"One sister" Via is invisible, live streaming with goods into the small era of merchant self-broadcasting?

Via Infographic/IC

Wei Ya disappeared from the live broadcast room, which obviously accelerated the decentralization of the live streaming industry.

Junjun (pseudonym) is a "heavy user" of live streaming with goods, and is also a regular guest in the live broadcast room of Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya and other anchors. In the past two years, often shuttled between the major live broadcasts in Douyin and Taobao, "uplink" and "order" are already familiar sounds and habitual actions.

Recently, she opened these apps and obviously felt that the number of small and medium-sized anchors pushed by the platform increased, "Sometimes brushing ten videos, maybe five or six are small anchors who don't know." Junjun remembers that once the mobile phone was opened, it was the figure of a big anchor, and he also contacted and relied on the live broadcast room to buy goods.

Change happens quietly. After Wei Ya's live broadcast room was blocked, Jun Jun naturally shifted his attention to the anchors of the second echelon and some merchants to broadcast themselves. And this seems to have become an industry trend - the huge traffic controlled by the head anchor is being re-divided by the market, and the self-broadcast of merchants and waist anchors have ushered in new opportunities and challenges.

In the industry's view, the era of giants has passed, and live streaming is a shared and inclusive industry for all, rather than being mastered by individuals in terms of traffic, channels and wealth. Live streaming is getting rid of barbaric growth and entering the stage of standardized development.

"Choose more cautiously", the traffic opportunity of small anchors

At the end of 2021, the head anchors Sydney and Wei Ya were fined for tax evasion, of which Wei Ya's huge fine of 1.341 billion yuan was the determination and strength of relevant departments to regulate the online live broadcasting industry.

The tax reimbursement storm has become an indispensable topic among anchors.

The anchor "Honghong is working hard" with 2.27 million fans on Douyin told Shell Financial Reporter that the impact of the regulatory storm on the live streaming industry is obvious and direct - more cautious in the selection of products.

"In the past, we only paid attention to the product itself, whether it was qualified, whether it was good to eat or not, and whether it was good or not, now we will examine from multiple dimensions such as brand side, production side, supply chain, logistics, etc., and quality control is more standardized." When it comes to the issue of tax payment, "Honghong is working hard" said that although they are all live streaming with goods, Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi are corporatized operations, and small anchors mainly operate for themselves, and have not yet encountered the need to make up taxes. "I have not really calculated the proportion of taxes, and the impact of national policies on the head anchor is relatively large, and I do not feel that there is much change for me."

A number of anchors revealed in an interview with Shell Financial Reporter that they are not clear about their tax obligations and whether their income is tax-deductible. An Internet celebrity anchor said, "I have not cared about the tax deduction, generally talk about how much money, and give me that number when I get it." Shell financial reporters interviewed and learned that most of the anchors with goods are MCN employees, and their salaries meet the standard deduction of personal income tax.

"Honghong is working hard" to enjoy the process of working hard from scratch, and has not signed a contract with MCN at present, and is considering setting up a studio in the future. In her view, the development trend of the live streaming industry is still considerable, "the future will give more resources to each small and medium-sized anchor, but this is not because the head anchor is investigated as a result, the platform has always been decentralized."

Zhang Ming (pseudonym) has the same view, he once worked for ByteDance to engage in live streaming with goods business empowerment post, and now independently start a live streaming with goods. He believes that the platform has always supported the head anchor with greater support, pushing the head is also to erect the benchmark of the industry, and the waist and tail anchors will naturally participate in the competition, and the cake can be made bigger.

"I chose this industry because I wanted to see the vast opportunities." Zhang Ming said that the crackdown on the illegal behavior of the head anchor has made the market ecology better. In this context, the waist and tail anchors can also re-compete with the head anchors in traffic.

A number of brokerage institutions believe that the recent withdrawal of individual head anchors will to a large extent promote the further development of other live broadcast forms and anchor forces. Taobao's internal data shows that in the New Year Goods Festival launched on January 9, 2022, the DAU, traffic, duration and transaction scale of Taobao live broadcast have increased. Among them, the traffic of mid-waist anchors and store broadcasts has increased greatly.

