The Luck and Embarrassment of the “Second Generation of Anchors”

With the rapid development of the live broadcast e-commerce industry, the phenomenon of "second-generation anchors" has gradually surfaced. From Li Jiaqi's assistant Wangwang to Qi'er in Wei Ya's team, these successors have risen rapidly under the halo of their predecessors, but they are also facing the crisis and challenge of being replaced. This article deeply analyzes the luck and embarrassment of the second generation of anchors, and explores the positioning and development of this group in the industry transformation.

As big anchors gradually fade out of the live broadcast rooms, their successors - whether they are apprentices trained by the anchors themselves or assistant anchors under the company system - are emerging at an unprecedented speed and becoming the new focus.

Take Li Jiaqi as an example. This super anchor known as the "Lipstick King" recently appeared in the popular variety show "Breaking Through the Thorns" and frequently appeared on hot searches.

At the same time, another anchor under Mei One, Wang Wang, also made her mark in another variety show "My Girl", which attracted widespread attention and discussion, and Mei One company also gained more exposure.

After the super anchors faded out of the live broadcast room, the second generation of anchors inherited the fans and resources of the big anchors. What is the current development status of the second generation? What are the limitations of the second generation of anchors?

1. The Heirs

While the top anchors gradually faded out of the live broadcast room, a series of second-generation anchors such as Qi'er, Dandan, and Wangwang were promoted.

Zhu Wangwang first appeared in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room as a lipstick model. She impressed Li Jiaqi with her interesting reactions and later became his assistant. Since last year, Li Jiaqi has been deliberately reducing the frequency and duration of his live broadcasts. Zhu Wangwang has also been highly regarded. Not only has she become popular with her beauty and counterattack story, she has also become the "ace worker" in the hearts of many netizens.

After Wei Ya retired, Qi Er, who was originally her assistant, also took on the responsibility. Starting in 2022, Qi Er switched to Douyin, where she set a record of selling over 5 million in one hour. She was listed on the Douyin sales list as soon as her first broadcast, and her fans soared by 1.3 million.

If the second-generation anchors under companies like Mei One and Qian Xun are more like assistant anchors under the company system, then the second-generation anchors like Simba and Xiao Yang have a more obvious "master-apprentice" atmosphere.

In fact, the master-apprentice relationship has long existed among celebrities. It is understood that some apprentices who have a close relationship with their masters make money by selling goods and sharing commissions. Others pay a tuition fee to their masters, and then share commissions according to the business. The relationship between apprentices and masters varies.

As one of the earliest anchors to implement the master-apprentice system, Simba and his apprentices were once called the "Simba Family" by the outside world, with dozens of apprentices.

Coincidentally, Xiao Yangge already has several apprentices, including Huang of Hongludeng, Boss Qi, and Zhuo Shilin. When Huang of Hongludeng faced public pressure last year, Xiao Yangge also supported his apprentices in the live broadcast room.

The most direct reason why anchors are training the second generation is that the first generation of anchors need to build an anchor group to take on fans, traffic and resources. As the top anchors achieve greater success, on the one hand, the high-intensity work pace of anchors makes it impossible for them to continue in the live broadcast room. On the other hand, many anchors tend to shift their work focus to management. Therefore, how to cultivate more "selves" on the basis of consolidating their own position has become a top priority.

In addition to the second generation of anchors, the big anchor team is also constantly training live broadcast talents. In November 2020, Wei Ya's team went to Hefei and agreed with the local government to build a national live broadcast talent training center in Hefei.

Recently, the Three Sheep Group launched the Three People Live Classroom Project, which provides live broadcast training courses. Currently, the Three Sheep Group has launched two types of offline training programs, namely the beginner course and the advanced class, with prices of 3,980 yuan/person and 9,980 yuan/person. The project has entered its second phase.

In addition, Three Sheep also opened an account @三只羊大課室 on the Douyin platform. Since July, it has released dozens of videos and currently has more than 7,000 fans.

The chairman of the Three Sheep Company once revealed the "Ten Thousand Sheep Plan" - the company plans to incubate 10,000 anchors in the future, consisting of 1,000 live broadcast rooms belonging to different categories. It also plans to launch 100 brands and establish 10 live broadcast organizations like "Three Sheep".

From the perspective of large anchor companies, whether it is selling courses or recruiting apprentices, expanding the anchor team and building an anchor matrix have become imperatives.

2. What did the second-generation anchors inherit?

The relationship between the anchor and his "heirs" is very delicate.

In fact, the second generation of anchors inherits all aspects of the first generation of anchors. Not only are the fans of the live broadcast room more familiar with the second generation of anchors, many merchants have also established long-term cooperative relationships with the first generation of anchors, and the product selection and supply chain resources of the first generation of anchors can be shared.

