Image source @ Visual China
The article | CBNData consumption station, the author is | Liang Xin, and the editor is | Zhong Rui
On April 18, "the live broadcast department of Station B may lay off the overall staff" on the hot search. In response, Station B responded, "The live broadcast business is very good, the gross profit is improving for three consecutive years, and the future is one of the most important businesses of Station B, and it is currently actively recruiting to the outside world." CBNData checked the recruitment information of Station B and found that there are a number of live broadcast related positions in open recruitment, of which live e-commerce is one of the key points of recruitment, including business, user growth, UP main operation, live broadcast traffic strategy and other aspects. This means that Station B will try to attract more talents in 2022, build a systematic team and make up for the shortcomings of live streaming with goods.
Within the platform, this determination is concretely reflected. CBNData observed that recently a number of UP owners have completed the debut of live streaming with goods on the B station, and have shown a trend of normalization.
More than 100 days have passed since the launch of the "Little Yellow Car" function, what changes have occurred in the live streaming ecology of Station B? From the recently launched UP main, goods category, live broadcast features, etc., we can get a glimpse of the "undercurrent" under the "calm wind and waves".
Live streaming with goods UP master "new and old replacement"
In 2021, Station B has gradually taken the initiative to take the initiative in bringing goods to live broadcasts, and has completed a series of actions such as recruiting UP main internal tests, acquiring payment licenses, and launching the "little yellow car" function.
After building the infrastructure, Station B did not vigorously promote the live broadcast room with goods in the platform, and users need to pay attention to the UP master before they can brush the relevant information with goods in the dynamic.
Nowadays, from the perspective of the platform, live streaming is still relatively "secretive", but Station B is also increasing support. On the one hand, it is to encourage more UP owners who are suitable for carrying goods to join. The two UP owners, who had just made their debut in early April, said they had begun to try to bring goods under the official impetus. On the other hand, Station B has given traffic support to the live broadcast room with goods. CBNData and friends around him have received pop-up push up master's live streaming.
Specific to the UP owners who participate in the live broadcast with goods, they can find the changes in the "new and old replacement" in more detail.
During the 2021 internal test, the live broadcast of the two UP owners of "Film and Television Hurricane" and "Moving Gun DongDongGun" has a relatively large impact and caused more discussion. They are exclusively stationed in station B, the former has more than 4 million fans, ranked among the top 100 UP owners for three consecutive years, the latter has less than one million fans, but the video topic and style have more "brain holes", accumulating a certain fan influence, laying the foundation for their goods; in addition, the two UP owners have their own brands, mainly for the products of self-operated stores in the early stage, reducing the cost of selection and the risk of "rollover", and gradually trying to bring goods for other brands. Even with the personal influence bonus of the UP owner and the transition to the goods of the independent brand, the user's attitude towards live streaming is still two-level differentiation, and there are often fans who argue endlessly about "whether to live stream goods on station B".
For whatever reason, now the two UP owners have stopped carrying goods, and some "new faces" have entered the live broadcast room of Station B. As the core role of the live broadcast room, they have their own characteristics in terms of personal quality, selection ability, live broadcast rhythm control, etc., which provides a partial reference for "what capabilities do UP masters need to have to live stream goods on station B".
First of all, UP owners who can grasp the ecology of different platforms and have experience in content monetization and e-commerce are more likely to open live streaming on station B. From the perspective of the newly launched UP owners, their fan base is not very bright, but they are more influential in their respective vertical fields, and their multi-platform creative experience also makes them have a deeper understanding of fan preferences, platform gameplay, and content changes. Some UP owners also have live streaming or e-commerce related experience on other platforms, which can help them enter the state of carrying goods faster at Station B and reduce the probability of "rollover".
For these UP owners, the significance of broadcasting on station B is to seize the early dividend "preconceived". After all, in the situation that other platforms live streaming goods are in full swing, it is difficult for ordinary talents to have new opportunities. Taking "Xuancao Daylily" as an example, its initial broadcast on Douyin, 30,000 fans, 22 games with cumulative sales of 351,000 (Feigua data, as of April 19, 2022) is not outstanding, coupled with its relatively Red Sea beauty skin care track, it is difficult to break through. In station B, the UP master has 169,000 fans, and the long videos with relatively good foundation and good at are more in line with the tone of the platform. The live broadcast debut of Station B on April 8 is a new attempt to seek traffic monetization.
