Edit | Yu Bin
Produced by | Chaoqi Network "Yu see column"
In recent years, Internet celebrities have become almost a flow operation, as long as there is capital to help plug in the wings, anchors with slight potential have the opportunity to emerge and become popular. However, even so, whether the anchor can become famous is still a probability event, and the entire incubation process is tantamount to a gamble.
Therefore, the self-media era, which seems to have equal opportunities for everyone, is also staged every day in the drama of thousands of troops and horses crowding the single wooden bridge. And Hangzhou Wei Nian Brand Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hangzhou Wei Nian) for many years to build a food blogger Li Ziqi, more like a big gamble. Li Ziqi has been popular all over the country in recent years, perhaps with both his own talent and capital.
However, on the video platform, the former Internet top li ziqi (real name: Li Jiajia) has been broken since July 14 last year. The cause of the public opinion was that after 50 days of breaking the change, Li Ziqi posted a message on his social account at the end of August 2021 saying that "a police officer was reported early in the morning" and replied that "capital is really a good means!" Although the reply was deleted in seconds afterwards, the rumors that Li Ziqi and the broker Hangzhou Weinian fell out with each other caused by this were also fermented for a time, and the related topics have continued to this day.
Unwilling to be kidnapped by capital, Li Ziqi confronted Wei Nian in court
According to media reports, Hangzhou Weinian was founded in 2013, and its cooperation with Li Ziqi began in 2016. In July 2017, the two sides jointly established Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Ziqi Culture). With the blessing of Li Ziqi's super IP, Hangzhou Weinian has also repeatedly won the favor of investment, and in July this year, it introduced a new investor, ByteDance. According to media reports, after several rounds of financing, the market valuation of Hangzhou Weinian soared all the way, and even once as high as 5 billion yuan.
According to the Tianyancha APP, Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. is 51% owned by Hangzhou Weian Brand Management Co., Ltd. and 49% owned by Li Jiajia (Li Ziqi). Therefore, this seems to be a dispute of public opinion, but in fact it is a dispute over equity. In addition to Li Ziqi being only a weak woman, who is obviously in a weak and passive position, the equity distribution of the two companies is not dominant.
However, in view of its influence on the whole network, most netizens will spit the spearhead, pointing to Hangzhou Weinian Company, netizens unanimously believe that this is a capital bullying to do the game, exposing the "ugly state" of capitalists whose interests are paramount. The facts and truths behind it have not yet been fully made public. But what is certain is that this is a dispute of interests that Li Jiajia herself is difficult to bear, and it is also a typical case of the distribution mechanism between institutions and individuals under the prevalence of the Internet celebrity incubation model.
And Li Ziqi's encounter after becoming famous has also given the majority of anchor practitioners a wake-up call, in the face of great right and wrong, anchors may only adhere to the bottom line, in order to avoid being squeezed by capital and "used" by behind-the-scenes pushers. Therefore, the two eventually went to court.
On October 25 last year, according to Tianyan's investigation, ziqi culture and Liu Tongming and Hangzhou Weinian related cases were newly filed, the plaintiff in the first instance was Ziqi culture, and the defendant was Hangzhou Weinian and Liu Tongming. At this point, the contradictions between the two sides have been officially made public. It is understood that the Li Ziqi trademark that Hangzhou Weinian Company also applied for was rejected, and the classification involved material processing, catering and accommodation, etc., and since then it has also been rumored that ByteDance has withdrawn.
In addition, on December 29 last year, according to the data of Tianyancha, Hangzhou Weinian added equity freezing information with a frozen amount of 21 million yuan, and the executed enterprise was Guangxi Xingliu Food Co., Ltd., and the enforcement court was the Intermediate People's Court of Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, and the freezing period was from December 29, 2021 to December 28, 2024. Although the reason for the freeze is not yet known, according to industry insiders, it may also be related to the equity dispute.
It is not difficult to see that although the lawsuit has not yet been settled, Hangzhou Weinian has lost public opinion. It is understood that in addition to investing in Sichuan Ziqi, Hangzhou Weinian has also directly set up and invested in related Tmall stores, factories, etc., but Li Ziqi does not hold the equity of Hangzhou Weinian.
