Image source: Oriental IC
This year's 315 party is the "Good Friday" of the "big brother of the list".
At the party, the "male operation" behind the female anchor became one of the topics. In front of the camera, the female anchor performed hard to encourage fans to brush gifts, and from time to time played slogans such as "brush rocket plus WeChat", which attracted the hearts of fans' "husbands". Who expected, after brushing gifts, plus the anchor WeChat, the object of daily chat is not the anchor himself, but a few "foot-cutting men" - specialized male operators.
After the 315 evening party was exposed, the behavior of Harbin Juxiang Interactive Entertainment Media Co., Ltd., HuayiBo Trading Co., Ltd., and Yitai Media Company involved in live broadcast fraud was investigated and punished.
According to media reports, on March 4, the Harbin Municipal Public Security Bureau arrested Harbin Juxiang Interactive Entertainment Media, arresting five people, including the main responsible person, operation personnel and anchor; on March 17, the police again arrested 18 people involved in the Heilongjiang branch of HuayiBo Commercial and Trade Co., Ltd.
In the live broadcast circle, the phenomenon of 315 party exposure still exists and is not uncommon. Liu Qin (pseudonym), a person from the live broadcast circle guild, told the IT Times reporter that the combination of "female anchor + male operation" is too common in the live broadcast circle, and there are many similar operators around him. After chasing the 315 party, the operators around Liu Qin reacted in two categories: first, they felt that netizens were a bit "fussy"; second, they recognized that the male operators exposed in the video were highly skilled and skilled, "some experienced operations". I don't know if such a statement means that such chaos may still be frequently staged in the live broadcast room.
On March 17, the Information Office of the State Council proposed 10 key tasks for the "Qinglang Action" in 2022, the first two of which were: "Cracking down on chaos in the field of online live broadcasting and short video" and "rectifying the chaos of information content of MCN institutions"; on March 21, Douyin Live issued the "Announcement of Douyin on Cracking Down on the Black Industry Chain of Live Broadcast Fraud", saying that from now on, special crackdowns on live black production will be launched, focusing on promoting MCN governance and account governance.
Under the public's attention, a corner of the live broadcast circle was set off, and behind the female anchors there was not only "male operation", but also a mixed "live broadcast guild", the storm reached the fragile core, and the root of the disease entrenched in the industry was gradually revealed.
01
"Hard money" that "cheated"
For an anchor, "liking" is very important, but what is more important is how to convert the fans' love into real money, and the "inducement to tip" behavior around this point is almost rampant. Liu Qin told reporters that the current model of most live broadcast platforms is roughly the same: "talking" is a compulsory course, and "operation" is inevitable.
In the live broadcast circle, anchors with a large number of fans divide fans into four categories: the first type of "a dime does not brush", which can only be regarded as a number of people; the second type of consumption of 300 yuan to 2,000 yuan, in order to have a slight sense of existence; the third type of consumption of 10,000 to 100,000 yuan, will become the anchor, the object of attention of the operator; the fourth type of consumption of more than 100,000 yuan, even in other people's live broadcast room, anchors, operations will find ways to add WeChat private chat.
Although a lot of money is paid, most of the female anchor WeChat accounts added by "Big Brother" are "work numbers", and the boss and operation can log in, which is open within the company. "Both male and female anchors inevitably induce fans to tip and let professional operators be responsible for chatting, but such situations are more common in female anchors." Liu Qin said that maintaining a long-term live broadcast, PK and even wheat needs to consume a lot of energy for anchors, and the next broadcast will only leave time for the "most worthwhile" "big brother".
Streamers who are streaming PK live
In addition, the operation is not easy. The live broadcast time is not fixed, the operation must follow the anchor time, in addition to the chat on WeChat, the operation often needs to concurrently serve as the "room manager" of the live broadcast, activate the atmosphere of the live broadcast room, help the anchor plan the program, edit and produce the video, and deal with some affairs between the guild, the platform and the anchor. Experienced operations, many need to track several anchors at the same time.
"Live streaming is more like a manual job." Liu Qin concluded that there are often more boys than girls in the industry, the way to rise in the job is not obvious, the salary system is similar to sales, and most of them earn seven or eight thousand yuan. In the 315 party exposure video, harbin juxiang interactive entertainment media recruiters have said that the anchor received 50% of the gifts received by the platform, 25% of the guild, and the anchor and the operation took the remaining 25%.
02
"Guerrilla warfare" under supervision
"Live Guilds" fall under the broad category of MCN, but are slightly different.
Compared with MCN institutions relying on talents to "eat", involved in and monetization methods more, "live broadcast guilds" often only focus on live broadcast business, such companies serve live broadcast platforms, while recruiting a large number of anchors based on platform rules, training anchors, docking platforms as the main work content.
