Produced by Radar Finance and | Zhang Kaijing, editor| deep sea
It has been a month since Via "disappeared" from the whole network.
On December 20, 2021, the Inspection Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau in Zhejiang Province made a decision to pursue taxes, collect late fees and impose a total penalty of 1.341 billion yuan on Weiya, followed by the closure of Weiya's full-platform account, and the Weiya Beauty Festival, which was scheduled to start that night, was suddenly extinguished.
Since then, Via has not appeared in public. Along with Via's disappearance, there was also the flow of blessings on her body.
Before being banned, Via had just completed the feat of 8.252 billion yuan in the 14 and a half hours of the opening day of the Double Eleven pre-sale, and Taobao data showed that the cumulative number of viewers in Via's live broadcast room reached 239 million during the period. However, in the past month, from the data point of view, whether it is Li Jiaqi, or other anchors under Qianxun, or even some brands self-broadcasting, it is difficult to achieve the replacement of Wei Ya.
However, there are also views that Via's withdrawal from the network is not so influential, "just to give practitioners a clear signal: to be formal." "And no booming industry is going to be devastated by the fall of one or two people." However, the era of super head anchors seems to be fading away.
Where did Via's traffic go?
Wei Ya is banned by the whole network, and one of the most concerned topics in the outside world is, who will pick up the vacated traffic? After all, before accepting the sky-high fine, Wei Ya still has a super head anchor known as "Taobao First Sister" and "Queen of Goods", only in the Taobao live broadcast room, Wei Ya has nearly 90 million fans, and the number of fans on the whole network exceeded 120 million in May 2021.
However, the replacement of traffic is not a simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division relationship, which can be directly reflected in the current situation of the live e-commerce industry in the past month.
At first, Li Jiaqi was the one who was most optimistic about undertaking traffic. On the night that Wei Ya was blocked, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room ushered in more than 38 million audience traffic, and the next day's snack festival, the number of viewers in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room was once close to 50 million.
Netizens flocked to remind Li Jiaqi to "pay taxes according to law", but also did not forget to snap up, the live broadcast room goods were sold out repeatedly, so that some fans complained on the social platform: "Can you grab something in the li jiaqi live broadcast room in the future?" ”
But similar fears quickly dissipated over time. The data shows that two days after Wei Ya was blocked, the number of viewers in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room has slipped to more than 20 million, and a week later, the number has dropped below 15 million, returning to the normal level of Li Jiaqi's previous traffic.
In the eyes of many industry insiders, this phenomenon is not difficult to understand. Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya have certain differences in personality, personality and category of live broadcasts, which directly leads to the difference in the audience of the two. The likelihood of two people's fans converting into each other is not high.
Taking the goods category as an example, Li Jiaqi is mainly based on beauty and skin care products, and Wei Ya is known as "Doraevia", and the selection of live broadcast rooms is extremely complicated, from the car rocket to the chai rice oil and salt, all-encompassing, more comprehensive than Li Jiaqi.
"I don't know what to buy without Via's New Year's Festival." Recently, some netizens posted in the Little Red Book sighing, which said, "Although I also like Li Jiaqi, but his choice is not what I need, after Via fell, I want to find a cheaper daily necessities and snacks McDonald's KFC coupons and so on, just the anchor who chose my heart is gone." ”
In addition to Li Jiaqi, the Humble Search MCN behind Wei Ya is also the focus of external attention, the official website shows that Qian Xun is the new content e-commerce live broadcasting agency TOP1, in addition to Wei Ya, there are more than 50 anchors including Lin Yilun, Li Jing, Li Xiang, Chu Fei Churan Twins, Miss Koala Second, etc.
Dong Haifeng, the actual controller of Qianxun and Wei ya's husband, once said in an interview, "Wait until the day, if Wei Ya does not broadcast, Qian xun is still a sustainable development enterprise."
According to the data of the Diantao App, Radar Finance found that the traffic of these anchors has indeed changed.
For example, in the 12 live broadcasts of Lin Yilun from December 1 to December 20, the number of people in the live broadcast room was as low as 3.657 million, the highest was 7.438 million, and the average number of people per session was 4.755 million; in the 12 live broadcasts after December 20, the number of people in the live broadcast room was the lowest 4.418 million, the highest number was 13.036 million, and the average number of people per session was 7.641 million. The average number of people is more than 60% higher than before.
