"There may be a few lucky people who can rise from the bottom anchor to the top to become the dream "Li Jiaqi", but what is even more tragic when looking down from top to bottom is that all the stones at the bottom are soaked in all kinds of pain, and you can do nothing, you can only encourage them to come to the high position where you are now, look down together, look at the blood and tears together. The fate that chose me was lucky, except for the lucky ones, all of whom are suffering."
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When it comes to the careers that young people dream of today, anchors are at the top of the list.
Famous fast, low threshold, make more money... Young people look forward to becoming the next Li Jiaqi-like wealth-making myth, but after standing up to the game, they find that the myth is far less beautiful than they imagined.
"The babies in the live broadcast room are filmed now and can be shipped tomorrow morning!"
"Like the anchor's upper right corner to click on oh!"
The status quo of live streaming of anchors
In the late night when thousands of homes are lit up, the live broadcast rooms of major anchors are still in full swing. The live broadcast time of more than ten hours a day is exchanged for only a few views and thin orders, which makes the bottom anchors already overwhelmed, and the right to give up is no longer in their own hands from the moment they enter the industry, and the high default fees and refund fees they face are far beyond the scope that the bottom families can afford.
The traffic is not enough, and the drama comes together. "Today the platform said, less than 10,000 plays will not let me down the broadcast, beg the family to be pitiful, give the little anchor a little attention!" In order to win the favor of traffic, the anchors put on weird or edge-rubbing costumes and staged a funny drama, although it brought about the secondary deconstruction and creation of the circle, but there was no significant improvement in fan retention, leaving only to watch the lively bystanders and chicken feathers.
The anchor who sold fake jadeite was counterfeited by CCTV
Grotesque and futile, nervous and anxious, the branches of the winding to create a highly involuted live broadcast ecology, and for the underlying anchors who are difficult to reach the myth of wealth creation, whether the live broadcast is a dream or blood and tears, can only be tested by one live broadcast after another for more than ten hours.
From live game streaming to live streaming:
The cruel story of the low-level anchors
In fact, anchors are not a profession that has only emerged in the past two years. As early as 2018, many game bloggers have entered platforms such as Douyu and Huya to start live game battles, accumulating a large number of fan groups and public domain traffic, thus incubating head game anchors such as "PDD" and "Lu Benwei". However, with the continuous development of the live broadcast platform, the growth rate of the head game anchor far exceeds the construction speed of the platform traffic pool, the retention rate of public domain traffic into private domain traffic has not been effectively improved, and the live broadcast urgently needs to hatch a new commercialization direction, so that the anchor with goods came into being and quickly became the mainstream direction of live broadcasting.
Interestingly, at the beginning of the initial boom of live streaming, no head anchors were hatched, even popular anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Simba had to gather in the same live broadcast venue and shout loudly to sell the goods in their hands. At that time, there were very few product anchors who could get official authorization, and the impact of the anchor's fan traffic on the consumer market was even more minimal, and the anchors emphasized more on the legitimacy and authority of the product source, and the product price difference was still very limited.
With the large-scale increase of the online live broadcast audience and the out-of-the-loop of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, the low-price competition has become the focus of live streaming with goods. Whoever can get a lower price of goods can seize more markets. In 2021 Double Eleven, Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya created a sales myth of live streaming with goods with sales of nearly 10 billion, but similar miracles did not occur in the live broadcast room of the low-level anchors.
2021 Singles' Day Li Jiaqi live room sales
"Tonight's anchor live broadcast room has the lowest price on the whole network!" Don't miss it as you walk by! ”
“3，2，1！ On the link! ”
The same rhetoric, in the live broadcast room of the bottom anchors, but the response is mediocre. At first, it was possible to maintain an audience of about 50 people at a time, and gradually only 5 or 3 people were left in the back... The sparse audience is in stark contrast to the distant mythical numbers of goods, so that the bottom anchors can't help but wonder if there is something wrong with their sales methods and selections. Many mcn agencies and data websites have even made a refined analysis of the daily goods of the head anchors, but they still have little effect.
"Carrying goods is such a thing, I really don't know what I'm doing wrong, and I don't know what I'm doing right." When it is good, you can sell tens of thousands of orders a day, on average, there are several orders a minute, and you can easily earn 40,000 or 50,000 a month, I carefully watched the playback several times that day, and I did not understand what the reason was, I can only say that I was lucky. ”
Delayed in finding the golden key to carry the goods, some low-level anchors have found a new way to go out of the circle: acting. In the live broadcast room, the anchors picked up the phone to connect the merchants: "The original price of 199 yuan a box is it, you give me the price to 69 yuan three boxes, I don't care if you lose or not, today in my live broadcast room on this price!" The merchant replied wryly: "Brother, you are at this price... Alas, there is no way, just give your fans a little benefit, that's it, it's sold out! ”
Douyin internet celebrity Guo Xianren imitates some anchors with goods
Grotesque dramas continue to be staged, although these low-level anchors have won considerable traffic, bringing countless secondary deconstructions and creations, but they have not brought exciting growth to sales, but diluted the concentration of consumers in entertainment and spoofs, leaving only to watch lively netizens and chicken feathers.
