Mr. Zhang believed in MCN institutions

You can grasp everything big and small in the venture capital circle

Tencent Venture | ID：qqchuangye

"Signing with MCN is not the best way out."

The source of this article is "AI Finance and Economics" (ID: aicjnews), which is reprinted by Tencent Venture with permission.

Author/Author of "Finance and Economics" Weekly Wei Yining

Editor/You Yong

On the evening of January 22, Douyin's new Internet celebrity "Classmate Zhang" broadcast live for the first time, and only 3 minutes after the start of the broadcast, 100,000 people poured into the live broadcast room. The live broadcast lasted for 1 hour and 35 minutes, and public data showed that 266,000 people watched at the peak at the same time, and Zhang's classmates rose to 55,700 fans.

During the live broadcast, Mr. Zhang responded to the signing and carrying of goods discussed by netizens before. Previously, some netizens questioned that the signing fee of Zhang students reached 5 million yuan. Zhang responded that MCN (similar to an internet celebrity brokerage company) offered him more than 5 million yuan in signing fees, and some companies offered 20 million yuan, but he refused, because he did not want to be bound and wanted to be casual.

For bringing goods, Zhang said that he only "received some advertisements for life", but he would not bring goods for the time being. At present, Mr. Zhang has cooperated with three brands of MYbank, OPPO and UnionPay, and the single advertising offer has reached 300,000 yuan.

1

Opened his own company, the trademark has been preemptively registered

After Zhang Kai (real name Zhang Kai) became popular on the Internet, people from all walks of life poured into Songshu Village, Jianyi Town, Dashiqiao City, Liaoning Province, which is The hometown of Zhang Classmate and the scene of his video shooting. In just over three months, his Douyin fans have reached 18.88 million.

Classmate Zhang, who mastered the traffic password, also became someone else's traffic password. A steady stream of people came to the door, in addition to the media, more businessmen who wanted to cooperate.

But these people who took the initiative to come to the door were rejected by him. "When 10 million is placed in front of your eyes, your eyes are also red, I myself am from the countryside, there is no money." But I know how to take this money, and when every penny is in my pocket, I can be worthy of my conscience. Zhang said in the live broadcast on January 22.

This is not the first time that Mr. Zhang has rejected the olive branch thrown by the capital. In December 2021, Zhang revealed in an interview with the media that some companies noticed his huge potential and bid 5 million yuan to buy the operation rights of his account, but he also refused, for reasons similar to this time: he did not want the company to restrict his own operations, lose part of his autonomy, and cause his video to "change flavor".

Zhang, who rejected the MCN institution, chose to open his own company.

In the "Tianyancha" App, it was found that on December 10, 2021, Liaoning Zhang Xuexue Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 5 million yuan, the registration authority is the Dashiqiao Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, and the registered address Jianyi Town Pine Village is Zhang's hometown, the corporate legal person and the actual controller is named Zhang Kexue, and Zhang Kai (Zhang Himself) holds the position of manager.

Zhang also said in the live broadcast that he did not know how to set up a company, and someone suggested that he set up an agricultural company, so he asked his father to find someone to set up a company. The business scope of Zhang's company is mainly related to agricultural products, and he also mentioned that the follow-up will help farmers in need to sell local specialties.

It's not uncommon for influencers to open their own companies. Because of the distribution of benefits and the limited value provided by MCN agencies, more and more influencers are starting to operate independently, rather than turning to MCN agencies.

In addition to signing contracts and advertisements, the trademark related to "Classmate Zhang" was also preemptively registered. In December 2021, according to the information queried on the official website of the State Trademark Office, the trademark name of "Classmate Zhang" was registered 8 times, and the application categories involved food, wine and beverages and agriculture, etc., with a total of four applicants, and even self-employed, but basically not directly related to Mr. Zhang himself.

2

3 months rose 18 million fans, was invited to the New Year's Eve party

Classmate Zhang's explosion came a little suddenly.

He is a typical northeastern rural man who grew up in Yingkou, Liaoning. Before becoming a "top stream of earthy Internet celebrities", Zhang's life experience was full of ups and downs, as a rural child, he dropped out of school early, and even nine years of compulsory education were not completed, so he ran a long distance with his uncle who drove a truck. In 2008, he had a little savings, got married, tried to open a car repair shop, but did not expect to suffer a series of car accidents, poor management and other blows, the factory closed, he also spent the poorest period of time, even a box of cigarettes can not afford to buy.

Bankrupt Zhang returned to his hometown, began to raise chickens, at first due to lack of experience, raised a lot of chickens, in the process of constantly honing breeding technology, Zhang began to brush short videos, self-taught short video shooting, editing skills. He watched Stephen Chow's movie, and later watched Li Ziqi's pastoral life video, and began to think about how to set the camera and select the material.

