【Editor's Note】 The mud and sand are falling, and the big waves are sandy.
For the post-live broadcast era in 2017, the once barbaric growth of the live broadcast market has finally ushered in a major reshuffle: on the one hand, hundreds of small and medium-sized live broadcast platforms have withdrawn, and strong platforms have risen against the trend; on the other hand, homogeneous content has eroded the live broadcast market, and a large number of anchors have risked their lives to attract fans...
In the second half of the live broadcast, the change from quantity to quality is becoming the key to the breakthrough. Where will the wind of live streaming blow? Is the live broadcast still a sword and light sword shadow? Anchors, platforms... How will these live broadcast "players" who hold traffic play this card in their hands?
BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's cyberspace, home to more than 750 million netizens, is experiencing a massive revolution brought about by the outbreak of live-streaming software.
On average, 250 million people make their choices on 300 live streaming platforms every day, and with a single tap, you can see the daily lives of about 6 million people on these platforms in real time.
There are highly educated returnees who live broadcast 3 hours a day every night to coax people to sleep; there are big stomach kings who eat 30 pounds of ribs at once; and there are post-95 teenagers who quit their jobs with a monthly salary of 50,000 in order to live broadcast "Glory of the King".
The hot live broadcast has opened the door to a new world for more ordinary people. However, in this "live broadcast jianghu" that can become popular overnight and is quickly forgotten, whether it is a "big V of internet celebrities" or a new star of live broadcasting, it is impossible to avoid competition anytime, anywhere.
Revenue is polarized
The biggest change after being an anchor, for SOL Jun, is to have money.
The 26-year-old young man who full-time commentators on the live broadcast platform Panda TV can earn up to 600,000 yuan a month.
Three years ago, just after graduating from college, he worked for a software company, specializing in installing and debugging software for customers, and after a month of busy work, he got a salary of only about 4,000 yuan.
After the company collapsed, he switched to the live broadcast platform, with 650,000 fans, and the amount of "tip" in a month was 20,000-30,000 yuan. Although in SOL Jun's view, such a "tip" is very small compared to the fixed salary issued by the platform, this is his salary for half a year when he was working before.
(Image from "Today's Internet Celebrity")
However, high-income earners will always be just the tip of the iceberg of live streaming.
According to the November 2017 monthly report of "Today's Internet Celebrities", which focuses on the coverage of the live broadcasting industry, the current anchor income of live broadcasting platforms is in a sharp divergence, and among the seven platforms, the number of anchors with a monthly income of 1 million and more than 500,000 anchors is the largest. The number of anchors with a monthly income of more than 100,000 anchors on small and medium-sized platforms such as NOW Live broadcasting and Lai crazy is in single digits.
According to the "China Network Anchor Ecology Survey Report", 45% of anchors have a monthly income of less than 5,000 yuan, 17% of anchors have a monthly income of between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan, and only 13% of them exceed 30,000 yuan.
Despite the huge income disparity, there are still people pouring into the live broadcasting industry.
Xiaomei, the anchor of Pepper Live, told reporters that her current monthly income is about 7,000, which can basically meet her own living needs, and Xiaomei is not satisfied with this figure, and her goal is to reach a monthly income of 20,000 yuan. "I started this industry a year ago, when some of my friends told me that this line of money comes quickly. And just like that, I started doing live beauty. Xiaomei told reporters.
"Making money fast" has become the main reason for many people to enter the live broadcast industry, and previous surveys have shown that most of these anchors are from second- and third-tier cities or towns, bachelor's degree or below, and mainly engaged in the service industry, and the low threshold of the network anchor industry also reduces the cost of making money, and then spawns a special "fan economy".
Fan defense battle
The revenue of network anchors mainly comes from three channels: profits from self-operated goods, revenue from advertising for other brands, and "virtual gifts" from "fans". No matter which one, it is inseparable from the number of fans to support.
Popular anchors watched online during the live broadcast, flowers, cruise ships, luxury cars... As long as the anchor starts broadcasting, there will be a large number of gifts thrown at the anchor. Pepper anchor Momo told reporters that these gifts can be directly converted into cash and become a source of income for anchors and live broadcast platforms.
"Absorbing fans" is almost the top priority of every anchor, and SOL Jun, who signed a live broadcast platform, although the main income does not rely on fan tips, but maintaining the number of fans is still his main job. To this end, he broadcast live from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day, "working at night, sleeping during the day, and messing up work and rest." It airs 24 days a month, and when I have time to record related videos, I "become very homely and don't have time to go out."
