Jingguantai (ID: jingguantaicn) original.
Text丨Zhao Zixin.
Editor丨Xie Zhongxiu.
While the "small composition" incident of the Oriental Selection continued to ferment and aroused heated discussions, the account "Western Selection" was born.
Not only is the name of the account almost the same as "Oriental Selection", but the anchor's appearance is also like twins with Dong Yuhui.
According to the account's homepage, "Western Selection" released the first article at 15 o'clock on December 17. On the same night, "Western Selection" was launched, and it ushered in a ** volume of nearly 1 million.
But it was quickly banned after only one day. On the morning of December 18, the account's Douyin display was abnormal, and the account name and avatar were no longer displayed.
The person in charge of the live broadcast room of "Western Selection" claimed that the account was reported offline by "Oriental Selection".
The appearance of the account and the reported incident sparked discussions among netizens about copycat stars and high-imitation accounts.
Some users pointed out that there is a suspicion of obvious popularity and traffic. Some people are also curious about whether such accounts constitute infringement.
In fact, similar high-imitation accounts and copycat stars have long been common.
From the copycat stars who were initially active offline, to the increasing number of copycat stars and high-imitation accounts, this kind of group has always existed, and it is evolving with the upgrading of information dissemination channels.
Under the "eyeball economy" of the Internet, these copycat stars have gone from offline to online and opened their own high-imitation accounts. Since the imitation strategy ushered in dividends, a set of exclusive profit models has been formed.
seems to have seized the traffic password and the dividends of the times, and the method of "Internet celebrity + short ** live broadcast" has become the way for these copycats to quickly circle fans and make money.
In mid-September this year, "Luha" (now renamed Ling Dale) revealed in his live broadcast room that "I bought a suite today and spent 1,100 (10,000 yuan), and I bought an office building and spent a little more than 600 (10,000 yuan)."
Ordinary people who successfully monetize by imitating celebrities, "Luha" is just a prominent example.
It is undeniable that copycat stars and high-imitation accounts are regarded as shortcuts to gain traffic and attention. But from the perspective of long-term development, what is more important is how far this shortcut can go than how quickly it is noticed.
Copycat stars have gone from offline to online
On the afternoon of December 17, the appearance of the account "Western Selection" triggered a small climax, and the Oriental Selection high-imitation account once reached the top of Weibo's hot search.
The "Western Selection" account released the first ** at 15 o'clock on December 17, a man who looks similar to Dong Yuhui said that he "went to the Western Reserve live broadcast room".
It didn't take long for the account to post two more **, the content of which was the man's snow monologue, and the style was somewhat similar to Dong Yuhui. At 10 o'clock in the evening of the same day, "Western Selection" started its first live broadcast, and the number of people in the live broadcast room exceeded 40,000 at one time.
But the good times didn't last long, on the morning of the 18th, the ** published by the account was no longer visible, and all the content was cleared.
The person in charge of the "Western Selection" live broadcast room responded that the account was taken offline by the Dongfang Zhen election report. Although the report said that there was a risk of infringement, he said that he had checked that the trademark "Western Selection" had not been registered, and he did not believe that there was infringement.
He claimed, "The anchor was found temporarily, because the anchor looks like (Dong Yuhui), and he thought of the idea temporarily." ”
Figure: Western Selected Weibo.
* Screenshot of the Mirror Observatory.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Douyin said that the account involves counterfeiting and counterfeiting, and it is not appropriate to rub the heat. The platform has banned the account, withdrawn the live broadcast permission, erased the improper acquisition of fans, and canceled its profit-making permission.
"Western Selection" and copycat anchors are not an exception. Behind it, many accounts that focus on imitation and copycat are growing savagely.
In fact, copycat stars have been around for a long time.
Previously, the imitation show of the TV station was all the rage, and it was the main battlefield for copycat stars to show their talents. The popularity of programs such as "Super Parody Show", "China's Got Talent" and "Variety Show" has brought a large number of copycat stars into the public eye.
Even in 2006, the Chinese Shanzhai Star Art Troupe came into being. As one of the largest copycat star groups in China, the group has more than 300 copycat stars, mainly relying on imitation shows and commercial performances, endorsements, and going to the company to perform "hot scenes" and other ways to make profits.
After entering the short ** era, the monetization methods of copycat stars have changed, and copycat stars are also keeping pace with the times to capture traffic.
They crowded the live broadcast room and began to do it through short platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Because of the halo of stars on their heads, these copycat stars are more likely to become popular quickly than ordinary people.
