After the collapse of "Wang Ma": only 500 fans were lost in one day, and the business map was exposed

I think Wang Ma's company is just a microcosm of the larger environment, reflecting that many companies currently ignore the rights and interests of employees in the process of rapid development. Read this article to learn more.

News on May 29, 4 days have passed since the "Wang Ma" house collapse incident, the incident is still continuing to ferment, and the heat does not seem to be declining.

According to Weibo, the topic of "Wang Ma" was on multiple hot searches today, among which the topic commented on by People's Daily had a reading volume of up to 190 million, and topped the list for nearly 8 hours.

It is not difficult to see that netizens are still venting their emotions.

1. Empathy in the plot, business in reality

"Wang Ma" is the name of a character in the works of Douyin's tens of millions-level internet celebrity Qi Ge Xing Xing (Wang Zhixin). The series of short dramas he shot, "Reborn as a Nanny in the Domineering President's Short Drama", is regarded as a microcosm of the workplace. The nanny role "Wang Ma" played by Wang Zhixin in the play is more of an uncompromising and unwilling to be punched in the face of the domineering president. The subject matter in the play tells the sadness of many workers in the workplace.

This series of short dramas has been loved and resonated with by a large number of netizens since its filming, and Wang Ma has become famous for her image as a "working man's voice substitute".

However, the empathy in the plot is actually business in reality.

On May 25, some netizens revealed on social media that Wang Ma’s company, Wuhan Wilderness Culture Media Co., Ltd., actually requires a break and requires students to bring their own computers.

Later, some netizens said that his salary was about 4k and he had to work overtime, and the number of people insured in the company was 0 in the past two years.

The "domineering" boss is completely different from the character of Wang Ma in the video. As soon as the news came out, Wang Ma's image collapsed.

When Wang Ma, who was equated with a working person in the video, turned out to be the exact opposite of a working person in reality, the trust of netizens also collapsed. Many netizens felt that they had been fooled and were very hurt.

The result is obvious. Being pinned on the hot searches for days on end is part of the punishment.

Wang Zhixin's business scope and profitability

When the wall falls, everyone pushes it. After the house collapsed, Wang Zhixin himself became the target of public criticism, and a series of events involving him were dug up one after another.

According to online rumors, Wang Zhixin earned 700,000 yuan a month by filming jokes during college, and at the age of 23, he paid for a Porsche Cayenne for his father.

At the same time, the profitability of Wilderness Culture and Wang Zhixin's business empire also surfaced.

According to the official statistics tool of Douyin, it took only 15 days from the release of the first episode of the Wang Ma series on March 5 to the receipt of the first commercial placement order on March 19, with a total of 16 advertisements placed in 26 episodes.

According to the official statistics tool of a certain platform, Seven Monkeys’ quotation for a 21-60 second video is 500,000 yuan, and for a video longer than 60 seconds, it is 600,000 yuan, which means that their advertising revenue in two months reached 9.6 million yuan.

In February 2022, the Star Map platform showed that the price of Seven Monkeys' videos was about 80,000 yuan for videos of 21-60 seconds, and about 100,000 yuan for videos over 60 seconds.

That is to say, in just two years, the commercial value of Seven Chimpanzees increased by about 6 times.

However, the growth rate of the company is completely inconsistent with the benefits of its employees. The huge gap between the monthly revenue of nearly 5 million and the salary of 4K is one of the reasons why netizens complain.

After all, salary is the most sensitive and important criterion for all workers, no doubt about it.

In addition, according to Tianyancha, Wang Zhixin is associated with a company, the Seven Orangutans Business Center in Wuchang District, Wuhan, which was established in July 2022 and is an individual business. The business center operates the online store "Seven Orangutans' Store", which sells many of the same clothing in the "Seven Orangutans" account videos, and uses titles such as "Seven Orangutans Same Style" to promote the products. Among them, many short-sleeved T-shirts are printed with the words "Unhealthy Trends".

According to public information, "Seven Orangutans" also opened a coffee shop by the East Lake in Wuhan last year - Seven Orangutans Restaurant in the East Lake Ecological Tourism Scenic Area. Tianyancha shows that the store was established in June last year and is an individual business operator, operated by Wang Zhihao.

2. Wang Ma apologizes and makes corrections

In response to a package of controversies and doubts, Wilderness Culture has issued a series of announcements to explain the situation, apologize and announce rectification measures.

