In the era when short videos are in the limelight, the various anchors in the live broadcast room have undoubtedly become the trendsetters of the times.
Whether it is Dong Yuhui, who has a successful export, or Luo Yonghao, who is funny and humorous, their strong personal charm has attracted many fans and become the hottest "Internet celebrity anchor" at the moment.
But what people don't know is that although the anchors look "glamorous", hidden behind the attention of tens of millions of fans is their endless efforts and sweat.
Especially in today's beauty live streaming industry. In 2023, the market size of China's cosmetics industry will be about 516.90 billion yuan, and China's beauty industry will become the second consumer market after the United States, and the competitive pressure among beauty anchors will also increase.
For today's beauty streamers, it's not enough to learn how to look and look - when young people begin to pursue the diversity of beauty, the requirements for streamers have become more refined.
This can be seen in the recently launched "Makeup Bringing King" competition launched by Tmall Beauty.
The 100 anchors selected come from different fields, including not only beauty bloggers with millions of fans, makeup artists with professional backgrounds, and influencers on various platforms, but also former girl group members, college students and ordinary amateurs.
They need to post short videos on major social platforms, stand out from the auditions based on fan engagement, and then compete in the three stages of "Goodbye Millennium", "Makeup Guys" and "China's New Makeup" - not only to be able to design creative makeup according to the theme, but also to show their sales strength in the live streaming session.
Content creation, beauty technology and merchandising are all indispensable, and the competitive pressure can be seen.
This issue of Micro Story walks behind the finals of this competition and finds these players who participated in the competition. We are curious about what kind of original intention they brought to participate in the competition, and how they withstood the pressure to go to the end in the round of competition.
A competition that brings the usually obscure small and medium-sized anchors into the spotlight.
The beauty of every ordinary person is being carefully captured by these beauty anchors. Every hard-working beauty anchor also deserves to be seen by more people.
Here are the real stories about them:
Text | Chang Ningning
Edit | Excellence
PART 01 决战成团夜
February 2nd, 16:00 Changsha Shigu Zhongguang Tianxue Building Headquarters.
In the temporary studio, the director constantly debugs the lighting and field layout against the machine, the field control shuttles between the dense forest-like equipment, constantly communicates with the staff about the detailed rules, and the host on the vast T catwalk is doing the final drill.
In order to make their work look its best, after applying makeup to the models at 10 a.m., the contestants never sat down again. Approaching 18:00, the countdown of "3, 2, 1" came out of the headset, and the lights of the entire studio converged on the stage, and the horn of "war" sounded.
This is the group night of "Makeup King", within 2 hours, 15 contestants will compete in the final round, and the 10 "Makeup King" who win will debut as a group.
"I'm nervous," said Nasa-chan, a veteran streamer who has been in beauty since she was 18 years old and has been wearing makeup for 15 years. Her team will be the starting team, and as the captain she is also responsible for boosting morale.
Before the finals, Nassa-chan stunned the audience with her noble and elegant makeup with the theme of "Crossing the Four Seasons and Welcoming the Year of the Dragon", and won the first place in the overall ranking in the first two stages, but on the day of the final, she still felt very nervous.
Prior to this, Nassa-chan had done live broadcasts on multiple platforms, but rarely brought beauty products directly. Therefore, even if she is very good at the creative makeup of the first few themes, she still has no bottom on the final results.
But in Xu Ziye's view, bringing goods is not the most difficult level in the finals. In the face of the finals, he was more worried that "he has not been in the industry long enough, his makeup is not delicate enough, and he is better at wearing boys' commuting makeup".
Before doing the live broadcast, Xu Ziye was an art student, and he initially started to sell medical beauty products, and then began to transfer to the beauty track. As a rare male anchor on stage, Xu Ziye looks more conspicuous.
Compared with Nasa sauce, Xu Ziye can grasp the selling points of products and the needs of consumers with different skin types more specifically when switching between different products. In 2021, Xu Ziye's first live broadcast sold nearly 10,000 yuan.
Among the 15 contestants, there is also a college student who has not yet graduated, 22-year-old Moon King Ding. Her makeup experience is only 4 years, and the makeup she is good at is based on her personal needs, and gradually expands to smoky makeup, fox makeup, and some amateur makeover makeup outside the eyes.
"Although I have a small wave of followers on other platforms," said Yuewangding, she was still very surprised to make it to the final round.
In Yue Wang Ding's heart, this kind of beauty anchor competition often only focuses on well-known Internet celebrity anchors, but this competition has found anchors from all walks of life and various experiences to compete on the same stage on the whole network, "I don't know who the user will think has the most appetite in the end."
