Dominance, Restriction And Endurance Are The Hidden Problems Of Online Celebrity E-Commerce

As for the topic of "the first stock of online celebrity e-commerce", which has 113 online celebrities, such as going to NASDAQ for listing, laymen watch the excitement, while insiders watch the door. In the eyes of more individuals and institutions who hope that online celebrities will "bring goods", this is just a stepping stone to test the capital market and public response.

Ruhan broke on the day of listing, and its share price plummeted by 37%. To this end, another "well-known online celebrity" Wang Sicong commented in the circle of friends: Ruhan's marketing expenses of nearly 150 million yuan are puzzling. The company's online celebrity incubation, online celebrity e-commerce, and online celebrity marketing models have not been verified successfully, nor has it been proved that it can cultivate new KOL.

"Online celebrity e-commerce institutions all want to cultivate new KOLs, but Ruhan's model is almost difficult to replicate." Some heads of institutions engaged in online celebrity e-commerce marketing and incubation pointed out that it was easy to become famous in early years, but after four or five years of development, Although the "star" in online celebrity shows its own ability to carry goods and huge market demand, a large number of online celebrity e-commerce institutions are still struggling in the "quagmire" of online celebrity+incubation+supply chain.

Online celebrity e-commerce, represented by a group of institutions such as Ruhan and Tisu, has created a new branch of e-commerce industry in the past few years. The mode of "online celebrity+brand incubation+product supply chain" has also become the business law of this branch.

According to public data statistics, in 2016, Hangzhou Hanyi E-Commerce Co., Ltd. jointly established by Zhang Dayi and Ruhan Holdings achieved a revenue of 228 million yuan; In 2018, for example, the amount receivable from April to the end of December reached 856 million yuan. According to the proportion of shares, some analysts believe that Zhang Dayi alone has raised half the sky of revenue and profits.

However, the huge traffic of online celebrities in the head also restricts or even hinders the development of the company to some extent, resulting in the relatively "unhealthy" operation of many e-commerce institutions. "A large amount of marketing expenses of the platform are not spent on the top online celebrities, because the more concentrated on one or two online celebrities, the more inseparable from them in business, like drinking poison to quench thirst," said a person in charge of the platform.

Why do some institutions hold the judgment of "drinking poison to quench thirst", and whether the cultivation mode of one or two online celebrities+many small online celebrities restricts the development of online celebrity e-commerce? In other online celebrity business opportunities, what "little nine nine" hidden in the hearts of the top and new online celebrities?

　　 The organization relies on top online celebrities, and its business decisions are hampered

"For online celebrity e-commerce organizations, online celebrity in the head really makes people love and hate."

In an office building in Jianggan District, Hangzhou, Li Qinglian, the head of an online celebrity e-commerce marketing agency, is analyzing last month's GMV data. She told me that she understood the notes. According to the general definition of the industry, among the nearly 40 online celebrities signed by the company, only one can be called the "head" in the real sense.

Although the monthly GMV of the platform exceeds 10 million yuan, and the revenue is not worried for the time being, this leading online celebrity has contributed more than 70% of GMV, making the e-commerce platform, which has been started for less than four years, fall into an "unhealthy" development state.

"Although I am Lianchuang and CEO, I have to compromise some decisions with Tou Wanghong." Li Qinglian reluctantly said that because Tou Wanghong contributed most of the company's revenue, and also saw that the team could not live without her, so she was proud of her.

Therefore, within the company, this leading online celebrity has a considerable say. He often "gets involved" in daily operation and decision-making, and also frequently interferes with the use, expenditure and purpose of the company's marketing expenses.

"Marketing expenses and promotion expenses are mostly used to incubate and cultivate new online celebrities." Li Qinglian told Knowledgeable Notes that the head online celebrity was obviously unwilling to spend these expenses. After all, the purpose of organizations to cultivate new online celebrities is to "compete" with them and balance the voice of signed online celebrities in the company.

Since incubation and cultivation of new online celebrities have been interfered with, why not find and sign other mature online celebrities? Li Qinglian explained that the top online celebrities of almost all such e-commerce platforms are the "pioneers" who have taken the lead in the industry and started early.

