Heze South Station was only popular for 10 days, but Guo Youcai has become popular 3 times

Every once in a while, a new "Internet celebrity" will appear on Douyin. The last one was Zhang Tongxue, and the next one is Guo Youcai. Like Cao County, Heze South Station has also become a new check-in spot because of Internet celebrities. But the popularity will always fade. Guo Youcai is not the first, and naturally he will not be the last.

Heze Tree Brother Guo Youcai has become a new super internet celebrity on Douyin.

Starting from May 9, traffic quickly shifted to Guo Youcai. In 10 days, Guo Youcai gained 10 million fans. As of press time, Guo Youcai's number of fans has reached 13.18 million.

This kind of traffic miracle has happened countless times on Douyin in the past. People have witnessed the birth of super internet celebrities one after another, and then one after another in a short period of time. Guo Youcai is not the first, and naturally he will not be the last.

What makes Guo Youcai different is that he combines multiple narratives. This complexity allows him to stand out from the grassroots internet celebrities and become a lucky traffic star selected by the algorithm mechanism.

How long will he remain popular is a question that no longer needs to be answered. Why he is so popular may be the answer that deserves more attention.

1. Top internet celebrity template: where did they become popular and how did they become popular?

"But people drift in the wind, in the rain, in the years of love; you and I cannot start over, cannot stop, cannot resist the fate."

On May 9, at Heze South Railway Station, Guo Youcai, a young man from the rural area of ​​Shandong, was singing a song that was popular in the last century, "Promise", with his very unique voice. He was wearing a relatively old-fashioned suit, a floral shirt, a brown tie, gold-rimmed glasses, and a slicked-back hair. He was imitating a movie character that is quite popular on TikTok - the tree played by Wang Baoqiang in "Hello! Mr. Tree".

The gears of fate started turning from this day on. Within 10 days, Guo Youcai gained 10 million followers, and a new top internet celebrity was born.

Zhang Shu, former operations director of Fengqun Culture, told Hedgehog Community that in his opinion, the algorithm logic of Douyin is to do 0.1-1, rather than 0-1. That is, it is difficult for the platform to launch a new top-tier Internet celebrity from scratch. In more cases, it is to discover a sign of popularity and amplify it infinitely.

Guo Youcai's sudden popularity is also based on this existing logic. Starting from April 28, local residents began to watch Guo Youcai's live broadcast; in early May, the popularity of Heze South Station attracted anchors and internet celebrities to take advantage of the popularity; then, the authorities discovered this phenomenon and began to send people to maintain order on the scene and provide infrastructure services.

The offline explosion boosted the popularity online, and Guo Youcai quickly gained 10 million followers in 10 days. According to the data from Xindou, the average number of online viewers for Guo Youcai's live broadcasts in the past 30 days reached 764,400, and the number of views exceeded 385 million.

Different from the logic of the birth of the top Internet celebrities in the past, Guo Youcai hardly relies on "short videos" as a medium for viral spread, but is more like a traditional live broadcast circle Internet celebrity. From the data source, it can be seen that in the past 30 days, Guo Youcai's live broadcast fans have increased to 9.4 million, accounting for nearly 80% of his total number of fans.

In addition, Guo Youcai's offline popularity has also brought him a considerable number of fans. According to Xindou data, the number of Guo Youcai's fans in Shandong accounts for 17.36%, or about 2.28 million, making him the largest source of fans among all provinces and cities. There is reason to believe that Guo Youcai's offline live broadcast at Heze South Station has greatly helped him gain popularity in Shandong Province.

From this perspective, Guo Youcai's popularity can be said to be a continuation of the traditional logic of Douyin. As an Internet celebrity in the music circle, he has touched the most original base of Douyin and achieved his career as an Internet celebrity with "nostalgic golden songs" and "characteristic voice". On the other hand, it can also be said to be a breakthrough in the past. He is the second top Internet celebrity who became popular because of live streaming after Liu Genghong. The slight difference is that he does not have as many widely circulated short video clips as Liu Genghong.

However, perhaps the most important reason why Guo Youcai became popular is that “someone wants him to become popular.”

This expectation comes from two aspects. First, as a platform, Douyin needs to continue to create gods. This is Douyin’s gene, and Guo Youcai is the most suitable person to be portrayed as a golden body at the moment.

Second, Heze hopes that Guo Youcai will become popular. An employee of ByteDance told Hedgehog Community that once the relevant content of a certain place has gained some popularity, the Cultural and Tourism Bureau and related units will invest a lot in Douyin, hoping to boost the popularity of local cultural and tourism. Heze South Station was initially very active in business, and it was obvious that it also wanted to make Guo Youcai and Heze both Internet celebrities, but the subsequent development of the situation gradually deviated from the established track.

Under the influence of various external forces, it is hard for Guo Youcai not to become popular.

2. Bottom-level narrative myth: Hello! Mr. Tree

Looking back, gaining 10 million followers in ten days is no longer a new thing for Douyin. In the past few years, Liu Genghong, Zhang Tongxue, Xiucai and other top Internet celebrities have already achieved such traffic miracles more than once, but Guo Youcai's sudden popularity obviously adds another layer of inspirational narrative of grassroots singers changing their destiny through hard work.

