Image source @ Visual China
Wen | Chopped Pepper Finance, author | Sisyphus 24
On the second deck of a large cruise ship, there are stars such as Lin Ruiyang, Xiao Taohong and Zhang Ting. Among them, Lin Ruiyang wore white gloves and a captain's uniform and performed a "military salute".
The first-floor deck was crowded with young mothers and housewives who had come to "make a pilgrimage", who were both "entrepreneurs" and "family members" of Lin Ruiyang and Zhang Ting. They called Lin Ruiyang "big brother", and Lin Ruiyang called them "sisters".
This should be one of the highest moments in TST's history. As of May 2021, TST claims to have more than 12 million members and more than 3,000 companies.
Since then, Lin Ruiyang has spoken publicly on many occasions, saying to TST members, "I am so old, and I still fight so hard, for what?" It's because someone told me, big brother, you help me. So as long as I live, you will never fall. ”
These speeches that pinch the weaknesses of human nature have brought many young women to tears in the audience, and Lin Ruiyang's various exaggerated performances and actions have also been seen by them as a process of working hard for their careers. There are even female agents who make a video confession of Lin Ruiyang's hard work from 2015 to 2021.
At that time, some netizens said that this sense of ceremony was a pyramid scheme at a glance, and no one had yet come to check on them. Until recently, an agent in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, appeared and said that he had invested more than 300,000 yuan in 4 years, and the result was not to make money. The TST empire behind Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang was gradually included in the investigation.
In fact, as early as the era of micro-business, Zhang Ting was already a micro-business bigwig in the limelight, but later, the Internet traffic gradually shifted from WeChat to short video platforms such as Douyin, and Zhang Ting also moved the main position to Douyin, but the only constant is that TST has been cutting leeks, and it is the same batch of people who cut it.
Behind the investigation of Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang, we also found that the era of micro-business has become a thing of the past. Those once popular micro-business tycoons are gradually coming to an end.
From WeChat to Douyin operating TST for 8 years, how Zhang Ting "circumvented pyramid schemes"
TST has been operating for 8 years, why was Zhang Ting investigated?
In fact, from WeChat to Douyin, they often change their operating models, and also circumvent the restrictions of laws and regulations on MLM on the surface, but they still have not changed the essence of their business, ostensibly in the name of "zero threshold, zero risk entrepreneurship", but in fact, they fully conform to the three characteristics of MLM: entry fee, pulling people's heads, and team remuneration.
In 2020, live e-commerce exploded, becoming the easiest industry to make money, Zhang Ting also took advantage of the dividends of star live broadcasting to enter the scene, the first vibrato live broadcast 5 hours, the turnover reached 256 million yuan, directly refreshing Luo Yonghao's premiere record.
At that time, Douyin, Chen He, Wang Zulan and other stars formed a group to enter the game, but only made a short attempt, and stars such as Guan Xiaotong and Yang Ying were even more famous on the premiere. After a round of sand and sand, Zhang Ting, Zhu Zixiao, Qi Wei and other stars walked to the deep water area.
But what is not the same is that Zhu Zixiao, Qi Wei and other stars are using their acting careers to replace the cargo force and reap the private domain traffic from the daily life of Douyin. Zhang Ting's face is like this, but Lizi is in order to change channels to revitalize the former private domain.
The most obvious thing is that before the debut of Zhang Ting's douyin live broadcast, he had done a large-scale agent mobilization, announcing that TST would open 5G live broadcast with goods, and agents at all levels were mobilizing fans in their private domains, and guiding fans to Zhang Ting's live broadcast room to trade through pre-sale locks.
Feigua data shows that at that time, the traffic in Zhang Ting's live broadcast room was not all from Douyin, most of which was private domain traffic, which brought super high sales in the live broadcast room, of which the products of its own brand TST completed more than 100 million sales, and Zhang Ting directly increased the number of fans by 1.18 million.
The biggest feature of micro-business is that the product is the circle of acquaintance consumption, but when changing to a larger public domain traffic channel, for the inferior products purchased, more new users use rotten faces and other problems frequently. At the same time, the inferior consumption model that stays in the era of micro-business has also allowed many "downlines" to encounter problems such as a large number of hoarded goods that cannot be sold and are cheated online. As a result, a wide range of complaints and investigations made Zhang Ting and his wife TST court secretly identified as pyramid schemes.
Time to call back to the 2013 micro-business outbreak period, Zhang Ting and his wife are already MLM micro-business bigwigs.
