Anchors, companies, fans, who has the final say?
In 2023, live streaming will continue to move forward in the hustle and bustle. A significant change is that in the triangular relationship between anchors, MCNs and fans, fans have become the real "talkers" in the live streaming industry.
The first to appreciate the power of fans is Li Jiaqi, the "first brother" who brings goods in live broadcasts. In September, Li Jiaqi replied to fans in the live broadcast that "** is expensive", and asked the latter to "find their own reasons", resulting in a large number of loyal fans losing fans. Li Jiaqi had to burst into tears in front of tens of millions of fans in the live broadcast room and apologize publicly.
Three months later, Dongfang Selection fell into a turmoil of live broadcast essay creators, and fans' "right to speak" continued to improve.
This turmoil started with the performance art of some fans "guarding Dong Yuhui", and then was detonated by the unilateral characterization of Dongfang Selection's "fan circle". The small composition turmoil is intensifying, and fans are demanding the removal of Dongfang Selection CEO Sun Dongxu and the promotion of Dong Yuhui are getting louder and louderDongfang Selection lost a large number of fans in a short period of time, and the stock price continued to **, and finally ended with Sun Dongxu's dismissal and Dong Yuhui's promotion to senior partner.
Dong Yuhui
The small essay turmoil set off by Dong Yuhui's fans eventually evolved into corporate governance issues, the main purpose of which is no longer whether Dong Yuhui has a knife catcher, but fanatical fans fighting for the interests of idols, and even forcing the company's core management to resign. As a listed company, Dongfang Selection hastily removed the CEO, although Yu Minhong repeatedly emphasized that it was caused by poor management, but it may also be mixed with the intention of taking Sun Dongxu under the knife and blocking the mouths of fans.
It's not often in the business world to incorporate fan appeals into corporate governance considerations, and ultimately make major personnel changes in line with the so-called "public opinion".
Under normal circumstances, a change in the management of any company should and can only be carried out by the board of directors in accordance with the company's articles of association. Consumers can dislike a company's brand, products, or managers, but it's almost impossible to push a company to adjust its personnel to their own terms.
But with the help and amplification of social networks, fans have a more powerful influence**, which in turn affects the company's reputation and sales. In particular, companies with a wide audience and a large target user base are more worried about offending their fans than other companies, so they are more motivated to do their best to meet the needs of their fans.
Oriental Selection and other live streaming MCN institutions are such enterprises. Thousands of fans hold up big anchors, contribute attention and sales, and spontaneously act as free nodes for secondary communication. Large-scale powder loss is the situation that MCN institutions are most afraid of encountering;In Dong Yuhui's small essay incident, Sun Dongxu was regarded as the villain who "bullied" Dong Yuhui, and he was also the main reason for the loss of fans of Dongfang Selection, and was finally forced to hand over the handsome seal.
However, the big anchors who are held up by fans, even if they profit from it temporarily, may not be willing to enjoy the "special care" of fans.
Whether fans admit it or not, there has always been an obvious tendency of "fan circle" in the live streaming industry. One of the spiritual cores of "Fan Circle" is the "perfect personality" of idols;This means that every word and deed, every smile and smile of the big anchor will be dismantled and examined under a magnifying glass, and if there is a slight disagreement, it will be complained and turned from pink to black, and it will be online and complained and reported. In the face of the "diode" behavior of fanatical fans, the big anchor has no power to deal with it, and can only be as Li Jiaqi said, "Every sentence we say becomes as rigorous as possible."
Fans, big anchors and MCNs are the three major components of the live broadcast business chain, and now a bizarre "sadomasochistic" relationship has been formed: fans support big anchors and "monitor" big anchors;The big anchor lives in MCN, and there are interests entanglement with the latter;MCNs need to attract and retain fans, but they are increasingly interfering with them.
Pan Jun, director of commodity strategy consulting of a consulting company, said that the game between big anchors, fans and MCNs is mainly reflected in the distribution of interests and influence control. Big anchors want to get more revenue, fans want anchors to maintain their "original intentions", and MCN needs to find a balance between the two to ensure the interests of the company. The enhancement of fan participation is partly due to their trust and support for anchors, and on the other hand, it also reflects the dependence of the live streaming industry on the fan economy.
