Top internet celebrity "Wang Ma" with millions of fans fell from grace. Was her success and failure due to being a worker?

In recent days, the top internet celebrity "Wang Ma" has been trending on searches one after another. She was originally a "working man's mouthpiece", but became the target of public criticism overnight. Behind the upheaval, is it her identity as a "working man" that ultimately bears all the consequences?

After the incident of "backstabbing" a worker became a big deal, "Mother Wang" and the MCN agency behind it, Wilderness Culture, made concessions.

On May 26, the official account of Wilderness Culture released a statement denying the rumors about the company not having social security, and explained the adjustment of employee benefits:

First, cancel the long and short week and implement two-day weekend;

Second, social security is paid for employees in the probation period;

The third is to increase employee salaries, with all employees receiving no less than 6,000 yuan;

Fourth, the salaries of extras should be settled on time;

The fifth is to upgrade employees’ work equipment.

Afterwards, the actor who played "Wang Ma" "Qike Xingxing" reposted the statement on his personal account, once again explained the treatment of employees, and actively responded to netizens' questions about provident fund, social security during the probation period, etc. in the comment section.

The incident of "the strongest mouthpiece for workers" Wang Ma backstabbing a worker, which has been making headlines for several days, seems to have finally come to an end.

Some onlookers may not understand why the employee treatment issue of an MCN could cause such a big stir and dominate the hot searches for several days in a row. This all has to start with the character "Wang Ma".

Wang Ma is the core character of the series of short plays "Rebirth: I am a Nanny in a Domineering President Short Play", played by the internet celebrity "Seven Orangutans" with millions of fans. In the play, Wang Ma is the embodiment of a wronged worker, but she is unwilling to be a punching bag and often speaks up for the workers. With a fearless and beautiful mental state, she has attracted the attention and love of many workers.

However, just a few days ago, some netizens broke the news that the MCN agency behind Wang Ma, Wilderness Culture, does not have two days off a week, works on a weekly basis, pays 4,000 yuan a month, does not pay social insurance during the probation period, and requires employees to bring their own computers.

Another former employee said in a media interview: "I worked overtime every day, often until midnight, and even worked for more than 10 or 20 days in a row. I didn't get any weekend off for working overtime."

The high-intensity, non-stop work with low pay and no social security is very different from the image of the workers presented in the skit.

The past deeds of Wang Zhixin, the actor who played "Wang Ma", also attracted much attention. As a post-00s, she earned 700,000 yuan a month by making jokes during college. At the age of 23, she bought a Porsche Cayenne for her father in full. The Douyin star map showed that after the "Wang Ma" series of short videos were launched, the price of an advertisement was 600,000 yuan, and the advertising revenue in two months had reached 9.6 million yuan.

This contrast between the front and backstage made netizens unable to sit still. Related topics such as #王妈公司治疗# were trending on Weibo. Many people lamented, "Who is Wang Ma? It turns out that I am Wang Ma!" Even the People's Daily commented that "Wang Ma has become a satire of herself."

Screenshot of related hot searches on Weibo on the morning of May 29

Perhaps it was a backlash of her personality. Netizens wanted to seek resonance with workers, but instead got a sense of "betrayal" - "It turns out that Wang Ma is not a worker, but a capitalist." This absurd contrast added fuel to the public's flames.

The account traffic of "Seven Apes" was also affected. According to Xinbang's Douyin data tool Xin Dou, "Seven Apes" started to lose fans in the past two days, ending its previous strong momentum of gaining 3 million fans in a month due to the Wang Ma series of short dramas.

01 From a college blogger to nanny Wang Ma, how were the “Seven Chimpanzees” made?

The essence of Wang Ma’s “collapse” is the pain that the sharp contrast between her likable online worker persona and her real-life boss identity brings to “online workers.”

Perhaps even the "Seven Orangutans" themselves did not expect that it would take less than two months from the time when they first appeared on the hot search list for "Wang Ma" by speaking out for the working people to the time when they backstabbed the working people and "collapsed" and dominated the hot search list.

In early March, "Seven Apes" began to update the "Rebirth: I am a Nanny in the Domineering President's Short Drama" series. She plays the role of Wang Ma, the nanny of the domineering male protagonist in the play. Not only does she have to do the dirty and tiring work, but she also has to clean up the mess caused by the "neurotic" behavior of the male and female protagonists.

