introduction
Recently, a number of "Internet celebrities showing off their wealth" have been banned by platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, which has aroused widespread public attention. What exactly is "showing off the wealth of Internet celebrities"? What is the intent and real purpose behind it? Let's find out!
1. Extravagant life is out of reach, look at what the "Internet celebrities who show off their wealth" show off?
In the video of "showing off their wealth", buying luxury goods, famous cars and watches at will is the basic operation, wearing priceless jewelry, drinking afternoon tea, and soaking in the sunshine in a mansion of thousands of square meters is their daily life. The methods of "showing off wealth Internet celebrities" can be described as varied, and they can be summed up as "extremely extravagant".
Internet celebrity "Wang" said in a live broadcast that he has 7 luxury houses in Beijing's high-end community, the largest one is 991 square meters, and the slightly smaller one is more than 500 square meters. In a live interview, "Wang" even said to the camera, "When I go out every day, if the clothes on my body don't add up to 8 figures, I definitely can't."
Internet celebrity "Bai" spread top luxury shopping bags all over the bed and packed dogs in luxury bags, just to show the public "money ability". "Bao" said that he owns a courtyard mansion covering an area of more than 5 acres, with a complete set of imperial green jadeite, diamond rings the size of "pigeon eggs", and "there will always be endless abalone at home" has become its exclusive label.
"Tian", the self-proclaimed "No. 1 lady in Beijing", showed the public in a video the "sky-high" underwear he bought worth more than 40,000 yuan, and some netizens joked that "I used to say that I was so poor that I didn't even have underwear left, but now I can't even afford underwear."
The consumption power flaunted by the above Internet celebrities far exceeds the per capita purchasing power of ordinary residents, and has become an untouchable "dream" for wage earners who live a life of "tea, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea".
(Production: Public Opinion Center of the Rule of Law Network Data source: National Bureau of Statistics)
2. What do you think of "showing off your wealth"?
In order to create a high-end personality, "showing off their wealth Internet celebrities" show their extravagant life in front of the public in a relaxed and natural tone and action when shooting videos, and some Internet celebrities put the video of their establishment of a love foundation and public welfare education at the top, in order to make the people in front of the screen believe that they are "upper-class people" with a sense of social responsibility, but they don't know that it is false to assume social responsibility, and it is true to create a "high-class" persona to facilitate future traffic and live broadcast sales to "cut leeks".
Before the "Internet celebrity showing off his wealth" was banned by the platform and his real identity was revealed, many netizens were deceived by his superb acting skills, and some netizens said, "Thanks to the blogger, this account is the only way for me to understand high society"; Some netizens believe that "as long as the source of the money is reasonable and legitimate, it doesn't hurt to record it daily"; Some netizens sighed, "It can really be described as 'your life and my dream', ordinary people may not be able to reach this height in their lifetime"; Some netizens expressed anxiety, believing that people's wealth and status have been determined from birth, and the chance of "changing one's life against the sky" is slim, and lamenting that "hard work is useless"; Some netizens also believe that everyone should stay sober and rationally analyze the behavior of showing off wealth, pointing out that the reason behind showing off wealth is likely to be to bring goods in live broadcasts and make profits from it.
(Production: Public Opinion Center of the Rule of Law Network Data source: In Bilibili, the barrage and first-level comments of two videos such as "Showing Off Wealth Internet Celebrity Circle "Earthquake": Multiple Million-level Internet Celebrities Were Banned by the Whole Platform" and ""The First Lady in Beijing" Was Banned by the Whole Network" were selected on Bilibili, and the most popular words were set at 100)
3. Behind the "flaunting wealth Internet celebrity", it is actually for traffic realization
On the surface, these "Internet celebrities who show off their wealth" seem to show off their daily lives to the public, but in fact, they are "businessmen" with "small abacus" behind the scenes, in order to sell anxiety and attract traffic to realize.
