“Shaking” autumn recruitment, celebrities giving away cars, who will be the last fan-increasing king in 2024?

The Douyin world in 2024 is changing rapidly. Who will stand out in the traffic battlefield at the end of the year and become the final king of increasing fans? Kas Data will take you to find out. From the fan frenzy caused by the star @Huang Zitao's lavish gift of cars, to the sudden rise of @胖东来 franchise store, to @蓝战非's gorgeous transformation from a game anchor to a travel expert, the Douyin fan growth list in December is wonderful. It is particularly worth noting that a unique "Qinghai Shake Autumn Recruitment" made the post-00s Internet celebrity @张诗尧 increase nearly 8 million fans on Kuaishou and Douyin in 30 days. The social significance and cultural phenomenon behind it are thought-provoking.

Due to the promise in the December live broadcast that more than 15 million fans would be given away in a lucky draw, the recently active star @黄子涛 has seen a leap in fans. As of January 10, 2025, before the live broadcast, his fans increased by more than 30 million, and the total number of fans exceeded 45 million, of which 23.717 million fans increased in December alone. On the day of the live broadcast, @黄子涛 gave away a total of 30 cars, 10 of which were donated to the Women and Children's Foundation, and the remaining 20 were given to netizens in two batches. The total number of viewers in the live broadcast room was 54.471 million.

It is worth noting that after the car giveaway ended, @黄子涛’s Douyin account began to lose followers. As of press time, it had lost over 5 million followers.

In addition to players like @黄子涛 who gain followers by giving away coins, the top two on the list are @胖东来专营店, which has become increasingly popular recently and gained 605W followers in December. Ranked third is @蓝战非, who transformed from a game anchor to a travel expert. The number of fans of this account has skyrocketed since he started his world tour, and he has been on the fan growth list for two consecutive months.

@Pangdonglai Specialty Store@Huang Zitao@Lan Zhanfei

Tik Tok video screenshot

In addition to these three accounts, there are two accounts with an increase of 2-3 million followers, namely the abstract treasure appraiser @听泉赏宝 and the old story account @陈翔六点半. The remaining accounts have an increase of 1-2 million followers. Overall, the increase in followers in December is not impressive and did not bring much surprise.

From the perspective of account types, in December, there were a total of travel, drama, music, emotions, pets, medical health, film and television entertainment and other vertical categories. The accounts of each type were relatively evenly distributed, and no one type showed a clear advantage. Looking at the accounts on the list, as in the previous months, the well-known popular accounts such as @听泉赏宝, @潘宏爱玩狗, @魏雪, @大冰, @木森(滚土重来) in the December fan growth list still maintained a strong growth momentum. On this basis, a small number of new faces appeared on the fan growth list for the first time, such as @张诗尧, @四熙丸子(徐化文), @许超医生, etc. Kas will select several other accounts from them for key interpretation.

1. @张诗尧: An autumn recruitment campaign puts the "spirited young man" in the center position

@Yangmaoyue collapsed, @Zhangshiyao became famous.

When the highly educated internet celebrity @羊毛月 mocked the post-00s in a sarcastic way in a video, saying "Aren't you going to clean up the workplace? How come you can't even get into the workplace?" and was thus caught up in a public opinion storm and lost 1.5 million followers in 30 days, the energetic young man and post-00s internet celebrity @张诗尧 became famous thanks to a "Qinghai Autumn Recruitment" with excellent recruitment conditions, and gained nearly 8 million followers on Kuaishou and Douyin in 30 days.

@张诗尧, born in 2000, started to get involved in short videos and live broadcasts as early as 2019, and made his debut online with social shaking. In 2022, he launched a new social shaking "Qinghai Shake" with hips as the core, wide movements and precise timing, which attracted more attention online.

@张诗尧TikTok screenshot

Although he has gained a certain degree of fame, @张诗尧 has remained active in niche circles for a long time because his image has always been that of a rustic and energetic young man, which does not conform to the traditional mainstream aesthetic.

In mid-November 2024, @张诗尧 released the third season of Qinghai Shake and started the challenge, planning to select 100 "shakers" through live broadcast and participate in the offline Qinghai Shake performance of 100 people. Since the event time coincided with the university's autumn recruitment season, and the recruitment benefits circulated on the Internet such as "salary of 7,000, 10 am to 4 pm, three team building activities per month, and the education level must not be higher than college or above" were extremely attractive, it soon attracted the interest of many netizens, and Zhang Shiyao also took the opportunity to transform the live broadcast room into an "interview" site and added "cultural questions" to maximize the atmosphere and fun of the "autumn recruitment".