In 2013, 7.52 million people poured into the micro-business industry, staging "traffic fission" at any time. Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting also do pyramid schemes in the name of cosmetics micro-businessmen, and have rapidly developed 6.76 million "members" in three years, with sales of tens of billions, but behind the "myth of gathering wealth" is the scam of "pulling people's heads, paying entry fees, and pyramid team remuneration".
In the process of developing members, The Company founded by Zhang Ting divided its members into Gold card members and small gold card members, and implemented a bonus system at the same time. In order to avoid pyramid schemes, they have been adjusting the team remuneration model since 2017, from multi-level to "second-level", from gold and silver cards to red and blue cards, but the rules are basically the same.
TST Court Secret 2020 Blue Card (left), Red Card Membership Bonus System
A TST agent said in an interview with the media that the product is sold to friends at a discount, plus a monthly rebate, just enough to make money, almost no money. The upper line told him, "Enough 100 downlines, you can set up a company, after the establishment of the company, there is a team management award, children and grandchildren are endless, all related to you." The line also said: "You have enough people now, but the performance is not enough, at least 100,000 yuan per month, for 3 consecutive months, in order to establish a company." ”
Subsequently, he began to borrow money to hoard goods, overdraft flowers, borrow, credit cards, and find classmates to borrow money. In order not to lose money, while constantly hoarding goods, while frantically pulling down the line.
Although there have been many doubts in the middle, from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019, the news that TST is about to be listed has emerged in an endless stream, one moment saying that it will be listed in A-shares, and the other saying that it will be listed in Hong Kong, until TST is identified as a pyramid scheme and The company is frozen, the agent reacts to his being deceived.
According to an Administrative Penalty Decision issued by the Hubei Baokang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau in September 2021, from January 1, 2018 to July 2021, Dalway Company has developed more than 7 million members, with a total of about 9.171 billion yuan in main business income related to pyramid schemes, a profit of 19.2799 million yuan, and a total of about 7.07 million members from January 1, 2018 to July 2021.
On January 6, industrial and commercial information showed that Zhang Tinglin Ruiyang was not a shareholder of the company involved. Lawyers say the couple controls the company through layers of agreements.
Why are moms willing to be cut repeatedly?
"I have too many houses, so much that I will get lost when I go home, and the land planted on top of the 140,000-square-meter house." "We also have five nannies in charge of all kinds of chores, and the bath water in the bathtub takes two hours to fill up." "I often tell Lin Ruiyang that I can live a life of less grandmother simply?" "There's a lot of money in the safe." Every time after listening to Zhang Ting's speech, the public will be stunned by her lies and poor "acting skills".
Since it will cause public disgust, who does Zhang Ting show off his wealth to? In fact, behind the more or less have bought her products 12 million members, most of them are bao moms, in urgent need of money, do not understand business.
Zhang Ting realized that in the private domain, all customers are short-term, and if you want to lengthen customer value and repeatedly cut leeks, you must "raise". Therefore, Zhang Ting opened the dream road of "independent women".
Cutting leeks in the private domain is a technical activity. It is not enough to instill chicken soup and success concepts that make people addicted, normal people will feel that they are fooling the public. In order to transform the trust of bao moms into complete worship, Zhang Ting has shaped herself into a model of "inspiring women to pursue independence".
Start by playing an inspirational card of "from childhood to adulthood, I want to make people land". Born in Taiwan, Zhang Ting's family is not rich, there are two sisters in the family, two sisters in the next, the first grade of primary school in the bakery to make money, self-made, 25 years old in Shanghai to buy a house, micro-business outlet is in full swing to become a "micro-business godmother", the channel is not behind, and transformed into "vibrato new with goods queen." ”
Play another "desperate card" to pretend that you are trying hard. According to Douyin records, Zhang Ting has conducted at least 87 live broadcasts in the past year. Once in the live broadcast, she cried with tears, "In order to give everyone (Bao Ma) a good income, 365 days a year, I work 356 days." Get up at 6 o'clock every day, sort out the information, give the members the answers, and fall asleep every day at midnight and three. ”
Then, she played out a series of "banknote abilities". From Tao Hong, Xu Zheng, Ming Dao, to Lin Zhiling and Wu Zongxian, Darwei, who does not lack star resources, has created a fan meeting. For entrepreneurs, the value of its resources has far exceeded the value of the product itself. It is understood that Zhang Ting spent a huge amount of money to buy a 17-story building on the Huangpu River, claiming to give Tao Hong and Ming Dao a floor. The implication is, "This is the era of heroes in the theory of strength, and even stars rely on me to make money."