The plot outlines a day in the life of Wang Ma like this:

I got up early in the morning to mop the floor and clean the house. After cooking, I hid in the stairwell to eat a box lunch, but I heard the male and female protagonists quarreling and overturning the table. Not only did I have to cook again, but I also had to clean the floor. The boss said that I had to work overtime anytime and anywhere, including but not limited to cooking for four appetites, organizing family dinners, taking care of children, dealing with the vicious female supporting role, and accompanying the female protagonist in the rain in the middle of the night;
Wang Ma works diligently but also likes to slack off. She occasionally steals her master's jewelry for fun and then secretly returns it. She seems willing to do any job as long as the salary is in place. She and her handsome colleague, Butler Zhao, have a funny love story, but more often than not, the two of them always get together to complain about their boss.
While "working five jobs for one salary", she also makes sharp complaints. Wang Ma seems to be a microcosm of millions of working people. She is the one who says "I'm so annoyed" to those who dare not speak out in reality, and she also scolds those "crazy husbands and wives" who dare not curse.

Therefore, Wang Ma was once called "the working man's mouth substitute" by netizens.

According to the data from New Douyin, thanks to the short drama series, "Seven Chimps" once gained 3 million fans in a single month. As of press time, "Reborn as a Nanny in a Domineering President Short Drama" has updated 20 episodes, with a cumulative playback of over 1.85 billion; "Reborn as the Protagonist in a Short Drama" series has updated 16 episodes, with a cumulative playback of over 1.12 billion.

The massive traffic brought by the content also caused the advertising prices of "Seven Monkeys" to soar.

Star Map data shows that the price of "Seven Orangutans" for videos within 20 seconds is 450,000 yuan, 500,000 yuan for videos within 60 seconds, and 600,000 yuan for videos over 60 seconds; its small account "Wang Zhixing" with 2 million fans quotes 100,000 yuan for Star Map ads over 60 seconds.

According to observations, the two series "Reborn as a Nanny in a Domineering President's Short Play" and "Reborn as a Protagonist in a Short Play" have updated a total of 36 episodes, of which 21 videos have brand advertisements embedded. Terms such as "One Ape Earns 600,000" and "Wang Ma's Advertising Income May Reach 9.6 Million in Two Months" also quickly became hot searches.

In addition, "Seven Monkeys" has also made some arrangements in the field of live streaming.

The number of people following the Douyin "Seven Orangutans" product display window exceeded 55,000, and the product sales exceeded 60,000 pieces. New Douyin data shows that the account has not been live-streamed for nearly a year, and has conducted three live chats in the past three months, with a total of more than 1.64 million viewers.

Although they have not entered the Douyin live streaming e-commerce market, "Seven Monkeys" has focused its live streaming efforts on the Xiaohongshu account with 7.71 million followers.

She used to share good things as "Wang Ma" and "Wang Maid", and the products she promoted were mainly in the fields of beauty and snacks. Xinhong data showed that "Qi Ke Xing Xing" had 15 live broadcasts in the past three months, 10 of which were live broadcasts with goods, with an average of nearly 90,000 viewers per broadcast.

In addition, it is understood that "Seven Chimpanzees" also has a company called Seven Chimpanzees Business Center, which is engaged in clothing wholesale and other businesses, and sells the same clothing in the video on Taobao. However, it is observed that the sales of "Seven Chimpanzees' Store" on Taobao are dismal, and the best-selling single product, T-shirts, only sell 4 pieces per month.

Stripping away the roles of nanny and maid, the real "Seven Orangutans" is already a bona fide boss. This is not the first time that she has been on the hot search because of her income issue.

Public information shows that "Seven Orangutans"'s real name is Wang Zhixin. She graduated from the Journalism Department of Hubei University. In 2020, when she was a sophomore, she filmed a short video with her roommates. She became famous overnight for a video checking the scores of CET-4 and CET-6. Subsequently, she continued to attract fans by shooting funny clips with campus themes. In less than two years, she has more than 20 million fans on the entire network.

In 2021, she became the protagonist of the hot search "A sophomore girl born in the 2000s earns 700,000 yuan a month by making jokes". According to Hubei Daily, at that time, Wang Zhixin was not only able to pay her own tuition, but also pay salaries to the seniors in the team. The monthly turnover of the team and the account exceeded 700,000 yuan.

In response to this, she publicly responded: "700,000 yuan is just cash flow. I have a studio to run, a team to support, and equipment to update."

The team mentioned by Wang Zhixin is the MCN Wilderness Culture behind it. In February 2022, Wuhan Wilderness Culture Media Co., Ltd. was established with the support of the "Seven Orangutans" team, but Wang Zhixin's name did not appear in the company's equity structure.

Tianyancha App shows that the legal representative of Wuhan Wilderness Culture Media Co., Ltd. is He Yaxin, who played "Qiangzi" in the early videos of "Seven Apes" and the heroine "He Nana" in the short drama series. It is worth noting that the number of insured persons of Wilderness Culture in 2023 is shown as 0.

