Per reporter: Wang Ziwei Per intern reporter: Yang Xinyi Per editor: Liu Xuemei
Via disappeared for more than 60 days, are you still shopping in the live room?
Since Wei Ya was fined a sky-high price, the number of people in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room has soared to 49 million. Industry insiders believe that Wei Ya's "fall" seems to release a signal to the anchors in the middle waist, and many small and medium-sized anchors are looking forward to sharing this huge amount of traffic.
Traffic is sales, humble in the end or can not sit still. On February 14, 2022, the WeChat public account "Bee's Surprise Society" released its first message, announcing that the live broadcast would begin at 7:30 p.m. that night. A photo was posted in the text, and the assistants and models in the Weiya live broadcast room such as Duoduo, Kaizi, Facai, Xiaohan, Haohao, etc. were listed, and the photo was accompanied by text: "Hello everyone! We are back!"
Image source: Corporate poster
Wei Ya is not the same as Li Jiaqi to Mei One, which is more like the big IP of Mei One, and Wei Ya carries the business expectations of many subsidiaries such as the supply chain behind Qian Xun. She is an indispensable part of the huge business closed loop of modesty.
Therefore, the fall of Wei Ya, for Qianxun, the live broadcast closed loop involving the upstream and downstream of the industry was almost stopped overnight, and the loss was difficult to estimate.
In a previous interview with the Daily Economic News, Dong Haifeng, chairman of Qianxun Holdings and Wei Ya's husband, said that Qianxun has been trying to open up the upstream and downstream of the industrial belt of live streaming with goods, so whether it is in the supply chain or in the incubation of anchors, Qianxun already has experience.
All in the live e-commerce industry, at the time of the shutdown, Qianxun lost a huge loss; but after the break, Qianxun seemed to find that it was not without "cards" to play. Replacing Via, who was punished by the "red card", and helping the new anchor on the field, became a humble choice.
And the emergence of the "Bee Surprise Society" is the first step in the humble quest for change.
The high-profile "bee", the hidden Via
The more than 75 million fans of the whole network were cleared overnight, and the "Jiangshan" that Wei Ya had laid for many years seemed to disappear. However, a data from Jiuqian Middle Station shows that there are many old customers in Weiya's live broadcast room, and the repurchase rate of the live broadcast room is very high.
Perhaps, the loyal fans will return. Humble obviously had to fight for it.
On December 20, 2021, "Live Sister" Via was expelled from the live broadcast battlefield. According to the Zhejiang Taxation Bureau, Wei Ya stole and underpaid taxes for a total of about 700 million yuan between 2019 and 2020, and was fined a total of 1.341 billion yuan. Immediately, Wei Ya's Taobao live broadcast room, shop, Weibo and other social accounts were suspended.
At that time, there were media reports that screenshots of the suspected internal chat records of Via showed that the company's employees temporarily went home to rest, and their salaries were paid. While the outside world was curious about the future of these employees, in February this year, 36Kr reported that The Via team had not been disbanded or laid off due to the suspension of broadcasting, and had resumed work after a week of vacation, and was currently temporarily serving other anchors.
The recent launch of the new live broadcast account "Bee Surprise Society" has provided a new answer to this question - to upgrade the broadcast to the anchor.
"Here we come!" Six pairs of hands danced on the screen, and a live broadcast room called "Bee Surprise Society" premiered on Taobao on the evening of February 12, attracting a large audience in a short period of time.
The overwhelming crowd pouring into the live broadcast room was the former "Woman of Via". Because they were pleasantly surprised to find that this self-proclaimed "new live broadcast room" is full of familiar faces - among the 6 anchors who appeared on camera, Xiao Han, Hao Hao, Kaizi, Facai, and Duoduo were all resident assistants or models in the past Wei Ya's live broadcast room. Wei Ya's "beloved fan" Xiao Li (pseudonym) told the "Daily Economic News" reporter, "They are all the original people who know each other, and the familiar feeling is back." ”
However, if you've never seen Via live before, you'd think the Bee Surprise Society is a "new stove" that has nothing to do with Via. The 6 anchors who appeared on camera did not respond to questions about Wei Ya during the live broadcast, and repeatedly emphasized the new identity of the "entrepreneurial small team".
According to Qixinbao information, the "Bee Surprise Society" is owned by Hangzhou Baifeng Culture Media Co., Ltd., which was established in August 2021 and changed its business scope in that month and added business content such as live streaming with goods. With He Weihua as the legal person and major shareholder, it seems that there is no direct connection with Wei Ya and Qianxun Company.