A black-and-white, overworked life ultimately creates an irreversible tragedy. The previous sudden death of the king glory anchor "Lone King", before his death, often live broadcast the game at midnight, stayed up until nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, turned upside down for four consecutive months, and finally died prematurely because of his body. The "Lone King" is only 20 years old and is still live on the day of his death.
For small and medium-sized anchors, the number of live broadcast fans is usually only a few thousand or hundreds, in order to "stick to the powder", poking the horse honeycomb caused serious injuries, high-altitude live broadcasting lost hands and fell to death... In recent years, it is not uncommon for anchors to make thunderous moves in order to catch fans regardless of their lives.
Fierce competition has made the upfront cost of entering the live broadcast circle higher and higher. Yingke anchor Lily (pseudonym) told reporters that the industry's default unspoken rule is "buy powder", which is the so-called "zombie powder".
In addition, "if you sign up for a brokerage firm, you're likely to be asked to do plastic surgery to make yourself more attractive." According to reports, 10% of "Internet celebrities" admit that their faces have been "fine-tuned", so that they can show people on the Internet with a better image. Among them, the big eyes of the god, the upright nose, the sweet apple muscle, the three-dimensional slightly upturned chin and the V-shaped small face are the standard of the "net red face". "Getting sexier is crucial to attracting fans, especially male fans." Lily said.
PK of appearance and content
Why do fans enjoy paying for webcasts? In the view of Chen Peng, head of the Department of Communication at Nankai University, paying the bill is a way for fans to vent their personal feelings. "The live broadcast has narrowed the distance between fans and 'love beans', and through gift-giving, netizens have obtained interaction with people who were difficult to reach before, and won more sense of existence for themselves."
However, as a product of the development of the Internet to a high-end form, the live broadcasting industry also has its own development cycle, after experiencing rapid development, when live broadcasting becomes a norm, netizens will gradually lose their freshness.
Chen Peng's prediction is becoming a reality. In the second half of the live broadcast of the rapid shuffle, the anchor did not have distinctive characteristics, and the live broadcast content also showed a homogenization trend, making it increasingly difficult to retain fans.
"At first, I felt fresh, but now the live content is getting more and more similar and boring." Yang Yang, a fan who calls himself a "live meal," complained.
According to the statistics of the "Anchor Recruitment Center" of the Douyu platform, more than 70% of the "face value anchors" have received less and less rewards, replaced by richer live broadcast forms such as game live broadcasting and skill live broadcasting.
Some anchors with a sense of crisis began to consciously adjust their live content.
"Live streaming that feeds on your face is by no means a long-term business." Different from ordinary anchors, "wheelchair anchor" Momo wants to break the stereotype of others on people with disabilities "live broadcasting and selling misery" from the moment he enters the live broadcast room. As a patient with "osteogenesis imperfecta" (commonly known as "porcelain doll"), this girl who fractured 80 times before the age of 18 has the tenacity to refuse to lose. The 23-year-old said: "To do it is to do it differently from others. ”
Now settled in Malaysia, Momo's daily live broadcast content in addition to the local customs and customs, but also for the audience in the live broadcast room to do psychological counseling, and opened a live broadcast program on gender feelings. Judging by the content, she seems to be deliberately avoiding her "identity label."
At a time when the livestream is rapidly iterating, she's experimenting with "talk shows," which isn't something she's familiar with, but she wants to break out of her comfort zone.
Beauty anchor Chestnut has tested the waters this year to become an "e-commerce internet celebrity", and by selling goods on the live broadcast platform, she hopes to close the distance with fans and help sell products.
Transformation does not mean success, the anchor of the salty egg family, Zhao Yu, did not have a clear plan for live broadcast content before, "mainly to talk about dressing up and the like." Nowadays, she has focused on singing, but the industry generally believes that anchors and professional musicians belong to two professions after all, and the live broadcast platform only provides anchors with a "window" to be seen, and whether they can finally enter the favored circle depends on the unified standards of the industry and society.
Although there is confusion about the future, but Momo does not plan to leave the live broadcast industry in a short period of time, her pepper platform launched a new plan to create a live broadcast industry chain in the mode of pepper college, training anchors, Momo told reporters, she plans to try it.
Whether it's entering a talk show or groping on the road to a singer, Momo and Chestnut realize that the era of live broadcasting, where you can make money by your face, has passed.