"In those years, the industry and platform were easy to get traffic dividends, so they became famous quickly." But with the decline of the Internet hormone effect, the number of online celebrities in the industry was large, and the homogenization of online celebrities became more and more serious, resulting in the disappearance of traffic dividends. Nowadays, it is almost difficult for "wild" online celebrities to appear.

Therefore, cultivating new online celebrities has become a top priority for many online celebrity e-commerce enterprises. Li Qinglian reluctantly said that although the company had increased investment in cultivating some "seedlings" since the previous year, it was still difficult to "reproduce" a new head online celebrity.

"As a result, the requirement of Toutou's online celebrity is becoming more and more excessive, which is nothing more than sharing more shares and profits." She added that, in terms of the commission ratio of e-commerce sales, Toutou's online celebrity requires "opening up in seven or three" with institutions in terms of profits, and recently even proposed to build e-commerce boutiques with its own IP and brand.

All this made Li Qinglian and members of the founding team feel very angry, but they dared not speak up because of their pursuit of GMV. In her opinion, although the popularity of online celebrity e-commerce is limitless, the development process of the platform often relies excessively on one or several leading online celebrities, because they are the main contributors to the platform traffic and GMV.

As long as the top online celebrities are "unhappy", the normal operation of online celebrity e-commerce enterprises will be greatly affected. If the head online celebrity resigns or changes jobs to a competitor, the platform may even fall in response.

So, why are there so many "troubles" and so many "unreasonable demands" made by the head netizens who are coaxed and held all day long?

　　 The top online celebrities are also afraid of iteration, and grasp the traffic to earn more quickly

"Online celebrities themselves are a bowl of youth food, so they can only make more money while they are young."

Ai Duo (pseudonym) is an online celebrity of a popular e-commerce platform in Hangzhou and one of the two top online celebrities of the organization. She told me to understand notes. As the saying goes, the more skilled, the more hardworking. But in online celebrity e-commerce enterprises, the more traffic, the more hardworking.

Aido, who has more than 3 million fans on multiple platforms, has to work for nearly 14 hours every day. A large number of fashion clothes and beauty products owned and represented by the platform are arranged for her and another head online celebrity to sell through live broadcast.

"Although it occupies the right place and right time, we also pay more." Aido pointed to the acne on his face and said with a wry smile, which is the result of frequent lack of sleep. The considerable income is also obtained at the expense of a lot of rest time.

In addition to "bringing goods" through live broadcast and short videos, they also often use their spare time to give lessons to new online celebrities at the company's request, so as to bring newcomers into the state as soon as possible. Therefore, in her opinion, it is not inappropriate to ask the company for higher benefits and treatment.

"In fact, there are some advantages now, but they are also worried about being replaced by new employees of the company, so we need more shares and share more profits now." The head online celebrity "Jiuwei" who has signed a contract with an e-commerce marketing agency in Shenzhen for more than a year told her to understand the notes. She is willing to impart some selling skills and experience to new online celebrities, but she has some complaints about the company spending money to attract new employees.

In her opinion, she contributes nearly 50% of GMV to the company every month and creates millions of yuan in revenue, but a large amount of profits are used by the company to promote and package new online celebrities, which is really unfair.

"This is not fair for us, so we naturally have to raise objections." Jiuwei is a little angry. The head of the enterprise and the mature online celebrities have created a lot of profits, which has laid the foundation for training new people. If the organization insists on occupying such a large amount of funds in the training of new people, but does not favor itself, then she will naturally ask the company to share more interests, Try to protect their reasonable rights and interests.

In fact, the purpose of many online celebrity e-commerce platforms today to cultivate new online celebrities is to balance the voice of their signed online celebrities and reduce the risk of their decision-making power being "kidnapped" by top online celebrities. This kind of proactive planning makes those who "fight the world" for the platform feel more crisis.

"The best way to avoid being replaced is to limit the investment in newcomers." Aido added that she did not ask too much about other businesses of the company, but she often questioned the cultivation of newcomers, especially the diversion and exposure of funds spent on newcomers, to ensure her competitiveness.

After all, it has been less than a decade since Tou became a real celebrity with a large number of fans and its popularity and traffic declined. How to make the platform more dependent and earn more income in a short period of time is their priority.

