Breaking the game = seizing opportunities + finding fulcrums, a chat with Ayue, the top anchor of Douyin’s life service

How should top anchors cultivate themselves? What is the operational logic behind the growth of data? The author of this article has an in-depth conversation with the story of super top anchor A Yue, analyzing the core of growth and operation. Recommended reading for those who are interested in live streaming and growth operations.

Such a topic can easily be misunderstood as talking about "making an account on TikTok". No, how could that be.

I continue to study the core of operations and growth, finding the common core from different industries and ever-changing phenomena, and enriching my knowledge system.

This time we are telling the story of A Yue.

She is a top anchor of Douyin's life service. How do we define a top anchor? I will give two easy-to-understand points:

1. In the field of life services, there are very few single-game GMVs exceeding 10 million, among which is "A Yue Lai La";
2. The case of A Yue often appears in the weekly report of Douyin operations.

I chatted with A Yue live for 2 hours and learned how she got started and what she did at different stages.

My conclusion is: Breaking the situation = seizing opportunities + finding fulcrums

This experience is not only applicable to account management. I think it may be inspiring to all business managers.

01 First, explain the formula: Breaking the situation = seizing opportunities + finding fulcrums

1. Breakthrough

Talk about how to break through the current situation, which may be a bottleneck or a stagnant state. In the case of A Yue, it is about how she went from obscurity to fame and then to the top in the early days of live streaming.

The key is to take the first step to break the deadlock. I found that as long as I take the first step correctly, things will get much better afterwards.

2. Seize opportunities

The focus is more on the external environment, and the key lies in the ability to identify, that is, to capture and analyze information and find opportunities therein.

Choosing the life service track certainly reflects Ah Yue’s ability to identify opportunities, but this point is too broad and can easily be attributed to “she is just lucky”. In this article, we will analyze it in more detail.

3. Find a fulcrum

Operations and growth generally require resources, but resources are scarce, so you need to pry, and to pry you need to find a fulcrum.

I have always said before that resources are not necessarily money and traffic, but also include confidence, timing, and the needs of other collaborators. Some friends may still not understand it. You can listen to A Yue’s story below.

I can tell you first: this account has almost no traffic, or very little, whether it is official or myself.

02 Secondly, tell the story of A Yue

Actually, this is just a short story she told, but it left a deep impression on me. The above formula was extracted from this.

In the early days of Ah Yue’s live streaming sales, her data was definitely not very good. During one live broadcast, she decided to achieve a GMV of 100,000, otherwise she would not end the broadcast.

As a result, she live-streamed for 10 hours without anyone replacing her, without eating or going to the toilet, and she achieved her goal.

In the Douyin life service track a year and a half ago, it was eye-catching enough for a host to invest so hard and sell for 100,000, and he stood out immediately.

The significance of this incident does not lie in the 100,000 GMV itself, but in the fact that the Douyin platform and merchants noticed this anchor.

It was still in the early stages of the platform’s efforts. Douyin was looking everywhere for accounts worthy of support, and brands also wanted to know who they should invest in.

Therefore, this live broadcast became a fulcrum of leverage, leveraging the resources of more platforms and brand merchants.

This fulcrum was definitely helpful to Ah Yue, who was still in the exploratory stage at the time. But it was also helpful to the platform and merchants, a win-win situation.

The function of this fulcrum is:

Douyin North China BD noticed A Yue, and on the second day of the 100,000 GMV live broadcast, they found A Yue and hoped to add a special show for Yoshinoya, and got this CKA merchant.

A Yue was not included in the original plan.

After this first pivot, there were soon the second and third pivots:

First, she sold nearly 10 million in one month, which made SKA and other regions across the country notice A Yue; and then she sold more than 10 million in a single game, which made the hotel and tourism industry also know A Yue.

It just kept rolling like that and has continued to this day.

03 Finally, back to the formula: Breaking the situation = seizing opportunities + finding fulcrums

1. Breakthrough

When Ah Yue first entered the life service industry, she was definitely unknown, so if she wanted to break this situation, she had to break this situation. This was both her goal and the result.

A Yue’s strategy at that time was to achieve results (GMV) first, then think about monetization (profit).

So the "achievements" here means breaking through. The specific approach is to seize opportunities and find fulcrums as mentioned below.

2. Seize opportunities

In this case, I felt Ah Yue's sensitivity to the information about her surroundings. She had this insight:

First, the platform paid more attention to it. Douyin took a series of actions at the time, which showed that it would pay attention to this track, such as PR, organizational structure, recruitment, etc.

Secondly, the phenomenon of generally better performance. I found that the store exploration videos I made and the local life content made by other accounts have very good data results.

Also, considering that my own strength was limited at the time, it was difficult to develop live streaming e-commerce and I couldn’t handle more complex issues such as the supply chain.

By combining these scattered information, we can probably determine a direction and start life services. Although we are not sure what it will be like, at least we can take the first step and solve problems later.

3. Find a fulcrum

After identifying this opportunity, you have to do it. But the problem A Yue encountered was that she did not have much resources accumulated before, such as traffic and money.

But what they have is their own experience in the content field and strong execution ability.

Therefore, we must find a point to leverage more resources or even overturn the current situation.

This pivot is the "100,000 GMV live broadcast" mentioned above. This is the most ingenious point in the whole thing. She did this consciously, it was a decision.

The fulcrum effect can be best described as prying resources. This is of great significance to Ah Yue.

What is the value of this case?

The value of case studies lies in two aspects:

1. Horizontal means studying cases in other industries, which can inspire and broaden your horizons;
2. Vertically, it means studying cases in the industry, similar to learning history, to better understand what happened before and to have a more accurate prediction of future trends.

Case studies are not meant to be replicated.

We cannot replicate this scenario and node. The outcome of any case is the result of a combination of many internal and external factors.

There are too many variables to be reproducible, and there is also an element of luck.

As long as the case is true, not deliberately exaggerated or embellished, and the key details are touched upon, then it is a good case.

I hope this article is a good case analysis and is useful to everyone.

Author: Han Xu

Source: WeChat public account "Operation Dog Work Diary (ID: yunyingriji)"