From Douyin to B station, Xiucai and a smile fell on the road to popularity
Reporter He Chang
Edited by Gao Yulei
Do you know "Xiucai"? Do you know who "Laughing Down" is?
Faced with such a problem, some people may look confused. Because, the show talent here is not the Lu Qinghou who reads poetry books and opens his mouth to close his mouth "the son once knew" in the TV series "The Legend of Wulin", and the smile is not the KTV divine comedy of singer Wang Sulong that spreads all over the streets and alleys and makes people "unforgettable at first sight". In the Douyin world built by short videos and live broadcasts, one of them is the idols in the hearts of aunts and grannies, and is affectionately called "Xiucai brother", "good brother" and "handsome brother" by the latter; One is the dream lover of uncles and uncles, and the comment area is full of enthusiastic confessions and praise, such as: "If there was you in the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, why should the king fall in love with himself." ”
A video user told the power plant that her understanding of Xiucai and Yixiao came from the second creation (that is, secondary creation) video of the UP master of station B, especially imitation. In fact, Douyin, Kuaishou, B Station, Xiaohongshu and other platforms have no lack of co-production, editing, and commentary of the video content of the two, and even spawned a large number of porter accounts that make a living from it. The two who were once only active in the middle-aged and elderly user groups of Douyin achieved "breaking the circle" and began to be known to more young users, but they also had to meet the ensuing onlookers, scrutiny, and questions.
How did Xiucai and Yixiao fall on fire? To answer this question, you must first understand their audience. To some extent, this is a process of algorithm segmentation and convergence, and demand folding and opening again.
This is how the "top stream" is refined
Xiucai, aged 39, from Mengcheng County, Bozhou City, Anhui Province, is a Douyin Internet celebrity with more than 12 million fans. One interesting story is that in May this year, a 72-year-old man traveled thousands of miles from Jilin just to see him. In the face of the persuasion of "young people see netizens, why are you so fascinated", the old man was not moved, but asked rhetorically: "When you are older, you are not interested in seeing netizens?" ”
Netizens failed to "rush to appear" (that is, from online communication to real-world development), but Xiucai's fame continued to rise. Viewers are curious about what is sacred that can make the old man's heart think "you must see this person's side", but after clicking into its Douyin homepage, they are puzzled: Why can this also be popular?
A national character face, short hair, a solid color shirt or polo shirt with a lapel, and a pair of suit pants, a blazer can be worn on the body or in the crook of the arm - this is all Xiucai's appearance. In the video, he walks in the field, humming "It's not my fault that I love you, it's your beauty that caused trouble", or lamenting "Little sister sent a lover to the east of the gate". Without exception, these are lip-synching songs. Among them, several reserved songs such as "Not Afraid of Mistakes", "Little Sister Sends Lover", "Nothing Hums", "Not Enough Love" appear repeatedly, and the same melody can even be used dozens of times.
For creators who keep up with hot spots and don't forget trends, repetition is both a drain of inspiration and a powerless compromise. However, Xiucai's fans don't care about these. In the eyes of his aunts and aunts, his interpretation is sincere and tireless, not only "handsome and dead to death", but also "the honor of this life". On the days when Xiucai suspended the live broadcast, there was no lack of Yin Yin concern in the comment area: "Distant brother, what's going on, I haven't seen you live for a long time, it's very busy, right?" Seeing the "good brother" using cigarettes as props, he had to tell a few words: "Smoking is harmful to health, it's better not to smoke!" ”
If Xiu is the walking "harvester of middle-aged and elderly women", then a smile is equivalent to "Yi Mengling in the minds of middle-aged and elderly men". A smile fell into the city, claiming to be a post-80s generation, a native of Shanxian County, Heze City, Shandong Province. Compared with Xiucai, her fan base on Douyin is even larger, currently exceeding 19 million, more than the number of fans of Internet celebrity Yi Mengling. Its video route is also based on lip-synching singing, with a sweet smile, rolling eyes, and some simple dance moves, which has already fascinated uncles and uncles.
Some users wrote large messages to confess, sending memes such as love, flowers, and likes below each video, shushing and asking for warmth without stopping, vowing to walk with the "sister of the city" all the way. Other users choose to attack with a lot of money, giving gifts in the live broadcast room, without mercy, just to receive a word of thanks in exchange for a smile.
Users who have watched the live broadcast of Yixiao City recall that after a PK, almost all the gift special effects have walked back and forth on the screen, including "Porsche", "Private Plan", "Douyin No. 1", "Carnival", etc., respectively, it costs 1200 Dou coins, 3000 TikTok, 10001 TikTok, 30000 TikTok coins - calculated by 10 TikTok coins equivalent to 1 yuan, their unit prices are 120 yuan, 300 yuan, 1000 yuan, 3000 yuan, 3000 yuan. "When I first brushed her live broadcast, I felt that the big brothers' planes seemed to be without money, and in just 5 minutes, they could fly over 10. I heard that a certain big brother seems to be a level 60 fan, and he can't be higher. ”
Another person in the live broadcast industry revealed to the power plant that the amount of live broadcast tips corresponding to level 60 fans is 20 million yuan, and the monthly live broadcast tips for anchors of the level of Yixiao City are basically about millions of yuan, even if they sign a guild, the anchor's share is not less than 50%, only more.
