Riders should not become the "condiment" of short videos

In the Internet age, traffic has become the goal pursued by many Internet celebrities, and the group of food delivery riders has become the target of imitation and rumors. This article explores this phenomenon in depth, revealing the various means used by Internet celebrities to attract attention, and the negative impact of these behaviors on the rider group.

What kind of people can easily gain traffic by imitating them online? Food delivery riders are on the list.

Nowadays, some internet celebrities cosplay as deliverymen in order to gain traffic. They play the role of “tragic and pitiful people”, “color-skirting people” and “identity-interpreting people”, making it difficult for netizens to distinguish the true or false information.

The jokes about delivery riders are also becoming increasingly outrageous: one delivery rider fell asleep on the road and was rumored to have died; another staged a video of losing his bike without even changing the scene or the actors.

On the other hand, data such as "Meituan has 51 million crowdsourcing riders and the average annual income is 10,000 yuan" was also fabricated and spread. The authorities had to step in to refute the rumors to prevent netizens from being misled.

Delivery riders are always hurt by rumors. It seems that the reason is that there are many people in the industry, the threshold for imitation is low, and it is related to the lives of ordinary people. The most fundamental reason seems to be the higher traffic.

However, the spread of this traffic is based on discrimination and slander against riders; in fact, riders who work happily have a colorful life, and they are full of love for life as they ride the wind.

01 How to pretend to be a delivery man?

Delivery riders may not have thought that the uniforms they wear on a daily basis could become a traffic code and be used by internet celebrities for cosplay.

The fake deliverymen who played cosplay also gradually specialized in their craft during the process of imitating others, and were divided into three major factions:

The first group is called the " tragic and miserable group ", which has the widest application range.

Zhang, a delivery boy in Guangdong, received three orders in the heavy rain. The items in the first order got wet by the rain, the second order was not wanted by the customer and was returned to the merchant, and the third order ended up with him falling off his bike and having to pay for it himself.

Zhang failed to complete three orders in a row and fell twice, which made him break down and cry while waiting for the traffic light. The mixture of rain, sweat and tears made many netizens empathize with him.

However, the netizens' sympathy seems to have been deceived by Zhang. He worked part-time as a deliveryman and videographer in order to attract followers to his account and realize the profits by bringing in goods in the future.

There are also bloggers who posted content such as "riders have low wages and the platform deducts money" in short videos, and showed pay slips as proof; but in fact, these pay slips are all forged, with the purpose of attracting traffic to the account.

The second group is called the " color edge group ", which has the greatest visual impact.

In order to gain traffic, internet celebrity "Xiao Dou Dou" wore a short skirt, black stockings, high heels, and a slim-fitting delivery top, pretending to be a delivery rider.

At the same time, she also posted a series of pictures of herself wearing a delivery uniform and sitting on the ground with her hands tied, with the caption: "You should go out more often when you are young, so that you can find the way when you deliver food in the future."

The suggestive videos and pictures turned the delivery man into a delivery lady. After the incident, the relevant platform banned his account.

In addition to "Xiao Dou Dou", other female internet celebrities such as "萌妹御姐控", "Su Su在送食" and "Baoer Qiqige" were also sued by relevant platforms for pretending to be deliverymen.

The third school is called " identity interpretation school ", which has the highest difficulty coefficient.

On Douyin, there was a man who claimed to be a graduate of a 211 university. After being laid off, he delivered food without telling his wife. This can be called the real-life version of "Reverse Life".

After learning about the relevant information from the Internet, the food delivery platform hoped to provide him with some help. By posting screenshots of his income, it identified a rider named Hu.

However, after the food delivery platform contacted Master Hu, the other party stated that he was not the man in the video, nor did he graduate from a 211 university. The male protagonist of the tragic drama with a well-rounded personality was also banned by the platform.

02 The rumors became increasingly outrageous

The three major factions of fake deliverymen have left netizens confused, and there are even more outrageous versions of the rumors about delivery riders.

A delivery boy in Shanghai fell asleep on his electric bike on a rainy day, which even attracted an ambulance on standby. After the video was posted online, there were rumors that he had died of overwork.

Finally, faced with this death, the guy himself had to personally refute the rumor: "I was too tired from playing games late at night, and I couldn't help falling asleep while delivering the order."