It is precisely because these members have rich experience, different qualifications, and different advantages that Tmall Beauty specially invited mentors such as actor Jin Jing, actor Zhou Yingjun, and celebrity makeup artist Yang Dan during the event, so as to conduct an objective investigation of the contestants' platform popularity influence, beauty technology, and ability to bring goods in multiple dimensions.
The players on the scene need to play 2 rounds of PK. In the first round of PK, 15 contestants were divided into three groups to interpret the theme of "China's New Makeup" with makeup and color, from the phenology of the four seasons, the zodiac spirit animal to the Spring Festival. The 5 players in the group with the highest score advanced to the second round, and the 7 players in the other two groups advanced to individual PK.
In the second stage of the competition on January 19, the number of live broadcast views exceeded 1 million, and some players also watched tens of thousands of views in the live broadcast room. By the time of the finals, the number of live broadcasts exceeded 1.4 million. These users were online at the same time, and together with mentors such as Jin Jing and Zhou Yingjun, they witnessed this "Chinese new makeup" about the collision of makeup and Chinese culture.
At 20:00 that night, the results of the game were finally announced. Xu Ziye, Nasa sauce, Wu Yao, corn seeds, struggling Xiao Jin Jin, Lin Zhili, Cai Aala, rapeseed oil, Qianqian Ziqian, and Yuewang Ding 10 "makeup kings" successfully formed a group.
But for these 10 beauty streamers and the entire beauty industry, this competition does not mean the end, but a new beginning.
"Makeup Bringing King" can be said to be the inevitable product of Tmall Beauty after evaluating the changes in today's beauty market trends.
First of all, under the trend of e-commerce live streaming, beauty e-commerce is also gradually embracing live broadcast rooms.
Nasa Chan recalled that when she first came into contact with makeup 18 years ago, there was not a lot of makeup information in China, and the young girls around her were learning makeup from fashion magazines like "Ruili" or popular TV dramas.
"But now people don't learn to imitate makeup just because of a TV series," Nassa-chan said.
In the beauty video they made in the early stage, topics such as #interview/workplace makeup, #新年新妆新相貌, #大学生早八速成妆, and #职男通勤妆 attracted widespread attention from netizens.
It can be seen that if beauty brands still promote a unified makeup look and style in the channel from top to bottom, it can no longer meet the makeup needs of today's consumers on various occasions and at all time nodes.
"Every user likes different makeup content, and when the beauty live broadcast PK enters the second half, it is not enough to only understand the selling point of the product, fans need to understand their needs better," Nasa-chan concluded.
Nowadays, makeup is becoming more and more common, and even a part of many women's lives, and the needs of the public are divided, and more and more emphasis is placed on diversified, younger, professional and interesting beauty content.
Secondly, various beauty anchors have also been struggling to find a scientific path to growth.
In this event, there are not only streamers who win with technical streams, anchors who win with high-quality and practical content, but also streamers who win by personal charm.
The anchor Cornseed, who graduated with a master's degree in film production, dismantled the popular net-like makeup with the advantage of being familiar with the lens language, and produced a movie-like makeup that ordinary people can easily use.
Lin Zhili, who served as the public relations officer of a makeup brand, found that after the "brand-only" theory in the makeup industry in the past became "easy-to-use products regardless of the source", he made practical product recommendations for makeup novices, and launched content such as "one thing for three purposes", and the mentioned products were "robbed" by fans.
was once the host's "little catty", and after bravely entering the beauty industry, he shared his experience with working women who had the same needs, giving the product temperature and impressing the strange sisters on the other side of the screen.
However, in the fierce traffic competition, it is difficult for these small and medium-sized anchors to break out of the encirclement by relying on their personal strength, and they also need a platform that can evaluate and manage beauty anchors with a higher pattern and a more scientific dimension.
"Participating in a competition like this is also a kind of growth for me, I will know where my strengths are, and I can also find the weaknesses that I will change next", Nassa-chan concluded.
Xu Ziye also gained new experience in the competition. "Making a video is different from doing a live broadcast, the video can be repeated again and again, the live broadcast is instantaneous, you need to accumulate experience, and at the same time, through the platform of "Makeup Bringing Goods", you have also accumulated brand resources. ”
Moon King Ding was even more determined in the direction he wanted to go. Through the competition, Yue Wang Ding realized his shortcomings in the field of beauty, and planned to go to a professional institution for further study in the next step, "I hope to gain more people's trust through my profession."
Third, consumers also hope to break through the "selling live broadcast", and learn more beauty knowledge through a live broadcast and get a more comfortable shopping experience.
