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"The internet celebrity economy can't just let traffic be king."
The source of this article is "Finance and Economics Weekly" (ID: cjtxzk), which is reprinted by Tencent Venture with permission.
Author/Zhang Kexin
Editor/Yang Jie
What would you get if you became an influencer?
In 2016, the price of a patch advertisement for Papi sauce that "combines talent and beauty" was auctioned for 22 million yuan.
In 2017, when Meione signed Li Jiaqi, she only said one sentence: "Some Taobao anchors, live broadcast a year to change a good car and a good house, but also bought a new house for their parents, maybe you can too." ”
In 2018, within 6 days after the launch of Li Ziqi's Tmall flagship store, sales exceeded 10 million with only 5 products.
In 2019, Ruhan Holdings, the "first share of net red e-commerce", successfully landed on nasdaq, and Zhang Dayi's wealth soared to nearly 100 million US dollars.
In 2020, Mr. and Mrs. Wei Ya entered the top 500 ranks of China's rich list that year with assets of 9 billion yuan.
With the rapid expansion of the "internet celebrity economy" in recent years, "internet celebrity" seems to have become synonymous with wealth stories. The Internet world has given every ordinary person the opportunity to "become famous overnight", attracting countless people to come forward and pray that the next miracle will fall on their heads. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the scale of users covered by the industry will reach more than 800 million in 2020, and the number of Internet marketing-related practitioners will grow at a rate of 8.8% per month.
Cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou have become the base camps of "Internet celebrities". From content creation to live streaming, Internet marketers are pouring in. The super liquidity of Internet celebrity traffic has even attracted celebrities and entrepreneurs to enter the game and try to get a piece of it.
Full of desire, hot money and huge profits, but the Internet celebrity economy that has been running wild all the way has also stood at a turning point at the beginning of 2022.
As in previous years, in 2021, there will also be a replacement of Internet celebrities with heads as usual. However, this year's changes are different from the past. The punishment for the problem of tax evasion by the head anchor has set off a "tide of tax reimbursement" in the entire live broadcasting industry; star entrepreneurs have entered the game to "bring goods", but they often go high and low; even Li Ziqi will suddenly "disappear" under the game with capital; the ordinary Internet celebrities who are "besieged" by the anchors have triggered the reflection and dissatisfaction of the whole network on "hype traffic".
Looking back at 2021, the Internet is no longer "superstitious" Internet celebrities. In the new year, it will be replaced by the industry's thinking on the "traffic theory"; and the Internet celebrity economy will move towards more standardized management in the process of commercialization and realization.
1
Via, Sydney
Supervise the "stick" to beat the anchor who violates the law
On December 20, countless Internet celebrity anchors spent a sleepless night.
On this day, after Sydney and Lin Shanshan were fined for tax evasion, Wei Ya, the absolute "head anchor" of the live broadcasting industry, was also exposed to have been fined 1.341 billion yuan for tax evasion.
Previously, stars such as Fan Bingbing and Zheng Shuang were fined 884 million yuan and 299 million yuan for tax evasion and evasion, respectively. The amount of money that Wei Ya was fined was huge, equivalent to 1.5 times that of Fan Bingbing and 4.48 times that of Zheng Shuang.
After the news of the punishment was exposed, Via "disappeared" on the Internet. Its personal Weibo accounts, Douyin accounts, as well as Taobao stores and Taobao live broadcast rooms, have been banned by various platforms.
In the afternoon of the same day, Via's company informed the employees of the situation in the work group, asking them to "go home to rest first, during this period the salary will be paid, and the follow-up arrangement company will notify everyone as soon as possible." According to public information, the headquarters building of Weiya Company is located in the Ali Park in Hangzhou and has about 300 employees; in addition, Weiya's team has more than 200 people in Beijing and Guangzhou, with a total of 500-600 people.
At the same time, Wei Ya and her husband, Dong Haifeng, chairman of Qianxun Holdings, both posted apologies on Weibo.