Some people are still alive, but are rumored to be dead; some people pretend that their electric bike is lost even though they clearly don’t have a car.

On a short video platform, a female food delivery rider burst into tears after her car was stolen late at night. She first banged her head against a telephone pole, then stomped her feet on the spot, and finally performed a difficult move: kneeling on the ground and stomping her feet on one leg.

But in another exposed video, the female rider changed her clothes in advance, adjusted the shooting angle many times, and her accomplices came forward to provide guidance on the movements.

Not only that, there are also directors who added the tear gas bomb of children to similar plots, trying to use family affection as a breakthrough point to trick netizens into crying.

Brother Pang discovered that this similar late-night car-losing scene happened to multiple male and female deliverymen. Not only was the location where the video was shot the same, even the little girl's clothes were the same.

In addition to outrageous staged videos, rumors about delivery riders may also appear in macro data.

Recently, some self-media released data: Meituan’s crowdsourcing riders have reached 51 million, including 80,000 graduate students and 300,000 undergraduates, with an average annual income of 10,000 yuan per person.

Regarding this exaggerated number, Meituan Research Institute said: "51 million is a fabricated number on the Internet, and the data of undergraduates and postgraduates need to be verified by submitting their academic certificates and degree certificates to the China Higher Education Student Information and Career Center."

At the same time, Meituan Research Institute also stated: "In 2023, there will be 7.45 million riders who have received orders and income, of which 48% have received orders for less than 30 days; those who have received orders for more than 260 days account for 11% of the total number of riders."

It can be seen that the job of food delivery rider is a transitional employment option for many workers; and as for the income of full-time riders, relevant data from Meituan shows:

In June 2024, the average monthly income of Meituan Crowdsourcing and Lepao riders in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen was RMB 7,354 and RMB 11,014 respectively; in third-tier cities and below, the average monthly income was RMB 5,556 and RMB 7,197 respectively.

03 The Knights are always discriminated against

Why do Internet celebrities, who never stop making shocking statements, always spread rumors about food delivery riders? There seem to be three reasons:

First of all, there are many people working in this field.

The booming food delivery industry has led to the growth of the food delivery riders’ organization, and naturally some nonconformists have infiltrated this complex team.

Secondly, the threshold for imitation is low.

By buying a delivery uniform and delivering some things on an electric bike, you can simulate the work of a delivery rider. For internet celebrities with average acting talent, this kind of imitation is relatively easy.

Finally, it is related to the lives of ordinary people.

Nowadays, many people’s lives are already inseparable from food delivery, so the words and actions of the riders are easily noticed by them, and they even immerse themselves in the role.

However, the above three reasons seem to be just superficial. The most fundamental reason is that it is easy to obtain traffic.

Brother Pang discovered that there is a female deliverywoman on Douyin who shoots daily delivery videos and has nearly 10,000 followers. Among them, a video of her wearing yoga pants and taking a selfie while sitting in an elevator has received more than 3,000 likes.

However, some deliverymen who are focused on delivering orders seem to be disgusted with this way of attracting customers.

For example, in response to the video of the female delivery driver throwing the bike mentioned above, one rider said: "She wears shorts when delivering food. She will get sunburned after a few days." "There are mosquitoes everywhere during the night shift. For a real female rider, you can only see her eyes."

At the same time, regarding the 211 university graduate incident, some netizens also said: "Some people will do anything to attract attention." "It costs nothing to spread rumors, which makes people have no bottom line."

Internet celebrities pretend to be deliverymen and pose for photos online to attract traffic. From a deeper perspective, their motives seem to stem from discrimination against the riders, and they think they are inferior.

But in fact, the perception that delivery boys are exploited and have miserable lives is just a stereotype held by many people. This is not only a biased gaze, but also an exploitation and fantasy of real workers. The lives of many delivery riders are actually as wonderful as yours and mine.

For example, when a delivery man was taking a break, he played the piano in the subway station and the beautiful song "Wedding in a Dream" sounded pleasant; while another delivery man was waiting for his order, several people gathered together to dance and sway to the DJ's rhythm.

It can be seen that as a food delivery rider, the main tone of life is not sadness and sorrow; I also hope that you and I who enjoy the convenience of food delivery can look at these real workers equally.