobs (less basic salary, less steady career path, etc.),
but also is not based on fame nor money. They are passionate, they are focused, they
are not mainstream and they are humble.
Idol Who?

To some extent, baristas, especially gained an increasing attention for its
those who are in the specialty coffee circle, recognisable ability to profit. One reason
are already seen as idols for many custom- for the rapid growth of fan economy is
ers. The modern understanding of an idol the change of how information is ex-
has primarily come from the entertain- changed. Comparing with two or three
ment industry but stretching way beyond. decades ago, nowadays, not only idols
An idol does not just represent the widely can reach a much wider range of people,
celebrated star him/herself, the existence but also fans can express their opinions
of an idol, as part of the economic activity, more effectively and efficiently on vari-
is to form a specific type of consumer ous social media platforms. On 6th De-
relationship thus to generate revenue. In cember 2017, Chinese superstar Lu Han
recent years, fan economy, which is based became number one on the “Top 100
on this type of consumer relationship, has Most Valuable Star” list published by

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