Li Jiaqi, can you retire?
Li Jiaqi himself does not want to become a negative case of public relations, but judging from the results, the last 3 days may be the 3 days when he wants to leave the hot search the most.
The live broadcast on September 9 became the source of everything, Li Jiaqi Taobao live broadcast sold Hua Xizi eyebrow pencil, in the face of 79 yuan a eyebrow pencil (two replacement cores are given away), some users left a message saying "more and more expensive", Li Jiaqi immediately replied that "where is it expensive", "so many years at this price" and "domestic brands are difficult".
Of course, there is also the sentence that has gone from consumer dissatisfaction to public opinion tsunami, and finally almost became a hot meme: "Sometimes find your own reasons, have your wages risen or not risen for so many years, have you worked seriously?" Subsequently, he "apologized" in the live broadcast room with "true love fans should understand" and "sorry is good", and was criticized for yin and yang strange and lack of sincerity in the last hot search.
In the early morning of September 11, Li Jiaqi officially issued an apology statement, saying that he would "listen carefully to everyone's suggestions and serve all consumers attentively." In the live broadcast that night, Li Jiaqi apologized again with a crying voice, but less than 3 minutes later, he quickly walked into the next live broadcast room to start the night's live broadcast.
Unlike the previous small storms, this time, the public has not bought his apology. As of noon on the 13th, Li Jiaqi's Weibo followers have lost more than 1.3 million followers. Many people accused him of forgetting his "original intention" of stepping from the cabinet brother to today, supported by consumers, and questioned his "standing and talking without back pain".
When Li Jiaqi responded to the first live broadcast, the assistant broadcaster Wang Wang echoed his hard work, and Li Jiaqi said: "I don't have to work." There are only two reasons why he still sits in the live broadcast room every day, "There are so many people in the first company, and there are so many colleagues to cultivate, and then you guys." ”
The public is familiar with his history of fame, and the media analyzes over and over again his history of riding the east wind and self-struggle. He is firmly at the head of the live broadcast industry, settled in Shanghai, lives in hundreds of millions of mansions, and has lived a dream life that ordinary people cannot reach. But Li Jiaqi, can you really retire?
Perhaps, the answer is like the phrase that Want Wang immediately added: "But he has to work." ”
Li Jiaqi "collapsed the house"
Three years ago, "Double 11", Li Jiaqi broke his record again: the cumulative PV233 million and GMV of the two Double 11 live broadcasts on October 20 and 21, and the sales of a single product (pit production) reached 26.07 million yuan.
In the live broadcast on the 21st, Li Jiaqi did everything he could, put a gong in the live broadcast room, and reminded the audience in the live broadcast room to stay energetic and not sleep, to wait until the moment of the link, even after talking for several hours still not showing fatigue, netizens also gave Li Jiaqi a nickname, calling him "the strongest worker".
As mentioned in previous articles of Poison Eyes, among the massive Taobao anchors, Li Jiaqi's unique feature is his live broadcast style: hardworking, kind, professional, loud and terrier. ("Li Jiaqi What is the "strongest worker"?) 》）
The history of the struggle of this L'Oreal former cabinet brother has become a legend in the live broadcast industry: Li Jiaqi, who participated in the BA Internet celebrity project, was signed by MeiONE, and Li Jiaqi's sales field shifted from the mall counter to the Taobao live broadcast room, seizing the dividends and opportunities of the times.
Some deeds can be easily found without even having to check the information: in September 2018, he successfully challenged the Guinness World Record for "the most number of people wearing lipstick in 30 seconds", known as "Lipstick Brother", and in the same year, Singles' Day was pulled by Taobao to compete with Jack Ma to sell lipstick, and successfully got out of the circle. People wrote in an interview with him that he broadcast 389 times a year and suffered from severe bronchitis because of long talk.
He used to get very close to the audience, and the slogan "rational consumption, happy shopping" was posted in the live broadcast room, and he would advise "all girls" not to spend most of their wages on high-priced skin care products. In the live broadcast of Singles' Day last year, when Li Jiaqi broadcast a set of skin care products priced at 4680 yuan, he also repeatedly emphasized that "sisters who have no money should sleep": "This is too expensive and too expensive, this is the lady sister to listen, pig girl walk around." ”
In the variety show "All Girls' Offer" that shows Li Jiaqi's professional image, the audience can see every brand party that has to give in under Li Jiaqi's strong negotiation offensive.