In the process, she told the public again, "Even if I earn more, I will normally pay taxes", and in 2019, their company became the "tax champion" in Shanghai's Qingpu District, paying taxes of up to 2.1 billion yuan a year.
"Dreams are the universal currency of the world", this phrase appears more than once in Lin Ruiyang's autobiography. In order to weave this beautiful dream, they will hold many offline gatherings every year to give their members chicken blood, brainwashing, and family building. Lin Ruiyang once said at a party: "I am a man who can never fall down standing in front of you!" I want to be your dependence, I will never let you have the pressure of hoarding goods, I want you to be happy to start a business. ”
The chairman of a normal company is the leader of the company. In order to let members feel their progress, in Zhang Ting's company, every employee is a manager to start, the chairman to lay the foundation, the earlier the director, the faster the chairman rises, the grassroots sell masks are basically the director level.
In this way, the member became Zhang Ting's "believer", the greedy star "stood up" for her, and joined forces to carry out multi-means of mental control over the "downline", so as to earn a full pot.
Today, the building has fallen, and the founder's news is unknown.
Behind Zhang Ting, the declining micro-business
The micro-business industry has always been questioned about the suspected pyramid schemes, tax evasion and other issues, and in recent years, micro-business tycoons are falling from high. Last year, even Gong Wenxiang, known as the "first person of micro-business", also announced that the company was bankrupt and withdrew from the micro-business industry. Zhang Ting's TST is not the first and not the last.
At that time, micro-businesses quickly occupied the circle of friends of most people by using the low threshold. Around 2015, brands such as TST, Pretty Ten Years old, and Sibu also completed fission at that time.
In 2018, Weishang Jianghu reached its heyday. At the same time, the profit model of micro-businessmen has also changed, from the early multi-level agent of brands to the platform hierarchical distribution.
The micro-business platform can provide a large number of SKUs, and the entry threshold is very low, all warehousing and distribution is also handled by the platform, agents do not have to hoard goods and package delivery, only need to help the platform sell a certain amount of goods, you can upgrade to distribution, get commission.
At that time, in addition to TST being a relatively well-known micro-business brand, there were many successful micro-business cases.
Kuaishou's head anchor Simba's wife, Chu Ruixue, also started as a "micro-business". As early as 2014, Chu Ruixue set up the CBB team and created its own skin care brand ZUZU. By 2016, CBB had more than 1 million agents.
But since 2019, micro-business has gradually begun to decline. Because the "E-commerce Law" stipulates that micro-businesses who want to continue to operate must apply for a self-employed business license or a company license. Under the strict supervision of the policy, many micro-business brands have been cancelled or fined.
At the same time, the traffic of short video platforms has risen, and Internet traffic has gradually transitioned from WeChat to short videos and live broadcasts. The "lowest price" in the DTC mode in the live broadcast room also makes the value of micro-business no longer have an advantage. Most of the micro-businesses that once occupied the circle of friends are now turning to live e-commerce to do their own private domain traffic.
But not all micro-businesses can play with short video platforms. After all, to do micro-business on the WeChat platform, you only need to send graphic messages in the circle of friends, and the advertisement will be automatically pushed to all acquaintances on the address book. However, the content requirements of short video platforms are higher, not only to be able to do copywriting, to produce videos, but also to operate various traffic.
Therefore, many micro-businesses have not successfully shifted from WeChat to the position of short videos. At the end of last year, at a short video platform service provider conference, a top micro-business who achieved financial freedom at the age of 30 privately said that he built a lot of matrix accounts on Douyin and Kuaishou to sell masks, and the previous system could not be sold, but he was not familiar with the gameplay of the short video platform, and he also came to learn, and by the way, he knew more service provider friends.
Not only is the micro-business big guy declining, but even the once micro-business gathering place Youzan has also begun to decline.
The predecessor of Youzan is Pocket Pass, which helps merchants open stores, trade, and do marketing on WeChat, and is known as "micro-business leader". In 2019, Pocket Pass changed its name to Youzan, seizing many dividends in the growth process of WeChat. But a few years have passed, and youzan, who has been ripened by the traffic, has gradually been beaten back to the prototype. Not long ago, Youzan was exposed to large-scale layoffs, as well as news of tight capital chain.
After the change of the sky of micro-business, the head of the micro-business big man successfully transformed into a short video anchor, but more small and medium-sized micro-businesses began to turn to the operation of private domain traffic to improve customer stickiness.
Zhang Ting was investigated, and the last "signboard" of the weishang jianghu collapsed violently.