Can the "Shao Yuxuan" who start a new business return to the top?

Can the influencers who "left" with traffic return to the top? What is the most important thing in the internal circulation of Douyin traffic? This article starts with typical cases and a few things between influencers and MCNs to explore the secrets of Douyin content traffic. It is recommended for those who are interested in influencer operations and Douyin operations.

Two months after @疯产妹妹 announced their peaceful "breakup", another well-known drama influencer announced his departure by peacefully terminating his contract.

On October 18, the account @董代表 released a text video, calmly recounting in the name of the MCN Moonlight that the company had agreed to with the former talent Dong代表, and that after communication, it was confirmed that the contract would not be renewed. The video specifically emphasized that the two parties "just had their contracts expire, and they happened to have new plans, and they did not part on bad terms", and that during the contract period, " the talent and efforts of the talent were obvious to all, but the company's investment in capital and manpower costs were also equal to them. Both parties had been in equal cooperation from the beginning to the end, and hoped that they could both shine after separation" .

@董代表TikTok video screenshot

Like @疯产妹妹’s decent farewell, Dong’s parting ways with MCN did not cause any bloodbath. The gentle and sincere statement also won MCN a wave of goodwill.

Shortly after the video was released, all the works released by @董代表 in the past were hidden. The drama expert Dong代表, who had played many classic roles, disappeared from the screen, and was replaced by @董大表, who started a new career and appeared in a new look. On the other hand, Shao Yuxuan, who appeared in @疯产妹妹, also opened a new account @邵雨轩 after breaking up with Zhang Xiaohua peacefully, and showed a content tone that was far from the original funny style.

Whether it is a peaceful separation or a brutal fight, when the core talents finally "leave" the original account and start a new one, can they still reproduce the past glory?

01 From the ever-changing actor @Dong Representative to the fashion trendsetter @Dong Dabiao

Before becoming the current @董大表, @董代表 was a well-known "versatile celebrity" in the short video ecosystem. He was extremely good at cross-dressing and playing multiple roles, and his imitation and performance abilities were outstanding.

@董代表TikTok video screenshot

On September 24, 2019, @董代表 posted his first video on TikTok. In the video, he appeared as a new Indian colleague. After his identity was questioned, he quickly put on a delicate imitation makeup and changed into a sari. The image of an Indian woman instantly jumped onto the screen. Then, in the following works, Dong Representative created one full and contrasting character after another with his diverse makeup and clothing combinations, as well as his vivid acting skills in specific situations.

According to incomplete statistics, Dong has played dozens of female characters with different images, including Sun Meina, Zhu Yanfang, Xia Meiqi, Xu Guiying, Lu Yisi, Qian Yuqin, Wang Jiayu, Dong Jing, Park Leren (Korea), Fei Jie, Bai Tingting, etc. Sometimes he is the arrogant Park Leren, sometimes the young and innocent Xia Meiqi, sometimes the well-dressed Qian Yuqin, and sometimes the heavily made-up Du Xiaoyan... These characters come from different backgrounds, have different professions, and have completely different personality traits.

The characters' footprints are spread across various places such as trains, airplanes, shopping malls, bathhouses, clothing stores, express stations, beauty salons, and homes. The characters collide with each other, depicting real and down-to-earth pictures of the lives of Northeastern women.

@董代表TikTok video screenshot

With his superb acting skills and accurate portrayal of different characters, the plot expert @董代表 once gained 5 million fans in 4 months, and quickly gained a place in the plot track with his unique acting style . As of the release of the peaceful breakup declaration video, the account has accumulated nearly 8 million fans.

After posting this respectable and friendly video, @董代表 entered a state of "rest and recuperation". The company said that the account will not be updated for a period of time, and then the video content and business direction will be replanned. And Dong, who "left" the original account, shed his image of a versatile expert and became active in the new account @董大表 with a brand new look.

In the first video released on October 16, @董大表 changed his previous image of an auntie and appeared in his daily look. He solemnly told fans that he had terminated his contract, saying "all other accounts have been destroyed, my soul is only in this account" and "I don't belong to this shell, I belong to the world". This video received 267,000 likes and 30,000 comments. Many fans said that although they were reluctant to part with the roles he had previously portrayed, they also wanted to see him be himself.

@董大表TikTok video screenshot

In his subsequent works, Dong Dabiao began to "liberate his nature" to the fullest, and the content he posted were all vlogs of his daily life, such as fitness, cooking, partying with friends, traveling, showing off his outfits, etc. The content was rich and quite personal.

@董大表TikTok video screenshot

According to observations, @董大表 has published 51 works so far, with 679,000 fans, which is far from being comparable to the original account. As the number of his works increases, the comments begin to polarize, with some fans saying that they "like his free and easy style and interesting soul", but some fans do not appreciate his current style and hope that he will quickly make jokes and liven up his life, and not waste his talent.

It is also worth noting that from the release of the first work on October 16 to the present, the speed at which @董大表's followers increase has gradually slowed down, and the video data has also begun to decline . The number of likes on many videos has not exceeded 10,000 so far, and his popularity does not seem to be as high as when the contract was just terminated.

@董大表TikTok video screenshot

02 The rebirth of the "runaway" master

Before @董代表, the peaceful breakup of @疯产妹妹s had already caused a big stir in the industry. After the announcement of the disbandment on August 6, the original account @疯产妹妹s, which belonged to Zhang Xiaohua, has not updated any videos so far. On the contrary, Shao Yuxuan, who wanted to "change his life", has already started a new content mode in the new account @邵雨轩.

According to Kass's observation, in the three months from August 6th to now, @邵雨轩 has updated a total of 18 videos and has a fan base of 489.1W. Although this volume cannot be compared with the original account's 41.77W, when viewed from the perspective of Douyin in the entire third quarter, the new account's fan growth rate is far ahead.