The early "Fan Yebing" and "Xiaolin Xinru" are now imitating Jay Chou's popular "Porridge Cake Lun";and then to the copycat version of the top group "eso" Lu Ha, Huang Zicheng, Wang Erbo, Yi Yang Dry Cleaning, Wang Junka, Quan Kulong, "Foshan Dianhan", who is sought after because of his resemblance to actor Zhang Han, and the imitator of Na Ying, who became a hit on Halloween...All of them have been smash hits on the Internet.
In the eyes of young people who love to watch their live broadcasts, the live broadcast rooms of copycat stars focus on providing emotional value.
After seeing the "whole life" cut of the ESO men's group on the hot search, Weiwei began to pay attention to their ** and live broadcast, "Look at them is Tu Yile, after all, they are real, down-to-earth and work hard, just to win a smile from Lao Tie", she said frankly: "When I watched the live broadcast, I knew that they were copycat stars, and I felt funny when I looked at their names, and the whole life was even funnier." ”
also pays attention to their little ones, and is basically familiar with the current popular copycat stars. She said that it's not that celebrities can't chase it, but that it's more cost-effective to replace her, "At first, I would marvel at how there could be such a similar person." After watching their ** and live broadcasts, I found that they are very enthusiastic and will treat them as a more 'living flavor' star meal replacement. ”
Some netizens also said that it was difficult to accept.
Momo is a fan of exo, she doesn't buy copycat stars, and bluntly said that this is an obvious rubbing traffic and touching porcelain, "I don't know how these people became popular, and I don't know why some people chase these people." ”
Copycat stars are still emerging, attracting the public's attention and sparking discussions, which is behind the controversy about how to gain popularity and traffic.
Fake stars bring real traffic
All along, there has never been a shortage of ordinary people who look like stars.
But Internet marketing and netizens who love to watch the excitement have brought their traffic to a new level.
Relying on the degree of discussion and their own characteristic innovation, some copycat stars quickly gained a lot of attention.
For example, the "Foshan Dianhan", which had been screwing in the factory, has been tepid. From the end of 2022 to October this year, he broadcast live almost every day, each of which lasted for more than an hour, and the live broadcast content was mainly screwing and showing the working environment.
Until netizens found out that his appearance was very similar to that of star Zhang Han. During the live broadcast, his exaggerated screw-twisting action and magical saxophone **BGM attracted the attention of many netizens, and "Foshan Dianhan" became popular overnight.
In just two days, his number of fans grew by more than 200,000. Today, he is a blogger with 2.21 million followers.
The number of related topics has also reached 10700 million times. Immediately, various versions of the "Foshan Dianhan" hand-shaking challenge appeared on the Internet, such as the canteen version, the corn breaking version, the doctor version, etc., and even the public security, police, and fire departments also joined this online carnival.
Figure: Douyin, Foshan Dianhan shook his hand to challenge the number of participants.
* Screenshot of the Mirror Observatory.
The profit model of copycat stars has also formed an industrial chain.
For copycat stars, if "running commercial performances" everywhere offline was the most common way to make money, the monetization method of copycats is undoubtedly advancing with the times. The method of "Internet celebrity + short ** live broadcast" has replaced the previous commercial performance running field, and has become a way for copycats to quickly circle fans and make money.
At present, the most mainstream monetization method has become live broadcast tipping.
However, the dilemma faced by copycat stars on the short ** platform is that there are many people watching the excitement and few people who have true feelings for the anchor. After a live broadcast, the popularity may be able to rush to hundreds of thousands, but there are not many people who really spend money on gifts and rewards, and the income of a live broadcast is often only a few dozen to a few hundred yuan.
This is also confirmed by Weiwei. Although she often watches their live broadcasts, she said that she "has never spent money, and she will not invest in live streaming rewards." ”
In addition to live broadcast rewards, there are also those who have transformed into anchors with goods. But relatively speaking, the threshold is much higher than that of entertainment anchors.
Lingdale (Luha) is a successful example. He has transformed from entertainment live broadcast to e-commerce live broadcast with goods, and the main battlefield is still on Douyin, focusing on low-cost snacks.
Click on his Douyin account to see that Ling Dale (Luha)'s Douyin has 8.72 million fans, and there are more than 100 products in the window, and the unit price of goods is mostly concentrated in the range of 10-50 yuan. There are 78 yuan of dried sweet potatoes, 29Boneless chicken feet of 9 yuan, 199 yuan of milk dates and other goods.
At present, the platform data shows that the number of follow-up buyers has reached 61660,000+, 13.02 million pieces sold. Judging from traffic and sales, his transformation stepped on the tuyere, found a new wealth through train, and even surpassed many star anchors.