Before long, this massive "Qinghai Shake Challenge" became popular among many groups, and "contestants" of different identities and backgrounds practiced their skills, eager to try, and continued to join this passionate swing carnival. Among them, many contestants attracted a lot of attention because of their outstanding performance during the live broadcast:

For example, @陈诱惑 successfully "apprenticeship" and joined the "Yao Family Army" with her smooth dance during the interview. Not only was she quickly promoted to Zhang Shiyao's "interview judge", but her number of fans also grew rapidly;

@张诗尧 live screenshot

A female doctor of engineering from a well-known university, @小党师姐, not only shook hands easily during the live broadcast, but also shouted the slogan "Education is certainly my shortcoming, but I believe that hard work can make up for my shortcomings", which once became a hot topic;

A young man from Liangshan who came from a poor family was deducted points for his poor attire before he could even show his skills. When Zhang Shiyao learned that the young man could not afford to buy clothes because his family was poor, he hurriedly said that he would take back the points. However, when the young man finished his performance and took the initiative to admit that he had made a mistake in the dance moves, netizens were moved by his sincerity and gave him the highest number of votes that night.

With the widespread dissemination of a series of related videos, the popularity of Qinghai Shake has continued to rise. So far, the total number of video views under the topic #青海摇 has reached nearly 15 billion, and Zhang Shiyao, a once rustic and energetic young man, has also broken through the circle and gained the love of more people.

Tik Tok screenshot

So, what is the reason for Zhang Shiyao's popularity? Kas believes there are three core reasons:

First, in the current social environment, Zhang Shiyao's experience of becoming famous and his "tempting" autumn recruitment slogan have provided more windows and possibilities for the majority of anxious young people. Especially in the ironic contrast with the highly educated internet celebrity @羊毛月, the appearance of the energetic young man Zhang Shiyao is like a "timely rain" and is inevitably supported.

Secondly, 2024 is an abstract year, and collectively playing with memes and finding an outlet for stress has become a consensus among contemporary "fun people". In addition, the Qinghai Shake, which has a strong sense of rhythm, has a "magical" quality, is relatively easy to learn, and has a low entry threshold. With the buff bonus of "Cullinan fragments" and "educational qualifications restrictions", it is easy to cause a feast of playing with memes. Later, some amateurs posted videos of "successfully losing weight after dancing to the Qinghai Shake" and attracted more people to join.

The third reason is that Zhang Shiyao's growth experience is very consistent with the grassroots narrative and inspirational narrative that users like today. According to the information circulating on the Internet, in order to support his sister's college education, Zhang Shiyao started working early, and then made a name for himself on the Internet with his own efforts. This inspirational experience is not only inspiring, but also adds a lot of positive energy to Zhang Shiyao himself.

At the same time, the authenticity and humility displayed by Zhang Shiyao during the live broadcast also won him more goodwill. For example, when facing the masters and doctors on the live broadcast, he would sincerely say, "I don't want you to take this path, you have a better way to develop" and "Treat us as a fun thing and focus on your own career"; his many frank remarks and sincere performances overturned the public's stereotype of "spirited young man". Zhang Shiyao, who was evaluated by some netizens as "coming from the bottom and understanding the bottom better", also gained the love of more users in the circle.

2. These “new faces” also performed well

In addition to @张诗尧, let’s take a look at other “new faces” on the list.

@Xu Chao Doctor is a medical science blogger. His popular science content mainly focuses on gender topics that are closely related to the general public. His account maintains an update frequency of 1-2 posts per day, meeting the practical needs of the majority of users.

Whenever he conducts science popularization, @许超博士 will go straight to the point without giving users who see the video any time to prepare, which makes many people who play the video unexpectedly fall into embarrassment.

Because of this, @许超博士's comment area has attracted many "criticisms", such as "Dr. Xu Chao really loves cleanliness and often embarrasses netizens", "Xu Chao, how many times have I told you that the first sentence at the beginning is, hello everyone, I am Dr. Xu, why don't you understand?", "Open Xu Chao in public and you will find that the sky has fallen" comments are endless, and some netizens directly posted pictures of people staring at them in public to highlight their embarrassing situation. "Starting from 0 frames" has thus become @许超博士's personal label and feature, leaving a deep impression on people and also bringing him more attention.

Screenshot of @Xu Chao Doctor's TikTok video

@Northwest Swordsman - Public Welfare to Protect Farmers, records a series of real public welfare actions to protect farmers. The content displayed is something that most users cannot access in their daily lives. It is quite fresh and can easily arouse users' curiosity.

In the works they released, the Northwest Swordsman team will bring hunting dogs and legal hunting tools to help farmers drive away wild boars that harm crops. During the process, they will use drones to record the process of several hunting dogs working together to chase wild boars. The real and exciting scenes are as fascinating as blockbusters, which make many users watch with relish. In the whole process of protecting farmers, the close cooperation and decisiveness of the team members, as well as the various duties and bravery of the puppies in the "Paw Patrol", are also vividly demonstrated, adding many highlights to the video.

@Northwest Swordsman-Charity Farmers Protection Douyin Video Screenshot

Si Xi Wan Zi (Xu Huawen), a music expert, releases videos of him singing sad love songs in front of the camera under a desk lamp. With his unique voice and excellent singing skills, he sings every song with unparalleled flavor, thus forming a strong personal style and bringing more and more listeners to himself.