We can glimpse the changes in China's video content market, internationalization and cultural diversity, which is the trend of the times.
Author | Shi Xin
Edit | Shi Can
In the video, a number of Japanese artists gathered together, the screen is placed in the B station's "treasure of the town station" - dancing video "New Treasure Island", with the burst of laughter, an artist asked: "Is this the hottest video of China's largest video website?" ”
Japanese watch short Chinese videos? This may be common in "reaction reaction videos," but this video is not the work of a blogger or UP owner, but an "authentic" TV variety show.
This variety show is "V Zi Strives to Become Popular!" It has been broadcast by Japan's TV Asahi since October 2020 and has been updated 34 times so far.
The Japanese variety show "V Zi strives to become popular!" 》
There are not many cases of Chinese short videos appearing on foreign TV programs, but "V Zi Strives to Become Popular!" " is not the same, this is a short video of station B as the main content of the variety show. In the program, Japan's well-known funny artists, voice actors, and actors watched the video of the explosion of China's B station together and reacted. Not only that, but the production team also announced that this is a show that "learns the videos that are very popular in China, and then makes more popular videos".
Since the show was broadcast, it has received high attention in Japan. As a late-night variety show, "V Son" can reach 2 million to 3 million viewers at the same time, and won the top spot in the audience voting of 14 late-night variety shows on TV Asahi, searching for programs on Twitter, you can see the enthusiastic evaluation of many Japanese audiences, "interesting" is a high-frequency word.
Chinese video makers such as Li Ziqi, who are popular on foreign platforms such as YouTube, have also become a "fresh force" in China's cultural output, but "overseas TELEVISION stations specialize in doing variety shows for Chinese videos", which is the first time. Relying on foreign "official Amway" to go abroad, what kind of magic does the B station short video have?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > to do a program that has never been done before</h1>
"V Zi strives to become popular! " can be born, B station UP master "Yamashita Tomohiro" is indispensable.
When it comes to the foreign UP owners of station B, the first reaction of many old users should be Yamashita Tomohiro. Tomohiro Yamashita is from Hokkaido, Japan, and moved to Shanghai in 2012. In 2014, he began to release the famous "Gentleman About a Minute" series, the video with the theme of current affairs and Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, once launched, it was warmly welcomed by the netizens of Station B.
In an era when there was no "wealth code", Tomohiro Yamashita became one of the hottest foreigner UP masters, known as "the second most famous person in China called Yamashita", and the first was the Japanese star Tomohisa Yamashita.
Tomohiro Yamashita calls himself the "lubricant of Sino-Japanese relations", and with his efforts, more and more Chinese audiences have begun to understand Japanese culture and various cold knowledge. In 2018, Station B was the first to select the Top 100 UP Masters, and Tomohiro Yamashita was listed impressively, and in 2019, he was also successfully elected, becoming the first Japanese to appear on the bilibili world podium. Today, he has nearly 2.7 million fans on the B station, and has received nearly 10 million likes, making him a well-deserved top of the Japanese UP masters.
In 2020, Yamashita Tomohiro was unable to return to Shanghai due to the epidemic, and he began to decide to "become popular in Japan", and also formulated a roundabout strategy of entering Japanese television stations or production companies to become a choreographer and director, so as to "become popular". Unexpectedly, "V Zi strives to become popular!" " came into being.
In September 2020, Tomohiro Yamashita released a video detailing the birth of the show's prototype. After submitting resumes to several production companies, a company conducted an interview with Tomohiro Yamashita, and during the interview, the production team expressed its desire to do a "program that can catch fire in China", which was in line with Tomohiro Yamashita, and a Chinese-related variety show was officially put on the agenda.
Things developed faster than expected, and shortly after the interview, "V Zi strives to become popular!" " determined production, the content of the program around the B station, learn how to become popular in China the secret, by the virtual anchor V zi as the host, and invited the first-line funny artist Eiji Kooka, while the Yamashita Tomohiro as a lecturer, together with three Chinese guests to explain China-related knowledge to the audience.
After preliminary preparation, "V Zi strives to become popular! Filming officially began in a conference room in the corner of TV Asahi, without any set, just a simple special effect through green screen cutouts, and the show, which the producer called "unprecedented", was born.
The show aired on TV Asahi, which had broadcast "Crayon Shin-chan" and "Doraemon" and the famous Japanese variety show "Sekihachi Chronicles", and was broadcast late on Thursday night, with a duration of only 20 minutes. The staff of the Japanese branch of Station B also came to the scene to participate in the filming of the program.
On October 9, 2020, the program was officially broadcast in Japan, and after translation, it was updated synchronously on the B station account "V sub Official", with the goal of "gaining 100,000 fans on the B station". After the launch, the first episode received more than 800,000 views on the B station, and the daily synthesis + reaction model attracted the attention of many people. The program team searched for hundreds of explosive videos in the major divisions of station B, carefully selected several of them to be broadcast in the program, and Xiao Yao, VZi, and Yamashita Tomohiro will also spit and evaluate, and understand China's unique culture, customs and customs.
