If he leaves live streaming, where else can Brother Yang make money?

In the face of the general trend, it is only a matter of time before the e-commerce live streaming wave recedes. Instead of struggling, it is better to withdraw as soon as possible and find another way.

I watched him build a tall building, I watched him entertain guests, and I watched his building collapse. This sentence is most suitable for Crazy Brother Yang.

The "grassroots" who grew up in Lu'an, Anhui, has become a super-headline anchor with hundreds of millions of fans with the help of Internet short videos and live streaming. He has opened a company, filmed short dramas, and held concerts... Brother Xiao Yang's "crazy" business empire has expanded infinitely, and he is in the limelight for a while.

It’s just that “things flourish and then decline, this is a constant of heaven and earth.”

On the evening of September 26, the Hefei Municipal Supervision Bureau officially issued a notice stating that the promotional language of Hefei Three Sheep Network Technology Co., Ltd. in the live broadcast to promote "Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncakes" constituted false and misleading commercial propaganda. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Administrative Penalty Law" and the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law", it is planned to decide to confiscate the illegal gains of Three Sheep Company and impose a fine of a total of 68.9491 million yuan.

That evening, Three Sheep issued a statement to sincerely apologize and said it "fully accepts the investigation and punishment results of the joint investigation team and is willing to bear the relevant legal responsibilities."

At the same time, the Douyin e-commerce security center also issued an announcement on September 26, saying that according to relevant laws and regulations and the Douyin e-commerce creator management general rules, the platform has punished "Three Sheep". Since September 21, the platform has suspended the broadcast of "Three Sheep"'s accounts, and will further urge them to actively rectify and properly resolve the after-sales compensation issues of related consumers.

The once invincible live streaming empire has now been forced to halt its wild growth.

01 An unhappy Mid-Autumn Festival

For Brother Yang, this year's Mid-Autumn Festival is definitely not a happy one.

"The hairy crab scandal", "The suspicion of fake Moutai", "The private life scandal", "The Meicheng mooncake incident"... Brother Yang is experiencing an unprecedented public opinion storm, and a "big fight" is also unfolding in the field of live streaming e-commerce.

The cause of the incident was that in early September, Brother Yang reported the pricing mechanism problems of Kuaishou anchor Simba, which resulted in Simba being unable to continue selling, and thus a "war of words" broke out.

Simba directly fired at Brother Yang, shouting, "You have no attitude towards quality inspection, after-sales service, and compensation. All you have left is hype." Then, Lu Wenqing, co-founder of Three Sheep, came forward to accuse Simba of having no bottom line in order to increase traffic.

Then, Simba "recounted" the product quality and safety issues and private life scandals of Xiao Yangge, such as the pork with preserved vegetables and the hair dryer without any certification, and ended the farce with the climax by announcing that he would compensate the consumers of Xiao Yangge's live broadcast room with 100 million yuan at his own expense.

In fact, Xiao Yangge is not surprised by such scandals. He debuted for three years, enjoyed three years of success, and then suffered three years of failure. Xiao Yangge's name has always been linked to product quality scandals.

Maybe Brother Yang thought that this time was the same as usual, so he should continue to remain silent, wait for the storm to die down, and then continue to sell products and make money.

However, this time was different. This farce completely ignited consumers’ distrust and anger towards the live streaming of products by big anchors, and the subsequent outbreak of the "Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncakes" incident once again pushed negative public opinion to a climax.

On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Crazy Xiao Yangge promoted the "Hong Kong Meicheng" mooncakes that look like the well-known brand "Maxim's Mooncakes", and Zeng Zhiwei once supported it. However, some netizens found that Meicheng mooncakes have no stores or online stores in Hong Kong, and the place of production is Guangdong.

Xiao Yangge's suspected "false propaganda" operation has caused huge controversy and continued to ferment. On September 14, the Guangzhou Huadu District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Douyin platform intervened in the investigation; on the evening of the 14th, the live broadcast room under "Three Sheep" stopped selling Meicheng mooncakes.

On the 17th, the Hefei High-tech Zone Market Supervision and Administration Bureau also filed a case to investigate Three Sheep Network Technology Co., Ltd. for suspected "misleading consumers" and other behaviors in live broadcasts. At the same time, all direct sales and influencer accounts under Three Sheep were suspended, including the "Three Sheep Network" that was broadcast every day before.

It was not until the evening of September 26 that the penalties from the regulatory authorities and the Douyin platform were announced one after another, and the negative turmoil surrounding Three Sheep was temporarily put to an end.