He will pursue the lowest price of the brand in his live broadcast room, will return fans because the price of other live broadcast rooms is cheaper than him, and announce that the brand will be "blocked" in the live broadcast room - not too many people doubt his sincerity, and "all girls" are willing to believe that Li Jiaqi repeatedly lowered the price in order to make himself gain the purchase of goods at a lower price and take advantage of a greater bargain.
What's more, the title of "lipstick brother" has been counted as proof that he is close to the audience - lipstick This item originally has a special status, even if it is a big brand such as Dior and GUCCI, the price of a lipstick does not exceed 400 yuan, which is a small "luxury" that social animal workers can touch.
It is precisely because of this that even if most of the fans who click into Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room can afford a 79 yuan eyebrow pencil, Li Jiaqi's rhetorical question will still be regarded as a backstab at the "beating worker".
After all, Hua Xizi is no longer the niche domestic brand that needed Li Jiaqi's support a few years ago, and Li Jiaqi is no longer a rookie anchor who broadcasts live in a small space, he has earned assets that most people can hardly match in their lifetime, and Li Jiaqi's achievements in the live broadcast room are composed of countless orders placed by countless workers in his live broadcast room.
Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room is very effective, he will talk to the assistant in the live broadcast room and joke with the guests in the live broadcast room. But this sharp complaining live broadcast effect also laid the groundwork for his every inappropriate speech "rollover" - the sense of proportion of jokes is difficult to control, and the low fault tolerance of live broadcast is also fatal.
What's more embarrassing is that Li Jiaqi, who has made enough money, is tired and "can't find his state", can really retreat into the background in this turmoil, and "withdraw from the circle" like a star in the entertainment industry as many people speculate? The answer, it seems, is also no.
Mei ONE bitter and so on
Since the establishment of the company ONE, Li Jiaqi has been its biggest signboard, and it is always facing a big torture from the outside world: when can I get rid of Li Jiaqi's dependence?
The timeline goes back to 2018, when Qi Zhenbo, the founder of Mei ONE, made a correct decision in line with the development stage of the industry at that time - terminated more than 100 other anchors and fully supported Li Jiaqi, a personal IP.
This decision is undoubtedly correct in hindsight, and he bet all his way on Li Jiaqi in exchange for a super head anchor, in exchange for ultra-high-speed development in the next few years. But this has indeed laid the groundwork for the next stage of the development of ONE - when other super anchors are training apprentices and assistants with "old and new", ONE's pace is significantly behind.
Perhaps last year's short suspension intensified the sense of crisis, and the first thing Li Jiaqi did after his return was to start "ripening" the new anchor of the US ONE non-stop.
Since last year's Double 10, Mei ONE has successively built two new live broadcast rooms, "All Girls" and "All Girls' Wardrobe", which are solely responsible for Li Jiaqi's assistants, and Li Jiaqi drains the two new numbers through Lian Mai PK and other methods.
By the beginning of this year, in the account of "Li Jiaqi Live Broadcast Room", Li Jiaqi himself also began to deliberately reduce the duration of the live broadcast. As long as it is not a major holiday promotion, it is often several hours of live broadcast, and Li Jiaqi only "pinches his head and tail" and appears for an hour or two in the middle period. Sometimes it's even an assistant who is live the whole time.
In May this year, Mei ONE also launched a new self-made variety show "All Girls' Anchors" as scheduled, as the name suggests, this is a workplace variety show launched in order to select new anchors, the essence is still to indirectly deliver mature personal IP to the live broadcast room.
But the progress of cultivation does not seem to be as ideal as imagined. Initially, Li Jiaqi's most out-of-the-loop assistant in the live broadcast room was Fu Peng, but as early as 2020, not long after Li Jiaqi's explosion, Fu Peng successively switched to Xiaohongshu and Douyin alone.