Not long ago, he broke the news that in the past 7 months of live broadcasting, he has earned 35 million yuan, bought a house of 11 million yuan, and bought a Ferrari sports car of 2.77 million yuan.
Figure: Lingdale live broadcast.
*Pear**.
Although there are voices questioning the authenticity of Ling Dale (Luha)'s self-destructed income, behind the high income of copycat Internet celebrities, more ordinary people feel stabbed in the back.
Xiaoxiao is one of them, I originally came to watch their live broadcast to be happy, until I heard that he had a monthly income of more than 5 million yuan and instantly broke the defense, "I didn't expect Gao Fang to make so much money." ”
How long can you monetize by imitating this shortcut?
Copycat celebrities are seen as a shortcut to traffic and attention, but this shortcut doesn't seem to be easy to follow, and their lifespan is even shorter than that of the average TikTok influencer.
On the one hand, the road doesn't seem to be smooth, and these imitations are often in a gray area.
A lawyer told Jingguantai that when deliberately using copycat stars to imitate the celebrity's tone, demeanor, dress and other elements to mislead the audience into thinking that the performer is the relevant star, thereby gaining a competitive advantage, it is easy to cause the risk of unfair competition.
In the counterfeiting activities, if the copycat star's improper behavior causes a significant decrease in the social evaluation of the relevant star by the public who does not know the truth, the copycat star is suspected of infringing on the reputation of the relevant star.
Because of the popularity of related stars because of their appearance, many copycat stars will also mislead consumers with ambiguity in their account names, such as Na Ying's imitator called "This Ying", the imitation group of the EXO boy group is called "Eso", and the group is "Lu Ha" similar to Lu Han, and "Huang Zicheng" and others similar to Huang Zitao.
In the face of the risk of infringement, more and more copycat stars are trying to avoid it.
I have decided to quit ESO indefinitely, and I hope that you will get better and better without me. After "Luha" changed back to its original name "Lingdale", it once again released ** and ESO "Cutting Seats".
Soon after, the ESO boy group announced that they had changed their names, apologized, and said that they would no longer rub the relevant popularity.
At the same time, the current trend is that copycat stars can be seen everywhere, but most of them lack the ability to innovate, cannot maintain the attractiveness of the content, and the active cycle is getting shorter and shorter.
Most of the imitators are just imitations, lacking their own characteristics. Users see too much, and it is very easy to cause aesthetic fatigue.
On the other hand, the business model of copycat stars has root causes.
Due to the low popularity and relatively simple way of monetization, some of them signed MCNs later, and after the company was incubated, they changed their faces to become Internet celebrities. Those who have not signed a contract with MCN institutions can only earn income through live broadcast rewards and window sales.
In other words, they can only make money by creating topical heat.
In order to attract more traffic, the "ESO" boy group used the Internet to stage an eye-catching farce. "Huang Zicheng" announced that he would quit the group for the driver's license test, they broadcast a roadshow live on the streets of Changsha, and even recorded a single and MV to prepare for their official debut.
The purpose of farce and marketing is to attract more traffic and further monetization.
However, if you only rely on traffic to make content and lack sustainable monetization ability, you will not be able to avoid the end of slowly withdrawing from the stage after becoming popular.
Ling Dale (Luha)'s transformation is an example of copycat stars, he stepped into the ranks of live broadcast and found the monetization password.
Tianyancha APP shows that in February this year, Changsha Lingdale Culture Media was established, the legal representative, executive director and manager is Lingdale, with a registered capital of 1 million yuan, and its business scope includes organizing cultural and artistic exchange activities, personal Internet live broadcast services, cultural and entertainment broker services, Internet sales, etc., which are wholly owned by Lingdale. The change record shows that recently, the company's business scope has removed literary and artistic creation and performance, and at the same time added food sales.
According to Guangsheng Media, there are two key factors for Lingdale to successfully transform into a delivery anchor. First, from short creation, entertainment live broadcast to live broadcasting, the character design of "Luha" has never collapsed;Second, for the cause of live broadcasting, the anchor himself is dedicated and the team operates effectively.
In essence, the traffic brought by imitation may be profitable for a while, but in the final analysis, it can only go on with attractive content and high-quality products.
For copycat stars, it seems impossible to monetize all the time by imitating this traffic password.
Reference: He relied on "copycat star face" to monetize, with a monthly GMV of over 25 million", Guangsheng Information.
Earn 35 million in 7 months, the wealth code of a post-00s copycat star", Leopard Change.
Title image**Visual China.
Weiwei, Xiaoxiao, and Momo are pseudonyms in the article.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed in this article constitute investment advice to any person.