This narrative template, which is very popular among the mainstream, has led to it being widely reported by mainstream media on the one hand, and on the other hand, being crazily sought after by ordinary users whose identities are very similar to his.

"Everything Guo Youcai did can be forgiven, because he was a poor man from a low-income family."

With Guo Youcai's sudden popularity and the public opinion surrounding him, this narrative has almost become Guo Youcai's golden ticket to escape death. "My mother died when I was 10, I went out to work when I was 13, I failed in two business ventures, and after my live broadcast went viral, I said thank you for treating me like a human being." Supporters kept repeating this inspirational language of a person who suffered, thereby rationalizing all of Guo Youcai's actions and labeling all suspected doubters as common enemies.

Criticism of Guo Youcai's singing skills will be interpreted as "no technique, only emotion"; suggestions for profit sharing with the original author of the song will be retorted as "without Guo Youcai, who would know "Promise"; even a Weibo post by another internet celebrity singer "Hai Lai Amu" criticizing live broadcast rewards will be associated with Guo Youcai, and his fans will dig out the live broadcast recordings from his early years, angrily accusing him of "eating and smashing the pot".

This almost crazy fan club behavior is largely due to Guo Youcai’s solid and unbreakable personality - Heze Shu Ge.

In a media interview, Guo Youcai admitted that his online name "Guo Youcai (Heze Shuge)" came from the movie "Hello! Mr. Tree". He said that he admired Wang Baoqiang's free and easy spirit in the movie, so he named himself Heze Shuge. Even in his outfit and performance, it is obvious that Guo Youcai deliberately imitated "Mr. Tree": he wore a suit and tie with a greasy hair, and sang unrestrainedly without looking back.

In the movie, Mr. Shu is an atypical image of a rural loser. He was born in a humble family, had an unfortunate family, had a rich spiritual world but could not be understood by his fellow villagers. He failed everywhere and could not control himself. In the end, he compensated for the reality and redeemed himself in fantasy and dreams. In short, any person who failed and was unwilling to give up can find his own shadow in Mr. Shu, and the same was true for Guo Youcai in the past.

Guo Youcai's imitation of "Mr. Tree" may be out of simple liking, but with the help of "Mr. Tree"'s image and existing public perception, Heze Shu Ge has actually added a lot of buffs to himself: fans are willing to shed tears for his experience, and supporters are willing to forgive everything he has because of his lower-class background.

Looking back at his past, we can find that before he became famous, Guo Youcai had at least two minor successes. In 2017, Guo Youcai had already registered a related account on Kuaishou. In 2022, he also gained a lot of fans by connecting with the top internet celebrity "Big Brother Yuan". In early 2023, Guo Youcai registered an account on Douyin called "Guo Youcai (Inspirational Version)" and had 50,000 fans before he became famous.

The brief history of Guo Youcai that has been preserved provides a shortcut for people to get to know him. After the live broadcast became popular, this set of personality has in turn strengthened his personal IP image. The repeated recitation of this inspirational story by supporters has gradually made his image in the public eye go from vague to clear.

A "Heze Shu Ge" who is simple enough and positive enough appeared, and the past Mr. Shu was buried.

3. What will happen to Guo Youcai after becoming so popular?

After becoming famous, Guo Youcai enjoyed the moment of "changing his destiny", but at the same time, his living space was shrinking step by step.

First, the live broadcast location will be relocated.

After he became popular, a "Journey to the West" was staged at Heze South Station: Internet celebrities showed off their magical powers here, put on various styles of strange costumes, and performed "Journey to the West full of gods and ghosts" in front of the platform.

As a result, the attitude of the Heze government quickly changed from full support to a ban on live broadcasting. On May 20, the temporary live broadcast stage was dismantled on the same day, and the ban on live broadcasting at Heze South Station was extended from 3 days to 3 months.

Guo Youcai lost the visual symbol that was bound to him.

Immediately afterwards, Guo Youcai shut down the rewards in the live broadcast room.

The reasons come from two aspects: first, the voice of the original author of "Promise" and the popular science of relevant lawyers made Guo Youcai realize that singing songs owned by others and making profits in the live broadcast room may be an infringement; second, the pressure of public opinion represented by Hai Lai Amu also made him unable to accept live broadcast rewards with peace of mind.

Guo Youcai lost his main source of income.

Even Guo Youcai's positive energy narrative has been challenged.

Even with positive reports from mainstream media, singing live at Heze South Station did not make him invulnerable to doubts. As an Internet celebrity, changing his destiny through unconventional paths also limits Guo Youcai's expression of his "original sin". On the day of the Shandong Spring College Entrance Examination, he said to the audience during the live broadcast that he hoped Shandong students would study hard and change their destiny through knowledge. The ridicule in the comments was so glaring.

However, even so, it is foreseeable that Guo Youcai has already taken shape as a super IP, and his fans believe in and support him so much. In this case, whether Guo Youcai continues to live broadcast for entertainment or transforms into live broadcast for selling goods, he is likely to achieve great success.

However, the storm has not subsided, and the waves have not stopped. Guo Youcai can only continue to be swept up and influenced by public opinion. The "poor" fate that he once wanted to change has now become another fate.

When Guo Youcai sincerely said to the public, "Knowledge changes destiny," was he also looking forward to another life?