Live streaming was blocked, millions of fans were lost... A "big brawl" among the top live streaming hosts, is it time for a reshuffle in the industry?

There is no shortage of topics in the live streaming e-commerce world, especially when the top anchors start a "big fight". From Simba's unexpected closure of his live streaming room, to Luo Yonghao's "refund one and compensate three", to the continuous emergence of new platforms, the ecosystem of live streaming is undergoing an unprecedented transformation.

Unexpectedly, the war of words between Simba and Xiao Yangge has lasted for nearly half a month.

On the evening of September 11, before Simba was about to start a live broadcast of "bringing 100 million yuan in cash to compensate the consumers of Three Sheep", his live broadcast room was suddenly blocked. However, the promised compensation was still paid, and the topic #Simba compensated the consumers of Three Sheep 9,000 yuan and has been received# even became a hot search.

The friction and clash between the top anchors are getting more intense. Coincidentally, recently, Jiao Ge Pengyou compensated consumers with a "refund one and compensate three" policy because the mooncakes they sold were fake. When Luo Yonghao responded to this incident, he did not forget to call out Yu Minhong and Dongfang Zhenxuan...

On one hand, there is a "big fight" between the top anchors; on the other hand, many new forces are pouring into the live e-commerce track, continuing to stir up the industry. Is the industry ushering in a reshuffle?

1. Simba’s live broadcast room was blocked

Simba’s live broadcast room has been blocked!

It turns out that Simba had previously announced in the video that he planned to start the live broadcast at 8 pm, and would bring 100 million in cash and 200 Xinxuan assistants to compensate consumers. However, before the live broadcast started, Simba's Kuaishou account homepage showed that "the live broadcast function has been banned."

The platform did not reveal the specific reason why the live broadcast was suddenly banned. However, the general view in the industry is that the platform does not want to make a big deal out of it. Previously, when Simba threatened to help the three sheep pay the compensation, there was a saying that it might involve vicious competition.

The much-anticipated "Battle of the Century" did not start, and the crowds of spectators fled. However, Simba, who could not make a big show of compensation, still fulfilled his previous promise in another way.

Xinbochang discovered that in the official account of "Xinxuan Assistant", keywords such as "Mei Cai Kou Rou", "Moutai", and "Application Time Limit" have been set on the customer service chat page.

After clicking the corresponding keyword, the compensation mechanism will be triggered. Among them, for Meicai Kourou, Xinxuan will provide 188 yuan of industry consolation money; for Maotai, the Year of the Rabbit, it will provide 9,000 yuan of industry consolation money. The application time starts at 8:00 on September 11 and lasts for seven days.

In the comment section of the video released by Simba, many consumers have posted screenshots, and some consumers who bought Moutai said that they received 9,000 yuan in industry consolation money from Simba.

On September 12, the topic #Ximba’s compensation of 9,000 yuan to three sheep consumers has been received# was once on the hot search list on Weibo.

The verbal war between Simba and Xiao Yangge has lasted for nearly half a month since the last day of August. This public opinion war started with the price mechanism of "Crab Card". Due to the exchange of fire between the two sides and Simba's continuous firepower output, it eventually evolved into a bombardment of the products and after-sales service of Three Sheep.

At the height of the storm, Xiao Yang also responded, and even had tears in his eyes during the live broadcast. He said that Three Sheep has three after-sales services and is responsible for its products, and also asked netizens not to cyberbully employees.

However, Xiao Yangge’s response failed to calm the storm of public opinion, and he even suffered a significant loss of followers. According to Feigua data, since September, the Douyin account of “Crazy Xiao Yangge” has lost 1.09 million followers, and “Three Sheep Network” has also lost nearly 50,000 followers.

"This should be the biggest public opinion crisis that Three Sheep has faced so far. It depends on whether they can get through it." said a senior observer in the live streaming e-commerce industry.