Before Via, in November 2021, Sydney and Lin Shanshan, two Internet celebrity anchors, were fined a total of 90 million yuan for tax evasion. Before that, there was also a Zhengzhou anchor who was on Weibo's hot search because of the news of "6.62 million yuan in tax reimbursement". However, compared with these anchors, Wei Ya, as the head anchor, is obviously more warning to the industry.
A number of experts and scholars in the financial and legal circles believe that the investigation and exposure of Weiya's tax evasion case shows the determination and strength of relevant departments to regulate the online live broadcasting industry. The webcasting industry is by no means an "extralegal place".
The live broadcasting industry is ushering in the "strictest" tax inspection storm. Network anchors have also opened the prelude to the tide of "tax reimbursement".
It is reported that in Hangzhou, a number of live broadcasting operation agencies are working intensively to carry out tax self-examination, and some institutions have urgently hired relevant tax experts. According to Xinhua News Agency statistics, thousands of people have taken the initiative to check and pay taxes. According to reports, some tax officials revealed that there are still some head anchors whose tax evasion problems have not yet been disclosed.
Not long ago, the Consumer Protection Commission of Zhejiang Province announced that during the "Double Eleven Phase", it was found that Li Jiaqi and other anchors with goods had violated the law. On December 28, the Zhejiang Provincial Consumer Protection Commission received rectification reports from five platforms, including Taobao and Douyin, and related anchors. Meijian Company, the operator of Li Jiaqi, also submitted a rectification instruction.
The "rectification" and "self-examination" of various platforms and anchors are still continuing. In 2022, the network anchor industry will also move towards a more standardized development.
2
From Hongxing Erke to Yu Minhong
Can you turn into an "internet celebrity" to drive sales?
The sky-high fines of Wei Ya and Sydney also confirm the "gold mining" ability of Internet celebrity anchors, which can not only suppress the stars in the entertainment industry, but also make many companies envious.
In 2021"Double Eleven", the ability of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya to carry goods has shocked the market. In the 12 and a half hours since the cumulative live broadcast began at 2:30 p.m. on October 20, the cumulative turnover of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya reached 10.7 billion yuan and 8.3 billion yuan respectively. The total turnover of the two is 18 billion yuan, exceeding the total revenue of 90% of A-share listed companies in the past year.
Many entrepreneurs have also begun to "transform" into Internet celebrities, hoping to get a piece of the pie.
At the beginning, Luo Yonghao worked hard to stage the "true return" with live streaming with goods, becoming an "inspirational" legend in the industry. On November 7, 2021, Yu Minhong, who passed his 60th birthday, also appeared in the Douyin live broadcast room as a new identity as a cargo anchor.
After the "double reduction" policy landed, New Oriental also announced that it had contracted its offline business. In the live broadcast room, Yu Minhong further said: 1,500 teaching points were rented, nearly 80,000 sets of desks and chairs were donated to rural children; a large agricultural platform was set up to help sell agricultural products and revitalize rural undertakings through live streaming.
At 8:00 p.m. on December 28, 2021, Yu Minhong landed on Douyin and began his debut live streaming of agricultural products. During the live broadcast, Yu Minhong put 30 products on the shelves in the live broadcast room, and the price ranged from 9.9 yuan to 960 yuan. At the same time, New Oriental officially launched its live streaming platform "Oriental Selection".
In the live broadcast, Yu Minhong, who tasted food for a while and took out A4 paper to explain, was complained that he was doing "eating broadcast" and "class". After this live broadcast, the number of viewers was 1.84 million, the number of people peaked at 33,000, the live broadcast sales were 57,000 pieces, and the live broadcast sales were 4.84 million yuan. In comparison, Luo Yonghao's first live broadcast in April 2020 brought goods, with a total of 48 million viewers, a total of nearly 840,000 orders, and sales of up to 110 million yuan.
Live streaming with goods is not something that can be done well just by relying on Yu Minhong's personal traffic and "lips".
But in any case, Yu Minhong is still much better than Dong Mingzhu's live debut. The latter sold only $225,000 in its first live broadcast, which began in April 2020.
In 2021, Dong Mingzhu hired 22-year-old Meng Yutong as the "secretary of the chairman" and said that he would train him to become the "second Dong Mingzhu", which quickly triggered a hot discussion in public opinion. But after Meng Yutong's name became popular all over the Internet, she still walked into the live broadcast room of Douyin.