Decentralized, merchants regain bargaining power?

Industry reshuffle, merchant self-broadcast is also given more potential.

For merchants, the influence of head anchors with high bargaining power in the past has decreased, and the right to speak is returning: on the one hand, they can find waist anchors with relatively low commissions and pit fees, on the other hand, business self-broadcasting can also be divided into part of the traffic surplus of large anchors who have been blocked.

An industry insider engaged in e-commerce live broadcasting told Shell Financial Reporter that if the head anchor gradually loses its light, it means that the live broadcast strategy of the platform and the merchant will be inclined to self-broadcasting, and decentralization has always been what the platform hopes to see.

In mid-January, Taobao Live released the 2022 annual incentive plan to support the middle waist and new talents. Among them, the policy includes that after the new anchor meets certain requirements, it will receive a one-time cash incentive issued by the platform; the new anchor will also receive a one-time cash incentive after completing certain retention tasks. In addition, for MCN institutions, institutions with high number and quality of new anchors introduced each year can also superimpose the annual box incentive.

Similarly, Douyin has also begun to exert efforts to broadcast itself by merchants. During this year's Spring Festival, with topics, videos reach a certain amount of playback, and Douyin will give support to traffic.

Shell financial reporter learned from the Douyin live broadcast with goods merchants that from January 16 to January 30, as long as the number of merchants is greater than seven and the GMV is greater than 100,000, they can get 5,000 dou+ traffic support. (dou+ is a video heating tool for douyin creators, which can efficiently increase the number of video plays and interactions, and improve the exposure effect of content)

Wang Jun (pseudonym), the head of the household appliance brand, who has cooperated with weiya, Sydney and other head anchors, told reporters that after the tax storm, the focus of the brand's layout in live streaming with goods will shift to the self-broadcast of merchants.

"Almost as long as you enter the live broadcast room of the talents, it means that the product has almost no profit, but the live broadcast of the talents can often bring more than 2 million sales, with mixed advantages and disadvantages." Wang Jun said that in order to improve product visibility, merchants often choose to compromise.

An MCN insider told Shell Financial Reporter that almost all head anchors will require merchants to sign an insurance agreement, and merchants need to ensure that the price provided (the price of goods sold in the anchor live broadcast room) must be the lowest price on the whole network within a certain period of time.

However, the "rollover" phenomenon in which merchants sacrifice product profits and do not reap corresponding sales and popularity is not uncommon in 2021. Qingqing (pseudonym), the operator of a food head merchant on an e-commerce platform, revealed that in the live debut of an actor, the merchant spent 250,000 yuan to find a live broadcast pit, and finally ended up selling 50 orders dismal. The actor's popularity has not translated into the purchasing power of consumers.

Wang Jun believes that some head anchors are no longer shining, and now whether they choose to cooperate with waist and tail anchors, or build their own live broadcast platforms, it means that the bargaining power of merchants has risen.

New situation with goods: self-broadcast mode is pleasing

In fact, encouraging merchants to broadcast themselves and decentralize has always been the commitment of the platform.

According to Hao Jianbin, director of the Industry Research Center of Ali Research Institute, taking Taobao as an example, the number of merchants on Taobao live broadcast has accounted for 70% of the total, and the real army behind the live streaming is tens of millions of ordinary merchants on the e-commerce platform.

KPMG's "Live E-commerce Towards a Trillion Market" shows that through the self-broadcast model, merchants can save the cost of red anchors, directly give profits to consumers, and effectively activate the value of shopping guides. Unlike the red live broadcast, which mainly relies on the IP formed by the anchor's own personality, and the live broadcast user is driven by emotions and goods in both directions, the merchant live broadcast mainly relies on brand value and goods.