According to the "2021 China Online Live Broadcasting Industry Development Research Report" released by Ai Media Consulting, the scale of China's online live broadcasting users will reach 635 million in 2021, and it is expected to increase to 660 million in 2022, and the number of MCN institutions in that year will be 34,000, showing a slow growth.
Image source: Ai Media Consulting
After years of brutal growth, the live broadcast platform has finally entered the head competition stage. The still expanding market size made the viewers move, so after the hot money poured into the live broadcast circle, the "live broadcast guild" mushroomed. The rise of such companies is precisely the result of the influx of capital into the online live broadcasting industry.
However, the single profit model makes chaos frequent, and mainstream gameplay such as live PK cannot get rid of the suspicion of "inducing tips". "The current profit model of the live broadcasting industry mainly relies on fan tips and goods." Xiang Kai, a young playwright and director, once told the media that the entry threshold for Internet live broadcasting is low, the fish and dragons are mixed, and the chaos of live broadcasting lacks effective supervision.
A live broadcast platform insider told reporters that live broadcast control has become stricter in recent years, and in the past, some platforms would "blow the wind" to the guild in advance, reminding the "spot check" that it was coming, leaving time for the latter to prepare, reminding the anchor to avoid sensitive topics, exposing clothing and other violations, but such a continuous "guerrilla war" is not the way after all.
In addition to low-quality anchors, uneven guilds have increasingly become a major factor hindering the healthy development of the live broadcast environment. "Hydrogen Consumption" once reported that a game anchor was lured to join a guild by resources such as "popularity support" and "recommendation bit", but after that, the guild did not fulfill its promise at all, and also drew 60% of the gift income every month, and "played disappeared" from time to time.
"It's not uncommon for small guilds to have this happen." The insider of the above-mentioned live broadcast platform revealed to the "IT Times" reporter that the general large guild still cares about reputation, but there are also "black" guilds that trick newcomer anchors into signing contracts and rely on liquidated damages to survive.
03
The "Black" Guild doesn't just livestream
Not only live broadcasting, but also the above-mentioned guild operating model has been copied to other fields, and it has also caused no small harm.
"1v1 stranger dating, covering text, voice, video and other chat methods, such platforms are currently common to the guild." The person in charge of Antian mobile security-related business told the "IT Times" reporter that as a technology company focusing on the security of mobile users, they also analyzed the live broadcast chaos exposed by the 315 evening party and found that similar user fraud is widely present on various dating platforms, and most of the 1v1 guilds exist in the form of cultural media companies, recruiting chatmen and agents to the outside world, and functioning similar to the anchors and operations on the live broadcast platform.
1v1 Stranger Dating, as the name suggests, every user can match the person who chats.
In fact, such platforms often only charge male users, play "yellow chat" from time to time, and there are a large number of "chatmen" affiliated with the guild on the platform. "IT Times" reporter searched for "chatmen" on various recruitment platforms and found that there were quite a few related positions, and the job description promised "monthly income of more than 10,000" and "new person package training".
"Training refers to learning how to say hello and guide users to recharge." The person in charge of Antian Mobile Security-related business revealed to reporters that compared with the live broadcast platform guild, the form of such guilds is more hidden and more targeted, so the nature is more bad and closer to the network black and gray production.
Taking the dating app as an example, according to Antian mobile security statistics, each developer in the dating industry has an average of 35 "skin changing" applications (the kernel is the same, the appearance is packaged into different App applications), there is serious "skin changing" behavior, for example, a company has associated a total of 17 dating applications and 11 different companies, located across the country, in order to avoid market supervision and review. In addition, around this type of app, there are also auxiliary tool apps that specialize in providing "talk skills", which are fully managed to deceive chat revenue.
In the gray area of the network, deformed formats have long been formed. The money obtained by female anchors and male operators is from students' wallets and online loans from hit workers, and the fraudulent behavior of internal and external cooperation continues to drain the savings of fans, and the degree of evil is often better than that of "pig killing plates".
Bad money drives out good money, and market development is calling for healthy soil. The second item of the 2022 "Qinglang" action mentions: "Urge key website platforms to establish a hierarchical management system for MCN institutions, and clarify the standards and responsibilities of MCN institutions' information content business activities through the platform MCN agency settlement agreement" Obviously, the spearhead has been aimed at the guild behind live broadcasting and accompaniment, and this industry that has been derailed due to rapid development may usher in an earthquake.
Author / IT Times reporter Cui Pengzhi
Editor / Wang Xin Kicked Sister
Typography / Ji Jiaying
Photo/ State Council Information Office Douyin Ai Media Consulting Oriental IC
Source/IT Times public account vittimes