On May 25, Wilderness Culture stated that the company would implement a two-day weekend system starting today, pay social security during the probation period, and pay a salary of no less than 6,000 yuan for newly hired employees. It would also recruit extras through formal channels and upgrade and purchase equipment.

On May 26, Wilderness Culture responded to the "0 insured people" issue, saying that the company had already issued a legal warning on May 21, 2024 regarding the false information released by Tianyancha that "0 insured people" and had sent a formal lawyer's letter to Tianyancha.

In this regard, Tianyancha said. Tianyancha uses public data and adheres to the principle of data consistency. The information of enterprises 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 Publicity System, the social security information of Wuhan Wilderness Culture Media Co., Ltd. in its 2022 annual report shows 0 people.

On May 28, Wilderness Culture issued an apology statement, giving a detailed response and rectification to the controversial issues. The statement showed that the salary and other rights of employees had been adjusted and optimized one by one.

Objectively speaking, this apology is not insincere, it was implemented very quickly, and the degree of optimization is not low. However, it is still "hindsight" after all, and many netizens still do not buy it.

Some netizens said that the university is already the boss while eating the bonuses of the workers but exploiting its own employees, so how can it sympathize with the workers?

A big-name lawyer commented that Wang Ma became famous for her image as a substitute for a working man. Now that her business has grown and she has become a capitalist, she has forgotten her class attributes. This image deserves to collapse.

According to third-party data, the number of followers of Qigexiong reached a peak of 16.5765 million on May 28. Currently, the account has 16.576 million followers, with only 500 fans lost.

In other words, Wang Ma’s account started to lose followers after this incident.

To be honest, this incident lasted for 4 days and was on the hot search list many times. It can be said to be an Internet-wide event, but the speed at which fans are lost can basically be ignored.

The reason is that more netizens believe that Wang Ma’s company is just a microcosm of the overall environment, and her company has already implemented rectification. Instead of holding Wang Ma accountable, it would be better to promote the implementation of labor laws in other companies.

Therefore, the netizens’ emotional outburst mentioned at the beginning of the article may not be directed solely at Wang’s mother to a large extent.

As the Workers' Daily commented: Respecting workers and abiding by labor laws and regulations cannot remain in the virtual world wrapped by traffic, but should be the principle that every business operator must adhere to, and it is also the bottom line of corporate social responsibility. Relevant departments should also exercise their responsibilities, supervise enterprises to implement the situation of respecting workers, abiding by labor laws, and actively safeguarding the rights and interests of workers.

Workers’ Daily: The plot is very rich, but the reality is very skinny.

The downfall of "Wang Ma" is related to the image maintenance of Internet celebrities, and also reveals the lack of labor rights in some workplaces. For example, weekends off and social security during the probation period should be basic rights of workers, but they are ignored by some companies. According to data from a certain platform, the implementation rate of weekends off is less than 70%.

The collapse of "Wang Ma" reminds us that respecting workers and abiding by labor laws and regulations cannot be confined to the virtual world wrapped in traffic. Instead, it should be a principle that every business operator must adhere to and is also the bottom line of corporate social responsibility.

Relevant departments should also exercise their responsibilities, supervise the implementation of enterprises, and actively safeguard the rights and interests of workers.

Yangcheng School: From the perspective of business operations alone, although the wilderness culture where "Wang Ma" is located has many problems, the nature of most of these problems is not too serious, and it can even be said that it is a common problem among many start-up companies.

Even so, it does not mean that the backlash of online sentiment is "making a mountain out of a molehill". Respecting workers and abiding by labor laws and regulations cannot just be a false persona to attract traffic. These should be the values ​​that every company must adhere to when operating, and they are also the bottom line of corporate compliance.

“Mother Wang” cannot be a two-faced person.

People's Daily: Recently, the internet celebrity character "Wang Ma" and the company behind her have caused huge controversy.

Young people in the workplace feel offended and even angry because the resonance, empathy and sense of being understood originally generated by the role are shattered the moment the "truth" comes to light.

Today, the backbone of the workplace, especially the young, have better living conditions than their parents and face more career choices. They work not only to make a living, but also expect to gain more emotional value and receive more respect.

Looking to the future, this expectation and demand will only become stronger and stronger and should attract the attention of enterprises and other employers.

Author: Whip the Bull;

WeChat public account: Bianniushi (ID: bianews8)