Image source @ Visual China
Nearly a hundred days after the tax evasion storm of Sydney and Via, the original broadcasting team of Via and Sydney began to broadcast and bring goods one after another, and for a time various rumors were rampant, was it the disguised comeback of Sydney and Via, or the other way out for its brokerage company Chenfan and Qianxun?
In fact, the tax evasion storm has become a catalyst for the decentralization of the live broadcasting industry.
The contradiction between the brand side and the head anchor has begun to be frequently exposed, from the L'Oréal mask "lowest price" incident to the two major head accidents on Taobao, the industry has to develop in the direction of "decentralization".
With the help of the broadcast, it is difficult for the "Via" to come back
On the evening of February 12, an account named "Bee Surprise Society" opened the first live broadcast on Taobao with goods, not only the account name is highly similar to the "Via Surprise Club", but also the anchors who appeared on camera are resident assistants or models in the original Via live broadcast room, and the selection is also "the former formula", and even the offer (preferential information) is similar to the original Via live broadcast room.
Source: Screenshot of Taobao Live
Coincidentally, on the evening of February 15, a new number called "Light is Coming" was also launched on Taobao Live, and among the 5 anchors who left the country, 3 were former assistants in the Sydney live broadcast room, and 2 were models.
Thanks to the fan effect of the original anchor, the premiere results of the above two accounts are much better than those of the average newcomer anchor -
According to data, the first live broadcast of the "Bee Surprise Society" has exceeded 1 million viewers, the number of fans has reached nearly 1.1 million after 6 days of broadcasting, and the highest number of viewers has reached 10.92 million, as of now, the "Bee Surprise Society" has gained 1.379 million fans in Taobao Live. The "Light is Coming" premiere night received 786,000 views, and now has 512,000 fans on Taobao Live.
The operation was seen as a signal of the original anchor's comeback, especially the rumors of Via seeking a comeback. On February 13, it was reported that Via may re-launch on Taobao at the latest in March this year, when Via's store will be restored online, and the account name and fans will not change.
In December 2021, due to tax evasion, Wei Ya was chased back to pay taxes, collect late fees and fined a total of 1.341 billion yuan, and subsequently, Wei Ya's Taobao live broadcast room, Weibo, Douyin and other platform accounts were all banned. At that time, there was a lot of analysis in the industry about whether it could return to the live broadcast room.
Most of them are negative. On the one hand, there are precedents to be examined: Fan Bingbing and Zheng Shuang faded out of the entertainment circle, Sydney and Lin Shanshan were banned by the whole network; on the other hand, from the previous more positive image to the "bad Internet celebrity anchor", the impact of the high gap was even worse. From this, it can be inferred that Wei Ya may not be able to escape the fate of being blocked for a long time. "Even if you keep your account and start broadcasting, it may be difficult for a brand to come to your door to cooperate in the short term." Industry insiders said.
However, some people think that Via is likely to make a comeback. Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the E-commerce Research Institute, once said in an interview with the media that Wei Ya's attitude in the face of tax evasion is relatively good, and she can cooperate well with the tax department to pay the taxes and fines owed in a timely manner. In addition, the team behind it has created a relatively stable supply chain network, and has also produced a certain brand effect in consumers, as long as the quality and low price of the product can be guaranteed, consumers will still welcome Via's comeback.
The public opinion has re-emerged, and the focus is still on the influence of anchors, tax evasion, and "bad artists".
Some consumers believe that her live broadcast recommends many preferential and high-quality items to everyone, "if she comes back, I hope she can do it and cherish it, and no longer live up to everyone's love for her." But many people also said that the debut of the broadcasting team means that "there will be no more Weiya in the jianghu", "If Weiya can come back after paying the money, then Zheng Shuang and Fan Bingbing, who were punished for tax evasion before, can they also be?" ”
Chen Fangfang, a lawyer at Beijing Kyoto Law Firm, said in an interview with Titanium Media App that "bad artist" is not a legal definition, but more of a moral evaluation. "Whether Via is an entertainer is still debated, whether she will be boycotted, the duration of the boycott is not clear, and it is uncertain whether she will be included in the warning list of the China Performance Industry Association, so it is not certain that Wei Ya has been banned and cannot be returned forever."
But she also pointed out that Wei Ya's tax evasion and tax evasion incident has been "certified" by the Hangzhou Taxation Bureau, so even if she comes back, this process will be full of difficulties and obstacles. "In particular, it is currently under the strict control period of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax, cracking down on celebrities, and Internet celebrities for tax evasion and tax evasion, so even if Wei Ya is not a bad artist, the amount and means involved in the Wei Ya incident can be called a typical case of cracking down hard and strict grasping, and it is still likely to be resisted by the industry or consumers."
The super traffic of Via's vacancy could not be caught, and the brokerage company found a way out
In fact, no matter whether the anchor can come back and how it comes back, the brokerage company behind it can no longer sit still.
Public reports show that in 2016, in order to drain her own stores, Wei Ya started her own live broadcast career on Taobao, and Dong Haifeng, who stood behind his wife, also quickly saw the trend of live e-commerce, determined to incubate his own MCN organization, and established Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qianxun Culture) in 2017.
In just a year or so, the humble culture no longer wants to be limited to MCN institutions and has begun to develop into a group. Since 2019, Qianxun Culture has successively established a number of subsidiaries such as Qianxi (IP operation), Qianyu (pan-cultural entertainment), Qianbo (live training), and Qianpin (supply chain) to focus on new business.
At the same time, the culture of humility no longer bets on Via alone. In addition to signing xiaoqiao Jofay, An Ananan and other talent anchors, Qianxun also seized the short outlet of star live broadcasting, and included Stars such as Lin Yilun, Li Jing, Haiqing, Li Xiang, Dazuo, Li Ai, and Gao Lu.