On November 3, 2021, Meng Yutong broadcast live in the "Gree Electric Appliance Live Room" with 1.39 million fans, with a single sales of about 620,000 yuan. After that, Gree opened a new account with goods "Pearl Feather Child Selection".
The "second Dong Mingzhu" that Dong Mingzhu wants to cultivate may not be her own successor; but she wants to create a representative new "IP" for Gree on the Internet. However, a month after the establishment of the "Pearl Feather Child Selection" Douyin live broadcast room, its number of fans is still less than 200,000, and the number of daily onlookers is less than 1,000. The goods on the shelves of the window in the live broadcast room range from 109 yuan of Gree electric heaters to 12,000 yuan of Gree Hunter series air purifiers, but the highest sales volume is the ultrasonic humidifier with a price of 139 yuan, showing 1457 sold orders.
In 2021, there have also been two distinctive "net red" brands that have sprung up.
On July 21, 2021, the news of "Hongxing Erke 50 million yuan of materials to aid Henan" was on the top of the Weibo hot search, and one of the hotest comments "I feel that you are about to go out of business, and donate so much", instantly let netizens "break the defense", have said, "both touched and sad". Subsequently, a large number of users poured into Hongxing Erke's Douyin live broadcast room. Feigua data shows that from July 22 to 23, the live broadcast room rose by 8.32 million fans in two days, and the total sales amounted to 110 million yuan.
However, 100 days after Hongxing Erke became popular, the data showed that the number of fans of the "Hongxing Erke brand official flagship" on the Douyin platform was close to 10,000 per day. In addition, the Douyin account of Wu Rongzhao, president of Hongxing Erke, has also lost more than 200,000 fans. At the time of "Double Eleven", the sales performance of Hongxing Erke also opened up a lot of distance from head sports brands such as Li Ning and ANTA.
In November 2021, the domestic brand "Bee Flower" also spread rumors of "facing closure", which also triggered a wave of "wild consumption". Bee flower sacrificed the "cry poor" big move, but also let the brand quickly out of the circle, attracted the attention of countless people, while "supporting" it, while "heartache" orders, the product sold up to 20,000 orders a day.
In the Internet era, the distance between the public and brands and entrepreneurs has been further narrowed. Consumers have actually never hesitated to express their concern and good feelings to enterprises, but "playing iron still needs its own hardness" and "product strength" is the hard power of a company and a brand that can really retain users.
3
Classmate Zhang has come
How long will Li Ziqi be "missing"?
"It was horrible! Capital is really a good means. ”
Li Ziqi, a "top stream" in the Influencer circle with 27.56 million Weibo followers and more than 15 million followers on YouTube, suddenly made the above comment under a Weibo after more than a month of interruption in July 2021. Although this comment was deleted by her seconds, the contradiction between Li Ziqi herself and MCN Company Weinian, with whom she has been deeply cooperating, has been exposed and can no longer be covered up.
As a super IP in the field of short video, Li Ziqi and the "mutual achievements" of mcN company micro-ideas behind him were once a good story in the industry. In 2016, li ziqi's Weibo followers were less than 10,000, but it was already famous. Liu Tongming, the founder of Weinian who specializes in the red economy, saw the pearls, smelled the huge commercial potential of Li Ziqi, and flew to Sichuan to negotiate cooperation with him.
According to Li Ziqi, since September 2016, she has focused on content creation, and Wei Nian is responsible for traffic promotion, and the promotion costs are shared by both parties. In 2017, the two sides jointly established a joint venture company "Sichuan Ziqi Culture", With Weinian and Li Ziqi holding 51% and 49% of the shares respectively, and the company registered a series of "Li Ziqi" trademarks including daily chemical products, convenience foods, kitchen sanitary ware and so on.
In just a few years, Li Ziqi's Weibo fans have grown to more than 27 million, the number of global fans has exceeded 100 million, and its IP business monetization road has been played to the extreme. However, in 2021, Li Ziqi chose to "confront the court" with Wei Nian, putting the conflict of interests between the two under the public.