Screenshot of @邵雨轩's Douyin homepage

Similar to Representative Dong, Shao Yuxuan did not completely continue the previous hilarious style of comedy. Except for one "breakup" explanation, the remaining 18 videos are daily content and co-creation videos with some influencers, and focus on showing her experience of participating in activities as a model. Compared with the previous funny style, the overall video has added a lot of fashion and high-end feeling.

@Shao Yuxuan Tik Tok video screenshot

Of course, polarized controversy also exists . Some fans think that she has found her own life and fully displayed her true self; other fans have many criticisms on her new account, thinking that the content posted now is monotonous and awkward, "lacking a bit of soul." Observing the growth of her fans, except for the day when the "breakup" video was released and the day when the first daily fragment was released, the number of fans on the account increased significantly, but the growth of fans at other times was very slow, and even fans dropped occasionally.

Some netizens expressed their understanding of the content transformation after their breakup: "Creating funny content requires continuous output and constant new ideas. It is difficult for an individual to support long-term creation, while it is much easier to go for appearance and fashion."

Before @疯产妹妹 and @董代表, many influencers have turned around and started their own new content journey after experiencing peaceful or "violent" breakups.

Zhang Baiqiao and Uncle Wan Ning, former comedy partners, have collaborated on many hilarious comedy scenes, which have gained tens of millions of fans in a year and won the love of many fans. Since the beginning of 2021, the frequency of their collaboration has decreased significantly, until Baiqiao issued a friendly statement, saying that "because there are too many accounts, they are too busy and have no choice but to separate." Since then, the two have started to manage their own accounts and have never appeared together in public again.

After the separation, Uncle Wan Ning and Bai Qiao still focused on comedy, but compared to the more dramatic pure plot content before, they both began to add more daily life and comedy content in their videos. Although many fans expressed regret and regret for their separation, observing the data of their respective accounts, although they cannot compete with the peak period, they are still very impressive:

@百乔有毛病 gained 181.7W followers in the third quarter, and currently has 1790.3W followers. In the past month, he released 11 videos, and 9 of them had over a million likes. @万宁叔- gained 186.8W followers in the third quarter, and currently has 1985.2W followers. In the past month, he released 12 videos, and 11 of them had over a million likes.

@百乔有毛病@万宁叔-TikTok video screenshot

In July this year, the highly stylized @知青美食团 also announced its disbandment. After the original creative team left, they set up a new account @知青飞哥和小琨. The video content still continued the previous style, continuing to follow the route of combining food, beauties, and ethnic minority culture. Later, the account regained the right to use the name "知青餐食团", and the original 知青餐食团 was renamed @农村涛涛, starting a new story.

At present, the number of fans of the newly started @智青餐食团 has reached 101.4W. While continuing the previous style, they are also constantly adding some new content elements, hoping to attract fans faster.

@知青餐团TikTok video screenshot

03 Can the influencers who "left" with the traffic return to the top?

We have discussed many times the disputes between influencers, MCNs and partners. But when all the dust has settled, how far can those influencers who left with the traffic go?

Obviously, relying on the popularity and influence accumulated in the previous account, the influencers who start a new account can quickly accumulate a group of old fans and quickly complete the account launch. This has also been verified by most influencers. However, after this period of strong emotional support, the direction of the influencer's account will be marked with a big question mark.

Looking at the current short video content ecosystem, all types of content are becoming saturated, and users are becoming more and more critical of creators and content. Coupled with the continuous emergence of new talents, it has become difficult for influencers to extend their life cycle as much as possible. For those influencers who voluntarily or are forced to leave their original accounts and start anew during the growth or maturity period, although they have their own traffic and have the advantage of being quickly identified in the algorithm, they are starting from "new" after all, and they are bound to face risks and challenges.

Experts like @知青餐食团, @百乔有毛病, and @万宁叔- still maintain their original content styles, so users do not feel a clear sense of disconnection and are obviously more receptive. On the other hand, the styles of @邵雨轩 and @董大表's new accounts are relatively loose in overall content, and it seems that they have not yet formed a particularly distinctive style.

Therefore, although they all attracted a group of old fans in the early stage of account creation, some fans were happy to accept the new content presented by them after leaving the original account, while some fans were disappointed after following the new account for a while, saying that they "felt that the soul was lost" and "the original flavor was not there". Judging from their later fan growth, the attractiveness of the account obviously declined after losing the original content halo.

In addition to @邵雨轩 and @董大表, we have also seen some influencers who have re-established their own content style after starting a new business, and have also gained a lot of attention. For example, the couple account @猪羊满圈 has attracted more than 2 million fans on Douyin by virtue of interesting couple pranks and funny daily life. In mid-2021, due to the breakup of the two, the account was stopped, and the female protagonist Zhu Baozi also began to fully operate her personal account @猪宝子.

According to observations, in the early stages of the shift in focus, @猪宝子 posted fragmented daily life: singing, traveling, meeting friends, etc. During this period, she was constantly exploring new content formats and eventually established a new direction of family comedy content . Under the various fun themes she set, the funny and warm interactions between her and her father and mother are a pleasure to watch.

@猪宝子TikTok video screenshot

Compared with the original account, the new content created by it is not inferior in terms of fun and watchability . It is for this reason that the number of fans of @猪宝子's account has maintained a steady growth. In addition to the original old fans, there are also many new fans who are attracted by its content format. The number of fans has reached 132.1W.

Nowadays, the traffic of Douyin's content ecosystem has reached its peak. For content-oriented talents, it is even more necessary to "roll" content carefully and explore the content formats that users like to watch, otherwise it will be difficult to stand out. This is also true for those talents who "go away" with traffic.

Author: Yue Yao

Source: WeChat public account "Kas Data"