Secondly, in addition to the "machine shop" mainly for the self-operated Taobao store with goods diversion, other UP owners are the conventional way of collecting commissions with goods. Although these UP owners do not have supply chain resources, they are more familiar with the processes of product selection, bargaining, business cooperation and so on, and have their own methodologies. "Xuancao daylily" and "Mr Fan" are good at product evaluation, the former has an intensive evaluation of the Internet celebrity beauty products in the head anchor live broadcast room, and the latter has a deep understanding of the "artifact" and "IQ tax" during decoration, these experiences make them know what products match fan preferences and can "sell" in the live broadcast room. On this basis, the professional team and B station officials further help them complete the negotiation, business and other processes. In addition to the products on the shelves that are strongly related to their own sanctions, there are also UP owners who try to expand the scope of categories. For example, "Xuancao Daylily" extends from beauty and skin care to categories with similar target groups such as snacks and small household appliances; "Tian Yuehuan sirius" collects suggestions from fans about the selection of products, saying that it will "try to talk about it".
From draining the flow of self-operated stores to collecting commissions, it also means that UP owners live stream goods on station B, more in order to obtain direct income and provide financial support for content creation. Recently, a number of B station UP said on Zhihu that after the creator incentive revision of B station, the income declined significantly. "Xuancao Daylily" introduced in the video in early April that it was difficult to increase fans and reduce income, and the live streaming was to make up for the decline in income; "Mr Fan" also publicly explained to fans that more income was needed to cover the cost of purchasing products and creating evaluation content.
From the user's point of view, they show a stronger tolerance for up's main live stream. Nowadays, in the comment area of these UP main dynamics, there is less quarrel about "whether to bring goods", and more is the discussion and suggestion of the selection, indicating that the UP master can "just eat", but not "just bad rice".
Despite this, UP owners are still relatively "restrained" about live streaming. On the one hand, UP owners try to answer various nonsense questions in the comment area in addition to bringing goods, or increase entertainment links such as singing, so that the live broadcast room is closer to the chat. On the other hand, it is to control the rhythm of live broadcasting, focusing on weekly broadcasting, and try not to squeeze the time of content production. After the live broadcast, these UP owners will communicate with fans about the original intention and their own feelings. In response to a question about how often live streams affect video updates, "Xuancao daylily" said that live streams "have no impact" on their videos. "Mr. Fan" also released a video to mention his thinking on "traffic monetization" and "traffic harvesting" in order to arouse fans' empathy.
Why can high-priced goods and brand special sessions enter the live broadcast room of Station B?
Since the current B station has not promoted live broadcasting with goods on a large scale, from the perspective of the traffic composition of the live broadcast room, the fans of the UP main body occupy the main body, which is the biggest difference between the B station with goods and other platforms. Under such logic, "live streaming with goods" is more like "private domain with goods".
This brings some "differences" to the B station live streaming.
First of all, in addition to the FMCG products that are easy to sell, heavy decision-making, high customer unit price computers, home improvement supplies appear in the B station live broadcast room. For the platform and UP owner who have just been involved in live streaming, this seems to be out of the conventional logic, and the reason comes from the professionalism and influence accumulated by the UP owner in the vertical field. For example, "Mr Fan Stare" is positioned in "decoration anti-deception", "home improvement strategy", etc., to cut to the pain point that users are afraid of stepping on the decoration and paying the "IQ tax", and circle a group of fans.
Up main needs to monetize, users need professional guidance, the needs of both sides of the needs of the combination of the up main goods to provide the possibility of high customer unit price products, but this puts forward higher requirements for the UP main recommended products, the professionalism of the service. When "Mr. Miyan" introduced the air purifier in the live broadcast, it will conduct on-site experiments to show the effect of the product under laboratory conditions, and the team has also established an exclusive WeChat group to solve after-sales problems for purchase users.
UP master uses laboratories and professional instruments to display products during live broadcasting, and the source @B station
Secondly, the UP owner is more cautious in the selection of products, attaches great importance to the "brand sense", and even presents it in the form of a brand special session. Taking the two beauty UP owners as an example, in their debut with goods, there have been new domestic brands that have been popular with young consumers in recent years, such as Book by Book, Dr. Yaoer, and Blank Me. Among them, "Xuancao daylily" did not sign mcN, for SIMILAR UP owners who lack a professional team, although the choice of "brand goods" does not have a low-cost drainage effect, it can at least avoid the risks of failure in selection and after-sales difficulties.
