Should entrepreneurs become internet celebrities?

In today's age where traffic is king, whether entrepreneurs should become Internet celebrities has become a hot topic. On the one hand, some entrepreneurs, such as Zhong Shanshan, stick to tradition and disdain live streaming to sell goods; on the other hand, some entrepreneurs, such as Zhang Lan and Li Guoqing, have achieved a "resurrection" in their careers through live streaming.

Recently, "being an internet celebrity" seems to have become a trend among entrepreneurs, who seem to be ready to "gain both fame and fortune", but some entrepreneurs are dismissive of this. Zhong Shanshan, the former richest man in China and founder of Nongfu Spring, recently criticized: "I will never do live streaming to sell goods, and I look down on entrepreneurs who do so."

As a traditional entrepreneur, Zhong Shanshan has suffered a lot of online violence in recent years. He is not used to the online "321 link" and publicly stated that Nongfu Spring's revenue from e-commerce does not exceed 5%. In Zhong Shanshan's view, entrepreneurs should do more meaningful things.

However, as one knows whether the water is hot or cold after drinking it, whether entrepreneurs should become internet celebrities or not, only those entrepreneurs who have actually done it know best.

1. Resurrection from the dead by relying on the internet celebrity business

For Zhang Lan, the founder of South Beauty, live streaming has undoubtedly helped her get out of the "trough". At the 2024 Sohu Finance Annual Forum (hereinafter referred to as the "Sohu Forum"), Zhang Lan said frankly: "In the past, I was always on the red carpet wherever I went, but now I just face a mobile phone. I am very clear about my mission, and I humble myself for the company."

In 2014, South Beauty failed to go public, and Zhang Lan and Wang Xiaofei were kicked out by capital. That year, Zhang Lan was 56 years old. As the saying goes, "the higher you stand, the harder you fall." In those years, Zhang Lan suffered a lot of jokes. In December 2020, Ma Liuji's first offline store opened in Beijing International Trade Center, but the development was not smooth. It was tepid for a long time, and the epidemic hit and suffered serious losses.

In November 2022, a family dispute unexpectedly made Ma Liu Ji the focus of public attention. Countless netizens flocked to Zhang Lan's live broadcast room to watch the show online. Zhang Lan's personality won the favor of many people and successfully converted traffic into sales. According to statistics, from November 5 to 21, 2022, Zhang Lan broadcast a total of 40 live broadcasts, and the sales of hot and sour noodles alone exceeded 60 million. There was also a topical set meal of "green tea + braised eggs + soft rice" in the live broadcast room.

Image source: Weibo

Many netizens said that they just entered the live broadcast room to listen to gossip and placed an order for no reason. "I was browsing the video account and saw Zhang Lan live broadcasting in the snow. She also followed the trend and did the third test in the snow for half an hour. I felt sorry for the old lady and quickly placed an order for six buckets of hot and sour noodles."

In the live broadcast room, Zhang Lan made many memes, imitating DJing and dancing to the Little Tigers. When being called an "old witch" by black fans, she said, "An old witch should be like this, with a long nose and very long nails," vilifying herself by directly imitating them.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

In May this year, when the news of Wang Xiaofei's remarriage became a hot topic, Zhang Lan seized the opportunity to sell goods through live streaming. She sold wedding candies, sang love songs, and held up red wedding characters in the live broadcast room. The barrage of comments also kept filling the screen with words such as "Congratulations to Wang Xiaofei on his marriage".

Image source: TikTok

The live broadcast successfully boosted the popularity of offline stores. The big screens in the stores also played "We Got Married" in turn, and customers who shopped in the store were given wedding candies and ice powder. Today, Zhang Lan has more than 20 million fans on various platforms, and her business is booming. Becoming an Internet celebrity is undoubtedly her most critical choice.

Another person who revived his career by becoming an internet celebrity is Li Guoqing, the founder of Dangdang.com and chairman of Zaowan Dushu.

