"Divorce Partners" Goes Viral, Exploring Non-Formulaic Content

When traditional concepts encounter the diversity of modern life, new social experiments such as "divorce partners" come into being. Through the experiences of Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo, we not only see the pursuit of freedom and new lifestyles by individuals, but also witness how social media has become a platform for them to express and explore themselves.

Following the term "dinner buddies", "game buddies" and "sports buddies", a pair of "divorce buddies" has also quickly become popular and a hot topic. This emerging term refers to friends who have experienced divorce and choose to face life together and support each other. Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo, two guests from a divorce variety show, have been sharing their daily lives as "divorce buddies" on Xiaohongshu since 2024, and have gradually gained attention.

On July 8, @有男叫老刘 and @张硕sss jointly conducted a live broadcast on Xiaohongshu to sell goods, and the first broadcast rushed to the top of the buyer list. Why did this "divorced couple" trigger a viewing craze? After the novelty fades, how much actual conversion effect can they bring? Why did they choose to develop on the Xiaohongshu platform? These have become the focus of people's attention.

01 How free are “divorce partners”

Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo, a divorced couple, met on a divorce variety show.

In Goodbye My Love 3, both Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo had some negative reputations. Zhang Shuo was accused of lacking patience in marriage and not paying enough attention to his spouse; while Lao Liu was seen as having a monotonous life and being taciturn. Neither of them had a likable screen image.

After the show ended, three men, Lao Liu (Liu Yi), Zhang Shuo and Lao Ji (Ji Huanbo), jointly participated in the production of the "Post-Holiday Entertainment Life" program and posted it on Xiaohongshu.

In Zhang Shuo's subsequent videos, we can see that after the divorce, Zhang Shuo and Lao Liu are currently renting a house together, starting a business together, and producing content with the theme of "divorced partners".

Judging from the Xiaohongshu videos posted by @有男叫老刘, the main content is the daily life of the two. In the videos, they eat together, work out, sing, celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day, and even watch the talk show of his ex-wife Fu Shouer together.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Surprisingly, this "divorced couple" combination makes the two people's personalities complement each other perfectly. Lao Liu, who originally had no hobbies, would go to the gym with Zhang Shuo at Zhang Shuo's urging. Zhang Shuo was also considerate and patient with Lao Liu, and he did not complain at all when he was taken outside to "listen" to the concert. In the video with Zhang Shuo, the audience was also pleasantly surprised to find that Lao Liu had strong athletic ability and was very good at basketball and bowling.

In the video, the two showed a harmonious relationship, which was a significant change from the past. The more confident Liu Yi and the more considerate Zhang Shuo surprised many netizens. They sighed that "the right person is really important" and "the divorce variety show helped these two men find each other and find a better self."

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Starting from July 8, the two officially launched a live broadcast on Xiaohongshu called "Divorce Partner Entrepreneurship Bureau", where they tasted the food and explained the products. With the number of fans not even exceeding 10,000, the total number of viewers reached 150,000.

It is not difficult to find out by clicking on the homepage of @There is a man named Lao Liu that the main products promoted are concentrated on food and clothing, among which most of the food products are priced below 100 yuan, and the [Lao Liu Zhang Shuo Exclusive] LOGO will be displayed on the page.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

As the live streaming of "Divorced Partners Entrepreneurship Bureau" gradually became popular, the number of fans of Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo has also been growing steadily. Currently, the number of fans of @有男叫老刘 account has reached 75,000. A simple chorus video can also attract thousands of likes, and the jokes shot by netizens have been commented as "touching".

Image source: Xiaohongshu

02 Divorce partners - exploring new family models

The "divorced couple" lifestyle displayed by Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo is novel to many people. In fact, this model is becoming a new family structure explored by many people.

B station UP host @两单亲妈妈的生活, talked about in the video that her best friend, whom she had known for 19 years, together with their respective children, formed a family of four. This practice has sparked widespread discussion among netizens.

Image source: Station B

For Li Huan and Wang Jie, the main reason they chose to become "divorce partners" was to reduce the burden of raising children. In a single-parent family, one person's energy and time are stretched thin, and they often feel overwhelmed whether going to the hospital or attending parent-teacher conferences. "Divorce partners" have provided them with a better solution both financially and psychologically.

Different from the life of two single mothers, Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo's "divorced partners" choose to share a house based more on work needs.

The reason why this pair of people attracted the audience was not only because of their compatible personalities, but also because of the new concept of male "divorce partners". Before this, divorce partner cases on the Internet were mainly female, but the male pair of Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo broke this convention and showed people that divorce partners are not limited to women. It is not difficult to understand why their jokes attracted attention.

The attention paid to this kind of divorced couples reflects, to a certain extent, that this new lifestyle is gradually being accepted by more young people. Although some people think that couples are a simplification of intimate relationships, their popularity not only provides young people with more choices, but also brings them more freedom and possibilities.

Under the influence of the dating culture, divorce dating is more in line with the light lifestyle pursued by contemporary young people. With the rise of dating culture, young people are increasingly inclined to choose a flexible and free lifestyle. The traditional marriage model is often accompanied by heavy responsibilities and obligations, while divorce dating provides a more relaxed and flexible option. In this model, both parties remain independent in emotions and life, while being able to support and accompany each other when needed.

03 There is no formula for Xiaohongshu live streaming

The popularity of Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo on the Xiaohongshu platform is partly due to their appearance in the public eye as "divorced couples" and partly due to the frequent controversial topics of "Goodbye Love 3" on the Xiaohongshu platform. Together, they have accumulated a considerable amount of traffic for their live broadcasts.

Looking back at the outstanding buyers and managers in the past, we can find that most of the top anchors on Xiaohongshu have a certain amount of traffic themselves. For example, Zhang Xiaohui, who sold goods through live streaming in the early days, Wu Xin and Dong Jie who often topped the buyer list, and Li Dan who became famous for telling the story of the "small store". And now Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo, they all had a certain audience base before selling goods.

In contrast, Xiaohongshu still lacks top live streamers who have developed from experts. From the perspective of the platform, with the intensified competition in the e-commerce market, Xiaohongshu faces unprecedented challenges. How to create differentiated advantages has become the focus of the platform's development. Xiaohongshu needs to explore more innovative live broadcast formats and content on the basis of maintaining the characteristics of the community to attract more users' attention and participation.

However, from Li Dan to Lao Liu, from the perspective of the commercialization of platform live broadcasts, although the live broadcasts of these anchors are very distinctive, their non-replicability makes them of little reference value.

At the same time, Xiaohongshu has been telling the story of wanting to be a closed-loop e-commerce company for a long time, but its supply chain capabilities still need to be strengthened. Lao Liu and Zhang Shuo also said in the live broadcast that they tried many products before the live broadcast.

Therefore, in the future development, Xiaohongshu platform can further expand the supply chain and enrich the product categories to meet the needs of anchors and users. At the same time, the platform is also increasing its efforts to cultivate expert anchors, discovering and cultivating more potential anchors to bring goods, so as to form a diversified live broadcast ecosystem.

Only with the emergence of more Lao Lius and Zhang Shuos will it be possible to jointly build a live broadcast venue with community characteristics.