In the past, the game between big anchors and MCN institutions, brands and platforms has been staged. Since the beginning of this year, fans have become a new influencing factor in the live streaming industry. 2023 is about to pass, and big anchors have a new topic: when the three-way game between fans, companies and anchors intensifies, how to balance the relationship between the three?
A Li Jiaqi has nearly 83 million fans in ** live broadcast. The huge number of fans allows him to sell goods worth tens of billions of yuan every year, and has always been the top spot in the live broadcast of the whole network.
However, the gaze of tens of millions of eyes in the live broadcast room means that Li Jiaqi needs to maintain a high degree of attention at all times, and there must be no mistakes. Even the occasional emotional loss will make Li Jiaqi suffer immeasurable losses.
On September 10, when Li Jiaqi sold a Huaxizi eyebrow pencil priced at 79 yuan in the live broadcast room, some fans questioned: "Huaxizi eyebrow pencil is getting more and more expensive." ”
Seeing this sentence, Li Jiaqi retorted: "* Expensive?."It's been this for so many years, don't talk nonsense with your eyes open, it's very difficult for domestic brands. **Expensive?And said, "Sometimes I look for my own reasons, whether my salary has risen for so many years, and whether I have worked hard?"”
This passage sent Li Jiaqi to the cusp of **, and related hot words such as "Li Jiaqi brought goods to scare netizens" appeared on the hot search. Li Jiaqi's team tried to remedy the situation, first apologizing on Weibo, saying that "what I said failed your expectations";Later, he burst into tears in the live broadcast room, saying that "this inappropriate expression is disrespectful to others." However, Li Jiaqi still lost more than one million fans in two days.
In the eyes of some fans, Li Jiaqi has "changed" and has become a person who empathizes with capital.
Many fans believe that Li Jiaqi once represented the interests of fans and played games with brands and businessmen, such as publicly "fighting ** wars" with brands many times, boycotting Pechoin, which temporarily broke the contract, stopping cooperation with Lancôme, and tearing his face with L'Oreal. And Li Jiaqi's team is also strengthening this character, and specially filmed a variety show "All Girls' Offer" to show fans the process of bargaining with the brand.
Fans are also charging for Li Jiaqi on the Internet, and they do not hesitate to attack some brands.
For example, in September 2020, skin care brand Yuze announced the end of its cooperation with Li Jiaqi and appeared in the live broadcast room of another big anchor, Wei Ya, the next day. This commercial practice has caused dissatisfaction among some Li Jiaqi fans;In their eyes, Yuze was led by Li Jiaqi, but now he was "backstabbed", so they accused Yuze of being "ungrateful" and a "white-eyed wolf brand".
Such attacks lasted for almost a year, and Yuze said in a statement in 2021 that a large number of Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili users accused Yuze of "ungrateful" stopping cooperation with Li Jiaqi's team and attacking Yuze's brand and partners, causing distress to consumers.
Aggressive fans are a dangerous one. Big anchors need their collective fanaticism, on the one hand, as a weapon to play with the brand, and on the other hand, it is also a talisman to PK with the goods and compete for the status of the industry.
But some fans stand on the moral high ground of their own construction, believing that they have the supreme authority to examine and judge everything;Whether it is a so-called "ungrateful" brand or a big anchor who is accused of "deviating from his original intention", once he takes half a step out of the "perfect personality", he will inevitably be shot by fans on the spot.
Li Jiaqi was forced into a corner by his loyal fans because of one or two complaints, and his reputation and commercial value suffered a heavy blow, but in fact, it was the same as the fans who conquered the Quartet and tortured the brand for him back then.
Another background for Li Jiaqi to be whipped by fans is that as the e-commerce industry moves towards the first war, the low price advantage of big anchors is no longer as obvious as in the past. The benefits provided by anchors have shrunk, and it has become more difficult to attract and retain fans, so naturally they must not offend fans publicly, and they must control their own mouths.