"In 2017, most merchants did not know much about live streaming with goods, and I would try my best to persuade merchants to do live streaming with goods at the China Merchants Association, and at that time, merchants listened a little dazed." In 2018, the situation has changed a little, and after my presentation, many merchants will chase out of the venue and ask me what kind of category can be live broadcast. Li Ming, head of operations of Taobao Live MCN, said that in the past four years, the development of live streaming with goods has been very fast, and more and more merchants have begun to do live streaming with goods themselves.

But can the merchant do a good job in the role of anchor? Wang Jun said that the effect of self-broadcasting by merchants is very closely related to product categories, and "you can't just look at the data in the live broadcast room." According to the 2021 Tmall 6·18 Ultimate List, the official flagship stores of huawei, Estée Lauder, Lancôme, Haier and Xiaomi ranked in the top five on the tmall merchant live broadcast list. From the overall data, beauty and 3C digital account for half of the Tmall business list.

"The nature of our products is not suitable for continuous live broadcasting, who will always buy large electrical appliances, our store live broadcast more is the role of product introduction, the main sales do not rely on live broadcast with goods." Wang Jun said.

Not all categories have the opportunity to hit sales in live streaming. Household appliances, professional equipment, niche crafts, etc. need professional knowledge when introducing products, and merchants also know that it is difficult to get big benefits in the comprehensive live broadcast room of the talents.

Li Ming, head of operations of Taobao Live MCN, revealed that since 2016, it is more common for talent anchors to bring goods. However, merchants slowly found that e-commerce live broadcasting can bring new growth to their own sales, more and more merchants began to do their own live streaming with goods, with the acceleration of the epidemic, the layout of all walks of life in live streaming with goods is getting faster and faster, "the original we thought may not be suitable for live broadcasting of the industry, the growth rate is very fast, such as 3C digital, especially some of the industry of partial standard products." Merchant self-broadcasting will become a very important flashpoint for Taobao live broadcasting.

The duopoly pattern of anchors with goods is over, and the era of traffic recklessness is no longer there

For more than 5 years, live streaming with goods finally ushered in strong supervision, and the industry faced an important watershed.

In 2016, live streaming was just emerging, and Taobao live broadcast was launched in March of that year. By 2018, Taobao e-commerce live broadcast guide transactions have reached 100 billion. In 2019, live streaming with goods is even more on the limelight, only double 11 Taobao live broadcast transactions of 20 billion, vibrato, kuaishou, etc. also rely on short video advantages have entered the game.

In 2020, live streaming with goods has exploded under the stimulation of multiple factors such as the epidemic, and the head platform has continued to tilt resources, and live streaming has almost become the standard of major platforms. Around this year, the industry showed a clear pyramid shape, the two-eight effect was obvious, the head anchor accounted for only 2.16%, the shoulder anchor accounted for 5.93%, while the waist and tail anchors were 53.53% and 38.8% respectively (2020 Ai media consulting data).

Since then, in 2021 Double 11, Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya can reach nearly 20 billion yuan in a day, and the live broadcast with goods continues to break records, and phenomenon-level events have occurred.

There is a view that some anchors as the platform to pick up the "star", there may be the meaning of kidnapping businesses, although in accordance with the "Advertising Law" and other relevant provisions, anchors and so on can not promote the live broadcast room of the thing is "the lowest price of the whole network", but the live broadcast with goods for many years can be sought after by consumers, but also because e-commerce live broadcast is all around the product live broadcast, one of the attributes is in the live broadcast room can get more advantageous prices of products, many head e-commerce live broadcast anchors also by taking the "lowest price of the whole network" to fix the powder.

In 2021, with the goods "highlight" moment, Wei Ya, Li Jiaqi are due to L'Oréal "the lowest price of the whole network" overturned the car encountered a crisis of trust, consumers in the rights protection at the same time, some voices said that the anchor's right to speak gradually become larger, exclusive price, exclusive activities of the lowest price of the whole network, in a sense, is also a disguised choice of one, is a monopoly, "can not enter the head anchor's live broadcast room, sometimes determine the fate of a brand."

