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According to media reports, the Guangdong E-commerce Summit Forum recently announced the top 50 online anchors in net income in 2023 (the statistical period is from January 1 to December 31, 2023). The list shows that the online anchor with the highest net income in 2023 is Crazy Brother Yang, with an annual income of 3.2123 billion. It was followed by Simba, whose annual net income also exceeded 3 billion yuan. And the veteran top anchor Li Jiaqi is still undiminished, ranking third with an income of more than 2 billion yuan, and the income of these three anchors is far ahead.
In addition to these well-known anchors, Dong Yuhui from Dongfang Selection ranked fourth with an income of 522.6 million yuan, while Chen Xiang and Zhang Daxian both had a net income of about 500 million yuan. In addition, Seven Bosses and Brother Zui from Three Sheep, as well as Xuxu Baby, Lie'er Baby, Papi Sauce, Wuhu Da Sima, etc., also successfully entered the top 20.
Ranking of online anchor income
However, the list also shows the high bar for this industry. Aunt Tian Tian, who ranks 50th, has an annual net income of 59.2 million yuan, although this figure far exceeds the income level of ordinary people, but there is still a big gap compared with the anchors at the top of the pyramid.
Xin Lijun, CEO of JD Retail, said at the 2023 JD 11.11 Media Open Day that the commissions of some top anchors are as high as more than 20%, far exceeding the profit level of many companies. He pointed out that many companies in China have profits of around 5%.
However, according to the "China Online Performance (Live Broadcast and Short Video) Industry Development Report (2022-2023)" jointly compiled by the China Performance Industry Association and others, by the end of 2022, more than 150 million anchor accounts have been opened in the mainland online performance (live broadcast) industry. Among the anchors who use live broadcast as their main source of income, 95.2% have a monthly income of less than 5,000 yuan, while only 0.4% of the anchors have a monthly income of more than 100,000 yuan.
-- Market share of China's live streaming e-commerce industry
At present, the three-legged competition situation of the three major live broadcast e-commerce platforms of Douyin, Kuaishou and Taobao Live has been formed. In contrast, Douyin e-commerce has significant advantages in sales volume and user stickiness.
According to Alibaba's fiscal year 2022 financial report, as of December 31, 2022, Taobao Live brought more than 770 billion yuan in GMV (turnover) in 2022. At the same time, according to Kuaishou's announcement, Kuaishou's GMV will reach 901.2 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for about 26% of the market share. According to Douyin's official website, Douyin's GMV will exceed 1.41 trillion yuan in 2022, accounting for about 40% of China's live e-commerce transaction volume in 2022. These figures clearly illustrate the booming live streaming e-commerce industry in China and the strong position of these three major platforms in the market.
- Sharing commission: CPS and pit fees are the main ones
There are usually two ways to divide the commission between brands and MCN institutions: pit fee and CPS (charged according to turnover), or one of the two. Normally, the commission rate is between 20% and 30% of the transaction amount, and the commission rate of the top anchor can even reach 30% to 50% when they are good at the category, and the pit fee may exceed 100,000 yuan. In addition, among the different product categories, beauty has the highest commission rate, followed by clothing, while food has a relatively low commission rate.
Once the brand owner and MCN determine the pit fee and commission, the platform will collect the service fee from the commission, and the remaining part will continue to be shared by the MCN and the anchor. It can be seen that the pricing power of the head MCN and the platform is the highest, while the bargaining power of small and medium-sized merchants and anchors is relatively weak.
——Trend forecast: China's live-streaming e-commerce lower-tier cities have great opportunities
In recent years, with the continuous development of the national economy and the improvement of residents' living standards, people's consumption level has gradually improved, and their preference for live broadcast e-commerce has become stronger and stronger. According to the 2023 China Live E-commerce Opportunity Insight Report jointly released by Weibo Yi and Cicada Mama, the TGI index of live streaming e-commerce users in lower-tier cities is higher. Specifically, the second-tier cities had the largest TGI index of 112.8, followed by the third-tier cities with a TGI index of 110.6. In contrast, the TGI index of first-tier cities and new first-tier cities is relatively low, indicating that China's live-streaming e-commerce has greater development opportunities in lower-tier cities in the future.
Super anchors usually refer to people or institutions with "phenomenal" communication capabilities and the ability to break the circle. Cui Lili, professor of the Department of Digital Economy of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and executive director of the Institute of E-commerce, pointed out that when the brand forms a certain influence in the hearts of consumers, the brand and store self-broadcasting will have a greater possibility. The significance of the head anchor for the promotion of a new brand or new product is still very important, and it is essentially a kind of precision marketing for the target customer group. Therefore, in this sense, the existence of super head anchors is in line with business logic, that is, whoever has appeal to users has the right to speak.
Prospective Economist APP Information Group
For more research and analysis of this industry, please refer to the "Analysis Report on the Development Prospect Forecast and Investment Strategic Planning of China's Live Broadcast E-commerce Industry" by Qianzhan Industry Research Institute
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