Thousands of people watched the after-get off work life of "working people" on Douyin. Who is popularizing "One Person's Utopia"?

Why can a video about getting off work get so much traffic? This article will help you find out the reasons. This article is also recommended for people who are engaged in the operation of short videos on Douyin.

"I remember there was a forest here, with a hillside behind it. There were jujube trees on the hillside. Every autumn, we filled our pockets with jujubes..." Recently, when I was browsing Douyin, it was becoming easier and easier to come across a type of video in which a male blogger wore a camera on his head and filmed his daily life of eating braised dishes and ordering a little wine after get off work. The BGM was playing Zhao Lei's "I Remember". There was a large iron plate with several kinds of braised dishes, a plate of cold peanuts, and a small bottle of white wine, and finally the author's voice-over narration. The title was accompanied by words such as "XX yuan will take you to experience the happiness of men after get off work", "The happiness of single men in first-tier cities is simple", and a video that was enough to attract tens of thousands of views was completed.

Almost all videos of this type are labeled with tags such as "free and easy" and "live in the moment", and the comments below are full of "envy".

Want to know how many videos of this kind there are? Search for "de happiness" on TikTok and the search results will show you the answer at a glance.

Image source: TikTok

Someone once said that if a series of videos of the same type appear in a short period of time, there is a high probability that there is an MCN company behind these people. So, do these bloggers also have MCN companies behind them? The same copywriting format is theoretically a taboo for short videos, so why can they still obtain a stable source of traffic?

1. A person’s “happy” life after work is a cause of young people’s anxiety about love and marriage

"When I open TikTok now, the first thing I search for is these bloggers."

Li Lintao was laid off by a large company last year. At the same time, his girlfriend, who was about to get married to him, broke up with him. During the first few months of his new job, he was in the darkest period of his life and fell in love with this kind of videos.

"Spend 35 yuan to let you experience the happiness of workers after get off work." The creators of this type of video claim to be "low-level workers". They travel around the world with a camera, from purchasing raw materials to returning to the rental house to make dinner and supper. Through editing, they present the "bourgeois life" of a working-class man after get off work.

These videos have different tags, some of which are labeled "Slow Life in a Small Town":

Image source: Douyin blogger

Some belong to the "Shanghai Drift" and "Shenzhen Drift" series. They are in completely different regions, but what are similar are the video rhythm and copywriting format. Even if there are slight differences, it is nothing more than the occasional blogger appearance or the occasional "big meal", which is the same thing.

When asked why he liked these videos, he admitted that he was particularly depressed during that time. "At first, I was a little depressed. How could I suddenly lose my job and break up? Later, watching these videos helped me to think more positively. We should enjoy life to the fullest and live in the present."

There are many bloggers on Douyin who post these videos, but unlike some other bloggers who post the same series of videos and are driven by MCN companies, this trend does not seem to have the participation of MCN companies, but is formed naturally and has continued to this day.

Clicking on the homepages of these bloggers, most of them have no trace of MCN companies or other commercial cooperation. Some of them have fan groups and display goods in their windows, but most of the time, these goods come from various stores, not to attract traffic to their own stores. On the surface, these videos can become popular because of their strong fan base, which has captured the G-spot of users of short video platforms.

There are similar videos with similar themes, such as the "Earn 5,800 a month, spend as you please if you don't work as a bootlicker" series. The idea of ​​the video is the same as the previous series, which also follows the path of the bottom-level workers, who are self-reliant and feed the whole family.

Unlike the previous series of videos, this series of videos has richer scenes, not only limited to the interior scenes of rental houses, but also exterior scenes such as foot bath shops, massage rooms, and large hotels. Various characters are constantly unlocked and appear one after another. Some are girls in bath shops, some are restaurant owners, and some are massage room masters. In short, they revolve around the "eating and drinking" of basic life and "fun" in various ways. But overall, from the perspective of video content, there is almost no need for creativity.

Have you noticed that the common features of these videos are that they all emphasize "being single", "not being a bootlicker", and "spending money on yourself". The core can be summed up in one thing - encouraging autonomy and independence, earning your own money and spending it on yourself, and breaking away from the outside world that puts you under mental and material pressure.

For a short video to become popular, it generally requires several elements: excellent planning and scripts; photography, lighting, material arrangement, and editing; constantly innovative content; the ability to timely integrate with news hot spots and grasp the degree of proportion. This type of short video has almost no advantage in the above. Its real advantage is that it is user-oriented and meets the emotional needs of quite a number of users , that is, it outputs its own emotional value.

The theme really hits upon one of the hottest social topics - young people's anxiety about love and marriage.