Since then, the most well-known and recognizable person in Li Jiaqi's assistant broadcast echelon has succeeded Fu Peng and become the current Wangwang.
At the beginning, Wang Wang was a "grudge assistant", either intimidating with Li Jiaqi, or speaking with high emotional intelligence to remind the boss in time, often acting as a "mouth substitute" for the audience in the live broadcast room. But since Mei ONE needs to help the broadcaster to be alone, "Want Want really began to become beautiful and confident" has become a new topic word, and her own personality has begun to be built in the direction of independent women's counterattack.
It is obvious that Wangwang's popularity is still too circle, and the influence of everyone in the assistant group is still far from the "next Li Jiaqi", which is the fundamental reason why he is temporarily unable to retire. On Weibo and Xiaohongshu, Want Wang's followers are 209,000 and 273,000, less than a fraction of Li Jiaqi's.
On Taobao, "All Girls" has 2.92 million fans in the live broadcast room, but the recent audience is only between 1 million and 1.5 million people. The "All Girls' Wardrobe" live broadcast room has 1.847 million fans, and the recent audience is about 2 million to 3 million. And Li Jiaqi's main live broadcast room, the venue shows 10 million +.
A comparison might give you a better idea of the numbers. Since Wei Ya's retirement, the "Bee Surprise Club", which began live broadcasting in February 2022, now has 8.32 million fans, and the recent audience can remain around 5 million to 7 million people. This is now the representative of the second echelon of Taobao, the new account incubated by Li Jiaqi, which is obviously still a certain distance from this goal.
"Succession" is a problem for the entire industry at this stage, and those who can achieve the level of "Honey Surprise Society" have been considered successful.
Another more interesting sample is Oriental Selection, which ushered in its debut on Taobao Live on August 29, with 10 million + views, 175 million GMV and nearly 2 million fans. But by September 4, the number of spectators of the Oriental Selection instantly dropped to less than 5 million, and by September 6, the two live broadcasts combined were only 5.6 million.
You know, Oriental Selection took the form of all-weather rotation live broadcast from the start of "Good Morning" to "Good Night", and the two live broadcasts on September 6 added up to 14 hours. Oriental selection has also been a characteristic of "high field view and low conversion" in Douyin, and such results can only be said to be worse than expected.
Industry turn
From the perspective of Taobao's platform and the development of the entire live broadcast industry, the logic is consistent with Mei ONE - it is always an unsafe business model to rely only on the head anchor to support half of the sky, and it is a good ecology that can be supported by the middle waist. But everyone understands the truth, and no one has done it.
In addition to the aforementioned humble search and oriental selection, making a friend is also a typical example of the rush to de-head. But its situation is also not optimistic, with less than 2 million viewers in a single live broadcast on Taobao at the lowest point in August, and the highest being only about 5 million.
In other platforms, the three sheep of "Douyin New King" are still in the rising period, and have not reached the stage of "going to Xiao Yang Ge", but Xin Youzhi, is the most forward-looking, the fastest step, has completely transitioned to the stage of mainly supporting apprentices, but the popularity of Kuaishou seems to have never broken through that layer of window paper, and in the eyes of many institutions, it is still "limited ceiling".
The influence of super head anchors is weakening, and the first and most direct manifestation is the price.
As the "fuse" of the incident, the barrage that said in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room that Hua Xizi's eyebrows became expensive seemed accidental, but in fact, like Li Jiaqi's gaffe, it was regarded as something that could happen sooner or later. In fact, since the beginning of this year, doubts about the price of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room are not as good as before, and behind it is that the game between the brand and the super anchor has entered a new stage.
When the live streaming industry is rising, merchants need to grab users' minds in new areas to avoid being abandoned by new attention, so the motivation of the live broadcast room is more positive; In addition, soon after that, the sudden impact of the epidemic, offline sales channels were blocked, and the demand for inventory clearance was widespread, so even if the super head anchor required a very low price mechanism, as long as it could bring up sales and brand influence, merchants were willing to spend this money.