Source: Screenshot of the official website of Qianxun
"Qianxun will do the water, electricity and coal of the live broadcasting industry, and when the day comes, if Wei Ya can't broadcast live for various reasons, Qianxun is still a sustainable development enterprise." Dong Haifeng also said this in an interview in 2021.
But when Via really can't live anymore, qianxun's impact is not insignificant. According to previous reports, Wei Ya had signed a New Year goods festival order with multiple brands before the accident, so the first thing Qianxun had to face was the termination of the supplier and the brand. At that time, some brands said that they were not willing to wait any longer and planned to switch to other live broadcast rooms.
Although qianxun's more than 50 anchors were not affected, they also failed to catch Wei Ya's super traffic. It is reported that in addition to Lin Yilun (Taobao live broadcast fans 5.99 million) can achieve daily broadcasting, the cumulative number of views maintained at about 5 million -6 million, other anchors in Taobao live broadcast frequency and number of fans are not high. On the Douyin platform, although Qi Wei's data is relatively high, the frequency of live broadcasting is less, and it has been broadcast 3-5 times a month in the recent past.
As a result, the volume and discourse power of Qianxun as an MCN have directly dropped several levels.
Chenfan is in a similar situation. According to the official website, Chenfan E-commerce has more than 350 celebrities, covering more than 400 million fans on the whole network, of which the top ones are Sydney and Lin Shanshan. According to the data during the Double Eleven period in 2020, Chenfan e-commerce has more than 70% of its revenue, relying on The personal IP of Sydney and Lin Shanshan.
After the sydney lin shanshan evasion storm, Chenfan once had high expectations for double 12, however, just an hour before the official sale, the Sydney Taobao store was suddenly shut down, nearly 100 million yuan of stock and inventory, and even affected the upstream supply chain factory. After that, with the company's large-scale clearance activities, it was even rumored that Chenfan had been dissolved and was officially debunked, but Sydney Live Broadcasting Company Shengheng Culture had indeed been dissolved.
The new number of this help broadcast is also rumored that the original anchor is operating behind the scenes, which is a new attempt made by Qianxun and Chenfan to undertake the previous private domain traffic and brand resources. That is, large-scale training to assist broadcasting, tap new big anchors, or directly adopt a model similar to "make a friend" to develop into vertical live broadcasting.
Although there are various indications that the Bee Surprise Society is not unrelated to Wei Ya and Qianxun, the information of Tianyancha shows that the account subject of the Bee Surprise Society, "Hangzhou Baifeng Culture Media Co., Ltd.", which is wholly owned by natural person He Weihua, was established on August 4, 2021, and has no relationship with Qianxun Company. Chenfan also said to the outside world that "the light is coming" is not the company's operation, but there is no reply to the issues such as the ownership of the anchor and the investment cooperation.
Source: Sky Eye Check App
Putting aside the ownership of the live broadcast room, southwest securities analysts analyzed the titanium media App and said that domestic merchants may still pay for Weiya to help the broadcast group, but the latter should be difficult to get the cooperation of big brands and overseas brands in the future. The TOP level of the Tao system is still Humble, Beautiful Wrist, Junmeng, Yuyou, and it is difficult to have a new head.
The contradiction between the brand side and the head anchor was exposed, and the live e-commerce accelerated decentralization
Behind this series of changes and public opinion, the jianghu of live e-commerce is changing.
In the past two years, the rapid development of live e-commerce is fundamentally due to "profitability". Investor Tianlang said in an interview with titanium media App that through live broadcasting, brand owners and manufacturers can obtain a lot of exposure and gather a lot of popularity in a short period of time without going through early advertising, marketing promotion and other means, thus greatly shortening the cycle of entering the market. For consumers, the decision-making cycle is shortened.
However, with the emergence of the Matthew effect, the traffic is more and more concentrated on a few head anchors, and its bargaining power is further enhanced, and the supply chain side and the brand side begin to be excessively priced, and then a part of the advertising fee is added, and the cost of entering the live broadcast room is getting higher and higher. "As far as the brands we contact are concerned, more than 90% of the goods are loss-making, and the brand side basically positions these live broadcasts of the head anchor as a marketing advertisement."
Since 2021, the contradiction between the brand side and the head anchor has begun to be frequently exposed. From the L'Oréal mask "lowest price" incident to the two major head accidents on Taobao, supervision has been tightening, and the industry is developing in the direction of "decentralization".
In the view of investor Tianlang, from the perspective of long-term healthy development, the platform will support the middle-waist anchor more and serve more brands, rather than recreating the super anchor. In addition, there are so many anchors in the entire market at present, the traffic has been almost distributed, and it is difficult to create super anchors like Wei Ya.
Zhuang Shuai, an expert in the retail e-commerce industry and founder of Bailian Consulting, also analyzed the titanium media App, saying that the risk of this head anchor structure has emerged, "The live broadcast shows the individual in the front desk, so the individual will have a double risk including moral hazard and legal risk, which is different from the organization, the organization can replace the risky person, but after the live broadcast replaces the risky anchor, the loss it bears will be huge." ”
And this ecology also has a certain degree of destructiveness, so Zhuang Shuai believes that in Taobao as an example, the platform will most likely not launch the head to replace Wei Ya, but will continue to quote the previous strategy and vigorously promote brand live broadcasting.
He also mentioned that mid-waist anchors have their own living space, and they are similar to offline agents and dealers, playing the role of brand agents. "With the development of brand live broadcasting, they will form a dynamic balance, that is, the anchor and the brand will form a coordinated development, which is a more standardized and healthier live broadcasting ecology."
(This article was first published on Titanium Media App, author | Liu Mengmeng, editor| Tianpeng)