However, many Via fans like Xiao Li believe that the "Bee Surprise Society" is the return of the organization. They said that the name "Bee Surprise Society" is similar to Wei Ya's previous official public account "Wei Ya Surprise Society", "Bee" is also a fan nickname of Wei Ya's husband Dong Haifeng. Moreover, the fixed night background board of Via's live broadcast room and the classic oral broadcast of "nonsense don't say much, first come to the wave award" have also appeared in the live broadcast room of "Bee" without exception. At the same time, the reporter noticed that the information broadcast of the "Bee Surprise Society" was high-profile forwarded by the humble employees.
Xiao Li told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the selection of the "Bee Surprise Society" is also almost the same as that between Wei Ya's live broadcast. "There are 55 products on the shelves of the premiere, there are Yuze masks that came to 'run' to Weiya before, and twist flowers recommended by Lin Yilun," Xiao Li explained, Lin Yilun is also a star anchor who is humble to sign a contract, "The discount is still very large, a total of more than 500 consumption, support the old acquaintances." ”
With the support of fans, the premiere of "Bee Surprise Society" was viewed more than 1 million times, and the number of fans rose by 260,000 that night. Five days later, its live broadcast room had more than one million fans and ranked among the top 3 lists of Taobao live broadcasts. As of 10:00 p.m. on February 22, the "Bee Surprise Society" has more than 1.47 million fans, and the number of live viewers on the day has exceeded 4.24 million.
In this regard, Chen Tao, a senior analyst of the brand retail industry of Analysys Analysis, said that in a new live broadcast room to evaluate, the development speed of the "Bee Surprise Society" is very fast and the performance is amazing, "The other ordinary live broadcast room to develop to this level, it may take a year or even longer, but the 'bee' has done it in just one week." ”
Regardless of whether "Bee" is a "stand-in" for Via, its appearance has already pulled Via back into the public eye and stirred up the live broadcast of a moment of silence.
The "Xu Xu Tuzhi" plan failed to speed up the rapid turn of the qianxun
Via is almost 24/7 during her time as an anchor. After the punishment, the "rest period" was long and far away, and she could finally stop spinning.
But for Qianxun, in the huge and perfect closed loop, once one link is stopped, other links in the chain will inevitably be affected.
On December 20 last year, the day of Via's penalty, the 26 beauty brands that were scheduled to cooperate with her in the evening and appeared at the "Via Makeup Festival" were told that all cooperation was suspended. The anchor is blocked, which will inevitably involve problems such as compensation for breach of contract and pressure caused by early preparation.
Li Chengdong, an e-commerce strategy analyst, told the Daily Economic News reporter that the Qianxun supply chain company will inevitably be affected during the period when Wei Ya is blocked. "The supply chain is closely related to traffic, and Wei Ya, the anchor of this volume, can definitely drive stronger brands to cooperate with its supply chain."
The "Via Makeup Festival" is only the volume of a live broadcast default. Qianxun staff once told reporters that Qianxun will have about 5,000 brands apply for settlement every year, and the final brands account for about 20%, that is, about 1,000 brands. Li Wei, general manager of Qianpin, a subsidiary responsible for the supply chain, once revealed that the SKUs that supply live broadcast rooms reach more than 50,000 a year.
The pressure of "tax evasion" on humility can be imagined.
But a closer look at humility reveals that it may not be as great an enemy as the outside world imagines.
Different from other live BROADCAST MCN institutions, from the perspective of Dong Haifeng's positioning, Qianxun is more like a live Broadcast SaaS service platform, which has formed a full-link service model for e-commerce. In the content ecology (humble culture), marketing ecology (humble cooperation), supply chain ecology (humble products) and other 8 major formats.
From the perspective of the live broadcast link, first of all, Qianxun has "goods", and its supply chain capabilities are in a leading position in the industry. Dong Haifeng revealed in a previous interview with reporters that from the beginning of 2013 to 2016, he and Wei Ya had established contact and communication with local factories when they struggled in Guangzhou, and "the supply chain system was relatively perfect." By 2017, its information communication with the platform was heavier, and the supply chain began to develop from clothing to all categories.
Humble supply chain capabilities are in a leading position in the industry Image source: Photo by reporter Wang Ziwei
Some insiders pointed out that in the second half of e-commerce, the competition is the supply chain. At present, the Qianxun supply chain has been iterated many times, and a special supply chain management company has been established - Qianpin, which not only serves Qianxun, but also exports its capabilities to the outside world. Where there are small and medium-sized anchors cooperating with Qianpin, they can achieve "check-in with bags".
