Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Tidal Business Review
Over the past year, live streaming has still captured our valuable attention, and when this technology-dependent nascent thing is combined with business, everyone is marveling at the economic energy it unleashes. Some people rely on it to get rich, some people rely on it to turn over, and some people are dragged into the abyss by its gorgeous illusion.
The fierce collision has run through the past year, and at the new origin, everyone involved in it, after the ups and downs of the live broadcasting industry, is looking forward to a more desirable reshaping.
And when we set our sights on the subtle participants in this "feast", their few jokes or complaints may give the best annotation to this change.
"Before I was still addicted to watching live broadcasts, I always felt that many celebrities should be cheaper in the live broadcast room, but with the baptism of this year, I really think that a lot of them are also IQ taxes, and my attitude towards live broadcasting now is as a pastime, and there is nothing to spend some time"--Xiao Zhang (typical small-town youth) said.
"My mother loves to watch short videos when she is free, especially those touching short videos, as soon as she sees people selling goods, she must support it, and now the house is almost full" - Selina (standard white-collar workers in the new first-tier cities) "spit" her 50-year-old mother opened the conversation box.
"Also cooperate with big bloggers, some of the effect is good, some of the effect is really bad, the key is a little wind and grass, for a small brand like us is to move the whole body." This year, I plan to spend more energy on doing the brand's own live broadcast room, and by the way, explore some offline channels, otherwise the sense of security and return rate are too low," kevin (a small business owner of an online consumer brand) said helplessly.
01, when a brand is "magnified" by kindness
In July 2021, Henan suffered a once-in-a-millennium heavy rainstorm, causing serious disasters in many places, and the domestic sports brand Hongxing Erke immediately donated 50 million yuan to the Disaster Area in Henan to help the disaster area. On the other hand, while donating huge sums of money, Hongxing Erke's own life is not good. According to reports, since its listing in 2005, Hongxing Erke seems to be getting farther and farther away from head sports companies. According to the list of the top 100 private enterprises in Fujian Province in 2020, as of October 2020, Hongxing Erke ranked 82nd with an operating income of 2.84334 billion yuan. This is a big gap with Li Ning's 14.457 billion (2020 data), ANTA's 35.51 billion (2020 data) and other related brands.
While trying to save his own survival, while generously reaching out to help, Hongxing Erke's low-key and kind behavior eventually detonated the "sympathy" of the whole network, which in turn triggered the "overwhelming" pursuit of Hongxing Erke online and offline.
Photo/ Hongxing Erke official micro
From the data point of view, from the noon of July 22, Hongxing Erke live broadcast room began to live broadcast, the duration of more than 50 hours, a single live broadcast at least rose by 7.09 million fans, the highest live broadcast at the same time online reached 870,000 people, the cumulative number of viewers reached 148 million, from the data point of view alone, that is to say, every ten Chinese have walked into this live broadcast room.
In terms of GMV data, Hongxing Erke live broadcast sales are at least more than 100 million, and in the whole year of 2020, its sales are only in the early 2 billion.
Although the anchors of Hongxing Erke have repeatedly advised fans to consume rationally and do what they can, this trend of pursuit that you are good to me, I must be a hundred times better for you, is obviously not something that Hongxing Erke can control.
In the live broadcast, there is always a well-designed plot, there is always a guided audience, but Hongxing Erke told us that if you are practicing your own responsibilities, then one day, fans will also give you a simple feeling.
Hongxing Erke's popularity is not a typical live broadcast popularity, but it is a typical heart-for-heart, emotional. In this sense, after years of evolutionary live streaming, it's time to get back to basics.
However, this success of Hongxing Erke can certainly not be replicated.
02, flow, fragile but difficult to give up the soil of cooperation
As the "façade" of fast hands and goods, Simba seems to have more "defiant spirit" than other anchors. On the evening of June 5, 2021, Simba accused Kuaishou of squeezing the anchor in the live broadcast room and restricting the traffic in his live broadcast room. Simba said that his own video and live broadcast were frequently restricted by Kuaishou and needed to "spend money to buy traffic."
According to Simba' own exposure, the live broadcast spent 25 million yuan to buy traffic that night, but the number of viewers after 1 hour was only 800,000. In response, Simba shouted in the live broadcast room: "Where did the 20 or 30 million yuan I spent go?" Why do you want me to pay some attention to my apprentice? ”
According to IT Home, Kuaishou believes that the platform can freely distribute traffic.
