Text | Kaiboluocaijing, author | Wang Huixian, Editor | Su Qi
Does anyone remember papi sauce?
Just when everyone was about to forget her, a topic of "papi sauce new movie lines" suddenly appeared on Weibo hot search. Papi sauce, which has disappeared for so long, originally returned as the heroine of the new movie "Tomorrow Will Be Fine", but the comment area was full of netizens' complaints, "the lines are too embarrassing" and "cautiously buy tickets". Eight days after its release, the film scored a low score of 5.6 on Douban, and among the 6 films released in the same time period before and after the Qingming Festival, the comprehensive box office performance once ranked last.
You know, papi sauce is the top stream five years ago, Weibo fans more than 10 million, not to lose the first-line stars, overhead "China's first Internet celebrity" halo. Popularity is booming, capital is also favored, several times to get investment from well-known funds, a video ad auction price of 22 million.
Source / Sky Eye Check
However, in recent years, the style of painting has changed, and the once triumphant papi sauce has been on Weibo hot search, which is "papi sauce responds to network controversy". Looking back on her experience, it is not difficult to find that in recent years, papi sauce has been reversing its own internet celebrity label, and has been busy doing two big things - dreaming of showbiz and running its own MCN papitube.
However, the results of being an actor are not satisfactory, and the established papitube is also in the same place after eating the short video dividend, failing to hatch a second top IP, and lagging behind a big step in the live broadcast era, and has been surrounded by a number of new MCN institutions such as Humble Culture, American ONE, and Remote Look network.
The reason is that some people in the industry believe that it is still a disaster caused by people. On the one hand, the "independent woman" setting of papi sauce has brought certain troubles and limitations to it, on the other hand, after being set up to eat back, papi sauce has also begun to think about "she is still not an independent woman", if even she herself has not thought about where to go, how can fans continue to follow? Similarly, the current state of development of papitube also exposes the vacillation of policymakers.
<h2>Internet celebrities turned actors, and the Douban score did not pass the passing line</h2>
"Hello everyone, I'm Papi Sauce, a woman who combines beauty and talent." In 2015, the short video era has just emerged, and papi sauce has quickly exploded with a quick speed of speech and sharp and real spit with a mouthful of Shanghainese mixed with Mandarin and English, and has become a hit.
Source / Station B
That year, in the "2015 China Internet Celebrity Ranking" released by Internet Weekly, the influence of papi sauce ranked second, second only to Wang Sicong. This trend of popularity continued to unabated in 2016, when her Weibo followers exceeded 8 million, the number of Articles read on the WeChat public account exceeded 100,000 minutes, and the number of video hits was more than 3 million.
Now more than five years later, she was once known as "China's first Internet celebrity", it seems that it is difficult to be actively mentioned, and every time she appears, it is more or less accompanied by criticism and questioning.
"In our line, there is a well-established saying: when an influencer passes depends on when the next hot spot appears." Zhang Dou, founder of Leopard Change IP and dean of Leopard Change Academy, told Open Pineapple Finance that every Internet celebrity has its own life cycle, most of them have explosive power, but staying power is a hard injury, every time a batch of Internet celebrities appear, there will be a group of Internet celebrities. He and his partners have also created a series of popular Internet celebrities, stars and entrepreneurs such as Feng Jie and Rising Sun Masculinity, but in the end, without exception, they have gradually faded from the public eye.
Looking at the Internet celebrity circle, there are almost only two endings: one is to pass the gas, and the other is to quickly break the circle while taking advantage of the heat to achieve long-term commercial realization of IP.
Papi sauce doesn't want to get overdone. She was originally a graduate of the Chinese opera directing department and came from a class, but she chose to dream of the show business as an actress. In 2017, the popular papi sauce starred in the comedy film "Demon Bell" directed by Wu Junru, the screen debut did not bring too many surprises, the film Douban score was only 4.2 points, "papi screen debut is not talented" "papi why not go to talk about two hours" and other comments, but also exposed the disappointment of Douban netizens: originally wanted to see papi sauce spit out, did not expect her to act.
Douban netizens' evaluation of "Demon Bell"
In the same year, Papi Sauce participated in the filming of "Tomorrow Will Be Fine" and starred as the heroine, and Yuan Yuan, the screenwriter of "Later Us" and "Get Out, Tumor Jun", served as the general director of the film. On April 2, 2021, the film was released as scheduled, but the audience still did not buy it.
In the trailer released, Papi Sauce said with a frustrated look: "I am now 27 years old, I can't drive, I haven't been abroad, I don't have a passport, and I still use nine-dollar lipstick." This line caused controversy and complaints from the public, "What's wrong with 27 years old?" What's wrong with not being able to drive? What's wrong with not having been out of the country? What's wrong without a passport? What's wrong with nine pieces of nine lipsticks? Because the "papi sauce new movie line" is too embarrassing, this topic also rushed to weibo on the day of the release.