Dong Yuhui, the anchor of "Walking with Hui", relies on his own literary and historical accumulation, and can tell each product as "a poem" and sell a deep affection. This is not only the quality decision of the product itself, but also a test of the anchor's professional accomplishment and on-the-spot response ability.
The original intention of "Makeup Bringing Goods" is the same, through creative live broadcast performance techniques, so that beauty people from all walks of life can gather in one place to show their personal strength, and then through the comments of professional judges and guests, the whole network interaction and other methods, so that consumers can learn to make up, learn to identify the quality of makeup, learn to identify products, and finally find the most suitable makeup and makeup for themselves in the competition.
This is the new change in the beauty market that "Makeup Brings Goods" truly reflects - under the continuous refinement of consumer demand, any product is an equal three-way choice between consumers, anchors and brands.
Regardless of the outcome of the final PK, the anchors will use what they have learned all their lives to compete and bloom in front of the screen, which will bring a special chemical reaction of beauty.
Streamers from all walks of life and backgrounds come to the stage, whether they are streamers or consumers, they can find the perfect moment for them from the competition.
Before the launch of "The King of Makeup", many fans would leave messages on the platform, wondering if the anchors' usual income was 50,000 yuan a month. In fact, most of the beauty streamers we can see don't earn as much as everyone thinks, and it's still a "chore".
On Xiaohongshu, there was such a note explaining the survival status of anchors with goods. "Most of us are ordinary people, broadcasting an average of 4 hours a day, and our throats will occasionally become inflamed and hoarse, with a basic salary of only a few thousand yuan, and we have no other energy to work part-time."
Recalling this month, Moon King Ding also realized that it was not easy for the anchor. Staying up late, standing for hours on end to not being able to get up the next day, and speaking live for hours until the voice is hoarse, is the norm in the daily work of anchors.
These beauty streamers are all looking for the X of life - that variable.
Before becoming a beauty blogger, Nassa-chan was a civil servant in the judicial system, but at that time, there was limited information on makeup on the market, so she had to look around for purchasing agents. "I really like makeup, and I also hope that China can have its own brand", Nassa-chan quit her enviable job and became one of the first practitioners to dig up domestic products.
Moon King Ding never thought that he would have the opportunity to become a beauty blogger. She once taught herself makeup because of her single eyelid troubles, and after a small achievement, she began to share her thoughts on the Internet, and won the support of a large number of young girls who were also troubled by her appearance, and embarked on the road of full-time bloggers, becoming one of the majority of bloggers.
It is precisely because of the discovery of these beauty anchors who are struggling to survive that Tmall Beauty, as the core position of China's beauty industry, has also made many explorations, driving the beauty industry to find the X variable together.
This open and inclusive selection mechanism allows for the discovery of better beauty anchor talents, and also contributes to the upgrading and iteration of the entire beauty anchor ecosystem.
Tmall Beauty is trying to play a comprehensive platform, so that every ordinary person and every amateur has the opportunity to stand in the middle of the stage to express themselves and show their most glorious moments in life. At the same time, with the high-quality resources of Tmall Beauty, it also provides a better development space for these beauty anchors who are struggling to survive.
For example, Xu Ziye ushered in his highlight moment in this competition - in the third stage of the competition, the contestants need to broadcast live for 3 days, and at the same time, they will be recommended according to the products provided by the selection pool.
When introducing a certain niche domestic makeup, Xu Ziye didn't have a bottom in his heart, but the final product sold more than 2,000 pieces, so that by the end of the finals, he was still a little excited about it.
In addition to this "Makeup Bringing King", Tmall Xbeauty will also hold different themed activities every month in the future to help China's makeup industry. For example, in the past January, Tmall Xbeauty and Leihu created a new Chinese makeup look for the 2024 New Year, exporting the trend of new Chinese makeup.
Such a stage belongs to every "beauty lover", and it is also conducive to incubating more potential anchors to join the big family of Tmall Beauty.
X not only adds new imagination to beauty streamers, but also injects new vitality and infinite possibilities into the beauty industry.
As early as 2021, China has become the second largest cosmetics sales country after the United States, with a market of more than 500 billion yuan, and presents the market characteristics of "fast growth, large space, and accelerated breakthrough of domestic brands".
Tmall Beauty uses the advantages of content and platform to provide domestic makeup brands with opportunities to overtake in corners. In this "King of Makeup", domestic brands such as Into You and Fermented Color used by the contestants were able to come to the front of the stage through the Tmall beauty platform.
If Tmall Beauty has become a solid bridgehead and a solid channel backing for domestic brands, the marketing IP "Tmall Xbeauty" is the infinite imagination of China's beauty industry.
Now, we can already imagine what new changes X will bring to Tmall Beauty and China's beauty industry.