After learning to shoot short videos, Zhang took some short video account operation orders and tried to open an account with others, but in the end the partners decided not to do it, so he chose to go it alone.

On October 4, 2021, the Douyin account "Classmate Zhang" released the first video. In his video, he records the daily life of the rural calendar, such as getting up, cooking, raising chickens, feeding cats and dogs, catching up with the market, etc. Although the content is bland, the technique of each video of Zhang is very professional, and the video with a total length of nearly 8 minutes can contain 190 sub-shots.

His video was evaluated by netizens as "violent life", never taking it lightly, throwing pots and pans around, and having a super sense of rhythm in casual movements. This rough lifestyle makes many people look refreshed and decompressed.

Initially, Mr. Zhang's goal was to increase his fans by 1 million in two months, but the results far exceeded his expectations. In just over three months, his Douyin fans have risen from 0 to more than 18 million.

On New Year's Day 2022, Zhang was even invited to attend the New Year's Eve party of Beijing Satellite TV. However, he did not perform as fans expected. In the program, he and Ni Ping, Li Luxiu and other guests on the same stage to perform "Come to Beijing Station New Year's Eve", after Li Luxiu issued an invitation, the camera changed, Zhang rode a shared bicycle to the program site, all the way with photographic tools to shoot, just like he usually made a video in a sample color.

In addition to this New Year's Eve party, Mr. Zhang has received an invitation from Liaoning Satellite TV, and he will become a guest of Liaoning Satellite TV's Spring Festival Gala.

However, after becoming popular, Zhang was also named twice by the fire department and the traffic police because of some of the actions in the video: his plug board has turned black, there is a risk of fire and electric shock, and there are certain safety risks such as three-wheeled vehicles and riding motorcycles without helmets.

However, these well-intentioned reminders have brought him greater dissemination, and the local fire department even personally went to Zhang Xuexue and cooperated with him to shoot a video fire safety video.

In addition, there is no small controversy about whether there is a team behind him and whether the single person is real. "The dirty scene in the video is just an expression of the paragraph, the bachelor is a person, in fact, he is already married, and has both children and children." Zhang said that he also did not have a team, and all the belongings used in the shooting were a mobile phone and two brackets.

3

Contracting agencies are not the best choice

Behind Zhang's refusal of the huge signing fee, it also reflects the embarrassment of MCN institutions at the moment.

Those anchors who have not yet become popular, want to rely on the power of the institution is a good choice. However, Zhang quickly became popular in a short period of time, and the incubation effect on MCN was very small, and signing a contract was a constraint.

Such cases have happened many times in the Internet celebrity circle. For example, the food up master "Xiangxiang Battle", which has 6 million fans on the B station and 20 million fans on the whole network, has a dispute with mcN's "shock culture". According to his own account, the two- or three-page contract was full of binding demands, but Shock Culture never fulfilled any obligations, did not pay him five insurances and one gold, and asked him to promote the accounts of other influencers under the company.

In the case of fruitless negotiations, Xiangxiang tried to negotiate with the company, but was turned away by the company, because the contract stipulated that the "Xiangxiang Battle" IP belonged to the company, so the company froze his accounts on various platforms. Afterwards, Xiangxiang reopened accounts on other platforms, but the number of fans fell sharply.

In 2021, Li Ziqi and the brokerage company behind it were in court, and Li Ziqi's account was suspended for several months. Behind the account ownership and interest distribution, discourse rights and other issues involved, have surfaced. Even what role Wei Nian played in the process of Plum Ziqi becoming popular has also been discussed by the outside world.

For the start-up influencers, MCN is a boost, which can make internet celebrities more focused on content production, but the experience of countless Internet celebrities has proved that signing an MCN company is not necessarily the best way out.

Whether it is the head of the internet red Li Ziqi, or the waist internet red Xiangxiang, the internet celebrities are weak in the face of MCN company: the company has a legal team, and the internet celebrity is only an individual, it is often difficult to understand the legal terms when signing the contract, once the contract is signed that is unfavorable to the internet celebrity, it will bury a string of "thunder", the internet celebrity may lack the right to speak in the subsequent product development, and even lose control of the account, and modifying the contract, prosecution and other rights protection methods are extremely difficult for the internet celebrity, regardless of the negotiation or prosecution result, For influencers who rely on continuous updates to get traffic, a few months of suspension is an irreparable loss.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this that Mr. Zhang chose to circumvent the contract invitation of MCN institutions and adopted the way of opening his own company.

However, for most Internet celebrities, the monetization channels are mainly fan tips, advertising and goods, fan tips are not stable, the real stable income, or rely on advertising and goods to achieve. And Zhang has received the advertisement, has not yet brought goods, if you want to bring goods in the future, it is also a new test for him.

END

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