Third-party data shows that the total number of followers of the Douyin account of "Crazy Xiao Yang Ge" has dropped from 120 million on September 1 to 117 million on September 17, with more than 230,000 followers lost on September 16 alone.

Although Xiao Yangge and Three Sheep Network, who are always good at "cold treatment", remain silent this time. But things are different now. Live e-commerce has entered an era of stock game, with regulatory policies being continuously strengthened and the accumulating consumer trust crisis. Xiao Yangge can no longer get through this crisis so easily.

Even if this incident is over, if Brother Yang continues his live broadcast career, it will probably just be the "afterglow of the empire."

In the face of the general trend, it is only a matter of time before the e-commerce live streaming wave recedes. Instead of struggling, it is better to withdraw as soon as possible and find another way.

02 The Great Retreat of Super Head Anchors

The e-commerce live streaming industry is staging a "super-head retreat" drama.

Data from third-party platforms show that during the 6.18 shopping festival this year, the cumulative sales of comprehensive e-commerce platforms and live streaming platforms was 742.8 billion yuan, compared with 798.7 billion yuan in the same period last year, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 7%. This is also the first negative growth in 16 years.

In addition, the scale of China's live e-commerce market will reach 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth rate of 35.2%. Although it has maintained a certain growth rate, it has declined compared with the early stage of the industry's development. Various signs indicate that the live e-commerce industry seems to be reaching its "ceiling".

In fact, since the incidents involving Viya and Li Jiaqi, the landscape of the live streaming e-commerce industry has changed. That is to say, live streaming e-commerce has gone through the initial crazy expansion period and has gradually entered a mature period of stable development. This also means strengthening of supervision and reducing platform traffic and policy support.

The platform and the super-heads have reached a tacit consensus: de-personalization. The platform needs to support more mid-level anchors to build a good live content ecosystem and will no longer place all bets on the super-heads; the super-heads also realize that the platform no longer favors them, so they gradually leave and seek more growth.

On the evening of March 5 this year, Xiao Yangge officially announced in a live broadcast that he would reduce the number of live broadcasts for selling goods in 2024, and there would be more live broadcasts for entertainment. In the previous year, Xiao Yangge had gradually disappeared from the live broadcast room. In February this year, Xiao Yangge's personal account fell out of the top 20 of the sales list for the first time.

You know, during the "peak" period in 2023, Crazy Brother Yang had a total of 210 live broadcasts in the 12 months of the year, and the monthly GMV exceeded 100 million.

Xiao Yangge, who disappeared from the live broadcast room, has put more energy behind the scenes: starting a company, making short plays, making slices, going overseas...

In 2021, Three Sheep Network Technology Co., Ltd. was established, followed by Hefei Three Sheep Culture Media Co., Ltd., Hefei Three Sheep Venture Capital Co., Ltd., Hefei Leading Sheep Culture Media Co., Ltd., etc.; in 2022, it spent 100 million to buy the building and transformed it into the Three Sheep global headquarters.

Today, the Three Sheep branch offices have spread across China, including Shenyang, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xiamen, etc. On August 21, the Three Sheep branch office in Hong Kong officially opened, with many Hong Kong stars including Eric Tsang and Alan Tam attending to congratulate.

When it comes to specific business segments, it can be said that "there is nothing Brother Yang doesn't do."

Earlier, Xiao Yangge started to cooperate with well-known suppliers such as Yaowang and Jinweihaowu, registered the "Xiao Yang Zhenxuan" trademark, and tried to build its own supply chain. Recently, Three Sheep is also recruiting small suppliers from all over the country to try to cover all categories of the supply chain, such as Xiaoyu Women's Wear in Suzhou, which focuses on women's wear, and Kang Kang Tea House in Xiamen, which focuses on tea.

On April 16, the Douyin official account of "Three Sheep Theater" was officially launched, officially entering the hot short drama track. On June 6, the first short drama "Master Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss" produced by Three Sheep was officially launched. But the data of the short drama is not good, and the number of paying viewers is very small. The failure of the first battle also hit the confidence of Three Sheep in the short drama track. Now, Three Sheep has no more short drama layout.

Among Xiao Yangge's specific businesses, the "slicing" business is worth noting. The slicing model has undoubtedly helped Xiao Yangge's business reach its peak.