The same phenomenon also happened to Chu Fei Chu Ran Twins and Miss Koala II. The former averaged 154,000 people per live in the 18 live broadcasts before December and 20 days later, and 271,000 in the 18 live broadcasts after the 20 days; the latter averaged 491,000 people per live in the 18 live broadcasts before the 20th, and the average number of people per session in the 18 live broadcasts after the 20th was 1.114 million, respectively, an increase of 76% and 127% over the previous one.
In fact, in addition to the Humble MCN, the traffic of other mid-waist anchors on Taobao has also increased. For example, Lie'er Baby, who has nearly 20 million fans, has opened up a foodie special and a cat super special in addition to the clothing categories that were previously good at after the Via incident, and the highest number of viewers in its live broadcast room has reached 14.61 million.
Another brand side said that the number of viewers in the self-broadcast room after Via was blocked increased by about 70%, and the number of visitors tripled.
However, there is still a significant gap between these flows and whether it is compared with the former Wei Ya or the current Li Jiaqi.
Radar Finance understands that there is currently a consensus in the industry that the sudden incident of the head anchor falling does not mean that other anchors have absolute opportunities. Although the number of orders received by mid-waist anchors and brands may indeed rise, the process is more of a slow digestion and gradual progression, and it is difficult for any of the absolute sales of any company to soar.
The small and medium-sized brands that cooperate with Via have been greatly impacted
Compared with the anchors who were "inclusive" by the redistribution of traffic after Via's withdrawal from the network, the impact of a number of small and medium-sized brands is obviously more serious.
After the rise of the live e-commerce track, WeiYa's live broadcast room has become one of the important channels for the online promotion of consumer goods brands. Big promotion to earn exposure, new products to expand the market, explosive sales... In order to break into the live broadcast room of the super head anchor, the brand side even sacrificed product profits, and the company has written the number of live broadcast rooms of Shangwei Ya and Li Jiaqi into the KPI of the head of the marketing department.
The abrupt end of cooperation with Via has brought great pressure to the inventory digestion of these brands.
Condiment brand "Loose Fresh" is one of them. It is understood that Yi Zihan, the founder of Songxian Fresh, chose Sydney for cooperation at the beginning, but because the product was arranged late at night and the sales effect was not good, the cooperation between the two sides could not be carried out smoothly. Eating Yi Zihan, who was long and wise, he then aimed his eyes at Wei Ya.
After much effort, Yi Zihan finally established a cooperative relationship with Wei Ya, for which she also needed to give the lowest price on the whole network, and paid a pit fee of 50,000 yuan and a 20% sales commission in each live broadcast. But even so, Yi Zihan also believes that this is a good deal, in order to promote the brand.
The stable sales achieved by cooperating with Wei Ya for seven consecutive times have injected a shot of cardiotonic agent into Yi Zihan. According to the original plan, Song Xianxian will step into Weiya's live broadcast room for the eighth time on December 20, and the team has prepared millions of goods a week in advance, but Weiya was suddenly blocked and Yi Zihan had to quickly start emergency measures.
"Please help me!" Via suddenly can't play! 120,000 bottles backlog warehouse! Today's loss clearance", there are reports that this article issued by Yi Zihan's own WeChat public account makes Song Xianxian the first brand in the enterprises that Weiya cooperates with to publicly ask for help. However, at present this article has been deleted by the author.
Yi Zihan's rescue finally received a significant effect, after the circle of friends forwarded and spread, the article read volume quickly reached 10W+, and the inventory of 120,000 bottles of goods was also cleared in the early morning of the 22nd. But the story that happened to Yi Zihan is not universal.
Another founder who focuses on FMCG said that in 2021, Via Live will account for 15% of the company's sales, and he and Via have maintained a stable cooperation. For this New Year's Festival, the company's warehouse prepared 8 million inventory, And Via was sealed, making the digestion of inventory a top priority for the company at the moment. The founder believes that even if a small and medium-sized anchor can be found to bring goods, it will not be able to give a reputation comparable to Via, let alone make money.
There are also many brands that are still looking forward to the turnaround of the Via incident, and they hope that there will be opportunities to cooperate with Via and Qianxun in the future.