Then, in the conflict between interests and resources, will new online celebrities face greater challenges, and is it feasible for the platform to balance the top online celebrities by supporting new people?

　 New people can only survive the opportunity to build reputation

"The monthly income has been around 4000 yuan."

"Lihua" used to be a show anchor. A year ago, with the advice of a friend, it transformed to an e-commerce platform and signed a contract with an online celebrity e-commerce marketing agency in Chengdu. She told me that she only got a basic salary of 3500 yuan and a small amount of commission every month in the past year, which was much lower than her previous income on the live broadcast platform.

In this household appliance business structure, similar new online celebrities account for nearly 80%. The most worrying thing is that the company not only has limited funding for training and support, but also often has to bear the stigma of being a celebrity. In their eyes, new online celebrities seem to be a drag on the team.

"Now traffic is so precious that it can not be drained by high appearance, good figure and sweet voice. What's more, I think top online celebrities such as Zhang Dayi, Han Yujia, Zuo Jiaojiao and Dajin don't all depend on their faces." "Lihua" analysis shows that the biggest difference between e-commerce online celebrity and show site online celebrity lies in their "brains". They should have a certain aesthetic taste and understand fashion matching, Be eloquent when introducing goods.

Perhaps, no matter how "powerful" the show online celebrities are, once they transform into e-commerce, they will need a long process of learning and adapting. However, under the restriction of top and mature online celebrities, newcomers may be difficult to get too many opportunities to practice.

"Sometimes, several new online celebrities share the same social account and live channel to sell goods, which is actually quite uncomfortable." Different from the head online celebrity, "Lihua" found that more than 40 new people in the company were not only difficult to show their faces, but also needed to apply and schedule shifts when they logged on to the social platform to communicate with buyers.

For them, even if they can sell a small amount of goods, the percentage of commission is quite low, often below 10%. However, most people can only get a monthly sales commission (salary) to pay the rent, regardless of scheduling, live broadcasting, and social networking platforms.

"In fact, the purpose of signing with these institutions to transform e-commerce online celebrities is just to become familiar." Li Hua's colleague, also a new e-commerce online celebrity, "Can Hong" added that many online celebrities transform the e-commerce field just to learn experience from institutions and obtain independent resources. Finally, some of them will also transform into personal online red e-commerce, and use their own influence to carry out sales with goods by acting as brand products, establishing their own brands and other ways.

A number of online celebrities said in their exchanges that many of their former colleagues chose to leave and "set up their own doors" after accumulating some popularity in the organization.

"Several sisters started from small online celebrity stores to slowly cultivate user trust and guide fans to pay attention." Can Hong told Know Your Notes that there was almost no mutual support and help between the head online celebrity and the newcomers in the organization, and they would also compete for resources. Therefore, most newcomers after joining were thinking about how to jump out of the world. No matter how hard it is, they will also change jobs to smaller online celebrity e-commerce platforms after they have accumulated a certain reputation, so that the management can "provide".

In the view of "Canhong", online celebrity e-commerce platforms are all the best of iron and new comers of flowing water. Just in the first three months of this year, her platform left eight or nine small online celebrities and welcomed more than a dozen new faces.

"If they have a little fan base, they will open their own stores and split while broadcasting." This has also become the goal of "Lihua" and "Canhong", and even they have identified the agency brand and supply chain channels in advance, and maintained good relations, so that they can "establish their own doors" one day.

　 [Conclusion]

If the "Rebellion" online store jointly opened by Feng Min and Zhang Dayi is taken as a starting point, the development of online celebrity e-commerce has only been five years. As the product of the continuous development of live broadcast, short video and e-commerce, online celebrity e-commerce must pay attention to product quality and user experience and explore a better development model if it wants to develop in the long run.

Nowadays, many online celebrity e-commerce institutions rely heavily on the top online celebrity, which restricts the development of the company and the team, and also deprives new people of opportunities for growth, and does not form a benign development trend.

Both institutions, leading online celebrities and new online celebrities are cooperating with each other in restriction, restriction and utilization for their own interests. The goal is to strive for traffic, impact GMV, and even successfully enter the capital market. Behind this industry landscape, in fact, it also buried hidden dangers for the industry to enter the low ebb. The solution is actually in the hands of the players in the field.