In the game between Kuaishou and Simba, traffic is always the focus of attention of both sides. On the one hand, the public domain traffic of the platform is being consumed and absorbed by the head anchors cultivated by itself, and how to achieve commercial benefits from the big anchors has always been something that the platform wants to complete smoothly. On the other hand, after the big anchors have accumulated massive private domain traffic, they are bound to have a stronger resource integration ability, whether it is selection, bargaining or self-control brands, the big anchors want to be of course not controlled in the hands of the platform, but to share the commercial value of the traffic with the platform on an equal footing.
Photo/ Simba official micro
The platform cultivates the anchor and the anchor gives back to the platform, which seems to be a benign interaction, and it is not a one-time thing before the two sides reach a unified traffic distribution. Among them, friction and confrontation are indispensable. Just like Simba and Kuaishou, as a big anchor cultivated by Kuaishou, Simba is well aware of his relationship with the platform Yushui, as the anchors themselves said, "The platform has passed the stage of needing a large anchor with a 40 million fan volume to support the façade in the early days, and the platform that returns to rationality may need ten waist anchors with a volume of four million fans." ”
Just like Simba's encounter, his own volume has been so large that the whole network is pursuing, and his MCN still has to pay fees to the platform when they divert traffic to each other, which undoubtedly makes anchors like Simba feel embarrassed. The platform attitude revealed in this seems to say: "Even if you have private domain traffic, under the realistic rule that the platform is king, the anchor is still a relatively weak existence." ”
In any case, the platform and anchor that used to be supported together are reappearing in the public eye frequently in a relationship that has been alienated by traffic, and while scolding and confronting each other, when the two sides give each other color, they are still saying that they will not choose to separate, and this painful and happy cooperative relationship is built on the most fragile cooperation soil of traffic, which is inevitably too painful for both sides.
Looking forward to 2022, [Tide Business Review] believes that the platform and rules are of course indispensable, and how big anchors can achieve a win-win situation under the platform rules and strategies is both wisdom and courage.
03, this "cake", who should eat the biggest bite?
During the Singles' Day in 2021, head anchors Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya clashed with beauty brand L'Oréal.
Before the promotion, L'Oréal had cooperated with Li Jiaqi via a certain mask promotion, which was declared by both sides as the "biggest effort of the year", but during the Double Eleven period, L'Oréal Tmall official store released tens of thousands of coupons, resulting in the final transaction price of this mask being much lower than the pre-sale price of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room. As a result, a large number of complaints from netizens have been triggered.
Moreover, when L'Oréal customer service faced complaints, it also strongly stated that the commitment of the head anchor had no binding effect on it, and everything was subject to the activities in the official live broadcast room. As soon as this lack of recognition of the manufacturer's remarks came out, it completely detonated the network public opinion.
Photo/ L'Oréal Official
Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, two anchors with goods, took the lead in speaking out on the evening of November 17, asking L'Oréal Paris to give a reasonable solution within 24 hours, and said that before the matter was properly resolved, the anchor's live broadcast room suspended all cooperation with the official flagship store of L'Oréal Paris.
From the official caliber, this time L'Oréal disregarded the agreement with the head anchor, issued a large number of coupons without authorization, and indeed had the need to complete the performance, but it was obviously very inappropriate to complete the reaction of the fans of the head anchor and insist on going its own way.
On the other hand, this time, Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya chose to stand together rarely and jointly ask L'Oréal to give a solution, showing the right to speak between the high-quality channel represented by the head anchor and the original product. Whether the channel is king or the product is king, in the business environment where traffic is dominant, all parties need to re-examine their own bottom cards and strength.
The voice of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya is also seen as a tough market education for foreign brands by domestic channels, and foreign brands have always established the integrity and high quality of the flaunting, which needs to be shown to the majority of fans and consumers with real practice. Instead of a duplicitous sales attitude in China' muddy waters. From this point of view, the tough response of the head anchor represents not only the negotiation requirements derived from their own strength, but also the commercial respect and basic demands that foreign brands be treated equally.
Photo/ Via's official micro
However, as a product side, L'Oréal, in this conflict event, is also trying to use the product channels under its control to compete with the head anchor, as a beauty brand whose sales have surged in recent years, the sales situation subject to the channel must not be allowed to exist in its own marketing system. Instead of sitting still, it is better to hit the nail on the head, which led L'Oréal to take risks and even hitch a "word of mouth" during the Double Eleven period.
However, from a certain point of view, this is more like a signal that the brand side is no longer sitting still in this "war" between live broadcasts, but actively fighting for the initiative.