A professional lawyer said: "From the perspective of equity structure, Li Ziqi cannot directly obtain profits brought by equity distribution from Tmall stores and factories of the "Li Ziqi" brand. According to media reports, the annual sales scale of the "Li Ziqi" brand in 2020 will reach more than one billion yuan. It can be seen that Li Ziqi's choice of equity dispute with Hangzhou Weinian is related to the interests of Tianda.
The balance of sentiment and business has finally turned to profit
With the rise of the red economy, conflicts between Internet celebrities and MCN institutions have occurred from time to time. The public is more inclined to influence Internet celebrities and eventually be vulnerable in front of institutions. But whether Internet celebrities are operated by capital, or do they stand out by their own strength, and how big is the role of capital in it? It seems to be one that is difficult to quantify, more difficult to measure, so the contradiction between the two sides is also natural.
It is understood that Liu Tongming, the founder of Hangzhou Weinian in the early years, also found Li Ziqi with full sincerity. Initially, Liu Tongming promised that he could help Li Ziqi become famous and bring him greater influence. According to Li Ziqi told the media, at that time, many companies wanted to cooperate with Li Ziqi. But the reason why Li Ziqizi chose Liu Tongming was because she was moved by Liu Tongming's sincere attitude. So the two hit it off and signed the contract in 2016.
Under the operation of Liu Tongming, Li Ziqi's video playback also quickly exceeded 100 million. It is understood that Liu Tongming is very good at using li ziqi's traffic. Many online stores have been opened, including snail powder, rice cakes and a series of food products, with sales of up to 10 million. However, according to netizens, whether it is the official flagship store or the Liuzhou snail powder factory founded by one hand, these are in the hands of Liu Tongming, and li Ziqi's final benefits are only minimal.
Therefore, Li Ziqi, who has been living peacefully with capital, was eventually widely used in the trademarks of major foods because of the IP brand "Li Ziqi" jointly created by the two sides, but in terms of commercial interests, it has nothing to do with itself, and some are indignant. And Li Ziqi, who was once silent, finally couldn't help but speak out to the media, and at the same time sued Hangzhou Weinian, who had cooperated with him for many years.
According to people familiar with the matter, the amount of Li Ziqi's claim to Hangzhou Weinian is an astronomical figure of hundreds of millions. At this point, no matter which is right or wrong, the cooperation between the two has long ceased to be a matter of "carrying forward the traditional Chinese food culture", but a dispute and game of interests. You know, when Li Ziqi became popular, his monthly income from live video broadcasting was about 3 million yuan. And as Li Ziqi became more and more popular, more and more people knew about her. Major capital has also begun to invest, and even almost all major platforms are investors in Hangzhou Weinian.
I have seen Li Ziqi's short video and short video and know that it is no accident that it has received attention from all over the country. The strong ancient meaning presented in each video coincides with the beauty of pastoral life in the minds of many people, and has almost become the "poetry and distance" that people can see.
Moreover, Li Ziqi's influence even extends to the world. On February 2 last year, Guinness World Records official Weibo posted that on January 25, 2021, short video blogger Li Ziqi refreshed the Guinness World Record title set by her as "the most subscribed YouTube Chinese channel" with 14.1 million YouTube subscriptions.
Some people in the industry even predicted that even if its overseas accounts do not receive commercial advertisements, the annual income of 40 million is conservative. Although this is the news before the equity dispute was exposed, in the end, it is unknown how much Li Jiajia herself can share, but its commercial value in international and domestic self-media accounts is self-evident.
However, Li Ziqi, who is relatively weak in terms of discourse power, is like a "tool person" who makes money for institutions after all, and can only watch Wei Nian put these commercial interests into his own pocket. It is not difficult to understand why the majority of netizens will be unfair because Li Ziqi was "bullied" by the capital consortium.
How do influencers and MCN agencies coexist peacefully?
As we all know, internet celebrities have a win-win relationship with the brokerage company behind them and the MCN institution itself. One is in charge of the front of the stage, one is responsible for the backstage. But there is no fixed formula for how the benefits of the two are distributed. Because each company has its own internal operating mechanism, rules for the distribution of benefits. The general consensus in the industry is that the two parties should reasonably allocate equity and distribute the proceeds according to the size of the contribution.
