MCN Founder: Why am I no longer looking forward to cultivating super anchors

From anchor tax inspection to cargo compliance, the live broadcasting industry is experiencing unprecedented shocks.

On December 23, the topic of "Li Jiaqi was named by the Zhejiang Consumer Protection Commission" landed on the first place in the hot search, once again allowing the outside world to focus on the live broadcast industry. Has the live streaming industry been affected, as speculated? In this regard, Li Ming, the founder of an MCN, told the first financial reporter, "For the live broadcast ecology, there is not much impact." ”

However, in Dawn's view, whether it is the head anchor or the Tao system live broadcast ecology that is closely connected with the anchor, there will inevitably be great changes, but he no longer looks forward to cultivating super anchors.

"Whether it is Taobao or Douyin, when carrying goods, the platform automatically deducts taxes in the transaction amount, and most waist anchors are pure commission models, there is no pit fee, so there is usually no tax evasion and tax evasion." If a large anchor sets up a private company, there may be a situation where the merchant directly calls part of the rebate to the anchor's private company to cause tax evasion. In addition, the tax deducted by the platform does not include the pit fee, and the payment of the pit fee requires the anchor to be conscious. Dawn believes that the operating space of the anchor with goods usually lies in the pit fee and the possible brand rebate.

In recent years, with the rise of Douyin e-commerce, many celebrities have gradually brought goods full-time. Celebrity goods are currently very popular with brands, because celebrity goods also involve the use of short-term portrait rights of stars, star models and other gimmicks, which has one more publicity opportunity for brands. "Before there were rumors of thousands of anchors to make up taxes, the industry speculated that most of them may be stars, because the influence of stars is larger, there are pit fees when they bring goods, and the rebates are also higher." Now they all default to industry self-discipline, tax reimbursement or self-examination and self-correction is conducive to the development of the industry, which has a greater positive impact on the industry. Dawn said.

For some small and medium-sized MCNs, current revenues are not as good as in the past. The reason lies in the head anchor effect and the increase in various costs. Li Ming said that the industry's head aggregation effect is more obvious, because the head anchor's goods and conversion is the best, can ensure the conversion, and the conversion results of small and medium-sized institutions can not be guaranteed, so the merchants are scheduled to the head anchor in the case of sufficient budget. Cost growth is another issue, Liming said, "after the platform deducts the point and deducts the tax, the institution divides the account according to the contract with the anchor." After the split, the money received by the institution is again used for operations, including traffic purchases and labor costs. Labor costs include short videos, delivery, account operation, field control, central control and other related staff, because the current traffic costs and labor costs are rising, especially in Hangzhou related labor costs are getting higher and higher, the profits obtained by institutions are also decreasing. "Therefore, many institutions are currently investing by running high GMV, or prefer brand live broadcasting rather than talent live broadcasting, and no longer expect to cultivate super anchors."

Where are the trends in the future of the live streaming industry? Dawn felt that the answer was interest in e-commerce. "Although the head anchor has developed rapidly in the past one or two years, they have no external traffic outside of Taobao, so every time there is a big promotion and activity, they need to buy advertisements on Weibo, offline advertising, elevator advertising and Xiaohongshu and other channels, and also need to send live broadcast previews on the public account to attract consumers." At the same time, Taoshi live broadcast is a search-and-wait type live broadcast form, which has been accumulated for a long time. Therefore, it is impossible to run a third super anchor in the short term. From the perspective of Taobao ecology, the recently launched 'thousand people and thousands of faces' recommendation mechanism is also very good, and it is not necessary to die live. ”

The key to interest in e-commerce is not the super anchor, but the conversion of traffic. "The traffic rules of platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou are different from Taobao, similar to advertising platforms that sell traffic, and the platform prefers brands to buy traffic, and is more inclined to the blossoming of small and medium-sized anchors in content." Interest e-commerce will randomly recommend live broadcast rooms, users are not interested in directly crossed out, the average viewing time will not exceed two minutes, and the explanation of a product will also be 2 to 3 minutes. The platform hopes to cultivate the habit of users watching short videos and placing random orders, rather than staying in a live broadcast room for a long time. Dawn said.

(Dawn is a pseudonym)