Take Three Sheep as an example. With many years of live streaming experience, Three Sheep is known for its complete supply chain. In its courses, it is also clearly stated: "Equipped with first-line factory resources, we hope to explore e-commerce operations based on innovation and carry out transformation and upgrading of factories and enterprises."

Qianxun’s information shows that Qianxun has dozens of celebrity anchors and influencers, has built a supply chain base, and has over 20,000 long-term cooperative brands at home and abroad.

In terms of product selection, the big anchor team can often recommend more suitable products based on consumer needs, saving consumers’ time.

In addition, the form of this master-apprentice model is also related to whether the style of the second-generation anchor is consistent with that of the big anchor.

Ling Ye, who was once under Papitube, has more than 10 million fans on Douyin. Last year, Sanzhiyang announced that he had signed a contract with Ling Ye, and later Ling Ye joined Xiao Yangge's live broadcast room. However, due to style conflicts, the cooperation between Ling Ye and Sanzhiyang did not produce satisfactory results, and the live broadcast performance did not improve significantly.

The current Douyin account of @玲爷 shows that he is now an influencer under Wuyou Media.

Image source: TikTok

Despite this, the master-apprentice inheritance in the anchor industry has not stagnated. Instead, it has prompted more anchors and "successors" to find more suitable ways of coexistence in their exploration. The relationship between anchors and their "successors" has also become more complex and interesting.

3. The embarrassment of the second generation of anchors

In the variety show "My Daughter", Zhu Wangwang cried to Li Jiaqi after working overtime for a long time: "My sense of crisis is that I feel I can be replaced at any time." After the variety show was broadcast, related terms became hot searches.

Image source: Weibo

Although Zhu Wangwang has demonstrated the professional qualities of a senior worker in the show: product selection ability, business negotiation skills, and 100% commitment, anxiety still follows him.

In fact, behind Want Want’s anxiety is the common anxiety of the second generation of anchors. When will the bonus be tightened? How can the trust of the second generation of anchors be maintained? What is the attitude of the platform?

A healthy platform ecology is not the result of monopoly by a few "Internet celebrities", and the platform is particularly aware of this.

In recent years, Taobao and Douyin have continued to support big anchors while also actively supporting small and medium anchors. On the one hand, the emergence of more anchors is conducive to the healthy development of the platform, and on the other hand, mid-level anchors are more cost-effective for merchants.

As the growth rate of the influencer marketing market slows down, brands have become more refined in their budgets, shifting from pursuing traffic and exposure to focusing on potential communication effects and conversion output returns, and selecting more mid- and low-end influencers to cultivate users' minds and maintain word-of-mouth.

For the platform, mid-level influencers are the backbone and fresh commercial blood of the platform. They are highly malleable and full of vitality. They are candidates for future top influencers, the group preferred by current brand marketing, and the foundation for the sustainable development of the platform's influencer ecology and content supply.

At the same time, as live streaming e-commerce entered the second half, store live streaming came to the fore.

Brand merchants have begun to build their own private traffic pools, striving to gain a foothold in the fierce market competition. Merchants have realized that the "lowest price on the entire network" strategy of relying on a single big anchor can bring a short-term sales boom, but in the long run, it will overdraw brand value and erode consumer loyalty.

Therefore, they began to invest more resources in their own live broadcasts, creating a unique live broadcast style and shopping experience through refined operations and content innovation to attract and retain consumers.

On the anchor side, the voice of big anchors has been weakened, and the advantage of "the lowest price on the entire network" has also disappeared. The aftermath of the public opinion of Li Jiaqi's "79 yuan eyebrow pencil" incident last year has not dissipated, and many netizens are also expressing their dissatisfaction under the variety show "Pi Ge".

When the entire live broadcast industry is experiencing a slowdown in growth and dividends have peaked, it becomes a question whether the empire established by that generation is stable.

In this context, the anxiety of Zhu Wangwang and others is not only a manifestation of personal emotions, but also a subtle but true footnote to the changes in the industry. Although personal efforts and talents alone can win a place in the short term, in order to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive live broadcast industry, more diversified competitiveness is needed.

The future trend may belong to the second generation of anchors, but at present, the dominant power is still in the hands of senior anchors. As for the second generation of anchors in the field of live broadcasting, their right to choose has not yet been fully controlled. Compared with the first generation of anchors, the second generation of anchors do enjoy more convenience in the live broadcasting, but this is also accompanied by the weakening of decision-making power and voice.

Reference articles:

1. Xiao Yangge is selling courses to make money! The training fees alone have brought in more than 600,000 yuan? "Make friends" is also selling... | Beijing Business Daily

2. The second generation of broadcasters has no classes to take | Alphabet List

3. Xiao Yangge and Simba "recruit apprentices", whose wallet is fattened? | Leopard Change