This kind of competition is not necessarily a bad thing, in a business society where the system is running at high speed, there cannot and should not be only one business form. Department stores, specialty stores or commissaries, no one can be less, and the "live broadcast room" is of course the same.
04, can not chase the "praise", can not hide the "spit"
On December 20, 2021, the Inspection Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau in Zhejiang Province found that network anchor Huang Wei (i.e. Wei Ya) evaded taxes of 643 million yuan and underpaid taxes by 0.6 billion yuan and imposed a penalty of 1.341 billion yuan between 2019 and 2020 by concealing personal income, fictitious business to change the nature of income, and false declarations.
In the live broadcasting industry, Via is almost a "god" existence. Countless fans have been squatting in Via's live broadcast room to watch her bring goods as a guide and pastime for consumer life. Along the way, Via has also gone through ups and downs, kept the clouds open, and has been working hard to convey positive energy to fans.
However, for the live broadcasting industry, the emerging and lack of industry norms has given anchors and institutions an opportunity. In particular, the head anchor has taken advantage of loopholes in the rules to evade taxes and evade taxes in an endless stream, which has both the fluke psychology of not being responsible for the law and the gambler psychology of desperately taking risks in the face of huge incomes.
Weya should know that since they have chosen a job such as live broadcasting that needs to appear in the long-term spotlight, they should do a good job of accepting the public's almost harsh scrutiny standards, after all, from the perspective of return on investment, the high-income part of Internet celebrities and celebrities should include the side overflow effect brought about by the dissemination of commercial products as a public figure.
Unfortunately, the demands of the head anchors for themselves are obviously far from the public's expectations, and when Sydney and her sisters' tax evasion is exposed, all the anchors still have a chance to make up for their mistakes, but when the strict order to pay the tax still does not touch the hearts of the Via, a more severe punishment is imperative.
Live broadcast chaos is the original sin that accompanies the arrival of this industry, too easy to get praise and too easy to get spit in this nascent industry, but praise always has the opportunity to keep fighting, but once the spit falls on the body, the anchors who rely on continuous exposure for a living have lost the possibility of turning over.
Is the road to influencer a shortcut to fame? Judging from the Via incident, walking right is what any industry and individual need to remind themselves all the time, traffic is not the source of all evil, people's hearts are.
Conclusion: Please answer @2022
At this moment, the author opened his mobile phone, and the "shouting and selling" of one live broadcast room after another was still in full swing, but the changes seemed to be quietly happening in this "new era of live broadcasting" in 2022.
The live streaming industry needs a hundred flowers to bloom. Many major events in 2021 are confirming one thing, there are some "contradictions" in the live broadcasting industry that need to be solved urgently, and diversification must be the trend of the times. Just as "department stores", "specialty stores" and "small supermarkets" in traditional channels can coexist harmoniously in their respective commercial forms, the same is true for live broadcasting. And the presentation form of live broadcasting can also be more diverse, that kind of "dramatic shouting and snapping" has almost numbed consumers, and "telling the story" can also bring high sales. Believe it or not, the "small supermarket" next door to the "old" child star Hao Shaowen is running well.
Picture/TikTok screenshot
Live streaming is still important as a channel for brand exposure and sales. The emergence of new things is always inevitable "stormy", no matter how much criticism, we must admit that live broadcasting as a channel for brand exposure and sales, its position is becoming more and more important. After all, marketing is ultimately the attention economy, and the ultimate transmission of value needs to deliver products, and the above, the live broadcasting industry has become more and more mature after several years of development. However, for brand operators, the dividend period of online channels will be exhausted, and the coordinated development of online and offline is the preferred choice for the long-term development of brands. After all, the "sense of experience" advantage of offline channels is incomparable online.
The live streaming industry needs rules. At the end of the year, all kinds of explosive news about the live broadcasting industry are sending a signal: the disorderly development of the live broadcasting industry needs to be curbed, and the rules need to be regulated. From "false propaganda" to "tax evasion and tax evasion", these operations that exploit legal loopholes will be punished. But from another point of view, isn't this exactly the sign that the live broadcasting industry is recognized and accepted by the public?
In a few days, we will usher in the Lunar New Year, and the New Year goods in the major live broadcast rooms are also selling hotly, whether you look at it or not, buy or not, it is there.
No matter where the live broadcasting industry goes, in the final analysis, it is to make consumers "pay", and those consumers are you who are reading articles one by one.
Business is like that.