Second, there are "people" in humility. Since 2018, Qianxun has focused on cultivating contracted anchors. At present, there are more than 40 signed anchors in Qianxun, including many star anchors represented by Lin Yilun and Li Jing, as well as industry KOLs and TOP anchors in various sales categories.
When interviewing Dong Haifeng last year, the reporter noticed that the ability to humble and incubate e-commerce anchors is already available, but the ability of these anchors to carry goods is not in the order of magnitude compared with Wei Ya.
A report by Jiuqian Middle Station pointed out that the pit fee of the head anchor (such as Weiya) in 2019 was 20,000 to 50,000 yuan, and in 2021, it was 50,000 to 80,000 yuan. At that time, the pit fee for the waist anchor of the 700,000 fans of the Qianxun beauty category was 3,000 yuan, and in 2021, it was 4,000 yuan.
In terms of commissions, the average anchor commission in the beauty category is 20%, the head is 40%, the waist is 25%, and the tail is 20%, the gap is very obvious.
Originally, when Dong Haifeng assessed the anchor, he did not include the sales volume in the conditions for judging the quality of the anchor, and put user satisfaction in the first place. One of the underpinnings of this decision is that Via can meet the sales requirements of brand owners through her own live broadcast room.
Wei Ya was sealed, and for Qian Xun, the commercial territory that could have been slowly drawn needed to be accelerated.
Although the "Bee Surprise Club" is advertised as a "young people's entrepreneurship project" by Qianxun, it can be perceived from both the publicity and the packaging design. So, can the "bees" bear this heavy responsibility?
Can the "Bee" evolve into the "Second Via"?
In the two months that Via disappeared from the live broadcast room, the live broadcast did not appear as predicted by the outside world: "a whale falls, everything lives".
Li Chengdong told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that in the traffic released by Wei Ya's live broadcast room, many mid-waist anchors are difficult to undertake traffic due to lack of long-term attraction, and Li Jiaqi, who is also a super head anchor, has not been able to directly benefit.
"Because the user groups that pay attention to Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi are not the same," Li Chengdong explained, "Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room is more in the direction of beauty, so the original Wei Ya's fans did not go to Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room." ”
Judging from the data, on the day that Wei Ya's live broadcast room was blocked, the number of viewers in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room exceeded 38 million, about twice that of the previous day, and the number of viewers of the next day's "Snack Festival Special" soared to more than 49 million. But less than a week later, the traffic in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room fell back to the original state of about 16 million people.
So, as Via's old ministry, can the growing "Bee Surprise Society" evolve into the "Second Via" and inherit this huge traffic?
Internet analyst Zhang Shule said that the experience of creating a super head anchor is difficult to replicate, and it is extremely difficult under the current conditions, "not only is it experienced, but it needs to meet the time, location, and people at the same time." ”
He pointed out that in the relatively easy to satisfy the "people", the head anchor needs to have his own strength, patience and personality charm. After the development matures, these anchors will also be used as a brand to exert personal influence and appeal, and cultivate loyal users to place orders and consume.
Today's MCN institutions are committed to creating a matrix of anchors in order to diversify risks as much as possible Image source: Humble Culture official website
At this point, the 6 "bee" anchors have not shown the desired potential for the time being: one is that the 6 people who are attached to Weiya's traffic are difficult to create new independent IP; second, although they have experience, they are still young in the process of changing the role from assistant broadcasting to anchor. In the comment area of the official Weibo of the "Bee Surprise Society", the opinions put forward by the audience continue to appear, such as "When the final preview is announced, don't grab two people to talk", "The pace of the live broadcast is too slow", etc.
However, the temporary lack of business ability and personal charm is not an insurmountable mountain in front of the "bee".
"Now it's not just humility, all MCN agencies are taking a new path: you can't put all your eggs in one basket." In Chen Tao's view, in order to diversify risks as much as possible, today's MCN institutions are committed to creating a matrix of anchors, rather than incubating the head or even the super head anchor.
Li Chengdong also used the incident of Li Ziqi and Wei Nian parting ways to tell the fatal bug of the Da Ren MCN model, "The biggest cost and risk are borne by the company, and the biggest benefits are harvested by the Da Ren, and there will be no second Li Ziqi." ”
The 6-crowd broadcast lineup of "Bee" confirms that Qian Xunzhi is not incubating the "second Weiya". Zhang Shule analyzed that group broadcasting is good for Qianxun, and the company does not have to worry about the anchor taking away the resources after becoming bigger and stronger.
When MCN turned around en masse, Taobao was reluctant to embrace the new head anchor.
In November 2021, the dispute between Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya and the brand L'Oréal made the audience in the live broadcast room realize that the brand wanted to rely on self-broadcasting to absorb gold, and Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya gradually lost the killer skill of "lowest price".