After the hustle and bustle, the bottom anchors were beaten back into the traffic battle. The drama is not enough, the time comes to make up. YY2021 live broadcast data shows that the average daily live broadcast time of anchors has exceeded 6 hours, and the live broadcast time of 8-10 hours is not uncommon. Every late night, there are many anchors who work hard close to the screen to hold up the price tag, trying to retain the audience of each point into the live broadcast room with a hoarse voice, and now, in the cruel story of the anchors at the bottom, it is no longer easy to quit, and it is even more difficult to come in.
PK Mechanism:
Highly coiled industry cycle
With the continuous development of the live broadcast business, in order to control the various risks brought by live broadcasting, guilds have become one of the important indicators of the live broadcast format. Advertising is divided, and all are signed up, all of which are under the control of the Live Broadcasting Association (MCN Agency).
In the past, the screening mechanism of anchors was often a unified set of average standards: no limit on academic qualifications, no limit on experience, as long as you want to do it you can come. However, with the continuous improvement of the incubation cost of the head anchor, the live broadcasting agency gradually realized that instead of investing a large amount of traffic and funds in the large anchors who are not easy to control and have a long return cycle, it is better to spread the net, catch more fish, and cultivate a large number of low-level anchors who are well controlled to bring greater benefits. On the BOSS website, many anchors' recruitment advertisements read: "Double holiday, high commission" and "Teachers, white-collar workers, mothers, live broadcast heavy users are preferred". Under the temptation that money comes quickly, the threshold is low, and everyone can be an anchor, the anchor dream is subtly implanted into the minds of young people who want to make money quickly or prove themselves.
Zhaopin recruitment live job data
It seems that the threshold for anchors to enter the industry is constantly lowering, but in fact, it is a disguised elevation and endless inner volume. Under the "good control" screening system of MCN institutions, the road to the top of the head anchor is almost completely blocked, and the bottom anchors are facing heavy KPI and high liquidated damages.
"At least 500 orders have to be completed every day, not sold full of 20,000 will be criticized by all members, every month there is the last place to eliminate, sometimes really can't stick to it and want to quit, just the liquidated damages will lose hundreds of thousands, think about it."
If the pk mechanism brings to the anchors with goods is a strict but accurate KPI assessment, then for young and beautiful female beauty anchors, pk is an ambiguous challenge to morality and body. On platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, female anchors compete in the number of fans' ticket brushing power and gifts through the connection pk, and the losers have to accept the punishment of the winner unconditionally. In order to improve the pk winning rate, some female anchors continue to improve the fan stickiness of the live broadcast room through the dance and dress of the edge, and grasp the top two of the most able to brush the tickets of the "big brothers", even if they have to endure the verbal provocation of "greasy" and "chatty".
Female anchor in pk
The gradual vulgarization of the pk mechanism makes the relationship between the anchor and the audience no longer equal in the pk, but forms an ambiguous power system, the anchors no longer independently grasp the absolute right to speak about the body, but by giving the bottom line a little bit to complete the commodification process of the body being evaluated, consuming and trading, it seems that female anchors can control the scale of the bottom line decline at any time, but the cost of restraint will only become more and more difficult to restrain with the continuous rise of pk gifts.
There are always young girls who want to leave, and there are always young girls who want to come in.
In fact, highly involuted volumes are not just the norm in the live streaming industry. For the low-threshold Internet economy, the inner volume is not only the status quo of most industries, but also almost a helpless "natural" law: people have formed a reward and punishment pattern with extremely differentiated differentiation by lowering the threshold for Internet entry, and after the screening and elimination of traffic, they continue to wash out new labor forces, and the survival dilemma of the low-level workers who are eliminated or are about to be eliminated is more difficult to be taken seriously. This is true of the live streaming industry, and the same is true of the takeaway rider ecosystem, but their pk is measured by single volume and delivery time.
Delivery Rider Status
Naturally, in the face of chaotic live broadcast formats, the state has introduced some laws and regulations to regulate and manage, such as sexual harassment, yellow speech and other issues have been effectively solved, but the survival of the bottom anchors who carry a heavy KPI assessment is still difficult to be valued and solved, or perhaps, from a higher level of perspective, the rapid iteration of the Internet economy and the synchronization of relevant policies such as the live broadcast industry remains to be seen, and before the rules are set, the bottom anchors are still like ants on the millstone. Facing the crisis of exit at any time.