A content industry observer believes that Xiucai has some similarities with the reason for the popularity of the city. First of all, they intentionally or unintentionally cater to the preferences of middle-aged and elderly user groups in image shaping, which is a blue ocean - compared with the younger generation with richer and more diverse entertainment methods, their content consumption needs need to be effectively filled; Secondly, the video style of the two is simple and straightforward, and the single form at this time is not a disadvantage, but an advantage - lowering the threshold helps to improve user stickiness, and the audience will only gather and will not lose; In the end, they all maintained a high frequency of updates and interactions, and gradually became part of the emotional sustenance of fans.
Of course, the choice of track, the framing of the personality, and the control of content are only the prerequisites for Xiucai and a smile to highlight the siege on Douyin and win a large number of middle-aged and elderly users. They can break the circle outside the existing user group, and the key lies in the derivation and fermentation of a series of secondary creations. From this as a starting point, the originally folded world opens up, and together with their audience, they are pushed to a larger stage.
When the folded world is opened
A post-90s user who has just fallen into the "Xiucai universe" remembers that her "acquaintance" with Xiucai began at Station B. On a boring weekend afternoon, she casually opened a "Lalang" (i.e. CP) video of Jin Dong and Xiucai, and since then she has been out of control, and has been seeing the recommended video from the homepage, not only marveling at the brain hole of the UP lord Qingqi, but also screaming at the message that "the money that Jin Dong can't see has been earned by Xiucai".
Another post-95 user's perception of the popularity of a smile comes from Xiaohongshu. At first, it was a PK between a smile and other anchors, and then it was an analysis of "whether a smile can be a big hit", and now it has evolved to "how to become a creator like a smile". She described her mental journey as "questioning a smile, understanding a smile, and becoming a smile."
Because Douyin and Kuaishou allow nickname repetition, many accounts with two avatars have gathered a considerable number of unknown and admiring fans with the help of live screen recording, screen occlusion and secondary editing. Douyin's "Xiucai brother" with 103,000 fans and another "Xiucai" with 85,000 fans; Kuaishou has 239,000 fans of "A smile is coming" and 110,000 fans of "A smile in the city". So much so that a smile was specially marked on the Douyin homepage: "Because there are too many people impersonating me, everyone will only recognize this one number in the future... Please be sure to look at my Douyin number and my Douyin name, as well as the number of fans." ”
Other platforms such as Station B and Xiaohongshu are full of deconstruction and second creation of two-person video content. Taking Xiucai as an example, "Xiucai Dormitory" uploaded by UP master "Ji Yiyeye" on August 19 has received more than 13 million views. Popular reviews summed up Xiucai's signature move as: "Pretend to be serious about something; pretend to have accidentally found into the lens; At first, he began to be shy, and put his fist in front of his mouth; Start spitting letters; Start lip-syncing and make movements of unknown meaning. The Funny Section of Station B even specially launched topic submission activities such as "Xiucai is by my side" and "Xiucai Challenge" to attract creators to join the army of "playing terriers" and "whole work".
Xiucai and Yixiao fell into the city and "out of the circle". According to the Feigua data platform, as of press time, the increase in fans of Xiucai and Yixiao in 30 days was 2.135 million and 1.699 million respectively. A large number of young users flocked to the Douyin comment area of Xiucai and the smile, and their speeches also developed from squatting to parents to personal anti-strings, and there are many post-00s who "brave the trend area" and seize the front row.
The aforementioned content industry observers mentioned that whether it is Xiucai or Yixiaocheng, it has long become popular among the middle-aged and elderly user groups they are targeting, but it has not yet been widely detected by other user groups outside this circle - the new data platform under the new list shows that Xiucai's female fans account for nearly seventy percent, 41-50 years old fans account for 24.66%, and fans over 50 years old account for 47.83%; The proportion of male fans who smiled was nearly eighty percent, 31.84% were 41-50 years old, and 42.13% were over 50 years old. In other words, the two are veritable "middle-aged and elderly top".
A video industry practitioner analyzed to the power plant that this is related to the segmentation of the Douyin algorithm, that is, the natural distribution of the algorithm to classify the content and its audience, and finally create a distinction in the result, and the differentiation of the algorithm is precisely a kind of folding. In recent years, Douyin and Kuaishou have been working in the field of rural areas, which has also attracted more and more creators and users to produce and consume content to a certain extent. "They, like Ding Zhen in the past, should have grown naturally, Douyin's DAU (number of daily active users) has exceeded 800 million, it is a strange thing that there are no such creators."
The young users who broke into it, and the ensuing second creation, together formed an important force to break the original circle, single-handedly transmitting these two names to other platforms, such as stones entering the water, rippling outward on the surface of the lake. They are full of curiosity about the show talent and the smile of tens of millions of fans, and they are puzzled by the hot confession in the comment area despite the typos. They opened a folded world, but couldn't read how it came to this day.
In the view of the aforementioned content industry observers, the hard pursuit of some elderly people for show talent and smiling is no different from young people forgetting food and sleep for idols, both of which are part of entertainment life and belong to the outward projection of their own emotions. It's just that the two sides have made different target choices from their own aesthetic perspectives and shaped multiple branches of mass entertainment. An example that can be used to corroborate is that Cai Xukun, who debuted through the talent variety show "Idol Trainee", his most well-known work is not a stage video cherished by fans, but a "playing basketball" clip that has been played countless times. "In contrast, the 'out of the loop' process is similar."
In other words, whether old or young, there is nowhere to spend time and attention in need of a suitable habitat. Those preferences and hidden emotions layered by the platform algorithm will always end up the same at some moment due to the external force of the breakthrough algorithm. As for the change in the role of onlookers and onlookers, it is just a shift in discourse. As one two-dimensional user put it: "I no longer try to understand why my parents are obsessed with show talent and smiles, just as they don't understand where my love for the two-dimensional world comes from." ”