2. Why are the top anchors engaging in a “big fight”?

Industry insiders believe that the verbal battle between Simba and Xiao Yangge was caused by traffic anxiety. After all, for top anchors, higher popularity and greater traffic also means higher sales. This is almost a universal rule since the rise of the live broadcast e-commerce industry.

Since the beginning of this year, the public opinion storm surrounding the top live-streaming anchors has been particularly fierce.

From the "breakup" between Dongfang Zhenxuan and Dong Yuhui, to the "TikTok Beauty King" Luo Wangyu paying 150 million yuan out of his own pocket due to brand issues, to the current entanglement between Simba and Xiao Yangge, and Luo Yonghao and Dongfang Zhenxuan...

On September 11, Jiaogepengyou released the "Explanation on the Situation of "Fendi Casa Mooncakes" and the Decision of Refunding Three Times", stating that Jiaogepengyou's live broadcast room received complaints from users, saying that the "Fendi Casa Mooncakes" previously sold had brand association and suspected fraud. For this reason, Jiaogepengyou will implement a compensation plan of "refunding three times" for consumers who purchased the product.

That night, Luo Yonghao also responded to the incident. In addition to apologizing to consumers, he also did not forget to "step on" Dongfang Zhenxuan, shouting to Yu Minhong: "Teacher Yu Minhong, the educator who has also sold a series of malicious problematic foods such as 3.15 trough meat, TiQ Tianqi prune juice, and fake Ecuadorian white shrimp, and then turned a deaf ear and dumb, can you still sleep well at night?"

Behind the continuous disputes is the fact that competition in the entire industry has become increasingly fierce.

At the industry level, as the development of live e-commerce enters a mature stage, the importance of "goods" in the "people, goods, and venues" becomes more and more prominent, and the competition returns to the essence of consumption. Therefore, the end of industry competition is nothing more than competing for products and services, which is why Simba and Luo Yonghao have always emphasized the importance of after-sales service.

At the level of institutions and anchors, the business models of the leading institutions are converging, such as building a matrix, broadcasting on multiple platforms, and building supply chains... Everyone is trying to attract traffic and compete for consumers. Therefore, the old players need to compete on the same field, and naturally there will be collisions and frictions.

At the consumer level, many users have become disenchanted with the entire industry and the top anchors. Especially with the emergence of numerous live streaming incidents where products have gone wrong, users will adopt a more cautious attitude when making purchases.

We also see that, on the one hand, the clashes and frictions among the old players are becoming more frequent and intense; on the other hand, the new players are also working hard and eyeing each other to further grab a share of the live streaming e-commerce pie.

This year's most watched live-streaming e-commerce "newcomers" are undoubtedly Xiaohongshu and Video Account, as well as the low-key JD Live.

The most popular anchor on Xiaohongshu recently is Li Dan. On Xiaohongshu, Li Dan's live broadcast room often ranks first on the buyer list. The content of the live broadcast is mainly in the form of reading letters from viewers, interspersed with simple explanations of the products.

Video account live broadcast has been adjusted, such as adjusting the live broadcast sales categories, upgrading video account stores to WeChat stores, etc. Some merchants told Xinbochang that video account live broadcast e-commerce has unique advantages over platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. One of them is that "video account users are accurate users who have not been washed by live broadcast e-commerce, so there are still many opportunities."

JD Live became popular last year because of its sales. Today, JD pays more and more attention to live streaming. This year, it has allocated resources to live streaming at least three times, and the most recent one has invested an additional 1 billion yuan in cash and traffic resources. In March this year, JD listed "content ecology", "open ecology" and "instant retail" as the three major directions for 2024. Among them, the content ecology includes live streaming, short videos and other in-site sections.

The entry of new players seems to have given the entire live streaming e-commerce industry a new direction of development. Xiaohongshu’s main “lifestyle e-commerce”, the private domain approach of the WeChat ecosystem behind Video Account, and the continued investment of established e-commerce platforms such as JD.com in live streaming are still stirring up the industry.

As for where the wind is blowing? After the top anchors have retreated behind the scenes, perhaps new competition has just begun.