Who exactly is "I":
The underlying discourse that is gradually drowned out
Even if the bottom anchors are facing layers of difficulties, the anchor industry is still wrapped in a glamorous and sweet coat, attracting countless young people with fame imaginations to enter the game.
According to Zhaopin's recruitment data, the number of open positions in the live broadcasting industry increased by 11.72% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021, higher than the increase of 6.82% for other positions on the whole platform; while the number of job seekers for live broadcasting positions increased by 46.69% year-on-year. Among them, there are many college students who have not yet entered the society, elderly shopkeepers, and beautiful girls and single mothers in rural areas.
Zhaopin live streams industry job seeker data
"Doing live broadcasting allows me to be myself and really independent." For the first time, full-time mothers who aspire to become independent women find their female selves independent of their families in the live broadcast. Even if there are only a dozen people watching in the live broadcast room every day, she is willing to shout hard in the live broadcast room, with an average of more than 10 hours a day, even if the voice is hoarse to almost lose her voice, as long as she sees the praise of "the anchor sister is so beautiful" in the comments and the gradual increase in sales, she can continue to play the enthusiastic and unlimited anchor with goods.
For women at the bottom who aspire to be independent but trapped in their families, live broadcasting seems to be a spectrum of redemption. For the first time, they are no longer appreciated and proved as a mother, a wife, but as a living individual. Female anchors at the bottom enjoy the liberation brought about by economic independence and the attention they get as women, and the continuous refraction of the spectrum also makes them fall into disorientation and withdrawal.
Some singing anchors once admitted that they initially embarked on the road of anchors purely because they liked to sing, and they also hoped that others could hear her singing more. However, after a long period of high-load live broadcasting, her throat has long been overwhelmed, and she can't even say simple words after the next broadcast, and can only fill a spoonful of honey water and fat sea to quickly alleviate, because she will be broadcast again in a few hours, and she can't lose the hard-won traffic.
The singing female anchor is broadcasting live
Driven by the era of commercial capital and pan-entertainment, it seems that women have become the center of the gaze in live broadcasts, but in fact, they have fallen into the trap of traffic. Under the consumption order controlled by the symbol code, the demand of some women eager to be "watched" has gradually become one of the subconscious of capital implantation, commercial capital has given women the right to be watched through traffic and algorithms, and determined the way they are watched, and the female anchors who are eager to obtain independent liberation in live broadcasts may only repeatedly dream and dream between the dreams woven by consumerism and the cruel reality.
Not only are the needs and discourses of female anchors at the bottom being gradually drowned out, but male anchors are also facing similar dilemmas.
"When I first came here, I wanted to be my own brand and be my own boss, and now I want to be the next Li Jiaqi and do capital."
Enthusiastic anchors flock to the line, but the dream is gradually concretely into the names of some head anchors, and it seems that there is no choice but to become them. Everyone is busy, but they don't know the ending.
So far, live broadcasting is still a grand issue, the audience and anchors are still eager to chase an ultimate perfect answer, becoming the next head anchor may be able to change the temporary poverty and plight of the bottom anchors, but the dream of capital shaping is only constantly transporting fresh blood to the void that even capital cannot control, how to maintain suspension can only rely on the struggle and self-awakening of the bottom anchors, and it is the mutual integration of the only traffic theory and self-awakening that makes the overwhelmed into a desperate bet. The anchors at the bottom can only constantly hope for higher traffic and more viewers.
Newcomer anchors conduct live training
British scholar Stephenson once proposed: "The best thing about mass communication is to allow people to immerse themselves in active games, that is, it makes people happy." The main body of the game is free, engaged and happy, but for the bottom anchors who seem to be struggling to swim in glue, at least it is difficult for them to harvest this freedom and pleasure under the kpi assessment of live broadcasting. There may be a few lucky people who can join the upper echelons to become the "Li Jiaqi" of their dreams, but what is even more tragic when looking down from top to bottom is that all the stones at the bottom are soaked in all kinds of pain, and you can do nothing but encourage them to come to the high position where you are now, look down together, and look at the blood and tears together.
The fate that chose me was lucky, except for the lucky ones, all of whom were suffering.
(Image from the Internet)
Resources:
Story FM. "Attack on the Novice Female Anchor: Don't want to sell your soul, and you can't put down the big brother of the list"
New Weekly. "Bottom Female Anchor: No Sudden Wealth, Only Pressure"