Recently, in an interview with NetEase Technology, Li Jiaqi was asked why there was an increasingly boring emotion in the live broadcast room. He explained, "It's not boring, it's just that we speak more rigorously, because I found that when Li Jiaqi and Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room was very energetic, every sentence we said became as rigorous as possible." ”
b Li Jiaqi fell in love with fans, and Dong Yuhui was involved in a three-way game with fans and Dongfang Selection.
In the Dong Yuhui incident, fans charged forward for their idols, and the spearhead reached the MCN agency behind the big anchor, Dongfang Selection, and the attack point evolved from "who made the small composition" to "Dongfang Selection is ungrateful", and CEO Sun Dongxu attracted the most fire.
Did Dong Yuhui be "disappointed" by Dongfang Selection?The alphabet list previously analyzed that the reason why the "small composition" dispute turned into an avalanche is that there are different views between Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Selection's management on income and power distribution, which may be the deeper reason. According to the current distribution of interests of the top anchors in the live streaming industry, Dong Yuhui's salary is not much, and he has not received the corresponding power distribution in Dongfang Selection.
At the beginning, Dongfang Selection was unwilling to be coerced by fans. When public opinion began to ferment, Sun Dongxu tried to save the situation. He declared in the live broadcast room that the extreme views of fans are killing and trampling, and he should "refuse to be fan-circled".
However, fans did not feel that they were "fan circle behavior", so they launched a new siege on Dongfang Selection. Dongfang Selection quickly gave in, and Yu Minhong apologized, saying that he did not think that Dongfang Selection had a "fan circle culture" and that it was "a small number of people with ulterior motives" who came to the platform to destroy the atmosphere and environment.
But from the perspective of bystanders, the behavior of some Dong Yuhui fans is no different from that of the "fan circle". Dong Yuhui's fans have already attacked their partners and partners by means of trampling and expulsion, and have controlled many links such as publicity, anti-black, and control and evaluationIn this small essay turmoil, there was also a large-scale influx of Gaotu Jiapin's live broadcast room to express their demands, and to help Dong Yuhui fight for resources by stopping purchases and closing customsFind and disseminate the ** clip of Sun Dongxu "dismantling" Dong Yuhui in the live broadcast room;Another example is to cut Ni Ping, Feng Tang and other celebrities to praise Dong Yuhui's **, and use this as Dong Zhangmu, etc., the maintenance means are the same as the ecological logic of the fan circle of traffic stars. Their demands were to remove Sun Dongxu and give Dong Yuhui a higher position.
Dongfang Selection has a tough attitude, and when responding to questions from the outside world, it said "sticking to the product line is undoubtedly the best choice for Dongfang Selection to respond to questions". undoubtedly shows the outside world that Dong Yuhui is not that important.
However, the ** war set off by fans has won the support of more and more well-known people, Luo Yonghao said that he supported Dong Yuhui to start a business, Li Guoqing shouted Yu Minhong to protect Dong Yuhui, and Xu Zhiming, the founder of the original fast schoolbag and now the manager of his parents, also said that Yu Minhong should immediately fire CEO Dongfang Xiaosun.
And what makes Dongfang Selection a headache is that the increasingly serious small composition incident has led to the continuous loss of fans, and the company's stock price has also been dragged down. Within a week, Dongfang's Douyin followers decreased by more than 2 million, and the Hong Kong ** value evaporated by more than HK$7 billion. In the end, Sun Dongxu was dismissed and Dong Yuhui was promoted.
After the overt and covert game, fans, big anchors and MCNs all seem to have become winners. The fans got their wish and helped Dong ascend to the position;Dong Yuhui changed from a wage earner to a partner;Dongfang Selection appeased the leading Hua Dan. Fans seem to be pushing Dong, Sun, and Yu forward, but more of them push the game off the table to the table and play the role of a catalyst.
On the other hand, fans meddling in the company's operation brought new problems to Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Selection: when MCN company cultivated a big anchor, how should the company get along with super individuals?
It is inevitable that the Oriental selection will be "de-dong". Weakening the aggregation effect of top anchors and achieving a balanced development of traffic and GMV will help Dongfang Selection reduce its dependence on big anchors and enhance its ability to resist risks and fluctuations.