2. The money of “workers” comes from workers

In fact, since these videos became popular, more and more bloggers have appeared to imitate them. Some of them are even more exaggerated, often serving "a pound of white wine, two red sausages", peanuts, duck necks, pork elbows and other standard three-high meals, almost every day. If you really eat like this every day, to be honest, fatty liver will probably come to you in a few days. This has caused many people to question the authenticity of these videos. Comments such as "Is it fake drinking?", "Where are the prices so cheap?", "It's all staged" are almost in every issue. In every issue, there are also people who use "experience" to tell everyone that it is impossible to drink like this without getting red face.

Someone also did the math in the comment section of a blogger who claimed to work in a factory in Shanghai. Assuming his working hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., since the blogger claimed that his factory is in the central city and he lives in a rental house in the suburbs of Shanghai, it takes him at least 7 a.m. to get back to the rental house from the factory. Then he goes out to buy groceries at 7:30 a.m., and it's already 8 or 9 a.m. when he gets home to cook and eat. He also drinks white wine every day, and he has to find time to shoot, edit, and upload the films. Can he really do all of this by himself?

But what is impressive is that under one video, under the same questioning comment, a reply received several times more likes than the question itself - "Even if it is a staged photo, we are willing to watch it."

This word reveals the secret.

The reason why this type of video has so many viewers is not because of its authenticity, or in other words, the sense of reality it creates has to some extent satisfied the audience's requirements for authenticity and life. People do not require bloggers to shoot a "one-shot" video, and many people are aware of the possibility of some editing and posing.

What really helps spread the story and retain users is that it depicts a utopia for lower-class workers in their spare time.

In recent years, with the increasing pressure to get married, more and more young people are choosing to remain single. The Internet has become a large-scale site for fear of marriage and persuasion to separate. "A wise man does not fall in love" has become politically correct to some extent. On the one hand, the "Pure Love God" has become a special typical representative, on the other hand, "not getting married" and "not falling in love" seem to be the popular choices.

Image source: Minping.com

The pressure and cost of dating and getting married are too great, which is greater than people's desire for love and marriage. Therefore, these young people aged 18 to 35 constitute the basic market of these videos. At the same time, middle-aged men who have already stepped into the grave of marriage are in urgent need of a cyber venting window. They are in a situation where they have elderly parents and young children to take care of, and they face greater pressure to support their families. In the comment section of these videos, it is easy to see their "regret" remarks, "If God can do it again, I will never get married or have children", "Like every sober and independent man" and similar remarks can be seen everywhere in various hot comment sections. Therefore, these married middle-aged men have deepened the user stickiness of these videos.

On the other hand, most of the products recommended in the windows of these bloggers are priced in the single digit. Therefore, these electronic mustard tubers are served on the cyber dining table while promoting the popularity of low-price consumption mentality in the real world. And these consumers are very rational and will not go on a shopping spree, but are more sustainable.

Image source: Douyin blogger homepage window

These phenomena are in line with the heated discussion on the fat cat incident, the popularity of Wang Po’s matchmaking, the emergence of blind date analysts, and the contempt for “the first cup of milk tea in autumn”. Behind these phenomena is both the collapse of the “dog-licking economy” and the carnival of the “cost-effective economy”.

The "2023 Young People's Money Saving Report" previously released by Houlang Research Institute pointed out that more than 40% of young people have the habit of keeping accounts, and more and more young people are beginning to break free from the trap of consumerism and will save money through various forms such as group buying and discounts.

Various discounts such as Pinduoduo, Meituan Pinhaofan, and special group purchases are emerging one after another. Many people are shouting to get rid of the "brainwashing" of 520 marketing, and turn around and throw themselves into the arms of low-priced products. More importantly, these consumers are very rational and will not go crazy shopping, but are more sustainable.

Taking the window display of blogger "Zhao Dong" as an example, Douyin shows that he has sold 833 items from the window, and the number of people who followed to buy has reached 790; the window display of "Hunan's No. 1 Liquor Mengzi" has sold 150 items, and the number of people who followed to buy has reached 142. It can be seen that almost all of them are one-time customers who "buy once is enough".

Image source: Douyin blogger homepage window

Admittedly, on the surface, for the platform, the profit of low-priced products is naturally not as good as that of high-priced products. However, it is hard to say that there is no platform behind this. After all, whether it is a high-priced product or a low-priced product, being able to sell something is at least better than not being able to sell it. At the moment when consumption is infinitely involuted, this is a helpless choice to cater to consumption downgrade. And from the result, for consumers, it can be said that the wool comes from the sheep. While being immersed in the baptism of this cyber utopia and empathizing with these bloggers, they still have to face the pressure of real life and shop from the windows of these bloggers. More importantly, the audience is still willing.

These bloggers' short videos have actual benefits such as likes, collections, and coins, and these viewers have gained spiritual comfort. At least it can be said that for bloggers and platforms, this is a business with multiple profits and no risks.

As for whether there is an MCM agency behind it, that depends on one's opinion.

Author: Guangchen; Editor: Zhao

Source: WeChat public account: " Xinou " (ID:1092543)