Chinese has also become an important element in the show. The show begins with a Japanese narrator reading out the introduction of the show with Chinese, and before playing the VTR video, mc will also use unskilled Chinese to say "VTR look at it."
Chinese narration before the show starts
Tomohiro Yamashita and several Chinese guests also often introduced various memes on station B to the program, and added links such as "Chinese small classroom", and the program team also collected suggestions from the audience of station B to continuously improve the content and form of the program. Soon, the goal of the program "100,000 fans" was achieved, and the main creative team of the program, Xiao Yao Eiji, also followed the tradition of B station, "women's wear souvenir".
How well did this late-night show do in Japan?
After the broadcast, Tomohiro Yamashita revealed in the video that the show achieved the best ratings in the time period, and the ratings were very stable during the broadcast, and the audience enthusiasm was high. Open Twitter to search for "V Zi", the most frequent evaluation is "interesting", many Japanese viewers bluntly said that through "V Zi" changed the stereotype of China, learned the real China.
According to the original plan, if the ratings were low and the effect was not good, the show would be suspended in March 2021, but "V Son" was unexpectedly successful.
In January 2021, TV Asahi launched a program called "BARABARA Election" for its fourteen late-night programs, which will be voted by viewers to win the benefits of "increased production budget and early broadcast time".
What the production team did not expect was that "V Zi is trying to become popular!" " won the first place, Japan's high popularity coupled with the blessing of Chinese audiences, "V Zi" became a dark horse. On January 24, "V Son" launched a super long special.
News about the results of the "BARABARA election"
After surviving the "difficulty", the program was officially revised in April, the shooting venue changed from the original conference room to a professional studio, the set was gorgeous, and the contrast with the previous rough picture was stark; in addition to the advance of the broadcast time, the length of the program was also lengthened, and the guest lineup of the late-night program was also luxurious, in addition to the famous Japanese artists and voice actors such as Hikari Ijiin and Aisei Toyosaki, as well as the members of the popular girl group "Nogizaka 46", bringing more Japanese audiences to the show.
Revised "Deluxe Set"
The program is constantly broadcast, food, fitness, funny, humanistic... A variety of videos are played in the program, bringing a novel experience to Japanese audiences. Japanese netizens bluntly said in the comment area that such achievements are "unprecedented". China, especially the short video of Station B, is becoming popular in Japan.
A comment by a Japanese netizen on station B
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="136" what kind of video can catch fire in Japan >? </h1>
What kind of B station video did the program play? Presumably, many people have such questions.
Before the program was broadcast, the "V Zi" production team collected videos from all B stations and determined several principles: 1. Try to understand as little language as possible and without listening; 2. There must be urban and rural videos to reflect China's diversity and inclusiveness; 3. It can show the unique side of China. The production team hopes that the program does not need to win eyeballs through stereotypes and truly show the vast and colorful China.
In addition to a few principles, the core criterion for choosing a video is that it is hot enough and interesting.
Comments from Japanese netizens on Station B
The videos selected by the program group are very extensive, including the "street fitness dance" of the UP main "street healthy wood"; as well as the "fun cuisine" of the UP main "sheep cuisine"; and the handicraft video of "wood carving master" Lu Zhengyi; also combined with the two-dimensional attributes of the B station, the "love loop" is blown, and the "lemon" and other videos are played with lemons, which also shows the elements familiar to the Japanese audience and further enhances the fun.
In addition, food, traditional skills, and natural landscapes are also the focus of the show. The program group is very up-to-date, relying on the "single bamboo drift" technology to fire the whole network UP main Yang Liu also appeared in the program's VTR; Henan Satellite TV Dragon Boat Wonderful Tour opening program "Pray" after the broadcast on Weibo hot search, won the applause of the whole network, the production team soon also "Pray" director's work "Rolling Bead Curtain" on the program, Japanese guests directly called shock.
Many B station viewers also deeply feel the diversity of the program content, "this show really let me see a lot of good videos that I have not seen" and "from here to know a lot of new UP masters."
Not only that, the production team got in touch with some of the B station UP owners in the video, and in one episode of the program, the program connected the UP main "Street Jian Jian Wood" on the spot to understand the story behind the video. On June 6, 2021, it was the birthday of the virtual anchor V zi and MC Xiao Yu Eiji in the main creative team of the show, and the UP main "Dragon Boy Painting", who became popular by painting with a burning stick, also sent video blessings.
In addition to a variety of interesting videos, in China's explosive UP master is also popular with the program group, fire to YouTube Huanong Brothers, Li Ziqi and other UP main video often appear in the program, under the explanation of Yamashita Tomohiro and Chinese guests, let more and more Japanese audiences understand China's customs and daily life; Bi Dao's famous work "Visiting the Terracotta Army Hotel" also made the Japanese audience "greatly shocked", China's Terracotta Warriors culture through another way to trigger discussion again.
Among the many video and UP masters, there is one who is the most "dazzling", he is handmade Geng.