In addition to the brand side, Wei Ya's punishment has also brought a lot of shock to the live broadcast circle. After he was dealt with for tax evasion, the tax departments of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places issued notices requiring star artists and network anchors to check and make up taxes as soon as possible.
Under the tide of tax reimbursement, the development route of some live broadcasting companies has even changed because of this. It is reported that a super head clothing master has been getting lower prices through her own group of goods, but now the supply chain is too heavy, pressure on funds, high taxes and other reasons so that she began to give up her own group goods and develop towards brand cooperation.
The person in charge of the live broadcast agency operation company revealed that some anchors are trying to reduce the amount of tax payment. "One of the anchors I know is now reducing taxes by reducing the percentage of commissions after paying up 3 million in taxes. For example, in the past, the beauty category was 40% commission, and now it is 30%. ”
The next Via may not appear
Via's suspension is a landmark event, which has made many people in the industry start to think about whether the super head anchor is really so indispensable.
Although li jiaqi and Wei ya's total sales of more than 18 billion yuan on the 2021 double 11 pre-sale day are eye-popping, according to Ali's financial report and the "2020 Live E-commerce Industry White Paper", the GMV of Taobao Live broadcasting in 2020 is 430 billion yuan, while the GMV of Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi for the whole year is 20.208 billion yuan and 12.922 billion yuan, respectively, accounting for less than 8% of the total GMV.
Previously, a set of data revealed at the Alibaba Investor Conference also showed that merchant self-broadcasting has accounted for about 60% of Taobao Live GMV. In the past year, the cumulative number of users is 60 million, and the annual ARPU of live broadcasting is +30%.
Some people believe that compared with the anchor, the brand has core advantages in products, brand power, supply chain, channels and other links, so the impact of the fall of a super head anchor on the platform is not serious, and even for the platform is still a good thing. "If Taobao traffic is no longer aggregated and the anchor's ability to suppress prices declines, won't merchants and brands have to be kidnapped by the 'lowest price' all the time?"
In fact, the L'Oréal incident not long ago has made the competition for price dominance between big anchors and brands public.
On the one hand, in order to enter the live broadcast room, the brand needs to pay the pit fee and commission, so as to continuously squeeze its own profits, and too much discount is obviously unfavorable to brands such as L'Oréal, which will reduce the tone of the brand; on the other hand, long-term cooperation with the head anchor will also make the brand have path dependence, and users who are accustomed to placing orders in the anchor live broadcast room are difficult to convert into fans of the brand itself.
For this, the current platform is also deliberately guiding the live broadcast ecology to change in the direction of decentralization.
Taobao Live's recently released 2022 annual incentive plan proposes that Taobao will increase the support of Taobao traffic for live broadcasting from the product level. More resources have been opened to live broadcasting services in the centralized test of Tao. Provide a series of traffic support policies for mid-waist and new talents to help them grow. The emerging platform, Douyin Kuaishou, has also issued new regulations, which are intended to strengthen the self-broadcast ability of merchants, support mid-waist anchors, and form a traffic grassland instead of a traffic forest for the head.
According to other data, from January 1 to 9, the number of UV (unique visitors) broadcast by Tmall flagship stores increased by 121% month-on-month.
The person in charge of a brand store broadcast team revealed that the platform will give corresponding traffic support after comprehensive stay time and conversion rate. "The number of viewers and visitors to the traffic has improved significantly. It is difficult to judge that it is directly related to the Via incident. However, the support and increase performance this time are indeed higher than in the past. ”
What's more, under the current circumstances, it is difficult to give birth to the next Via.
From a historical point of view, the development process of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya not only stepped on the rising period of Taobao live broadcasting, but also had a huge traffic tilt and support, but also coincided with the outbreak of the live streaming industry under the influence of the epidemic.
But today is different from the past, at present, the regulatory authorities are tightening the "reins" of regulating the Internet celebrity economy such as live broadcasting, and standardization has become the priority criterion for moving forward in the track, and creating a long-tail diversified live broadcast ecology is the first priority of platform development.
The story of the platform relying on the head super anchor to hit the world may have quietly come to an end.
Note: This article is the original of Radar Finance (ID: leidacj). Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.