"Not only are the lines awkward, but the plot is also very bloody." Weibo netizen "Wanton Orange" commented after watching the movie: "It's really ugly, there is no trace of undulating narrative movies, and the story has no telling." How hard is it to see? I can still think of sending a Weibo complaint after watching the movie for two days. ”
Disappointed netizens are not in the minority, Douban 5.7 rating can also prove this, in the Douban comment area, full of a large number of similar spit expressions: cautious buy tickets, do not look, patchwork.
Source / Douban
According to the real-time box office of Maoyan Professional Edition, among the movies released in the same time period before and after the Qingming Festival, the comprehensive box office performance of "Tomorrow Will Be Good" once ranked last (6th). At present, it only ranks 12th among all the movies that are being released, and the box office difference with the first place "My Sister" is more than 90 times. "There is a difference between internet celebrities and actors, internet celebrities please don't easily step into the movie circle, it is too easy to overturn." Entertainment blogger @Entertainment News Great Quest said.
Source / Maoyan Pro Real Time Movie Box Office
In addition to chasing dreams of showbiz, papi sauce also once tested the waters of variety shows. He has participated in 7 variety shows such as "Star Detective Season 5", "Heartwarming Offer" and "Spit Conference", but still did not stir up too many waves.
In 2017, at the peak of papi sauce, Yang Ming, founder of Taiyang Chuanhe and co-founder of papitube, said: "I think she is already a star, and we will not limit her any possibility of development, and do not rule out the possibility of her future as an actor and director." "Judging from the current results, the results of the transformation of the internet celebrity papi sauce are not satisfactory."
<h2>Can papitube gain a foothold in the live streaming era? </h2>
In addition to entering the show business circle, Papi Sauce also found another development curve for itself - to be the boss.
After the popularity of papi sauce in 2016, he quickly founded papitube with his classmate Yang Ming, but according to the staff of papitube, papi sauce is only responsible for content. Therefore, a year after its establishment, papitube was incorporated into Yang Ming's name of Taiyang Chuanhe, responsible for short video creation and self-media services. A month later, Taiyang Chuanhe received 120 million series A financing from Star Chart Capital, Zhen Fund and other investors.
You know, in 2016, there was no clear concept of MCN in China. According to the statistics of Tianfeng Securities Research Institute, there were only 420 MCN institutions in China in 2016, which is not the same as the 28,000 predicted in 2020, and papitube is undoubtedly ahead of the vast majority of MCN institutions.
Source / Tianfeng Securities Research Institute
There is a head start and capital help, but the disappointment is that papitube is still not the boss. According to the big data of Xiao hulu, since its development, papitube has ranked 7th in the list of short video institutions with a valuation of 450 million. Its ranking in the list of live broadcasting agencies and the list of carriers is even more "no one to check", ranking 541 and 249 respectively.
Source / Little Gourd Big Data
Maybe it's because the real main force of the whole papitube is only papi sauce. According to the statistics of Kai Pineapple Finance, as of press time, among its celebrities, the number of papi sauce fans is the largest, with 32.462 million douyin and 33.15 million weibo; Lingye second, douyin 16.902 million, Weibo 270,000; punctured strawberry porridge third, douyin 12.735 million, Weibo 1.82 million, the data has begun to fall off a cliff.
It can be seen from the number of fans that in addition to the papi sauce, the rest of the celebrities have taken douyin and kuaishou as the main position of their own fans, even so, their number of vibrato fans is still far from the papi sauce, of which the number of douyin fans is just over 10 million, and the number of fans is less than 100,000 as high as 64.
In order to find more possibilities, papitube's celebrities cover a variety of types, such as Lingye to challenge the impossible events of the whole network to become popular, strawberry porridge is a face value blogger, and itsRae is a travel blogger. Not only in terms of style, celebrities also try their best to "draw a line" with papi sauce and papitube, and never show that they are from papitube in their respective profiles, and they never appear in the video. "If it wasn't for you and me, I wouldn't have known that strawberry porridge was actually an artist under the papi sauce." A fan told Open Pineapple Finance.
Source / TikTok
Some insiders believe that the stickiness of fans is not strong, which may be the "common disease" of all papitube signed celebrities. Take the popped strawberry porridge as an example, in 2019, she became popular because of a video with her mother, and originally thought that she would always take the beauty route, but she was sometimes funny in the video, sometimes showing talent, but she was neither the funniest nor the most talented, and the label in the fans was not clear enough.
Last year, the burst strawberry porridge also tested the water selection program "Creation Camp 2020", with its own traffic, back to Taiyang Chuanhe to participate in the talent show, should have had more advantages, but she was eliminated after the second round of picks. In fact, the talent show is a pick between fans, once again proving that the fan stickiness of strawberry porridge may not be so strong.
The stickiness and activity of fans also directly affects the advertising revenue of papitube. According to Huo Nifang, COO of PAPITUBE, as early as 2018, the proportion of revenue brought by papi sauce to papitube was less than 50%, and more than 40% of bloggers could be monetized independently. According to Pineapple Finance Observation, in papitube, the few tens of millions of bloggers itsRae and Invincible Haoke have only two obvious ad implants in the videos released on Douyin this year. Moreover, there are many advertisements that belong to the team packaging form, such as itsRae and flat strawberry porridge at the same time to accept the placement of a new car manufacturer.