Also in this year, on March 16, the State Administration for Market Regulation put forward six requirements such as improving quality awareness, and carried out administrative guidance for improving the quality of products on live streaming platforms.

On April 23, the Cyberspace Administration of China and seven other departments jointly issued the Administrative Measures for Online Live BroadcastIng Marketing (Trial Implementation), which made specific provisions for live broadcast marketers, live broadcast marketing platforms and live broadcast room operators.

On September 18, the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice to strengthen the tax management of employees in the field of culture and entertainment. Network anchors have become one of the key regulatory objects.

On December 20, Via was charged a total of 1.341 billion yuan in taxes, late fees, and fines for suspected tax evasion. A month ago, Internet celebrity anchors Sydney and Lin Shanshan were also chased for tax evasion, charged late fees and fined a total of nearly 100 million yuan.

Following Wei Ya's huge fine, the Zhejiang Provincial Consumer Protection Commission "named" Li Jiaqi, a brother with goods, saying that he found that the label of 1 batch of goods was not standardized in his live broadcast room.

On 30 December 2021, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation issued the Announcement on the Administration of Individual Income Tax collection on equity investment and operation income, which came into effect on 1 January 2022. The complete cancellation of the approved collection means that the tax payment of e-commerce live broadcasting will become more stringent and standardized.

Ding Daoshi, a senior Internet analyst, believes that a healthy anchor ecology is a "spindle-shaped" structure with two small ends and a large middle. Now the concept of universal benefit of the Internet is gradually deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, anti-monopoly to make the Internet benefit everyone is the general trend of various national policy formulation, the head anchor is blocked, the industry is regulated after the rectification, the live streaming industry does not want to appear again such a giant, want to copy the past anchor duopoly pattern, monopolize the vast majority of traffic situation is almost impossible.

Wei Ya walked down the "altar of a sister with goods", suggesting that the situation in which the head anchor is in control of the distribution of dividends is likely to be changed, the live broadcast with goods is getting rid of barbaric growth and entering the stage of standardized development, the era of reckless traffic entry is no longer, and the business self-broadcast and waist anchors have ushered in new opportunities and challenges.

The relevant person in charge of the State Internet Information Office said that as an emerging business model and Internet format, the rapid development momentum in recent years has played an active role in promoting employment, expanding domestic demand, boosting the economy, and poverty alleviation, but at the same time, there have been problems such as live broadcast marketers failing to behave in words and deeds, using minors to live broadcast for profit, failing to fulfill the main responsibility of the platform, false publicity and data fraud, the frequent emergence of counterfeit and shoddy goods, and the difficulty of consumer rights protection and evidence collection.

"There are also many irregular behaviors in the industry that need to be regulated, but overall, live streaming is becoming a main track for the development of e-commerce or digital economy." Gao Hongbing, vice president of Alibaba Group, president of Alibaba Research Institute, said that live e-commerce drives consumption, boosts the formation of a 'double cycle' structure, forces domestic and international circulation upgrades, gives profits to consumers, stimulates consumers to buy, and further stimulates China's consumption potential. In addition, live e-commerce empowers the traditional economy and drives industrial upgrading third, live e-commerce has spawned new forms of employment, expanded the scale of employment, helped rural poverty alleviation, and boosted rural revitalization.

According to iResearch Consulting Research Report, the scale of China's live e-commerce market will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 197.0%, and it is expected that the scale of live e-commerce will exceed 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023. In 2020, the turnover of store broadcasting accounted for 32.1% of the overall live e-commerce, and it is expected to account for nearly 50.0% in 2023. The ecosystem of the live broadcasting industry has been gradually improved.

By the end of 2020, there were 8,862 live e-commerce-related enterprises registered in China, and the number of anchors in the industry had reached 1.234 million. The industry quickly transitioned from simple traffic dividend mining to dividend mining for the entire ecology, especially through refined operation and supply chain penetration to achieve new increments.

Beijing News shell financial reporter Cheng Zijiao intern Xiong Ke Editor Wang Jinyu Proofreader Liu Baoqing