Handmade Geng's "useless invention" video was warmly received as soon as it was broadcast, excellent creativity and explosive comedic effects made Japanese audiences laugh, despite the language barrier, Handgun Geng still successfully went out of the circle, searching for "V Zi" on Twitter, and there was a lot of discussion about him. Due to the high frequency of appearances, the program team affectionately called Handgun Geng the "King of Inventions", and even opened up a separate link for him "The King of Inventions of this Week", and many "classic" videos were broadcast and became the "sharp weapon" of the ratings.
In addition to a variety of interesting videos, the reaction of the main creative team of the program group also made the program full of watching. Popular voice actors and idols brought exposure to the show, and funny artists made the show more interesting through various reactions.
Reaction-style Japanese synthesis has always been very popular, watching VTR and spitting is the housekeeping skill of many funny artists in Japan, MC Xiaozuo Eiji because of his appearance by many Chinese netizens called Japan's Chen Peisi, Guo Donglin, but he spit on the skills first-class, in the early stage of the program contributed a lot of laughs; and after the program renovation and remake, the addition of artists such as Yiji Inomi is the icing on the cake for the program effect.
"Watching video" is not the whole content of the program, adhering to the goal of "making a more popular video", the program team will also invite the host, guests and other people to shoot short videos and put them on the B station. For example, the famous voice actor Toyosaki Aisheng played the "effective Japanese" terrier of the fire, and let Inoue Isina dance "Two Tigers Love to Dance", etc., all of which achieved good playback at station B.
The program group also planned the "Japanese funny artists into the B station" link, in Japan by the "imitation of Jackie Chan" fire of the funny artist Jackie sauce got a good response, the program group immediately launched a Jackie sauce imitation Jackie sauce imitation Jackie King advertisement video in the B station, playing the "Duang" terrier that was once out of the circle of the whole network. Interestingly, it didn't take long for the entry "a Japanese artist imitating Jackie Chan" on Douyin to appear on the hot search topic list.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="137" > content internationalization of orB stations? </h1>
"V Zi strives to become popular! What does success in Japan really mean? Some people think that this is another major breakthrough in China's Internet content industry going global, from passive to active.
China's Internet UGC video earliest out to sea is "forced", YouTube's unique sharing model attracted a large number of video sharers, creating a successful precedent for the UGC model, but at the same time, piracy problems also arose, many high-quality independent video creators in China have encountered piracy incidents, which directly triggered the tide of Chinese video creators to go to sea and enter the overseas market.
Despite the difficulty of adapting to the YouTube model and the inability to figure out the preferences of overseas audiences, there are still a number of Chinese creators who have successfully gone, for example, With Li Ziqi, who became popular with China's unique pastoral life, the number of fans has even reached the level of tens of millions, and has produced a certain influence in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.
However, this success is difficult to replicate, because of cultural and language differences, it is difficult for Chinese video creators to break through cultural barriers and win the majority of users except overseas Chinese.
The shipwreck of Internet celebrities is an indisputable fact. Although TikTok has set off a short video boom around the world, there are few cases of Chinese Douyin Internet celebrities becoming popular overseas, and the model of localization and personalized recommendation has also made the audience form a fixed circle, and Chinese content has fallen into a situation that is difficult to break through.
"V Zi strives to become popular! According to some of the information revealed by the program, it can be seen that there is a relatively close cooperation between the B station official and the production team, the program not only pushes the Chinese video content to the whole of Japan, so that handmade Geng and others can gain further popularity, but also promotes the B station on a large scale with the label of "China's largest video creation website" to help the B station go to sea.
The Japanese audience who came to Station B after watching the program is the best proof, although this effect is difficult to measure, but it has made a certain contribution to the establishment of the overseas brand of Station B.
In addition to the overseas export of Chinese content and business models, the program also reflects the development trend of China's UGC content industry represented by Station B - internationalization.
With the continuous development of the Chinese market, foreign creators have gradually increased, in the era of Yamashita Zhibo's earliest popularity, the foreign high-quality UP owners of B station can be called "only a handful", and now more and more foreigners are pouring into the Chinese market, and the internationalization trend is remarkable.
The "Miyuki Teacher" that exploded not long ago is the best example. After the "image teaching" teaching video on TikTok was reprinted in China, Mei Youji became a famous overseas "earthy Internet celebrity", and I quickly entered Douyin, and even began to introduce myself with Chinese to create an exclusive "image teaching" for Chinese audiences on Douyin. In just a few months, she has gained more than 2 million fans on Douyin, flipping through major domestic social software, and always seeing the greasy and cute memes of "Teacher Mei Youji".
"V Zi" program at the beginning of the goal of becoming popular in China, virtual anchor V Zi not only attracts fans through the program, but also often broadcasts live on Station B, and now the fans have reached 200,000 and are marching towards 300,000.
"V Zi strives to become popular! is a win-win product. On the one hand, we can see that Chinese content and the Chinese model are going to sea through an "official Amway" way to open up a vast overseas market; on the other hand, we can also glimpse the changes in China's video content market, internationalization and cultural diversity, which is the trend of the times.