On the Sohu forum, Li Guoqing also ridiculed himself: "What worries me is that the boasts I made didn't come true. I want to apologize to everyone. When I left the company with nothing, they said they would give me five years to build a platform like Dangdang. I didn't do it. It's really a bit embarrassing."

Image source: TikTok

Li Guoqing and his ex-wife Yu Yu co-founded Dangdang.com, one of China's earliest online book sales platforms, in 1999. However, in February 2019, Li Guoqing was squeezed out of the company at the age of 55 and lost control of Dangdang.com. The incident of snatching the official seal with Yu Yu that year also caused a sensation.

After leaving Dangdang, Li Guoqing quickly embarked on a new entrepreneurial journey, launched the "Book Club" project, and expressed a grand vision to reach 40 million users within 3 to 5 years and build a new Internet cultural ecosystem. On June 2 of the same year, the Morning and Evening Reading APP was officially launched, entering the field of knowledge payment.

However, the development of Zaowan Dushu was not smooth. In July 2022, it had to lay off employees due to financial constraints. The layoff compensation promised by Li Guoqing was not paid in full on time, resulting in some former employees filing for labor arbitration.

In order to maintain the operation of the company, Li Guoqing entered the field of live streaming in 2021 and founded Xiangyaoyao E-commerce and Lao Li Yanxuan, mainly selling wine and tea. Li Guoqing revealed in the live broadcast room that he made 15 million yuan a year from live streaming and probably supported more than 100 people.

In order to maintain popularity, Li Guoqing often comments on some hot topics in his personal account, such as the return of Li Ziqi, Dong Yuhui's essay incident, Lei Jun's car manufacturing, etc. Not long ago, he also responded to Zhong Shanshan's "disdain" remarks, saying that "a group of entrepreneurs endorse their own products, combining product and effect, not only brings traffic and exposure, but also directly brings sales. As long as it is legal and compliant, entrepreneurs who sell goods through live streaming are worthy of respect. Please allow the existence of various business models."

Image source: TikTok

2. Find another life

Many people say that Li Guoqing has fallen on hard times and has to make a living by selling alcohol through live streaming. He is also at the bottom of the contempt chain among entrepreneurs. Some people also say that Li Guoqing is not an entrepreneur. But according to Zhou Hongyi, "I definitely think that Li Guoqing is an entrepreneur. We cannot judge a hero only by his success or failure. Moreover, Li Guoqing is a pioneer and senior figure in China's e-commerce."

Zhou Hongyi himself has always emphasized the importance of entrepreneurs building personal IP and is a representative figure of the current "Internet celebrity entrepreneurs". Judging from his movements, it is not difficult to find that he really "wants to be famous", from being a "car model" at the Beijing Auto Show to auctioning his Maybach at a low price in April.

Image source: Weibo

On the day of the auction, almost half of the automotive industry came to support the auction at the 360 ​​Building, including Xiaomi, Nezha, Ideal, Xiaopeng and other car companies, which was like a small auto show. The Maybach was finally sold for 9.9 million yuan and successfully made the headlines.

Image source: Weibo

Recently, Zhou Hongyi followed the trend and filmed a short drama, in which he played a patriotic hacker. The title of the drama is "Rekindling Life: The Hidden Hacker Amazes the World". When asked why he filmed a short drama, Zhou Hongyi said, "A few days ago, I attended the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. Someone asked me if I watched short dramas. I joked that I was watching the short drama "Boss". As a result, it was spread all over the Internet. So I decided to film a short drama for everyone to watch."

After watching three episodes, I realized that this short drama was actually an advertisement for 360's Nano Search APP...

Image source: TikTok

As an Internet tycoon who was once as famous as Ma Huateng and another protagonist of the 3Q War, Zhou Hongyi chose to become an Internet celebrity under the tide of the times. When he saw Ma Huateng again, there seemed to be countless unspoken emotions hidden behind his smile.

Image source: TikTok

The great river flows eastward, the waves wash away all the heroes of the ages. A group of entrepreneurs are gradually overtaken by the latecomers in the tide of the times. More than a decade ago, bigwigs such as Zhang Chaoyang, Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, and Zhou Hongyi were once the focus of the media. Zhou Hongyi still wants to maintain his influence, but some people are more focused on creating a second life.