In April 2023, Three Sheep launched the Zhong Xiaoer APP, providing live broadcast slicing authorization services, and brought together top Douyin anchors such as Jiao Ge Pengyou, Hao Shaowen, Zhu Zixiao, and Xin Jifei to join.

In June this year, the internal beta test of the Three Sheep “Zhong Xiaoer” was launched on the Weiyigou Mall, allowing more than 10,000 “Xiaoerlang” to shop at cost price. At the same time, they can also get commission rewards for placing orders by sharing product links, similar to the original “Taobaoke”. This move seems to indicate that the Three Sheep will also get involved in shelf e-commerce.

In addition to domestic business, like all Internet companies, Three Sheep is also planning to expand overseas business and look for new blue oceans overseas. Unlike the cautious Internet giants, Crazy Brother Yang is also "crazy" in his overseas expansion. At present, Three Sheep has already expanded to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, and is preparing to expand to the United States next.

Overall, Xiao Yangge's business expansion strategy is to expand without boundaries. Tianyancha shows that the Three Sheep Group has more than 30 companies under its umbrella, covering technology, media, e-commerce, investment, tourism, education... On this endless road of making money, Xiao Yangge will definitely make more moves in the future.

03 Live streaming also requires a side job

For the last super-head anchor, Brother Yang, the transformation path of other "predecessors" may be worth learning from.

Take Viya for example. After she touched the "red line" and was forced to quit live streaming in 2021, the Qianxun Holding Company behind her has not stopped its expansion.

Qianxun may have had foresight and did not allocate all its resources to Wei Ya, so after Wei Ya disappeared, its matrix account grew rapidly and took on the heavy responsibility of growth. According to reports, more than 100 days after Wei Ya disappeared, Qianxun Culture successfully squeezed out a number of competitors in the March monthly ranking of Taobao Live institutions and ranked first.

At present, Qianxun has incubated more than 20 accounts on Taobao, including "Bee Surprise Club", "Bee Wish Club", Lin Yilun, Li Xiang, Li Ai and many other famous anchors.

In terms of supply chain, Qianxun continues to build a super supply chain base with the help of Wei Ya's accumulated supply chain advantages. At present, the supply chain behind Qianxun covers major well-known brand clothing stores, brand home textile halls, Korean beauty halls, international beauty halls and other multi-functional live broadcast areas, with a total exhibition hall area of ​​10,000+ square meters.

In addition, Qianxun is also testing many emerging hot tracks such as short dramas, selling courses, going overseas, AI digital humans, and IP licensing.

On June 17, Wei Ya appeared in the Zhejiang platform economy "First Entrepreneurship Lesson" as a guest of honor as the co-founder of Qianxun Culture Media Co., Ltd., and gave on-site comments on the event cases. Previously, Wei Ya had also taught and sold courses many times as a successful entrepreneur.

It is worth mentioning that Qianxun is also trying to become an investment company and has successfully invested in two listed companies.

In January 2022, Qianxun invested 168 million yuan to acquire a stake in Juzi Biopharm. In November of that year, Juzi Biopharm was officially listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "first stock of recombinant collagen."

In May 2023, Guangdong Deerma Technology Co., Ltd. officially landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext. As early as 2020, Dong Haifeng had invested 150 million yuan to become a shareholder of Deerma.

It can be said that today, Wei Ya is transforming from a host to an entrepreneur, and Qianxun is also transforming from an MCN agency to a digital technology company.

When it comes to starting side jobs, Viya, Li Jiaqi, and Simba are almost the same, but there are still slight differences.

In August, Li Jiaqi even appeared on Mango TV's popular reality show "Breaking the Thorns 4", making his foray into the entertainment industry. But at present, it seems that participating in variety shows is just a means for Li Jiaqi to try to restore his public image, and will not become a future business section.

Simba, on the other hand, is focusing on offline supermarket business, and even claimed that he would "give up live streaming and focus on developing offline supermarket business". Last year, Xiao Yang Ge opened the first "Xiao Yang Zhenxuan" supermarket in Anhui.

From this, it can be seen that transformation and sideline business have become a consensus among big anchors. Self-owned brands, short dramas, overseas expansion, selling courses... these "sideline businesses" have also become the recognized transformation solutions for anchors, and everyone knows them.

However, at present, although there are many transformation paths, there is no second growth curve that can inherit the glorious live broadcast business. Whether to stick to the present or plan for the future depends on how the super anchors choose.

Author丨Cheng Cheng Editor丨Jiang Nut