It is understood that under normal circumstances, Internet celebrities and MCN institutions sign a brokerage contract, that is, in the form of a labor contract to regulate the account and intellectual property ownership, interest distribution, liquidated damages and other issues. Usually the source of income of internet celebrities is the basic basic salary protection + about 60% of the advertising share + performance commission. Following the cooperation model between showbiz stars and agencies, with the increasing influence of stars, the weight of their contributions is getting higher and higher, and in theory, the proportion of stars will increase, even as high as 80%.
It is undeniable that before Li Ziqi became famous, Hangzhou Weinian also contributed to the focus on promoting its IP brand. It should be known that the cooperation between Li Ziqi IP and Wei Nian began in 2016, and at the beginning of the cooperation between the two, Li Ziqi's account did not receive advertising, did not broadcast live for up to three years, and did not have any commercial conversion. However, because it is an individual operation, the output quality and frequency of its content are still inferior to the strength of the team.
Since then, for more than 2 years, Hangzhou Weinian has also maintained great restraint in commercialization, starting from scratch to build a multi-dimensional brand system of Li Ziqi, so it must also bear the huge risk of the incubation period. Relevant data show that in 2021, the loss of Li Ziqi brand will reach 100 million. However, because Li Ziqi's influence has increased sharply, it has also attracted the support of capital from all sides, and Hangzhou Weinian has naturally gained a lot. According to relevant data, in the whole year of 2020, the sales of the Li Ziqi brand reached 1.6 billion yuan.
However, unlike other Internet celebrities who rely on live streaming to monetize commercialization, Hangzhou Weinian relies on Li Ziqi's brand IP to derive and form an industrial chain. Most of the content IP is to first rely on advertising to monetize, maintain life, and then use the platform's e-commerce system to live sell goods, few people will consider the most difficult self-built brand.
For example, in the process of operating the brand of Weinian, by creating explosive local food products, more than 100 upstream suppliers associated with it have gained greater market space, and only snail powder products have directly and indirectly driven about 4,000 jobs.
With the popularity of plum snail powder and lotus powder and other products in the whole network, a large number of merchants choose to follow up the snail powder and lotus powder market, further opening up the market space of local cuisine, and even driving the network of the entire local food industry to break the circle and develop benignly.
However, to form such an effect, it is necessary for the Internet celebrities as IP carriers and the MCN agencies behind them to work together to achieve win-win cooperation. From peaceful coexistence to public breakup, it is clear that the two will have a lose-lose outcome.
Therefore, many Internet celebrity anchor practitioners also expressed their understanding of Li Ziqi's "resistance" of a weak enemy. He believes that institutions need to maintain a balance of interests with influencers, and they need to be honest with each other, rather than blindly viewing influencer bloggers as tools to make money and profits. In this way, both sides can take what they need and do no harm to each other.
It has been observed that while Li Ziqi has repeatedly made public noises and reflected that capital is too strong and aggressive, Hangzhou Weinian is silent, and it seems that there is something difficult to say. However, in any case, in the face of monstrous public opinion, its bright and just response is also very necessary.
Therefore, even if Weinian stands in the position of MCN institutions, there is still room for reasoning, but it is difficult to say that the equity dispute between Hangzhou Weinian and Li Jiajia has not exposed the greed of capital and the nature of business. In the entire Internet celebrity economy, such conflicts of interest are very common, how to make the industry develop healthily, in addition to the relevant constraints of the national macro policy, I am afraid that enterprises and individuals who have to engage in the industry take commercial value as the first, considering the advantages and disadvantages. Excessive entanglement of short-term interests is tantamount to an internal friction, and may not be worth the loss.
epilogue
A truly long-lasting partner must be able to share weal and woe. Hangzhou Weinian and Li Jiajia must have experienced various hardships and difficulties together in the early stage of entrepreneurship. However, what made them finally tear their faces was only because the li ziqi brand had grown into a national brand and a phenomenon-level brand. Therefore, it is not excluded that in the face of huge interests, both of them will be red-eyed and will not give in to each other.
However, there is a way: the person who knows the times is Junjie. If the two have been in a stalemate of contradictions, there is no doubt that the end will be a lose-lose situation, or even a fish dead net. Therefore, some insiders predict that in 2022, the two will sit on the negotiating table and both become wise people in the business world, ending in reconciliation.
Whether it is for Hangzhou Weinian, or Li Jiajia himself, or for practitioners who expect to find references from this incident, the two sides shake hands and make peace in a decent and appropriate way, which may be the most perfect ending.