Obviously, it's a lose-lose game. So far, Li Ziqi's account is still in a state of disconnection, and the movement of short video platforms to create the "next Li Ziqi" is in full swing. From Li Yapeng to Zhang, the labels of "returning to the countryside" and "authenticity of the countryside" have been re-applied to the new Internet celebrities.
Under the consensus of the new media industry, no update means that there is no traffic, and no traffic indicates that there has been a passing time, and the head anchors such as Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi have also expressed that "they dare not idle for a moment, because they are afraid of being left behind." Nowadays, when one substitute after another appears, how long can the IP of "Li Ziqi" bear the cost of "disappearance"?
4
Celebrities who are "under siege"
The "madness" under the traffic wrapped up should be calm
Under the influencer economy, how crazy can anchors be for traffic?
On August 5, 2021, in the final of the women's 10-meter platform at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Quan Hongchan, a 14-year-old Guangdong girl who was the youngest player in the Chinese sports delegation, won the championship with three perfect scores in five jumps, with a total score of 466.20 points. For a time, the family story surrounding the Olympic champion also stirred the nerves of the network anchors.
Since the second day after Quan Hongchan won the championship, some "good thing" anchors began to rush to Quan Hongchan's hometown to broadcast live punch cards. On August 7, 2021, terms such as "Quanhong Chan Jiacheng Internet Celebrity Punch Card Place" appeared on Weibo's hot search, bringing 200 million people to watch and 18,000 people to interact and discuss.
In the following days, the door of Quanhongchan's house has been full of motorcycles, tricycles and cars since early in the morning, and many nearby villagers and Internet celebrities have come to the door of Quanhongchan's home with mobile phones, regardless of whether the owner agrees, opening crazy photo and live broadcast mode, and even some people climbed the wall of Quanhongchan's home to broadcast live. Among them, there are also "rubbing heat" to bring goods to their own live broadcasts.
Because the live broadcast sound was too noisy, Quan Hongchan's elderly grandmother did not rest well for several days in a row, and accidentally fell in the chaos. In order to avoid excessive disturbances and other accidents, Jeon Hongchan's family closed the door, but was reprimanded as "arrogant" by onlookers. In the face of "enthusiastic onlookers", Quan Hongchan's family members could only helplessly say to the camera, "Only then did I know that there were so many relatives in the family."
Under the chaos, the relevant short video platforms also had to intervene to impose illegal penalties or permanent bans on accounts that had violated the rules such as borrowing the marketing of Olympic athletes and rubbing the heat of Olympic athletes.
However, in the eyes of most netizens, "besieging" Quanhongchan's hometown is just another "routine" operation for Internet celebrity anchors on the short video platform. From the previous "ramen brother" in Shandong to the "Sun Haiyang family reunion" at the end of the year, no one really cared whether the noodles of the "ramen brother" were delicious or not, and no one really cared about how complicated Sun Haiyang's mood was at that moment, only the camera that was getting closer and closer, and the "noise" that kept filling the ears of "everyone clicking attention", "we worked hard to like to twenty thousand", and even a lot of unreasonable requests such as suggesting that the parties greeted the camera.
After Brother Ramen became popular, in front of his noodle stalls, various vendors and advertisers flocked to him, and all kinds of snacks, souvenirs and other stalls also emerged, forming a small market. However, the popularity is only five months, and short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have begun to restrict the flow of "Ramen Brother"-related content, and some live broadcast accounts have been banned. Since then, the traffic myth of "Ramen Brother" has "ended".
Rushing to the "rubbing heat", these anchors can not escape the doom of being restricted by the platform. On the Internet, users have also issued various resistance and disgust to this kind of "malicious drainage" phenomenon. On the Internet, the phenomenon of "excessive consumption of traffic" by hot events and characters is also becoming more and more calm.
In the era of mobile Internet, traffic often means profit. Driven by the pursuit of profits, "net reds" on the Internet are also emerging in an endless stream. However, traffic is not the "talisman" of all behaviors, and the "traffic theory" will eventually withdraw.
END
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