However, with the passage of time, the low-price strategy cannot be eternal in the field of consumption, and can only be temporary. The small profits compressed by super head anchors make it difficult for brands to have much revenue, and the platform perceives the pain points of the brand and launches more diversified services for them, which also gives the brand the confidence to get rid of the dependence on the super anchor.
Obviously, the platform is trying to tilt the traffic distribution logic more towards the mid-waist live broadcast room. According to enterprise investigation data, 537,600 new live-streaming-related enterprises were added in the first 8 months of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 104.49%. According to data revealed at the 2023 Alimama M Summit held on September 6, there have been more than 27,000 stores with a turnover of more than one million on Taobao Live in the past year, and nearly 4,000 live broadcast rooms in stores that have exceeded 10 million.
Data source: Qichacha
For example, helping brands gradually build a brand self-broadcast system has become the focus of almost every platform. In this way, brands can put the best price in their live broadcast room, without necessarily sharing commissions with top streamers. At the same time, brand self-broadcasting does not rely on the personal IP of the anchor, so the cost of employment is lower, often all-weather rotation, users can buy whenever they want, and have more flexible advantages in time.
Corresponding to this trade-off is a change in consumer mentality.
For consumers, the attractiveness of top anchors can be roughly divided into two parts: price charm and personal charm. In the past, the "lowest price on the whole network" negotiated by the super head anchor relying on his super high voice saved the audience in the live broadcast room the process of comparing prices by themselves, so that they formed a shopping habit that only needed to squat in the live broadcast room. When the super head anchor gradually loses the unquestionable "lowest price on the whole network" advantage, this part of the audience condensed by the charm of the price is the first to leave the live broadcast room.
Originally, Li Jiaqi's outstanding advantages also included that he was a rare charismatic anchor, and because of this, his speech in this turmoil caused emotional damage to the remaining part of the audience, so that another group of viewers also began to flee, which constituted a real compound crisis.
Change and game
There are also some changes that cannot be ignored.
For example, the platform also explored ways to slice videos and bring goods, further weakening the uniqueness of the anchor's live broadcast room. Brands that have shown their faces in the live broadcast room of super head anchors only need to pay a small licensing fee to take the video clips recommended by the anchor before the product and put them on the entire platform, and then hang their own goods to bring goods.
This form saves huge costs and also converts the share of some anchors with goods, especially suitable for small and medium-sized brands with low budgets.
For example, in addition to JitkuaiTao, Xiaohongshu and even B station, Zhihu, these small platforms based on "planting grass", are also trying to transform the consumption mind into the final purchase, although the total amount is not yet the same, but the same relatively low cost and relatively content transformation process, is also a possibility.
On the other hand, although these new trends have made the top streamers weaken their influence. But the "big anchors" still have a weapon in the game, and the "big promotion" is one of them.
On the first day of 618 pre-sale this year, according to Taobao live broadcast data, the GMV of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room reached 4.977 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%, while the GMV of Tmall 618 beauty pre-sale on that day was only 8.59 billion yuan, and Li Jiaqi single-handedly contributed more than half of the sales.
You know, although this year's 618 platforms claim to have made the largest investment in history, they are ultimately embarrassed to release the total GMV data. Under such circumstances, Li Jiaqi still maintains a strong enough competitiveness.
The "big promotion" is still an inescapable play for these platforms, especially for traditional e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, and it is also a great opportunity to feed traffic with top streamers. This is why in recent years, many promotion fronts have become longer and longer, and there are more and more tricks.
Therefore, it is unfortunate that the node of Li Jiaqi's "overturning" this year is just ahead of "Double 11" - for him personally, for the United States ONE, and even for the entire live broadcast industry, the matter of losing trust due to gaffes can be big or small, and the more so, the more subtle the need to minimize losses.
After the incident, some people speculated whether he just didn't want to do it, so he borrowed a plan to get off the donkey. But the reality is that he can't stop at all, Mei ONE can't accept it, and Taobao can't accept it. It is conceivable that this year's Li Jiaqi's sales may be discounted, and it is difficult to set a new record, but as long as it is not completely not allowed to be broadcast, he has no freedom to stop.
In a sense, Li Jiaqi's crying in the live broadcast room is absolutely sincere.