On January 19, 2022, Taobao Live released the 2022 annual incentive plan to support the middle waist and new talents, and add new cash incentives. At the same time, the self-broadcast rate of Taobao merchants is rising, and the data during the Tmall 618 period in 2020 shows that the number of merchant live broadcast rooms has increased by more than 160% year-on-year, and the GMV of merchant live broadcast accounts for 70% of Taobao live broadcasting as a whole. In terms of anchor support, Taobao's "decentralized" strategy is self-evident.
In this regard, Li Chengdong said that Taobao will push people in the future, but will not be willing to launch super head masters, "so the birth of super head masters is more dependent on 'times to create heroes'".
Talking about the development prospects of "Bee", Zhang Shule said that with the advantages of live broadcast experience and initial user accumulation, "Bee" still has the potential to develop into a waist or even a head anchor.
Live e-commerce has become a day Is there a future for the track?
Live streaming with goods, where to go?
On the third day of Wei Ya's ban, Wu Jincao, an analyst at Soochow Securities, said on a conference call that if the super-head anchor is restricted, the future live broadcast form may develop in a decentralized and more content-oriented direction similar to Douyin live broadcasting, rather than relying solely on discounts for commodity marketing.
At present, this trend does not appear to be obvious. Discounts and low prices are still the competitiveness of live e-commerce, and the appearance of the Bee Surprise Club is also marked with the labels of "affordable" and "surprise".
There are also people in the industry who sing about the decline of live streaming channels, believing that the popularity of such channels will come down. At present, this trend is not obvious.
According to iResearch and SPDB International, the scale of the live e-commerce market has exceeded 2 trillion yuan in 2021. In addition, according to Qixinbao, there are currently about 16,000 live e-commerce-related enterprises in the mainland, and a total of 8,364 new related enterprises have been registered since 2021, an increase of 103.4% year-on-year.
This may also be the reason why Qianxun killed the "back to the carbine" after the loss of Via - live broadcasting is still a sales channel that brands cannot ignore.
The heat of the track has not dropped, and it is only the anchors who live stream the goods that have quieted down: they are no longer as keen to promote themselves as before, but have become more cautious.
In addition to anchors, the live e-commerce industry has also quietly changed.
After Wei Ya disappeared, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room once poured into 47 million people to watch the live broadcast, but then, this number also fell back to the original number. One can't help but ask: Where did Via's traffic go?
What can be seen at present is that this traffic has poured into the live broadcast room of the brand store.
Some insiders pointed out to reporters that after Wei Ya was punished, many brands turned to Douyin e-commerce as the main battlefield for their live broadcast with goods.
Moreover, Douyin itself is vigorously supporting brand self-broadcasting.
According to the statistics of Cicada Mother, as of March 2021, the enterprise account accounted for 65% of the accounts with monthly sales of more than 1 million yuan on Douyin; among the accounts with monthly sales of more than 10 million, the enterprise accounted for 53%.
According to the "2021 Douyin E-commerce Merchant Self-broadcast White Paper", as of the end of October 2020, there were 1.2 million enterprise numbers broadcasting on Douyin, and the number of enterprises that started broadcasting daily increased by 400% compared with the end of 2019. In June 2021, the self-broadcast sales of Douyin e-commerce merchants exceeded 7 times that of the same period last year.
Wu Jincao also believed in the conference call that there is almost no super-head anchor in douyin live broadcasting, and a wide range of brand self-broadcasting has also become a major advantage of douyin.
In contrast, Taobao, which has a high degree of centralization and is extremely dependent on anchors, data provided by Soochow Securities shows that the sum of the sales of Taobao Live Top2 anchors in September 2021 exceeds the sum of the sales of the 3rd to 30th places.
Soochow Securities believes that after the super head anchor Wei Ya was punished, the pattern of e-commerce anchors has changed dramatically, and the sales channels of goods have changed. A report by Jiuqian Middle Station bluntly said that Wei Ya's penalty incident reshuffled the pattern of e-commerce anchors, and Douyin live broadcasting may threaten the status of Taobao live broadcasting.
From the perspective of the outside of the industry, the current live streaming with goods is still facing the strongest supervision. In addition to the high pressure of tax supervision ushered in by live broadcast anchors, the after-sales service, return rate, and uneven quality of anchors that have been criticized for live streaming goods have also failed to be widely recognized by consumers.
The addition of the Bee Surprise Society may be a division of live e-commerce. What will happen to the landscape of this industry in the future? What kind of prospects will regulation reshape live e-commerce? It's still worth waiting and seeing.
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