In 2019, papitube signed a contract with celebrities to test the water in the Taobao live broadcast room, but this business did not operate normally. In 2020, the popularity of live streaming has not changed the original plan of papitube, and the team still maintains the original business model: advertising, e-commerce, and occasionally opening Taobao stores. According to the new jitter data, the papitube family has no record of live streaming.
Source / Papitube official micro
From short video to live e-commerce, papitube has not taken this step for a long time, Zhang Dou believes that it is determined by the IP gene of papitube. "At the moment of the establishment of papitube, it has been injected with the gene of papi sauce, and the company's operation mode will naturally be based on the short video she is good at. The big IP behind MCN institutions such as Qianxun Culture and One United States is Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi, who grew up from the ecology of live streaming with goods, and their mode of operation is naturally completely different from papitube. ”
"The pioneers of the previous era are likely to be the 'martyrs' of the next era." Zhang Dou sighed that this sentence is not contrary to the papitube.
<h2>Success is also set up, and defeat is also set up</h2>
Poisonous tongue, independence is the initial impression left by papi sauce to the public, in the public after that, papi sauce's remarks also continue the style of independent women, such as life ranking to put themselves first, do not participate in in-laws' life, support older single girlfriends to be themselves, etc.
Source / "My Girl"
However, such a person will have the effect of "extremely negative", including after the release of "Tomorrow Will Be Good", many viewers feel that the heroine and papi sauce are very similar, "Xiao Yu has a strong sense of autonomy, becoming the person she wants to be, is the only driving force in her heart." Director Yuan Yuan also said: "Papi Sauce's own experience is highly consistent with this role, more like the true color of the performance." However, the audience attracted by the independent female design will naturally not buy the awkward lines and suspended plot in the play.
This kind of "human regurgitation" even extends to the personal life of papi sauce. After papi sauce gave birth in March last year, netizens pulled out their children's surname with their fathers, and then launched a "nonsense" scolding war in the comment area, arguing about whether the father's surname and feminism are related. The matter was boiling over, but Papi Sauce himself did not respond immediately due to physical reasons.
It was not until September 2020 that Papi Sauce finally responded on Weibo that he had never hired a water army to storm others, did not self-direct and self-act, and did not maliciously market, but did not mention anything about feminism and the surname of his father.
No matter what the reason, she did not speak out about this, and there are not a few fans who are disappointed by this, as Douban netizen @ Xiao Sang said: "This matter comes down to the discussion of the right to crown the surname, and it is not a mistake for women to fight for the right to the surname, she even said that my children have the surname of their husbands, but I also support and respect the people who follow the female surname." But she didn't even say such neutral and objective words, and let the situation brew, which eventually led to the title of surname being called an 'extreme feminist'. ”
Relying on the "independent woman" personality to attract fans, but has been struggling with whether to maintain this personality, may be the biggest "heart disease" of papi sauce at present. Some people attribute the past of papi sauce to the limitations brought about by the "independent woman" label that is difficult to tear off on her body, but Zhang Dou put forward a contrary point of view: "People are not extreme enough, and they have not followed the trend in time to evolve and upgrade, which is the fatal wound of papi sauce." ”
Taking the above-mentioned guanfu surname incident as an example, Zhang Dou believes that if it is to establish an "independent woman" personality, then papi sauce and the team behind it should respond in time in the naming rights storm, and put forward a series of new feminist views, which can not only take the opportunity to stand firm, upgrade the personnel design, but also give their die-hard fans stronger confidence. In this era, there have been more and more feminist spokesmen, such as a group of feminist "new representatives" such as Lang Jie Zhang Yuqi. A more extreme presentation of values is at the heart of acquiring and retaining hardcore fans, but Papi Sauce has chosen to shy away.
On April 2, Papi Sauce admitted in an interview with Phoenix Network: "After giving birth, I really thought about whether I was still an independent woman. ”
"With a clear value orientation and value stance, and put it into visible and tangible behavior, fans will have a recognition of their personality." Zhang Said that Papi Sauce and her company will not fail to understand this truth, "maybe she herself has not yet figured out where to go." ”
The hesitation of papi sauce is also reflected in papitube, according to the big data of the small gourd, the types of celebrities signed by Papitube are mainly funny, funny and good looks, and the remaining 75.53% of the celebrities cannot be clearly classified, let alone personalities and labels.
Zhang Soybean told Kai Pineapple Finance that if Papi Sauce herself did not think about what person to go, fans will be more confused, which directly determines that her fan stickiness must not be too strong, whether in the show business circle or in the Internet celebrity circle, can not be mixed, papitube is the same.
"In my opinion, the route that papi sauce is taking now is not the worst, but it is certainly not the best either. With the existing traffic, you can continue to make money, but papi sauce wants to rise twice, if you do not do deep human upgrading and industrialization in line with the gene, it is basically impossible. This is also the state and problem faced by most influencers, and all the advantages of the past are most likely today's shackles. Zhang Soybean said.