Today, Dong Yuhui has to maintain a stable relationship between the company and fans. When fans fought for more benefits for Dong Yuhui, Dong Yuhui said, "I don't like to do some management work that requires high intensity", "I don't have that chance, let me go." ”
But Dong Yuhui can't help but call the shots in many things. While the MCN organization was coerced by fans, Dong Yuhui was not disguised by fans
C fans have become a part of the business ecology of live streaming, and while contributing traffic and sales, they also bring trouble and disputes, which big anchors and MCN institutions love and hate.
Pan Jun said that fans are an important part of the live streaming industry, and their feedback, suggestions and purchase behaviors have directly affected the decision-making of anchors and MCNs, forming a new pattern under the fan economy. How to balance the influence of the fan base is a key issue, and the balance of the influence of the fan group needs to take into account the commercial interests of the industry, the personality and development of the anchor, and the demands and expectations of fans.
You Xi, co-founder of Communication Planet APP, also said that the competition in the live streaming industry is intensifying, and anchors and MCN agencies will pay more attention to interaction and fan participation in order to attract and retain fans, so as to improve fans' sense of belonging and loyalty. Fans are no longer passive consumers, but have become important partners of anchors and brands, and their voices and opinions greatly influence the business decisions of anchors. The rights and interests of fans are more protected, making fans more proactive in safeguarding their own interests.
In fact, the popularity of Dongfang Selection is a typical product of the fan economy. In the whole process of Dongfang Selection, the role of independent communication of fans in the transformation of goods benefits cannot be underestimated. When the relationship between big anchors and fans has changed from a buying and selling relationship to a relationship between fans and idols, their relationship has changed from equality to worship and be worshipped.
The game between big anchors, fans and MCNs is also a new feature of the current live streaming industry. The root cause is that fans pursue the "perfect personality" of big anchors, and once they are broken out of the real world, this is not the case, which often leads to a backlash against the big anchors themselves, and causes damage to MCN institutions and cooperative brands.
For example, Li Jiaqi fell into a dispute with fans, and the real problem was not to justify "** is expensive", but that Li Jiaqi personally broke the imagination of some fans about him, and the sharp gap made the latter break the defense in an instant. However, after the turmoil gradually subsided, Li Jiaqi's performance with goods was not significantly dragged down;This also reflects from the side that fans' love and hatred for big anchors are far more emotional than rational.
But in other scenarios, the actions of fans can also expose the real problems of the live streaming industry to the sun.
In the Dong Yuhui incident, fans asked Dongfang to select and replace the CEO and promote Dong Yuhui, which broke the long-standing problem of the distribution of interests between the big anchor and the company in the MCN organization.
Some MCN institutions are already starting to break the situation: in December this year, Xinxuan CEO Guan Qian resigned, and Simba's apprentice and big anchor "Dandan" were not inferior in this process, reflecting that Xinxuan's internal big anchors are particularly strong, and the company is more inclined to maintain the former between anchors and professional managers.
In addition, the head anchor also faces a common problem, that is, "anti-fake". Since the beginning of this year, Brother Xiao Yang and Li Jiaqi have been publicly cracked down on by professional counterfeiters Wang Hai, and Dongfang Selection has also fallen into the ** whirlpool of "farmed shrimp sold as wild shrimp".
Selling fake products in the live broadcast room is a major problem that tests the trust of anchors and fans, and if you are not careful, it will cause anchors and institutions to encounter fan backlash. Obviously, 2024 is approaching, and anchors and institutions are facing a new test: how to get along with fans and balance the contradictions between fans, institutions and fans is a new topic they will face in the future.
References:
"Who is the ** person of "Li Jiaqi"?>> Tiger Sniff
""Unbinding" will be scolded, does the brand still dare to cooperate with Li Jiaqi?>> Karth data
"Dong Yuhui who abuses fans, Oriental selection who refuses fans, and the top-notch rice circle culture" chopps pepper spicy
"The Dilemma and Governance Countermeasures of the "Fan Circle" of Live E-commerce Audiences", Shandong Normal University, Li Zhitong