Zhang Chaoyang was once the most dazzling entrepreneur in the Internet industry. He had rung the bell four times in the United States. In 1999, when Zhang Chaoyang went to Shenzhen to give a speech, Ma Huateng was still sitting in the audience. But around 2011, Sohu was at a disadvantage in the competition with Baidu. Eventually, anxiety, resentment, and frequent fears came, causing Zhang Chaoyang to suffer from depression.

In 2012, Zhang Chaoyang confessed in "An Interview with Yang Lan": "I am rich, famous, and well-educated. I make money from the sunshine, and I am in an emerging industry. I also brought the Internet to China. This nourishes my vanity and self-expansion. On the surface, I am still very humble, but in fact, I am very arrogant inside. This degree of arrogance is not seen in other stars and celebrities."

Image source: Sohu Video

After Zhang Chaoyang discovered his frequent "delusions", he chose to retreat for a year and a half. After he came out, everything changed. Tencent developed rapidly, WeChat surpassed Weibo and became the new trend. Sohu seemed to be unable to catch up. Its influence today is incomparable. Zhang Chaoyang also became keen on "giving lectures".

This year, Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class celebrates its third anniversary. Zhang Chaoyang has given nearly 250 lectures and published three books with the same title. Sohu is unlikely to make further progress, but Zhang Chaoyang can still enjoy himself.

Image source: TikTok

3. New role or added value

When it comes to being an internet celebrity, there is no entrepreneur who does not envy Lei Jun. After all, he is the real "traffic king".

"After reading the exciting article, Lei Jun said that it's not that exciting at all," a message in Lei Jun's comment section revealed netizens' positioning of Lei Jun - the strongest male protagonist in exciting articles.

Netizens compiled Lei Jun's life highlights and created a "cool story" plot, including chapters such as "Top Scorer in College Entrance Examination", "Only 4 billion left in the card", "Wuhan University courses are just so-so", etc. Even though Lei Jun and Xiaomi have repeatedly responded that the news is untrue, netizens are still happy.

Many of the remarks were also edited by netizens into funny collections and famous scenes that were widely circulated, including but not limited to "friendly competitors are **", "beat Huawei", "five cameras", and "100 million pixels".

Image source: TikTok

Even a single photo can make netizens marvel at Lei Jun's long legs, "He doesn't even have a beer belly", "Doesn't this man have any flaws?"

Image source: Xiaohongshu

But in fact, Lei Jun has worked in Kingsoft for more than 15 years. He has also encountered terrible project sales, WPS was in a difficult situation due to Microsoft in front and piracy in the back, and two-thirds of the development department left. During the most difficult time, he went to bars all day and even thought about opening a bar.

What really made him popular among netizens was not the fake "cool stories", but the fact that he led Xiaomi to great success and won the trust of users through sincere interactions. His friendly image was established, and he became an "Internet celebrity". Lei Jun, at least to a certain extent, also accepted the interaction with netizens and created momentum for Xiaomi. For example, when answering the question of which color of Xiaomi SU7 netizens liked best, Lei Jun replied: "Can I like the rosy purple?" and won the title of "the pleasing president".

Traffic and audience attention have also contributed a lot to Xiaomi's continued development. In this way, Lei Jun's Internet celebrity status is more like a sweet byproduct of his successful career.

end

Whether to choose to become an internet celebrity or participate in live streaming sales depends entirely on the entrepreneur’s personal wishes and strategic considerations.

For traditional entrepreneurs like Zhong Shanshan, the current Internet may be a strange world, and he does not need to attract attention through the identity of an Internet celebrity. However, for more modern entrepreneurs, traffic is king, which is a self-evident business truth. In this era of information explosion, traffic is not only the key to brand exposure, but also a tool to directly promote sales and enhance user interaction, bringing tangible benefits to enterprises.

For entrepreneurs, no matter which path they choose in the end, the key is to find the one that suits them best.

Written by | Xiaobudong Edited by | Li Xinma