The netizens who were kept in the dark watched the "Showing Off Wealth Internet Celebrities" performing hard, fantasizing that they would be able to live a life of fine clothes and food one day, while listening to them talk about the goods to be sold in the live broadcast room of the "Showing Off Wealth Internet Celebrities", and then willingly took out their wallets and "recharged" for the "Showing Off Wealth Internet Celebrities".
1. The sales of "showing off wealth Internet celebrities" live broadcast with goods are amazing
According to the data of Cicada Mother, the number of fans of the three top Internet celebrities of "Wang", "Bai" and "Bao" is 4.376 million, 2.952 million, and 2.306 million. Among them, the sales of "Bai" and "Bao" live broadcast goods are both 25 million yuan to 50 million yuan, and the cumulative sales of "Wang" live broadcast goods are as high as 75 million yuan to 100 million yuan. It is not difficult to see that once the "showing off wealth Internet celebrity" character is successfully created, a large number of fans will follow, and traffic monetization will naturally be "handy".
(Production: Public Opinion Center of the Rule of Law Network Data source: Cicada Mother)
2. Among the categories of "showing off wealth and Internet celebrities", beauty and skin care are the most profitable
Taking "Wang" as an example, Cicada Mother data shows that in the first quarter of 2024, among the top five categories with the most products on the shelves of "Wang", beauty and skin care topped the list with a proportion of 71.43%.
(Production: Public Opinion Center of the Rule of Law Network Data source: Cicada Mother Note: The data statistics interval is the first quarter of 2024)
In the best sales category, beauty and skin care still ranked first, accounting for 72.53%, with sales of 100,000-250,000 pieces and sales of 50 million yuan to 75 million yuan. Among them, the sales of a moisturizing mask and an essence moisturizing gift box are 10 million yuan to 25 million yuan, and the public commission ratio is 1%. "Showing off wealth Internet celebrities" can probably rely on this income to "eat and drink without worrying".
(Production: Public Opinion Center of the Rule of Law Network Data source: Cicada Mother Note: The data statistics interval is the first quarter of 2024)
Fourth, put a stop to the unhealthy trend of flaunting wealth on the Internet, and create a positive online ecological environment
The Internet flaunts wealth and advocates money worship, hedonism, and comparisonism, conveys a distorted view of consumption and values, and destroys a positive and good online environment.
From a moral point of view, "showing off wealth Internet celebrities" do whatever it takes to sell anxiety and monetize traffic, and there have been "wealth show off Internet celebrities" who openly ridicule office workers, while showing their high-end image of being "a good person", devaluing the good quality of down-to-earth hard work as worthless, and on the other hand, with the concept of "money first", they treat the netizens in front of the screen as "leeks" and "wronged heads", bringing unhealthy trends into the live broadcast industry and disrupting the network order.
From a legal point of view, Xinhua News Agency in "Such a "tumor" to show off wealth is long overdue! According to the article, if there is false behavior in the online flaunting of wealth, or the content promoted is fraudulent, it is suspected of violating the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and the Advertising Law. "Wang" and "Bai" have previously been fined and reported by fans for suspected false propaganda and selling fake goods, respectively, and have criminal records.
In order to create a positive online ecological environment, in April 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Special Action of "Clear and Clear, Rectifying 'Self-Media' Without Bottom Line Traffic", which listed "catering to vulgar needs to create rich characters, deliberately showing the luxurious life of money piled up, and using this to attract fans and attract traffic" as the key rectification content. At the same time, a number of Internet platforms continued to issue announcements on cracking down on content that promoted bad values such as flaunting wealth, and severely dealt with the illegal accounts that were detected. The continuous increase in rectification efforts reflects the "zero tolerance" for the promotion of wealth flaunting, money worship, and hedonism.
Creating a fresh and positive online environment is the common expectation of the public. To eradicate the stubborn disease of "showing off wealth" on the Internet, it is necessary for multiple parties to continue to form a joint force, and if a cancer of "showing off wealth" is discovered, one will be eradicated, and the turbidity will be cleared, so as to maintain the healthy and orderly development of the network ecology.
Source: Public Opinion Center of the Rule of Law Network (Analyst Liu Siyuan)