In the live broadcast room of "Mr Fan Gaze", special sessions of genji wood language, 352, lin's wood and other brands have been opened successively. For up owners, the brand session avoids the cost of communicating with multiple brands and reduces the difficulty of selecting products; for brands, this type of high-priced, low-repurchase products are displayed in a combination form, which can brush up the sense of existence in up main fans, which is a more efficient cooperation model.
Specific to the real data level, similar to the high customer unit price, brand special live broadcast with goods, by the B station users welcome and recognition?
From the perspective of popularity, there is no myth of other platforms with goods, but for the B station and the UP owner, it is an attempt to accumulate experience. For UP owners who have just started to bring goods and have no bargaining power, it is almost impossible to give the price of "the lowest price in the whole network", so it is necessary to work hard in terms of gifts, free orders, lottery, etc., reasonably match tools, and increase popularity. The four UP masters have launched the "reservation with prize" function in the live broadcast reservation, and some UP owners have also added the free single and B station "natural selection time" bullet screen lottery tools in the live broadcast room to store water heat in the live broadcast room.
Specific to sales performance, it is more obscure. The UP owners did not explicitly announce their debut results. From the feedback from the comment area after the live broadcast, and the continuous participation of people joining the fan base to ask whether the group purchase activity is over, you can get a glimpse of the fans' "money" support for the UP master. For UP owners, the sales performance in the short term is not important, after all, the cultivation of fan habits, the exploration of the platform ecology, and the improvement of their own style of carrying goods are all long-term processes. "Mr. Fan" also said in the video that removing the cost of welfare, "the first few live broadcasts with goods are actually not profitable."
After the debut, the next step is even more difficult
Although a difficult first step has been taken, it does not mean that the path of live streaming with goods has been smoothly opened. At least for now, up owners face different degrees of dilemma. For UP owners who have just completed their debut, they have more or less exposed problems such as nervousness, inadequate control of speed and rhythm, and incorrect links or prices. Removing the influence of personal experience, in the long run, how to reasonably select products according to fans' preferences and infiltrate the influence of goods to people other than fans still faces many obstacles.
After all, there are already UP masters who have encountered real problems that need to be solved in the near future. Under the latest live broadcast preview of "Mr. Fan", there are once again doubts about its "monetization frequency is too high" and "the selection is unprofessional". Although the fans of station B have crossed the psychological threshold of "up owners cannot bring goods in station B", they still cannot accept frequent broadcasting.
Under the latest live broadcast preview of "Mr. Misty", there are many doubtful voices, and the source @B Station
In this regard, one of the solutions of the UP owner is to direct fans with high acceptance of goods into the WeChat private domain. Similar to Li Jiaqi, "Mr Mijiao" has a WeChat public account and a "Miguide Preferred" Mini Program mall, which has repeatedly promoted and drained mini programs in the dynamics of B station, and the fan base formed for live broadcasting is also based on WeChat as a carrier, which is convenient for associating with the mini program ecology. The products of this Mini Program come from the JD store and cover various categories. CBNData speculates that "Misty Preferred" serves as a distribution platform to collect points from the sale of goods as a profit model.
But not all UP owners have the ability to give such a solution. Even if the user's opposition is overcome, from the perspective of the platform, Station B is still facing a greater shortcoming in live streaming. From a large aspect, the lack of its own supply chain and the dependence on jumping Taobao are themselves a complication of the shopping process, which is detrimental to the user's ordering experience, and payment, logistics, and after-sales service also rely heavily on external platforms. From the subtle links, the advantages of the bullet screen culture that Station B is proud of in the live broadcast room with goods are no longer obvious, and the text in the comment area is displayed on the bullet screen in real time, but it will obscure the important product information in the live broadcast room, which is "redundant and messy" and will distract the audience.
Overall, although there is no big splash in the live streaming of station B, subtle changes are quietly occurring under the calm of the wind and waves. It is still too early to discuss the impact of live streaming on the commercialization and profitability of B station; but for the UP main individual, live streaming provides a new monetization possibility for it, and for the brand, early layout and co-creation with UP main are also an exploration of the blue ocean market of live streaming with goods.