Wilderness Culture stated that the information released by Tianyancha regarding "the number of insured persons is 0" is false, and it has sent a formal lawyer's letter to Tianyancha.

In response, Tianyancha said that the information on companies and bosses displayed on the platform can be traced back to the source and is consistent with the original data. According to the National Enterprise Credit Information Disclosure System, the social security information of Wuhan Wilderness Culture Media Co., Ltd.'s 2022 annual report shows 0 people.

Tianyancha also explained on its official Douyin account why the company's social insurance participation is 0. It may be that the company filled in the number of insured people as 0 in the reporting system; if the company truthfully filled in the number of insured people as 0, it is necessary to pay attention to whether the company pays social insurance for its employees in accordance with the law.

According to Red Star News, some anchors and actors have signed part-time contracts, labor contracts or talent agency contracts with MCN companies. MCN companies generally do not pay five insurances and one fund for them, but positions such as operations and product selection will normally sign labor contracts and pay social insurance.

02 Internet celebrity with millions of fans, his success or failure is due to being a worker?

To become a "working man's mouthpiece", it takes several months of character building and content accumulation; but it seems to happen overnight from a "working man's mouthpiece" to a "black-hearted capitalist".

Many internet celebrities have become famous by empathizing with thousands of netizens. When this empathy changes, netizens’ feelings will also change. The last one to become a currency unit like “Seven Chimpanzees” was Huaxizi. One Huaxizi coin = 79 yuan. The trigger was Li Jiaqi’s “response” to consumers questioning the expensiveness of Huaxizi’s eyebrow pencils in the live broadcast room.

Later, Li Jiaqi bowed and apologized in the live broadcast room, saying that "what he said was very inappropriate and disappointed everyone, and he sincerely accepts all criticisms and suggestions." However, until now, some netizens still mention related topics in the comment section of Li Jiaqi's content.

Another person who offended the workers was "狗头萝莉". On April 23, "狗头萝莉" posted a job posting on Weibo, offering one day off a week, a salary of 3,000-4,000 yuan, accommodation but not food, and a complex job, including receiving and sending logistics, inventorying materials, preparing and replenishing materials, and cleaning up the pancake stall.

She said that this job is indeed intense and low-paying, but the advantage is that "she can travel all over the country", and because she will be doing this pancake-selling job for three to five years, her working life is also long.

The comment section directly refuted her, "If there is only one day off a week, then what does the beautiful country have to do with the workers?" Faced with the doubts, Doghead Loli responded in the live broadcast, saying that the low salary was due to her limited ability and that she had already found employees.

However, compared to the sympathy of netizens for her hard work and making pancakes to make money, this time few workers can understand her low wages. Some netizens believe that when an internet celebrity becomes a boss, no matter how weak his image was before, he will inevitably develop a "capitalist" mentality.

The recruitment copy posted by the top UP host in the technology circle "Mr. He" also caused controversy. In the first version of the recruitment copy released in 2022, "Mr. He" offered a price of 10,000 yuan to recruit someone who knows English, programming, can complete the welding and wiring work in circuit development, is familiar with the principles of 3D printers, and has production experience. It is best if he can drive. The person recruited will not only do production work and assist in filming, but also be responsible for daily administrative matters, including express delivery and receipt.

Some netizens complained that he wanted to use 10,000 yuan to recruit a warehouse manager, cameraman, producer, post-production, administrator, IT, and programmer. "I thought it was ridiculous after reading a short paragraph, but the more I read, the more ridiculous it became." Faced with the fierce complaints from netizens, "Mr. He", who had just graduated and had no experience in opening a studio, quickly revised the recruitment copy, increased the salary and lowered the threshold, thus stopping the incident from fermenting.

There are many similar cases. If the video image of "Wang Ma" "resisting capitalists" is equivalent to a spiritual sustenance for workers outside of their busy work, then the failure of "Wang Ma" has brought about a greater emotional backlash.

Empathy for the workers may have become a traffic code. The recent song "If the Moon Didn't Come" written by Bao Shi Laojiu also accurately depicts the mentality of a worker who is far away from home and working hard outside in the lyrics: "Leaning on the windowsill in the corridor, eating slightly cold takeaway food", "The future is always far away, and the pressure of life is suffocating"...

This resonance is based on equal dialogue. Once the feeling of equality is gone, it is easy to backfire. After all, although the role and the persona are not equal to the real person, it is easy to get into the play but difficult to get out of it. Once there is a gap, the traffic code may become a traffic poison.