Xiao Yangge disappears, Li Jiaqi says "difficult", top anchors 618 life

This year's 618, the atmosphere of the promotion has not changed, but the mood has changed a little. Each platform has its own little ideas, and the top anchors also have their own ways of participating.

On June 18, 2024, the promotion atmosphere remains unchanged, but the emotions have changed a bit.

Taobao and Tmall were the first to cancel the e-commerce "pre-sale" model that had been used for 12 years, and platforms such as JD.com, Douyin and Kuaishou followed suit. Last year, during the 618 shopping festival, various platforms used "low-priced and good products" to attract consumers. This year, during the 618 shopping festival, simple "direct delivery" replaced pre-sales. The platforms' every move seemed to suggest that the 618 shopping festival would have fewer routines, return to "user logic", and focus on the user's consumption experience.

In addition to the unified cancellation of pre-sales, each platform also has its own little ideas.

Taobao's web version has upgraded its live broadcast function, allowing consumers to watch live broadcasts on the web page. Taobao Live has once again "recruited new members" and a group of Hong Kong-style actresses have started live broadcasts. JD.com, which used to be "latest in the live broadcast e-commerce market", has added a pop-up box at the bottom of its APP homepage, pointing directly to JD.com's live broadcast section, and has also poached Zhou Hongyi for live broadcasts. When searching for "618" on Xiaohongshu, the first thing that pops up at the top is "Xiaohongshu 618 Live Broadcast Season"...

What has changed is the sales model, but what remains unchanged is that the platform is still using content combined with shelf e-commerce to efficiently match users and products.

In the past, live streaming with goods may have been seen more as a supplementary marketing method for e-commerce, but now, live streaming with goods has almost become a standard feature of platforms and brands, and has also become an important part of the content of many e-commerce platforms.

618 is also the mid-year test for all anchors. Before the sale started, Li Jiaqi bluntly said that this year's 618 would be "difficult". This prediction may also be the inner thoughts of the top anchors.

Mid-level anchors and store anchors are impacting the dominance of top anchors, and brands and merchants are also beginning to think about the "cost-effectiveness" of top anchors.

Within 4 hours of the launch of Tmall 618, multiple live broadcast rooms had sales exceeding 100 million yuan, 67 store live broadcast rooms had sales exceeding 10 million yuan, and some new anchors entered Taobao using the full hosting model. The sales performance of Li Jiaqi during this year's 618 is unknown, but Securities Daily reported that on "Double 11" in 2023, Li Jiaqi's sales on the first day reached 9.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of more than 50%.

Li Jiaqi’s difficulties are also faced by other anchors.

Simba, who has repeatedly "challenged" Kuaishou, apologized to Kuaishou on the eve of 618: In 2019, Kuaishou's prospectus revealed that Simba family sales accounted for nearly 22% of Kuaishou's e-commerce, and by 2022, this proportion was about 5.5%.

The shock comes not only from within but also from without.

Content platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Bilibili and Video Account have entered the live streaming e-commerce market, and each has its own top anchors who are grabbing consumers' attention and competing for their wallets during big sales.

Every move of the top anchors will be observed and analyzed, and the meaning behind their actions will be magnified during the 618 event. During this 618 event, watching live broadcasts is still an important way for users to participate in the promotion, and the top anchors in the 618 event have also submitted their own different answers in this test.

1. Jiaqi said "difficult", Simba apologized

"Is this year's 618 promotion difficult? I think it is difficult, but I like to find breakthroughs in the difficulties, push myself in the difficulties, and then see what we can bring to users."

On May 16, at the launch conference of the US ONE618 promotion, Li Jiaqi bluntly stated that 618 was "difficult", which once topped the Weibo hot search list and sparked discussion and attention from netizens.

Once the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the live streaming industry, with Viya stopping live streaming and Luo Yonghao reducing his live streaming, only Li Jiaqi and Simba are still relatively active.

Li Jiaqi's 618 live broadcast rhythm

During the big sale, Taobao platform cancelled pre-sales, but Li Jiaqi retained the pre-sale for one day.

On May 19, "Lipstick King" Li Jiaqi called on "all girls" to appear on the stage. This live broadcast of "beauty + pre-sale of all categories of super hot products" was one day earlier than Taobao's official 618 event. Among the 500 products on the shelves in the live broadcast room, 371 were beauty products: For Li Jiaqi, beauty is still the dominant category, and in addition to beauty, Li Jiaqi has set his sights on all categories, expanding the product selection range.

Li Jiaqi, who complained that it was "difficult", has also come up with many ways to plant grass for the "beauties". He started to warm up for 618 on May 10, released "class" content to plant grass, analyzed the skin care products suitable for different skin types, and which products have the best cost-effectiveness at different price points... Li Jiaqi, who is known as the "human Juhuasuan", is more like a "human grass-planting machine" this year. Whether you buy it or not, take a look first.

Li Jiaqi "plants grass" on Taobao Live and WeChat public accounts

Li Jiaqi, who has been providing the best service, naturally feels the pressure. On May 20, within 4 hours of the Tmall 618 sales, the sales of Li Jiaqi, Bee Surprise Club, Lieer Baby, Jiu Meime, Wei Junjie and other live broadcast rooms exceeded 100 million yuan, among which Jiu Meime and Wei Junjie are both new dark horse anchors. 67 stores' live broadcast rooms have sales exceeding 10 million yuan, and Xiaomi's official flagship store has become the first store live broadcast room to exceed 100 million yuan. The number of merchants newly entering Taobao to broadcast has increased by more than 3 times compared with the first day of sales last year, driving a 7-fold increase in the number of buyers and an increase of more than 8 times in the number of orders.

The information released on the first day of the broadcast pointed to the strategic direction of Taobao Live in recent years - attracting external anchors and supporting mid-level anchors and store anchors.

Taobao Live is becoming more and more diversified. As the top anchor, Li Jiaqi is still eye-catching, but he is no longer the only highlight. He has to "compete" and provide better services and experiences to "stabilize" consumers.

Simba, one of the "Four Heavenly Kings", has not had an easy time recently.

On the eve of 618, Xinxuan officially issued an apology statement, apologizing for Simba’s inappropriate remarks about the platform during the live broadcast. On May 20, when the Kuaishou 618 promotion began, Simba’s Kuaishou live broadcast rights were unblocked.

Simba, who has repeatedly "clashed" with Kuaishou officials, chose to "restrain" on the 618 node, avoiding the controversy with the platform some time ago, and did not rush to restart the live broadcast, but set the live broadcast time to May 25. On the one hand, he used the slogan "All brands, stand with Simba" to warm up, and released 7 videos on May 22 alone, while co-promoting with various brands to show the benefits of the 618 live broadcast.

Simba and his apprentice Dandan's 618 warm-up video

As Simba's apprentice, Dandan, now the top live-streaming e-commerce anchor on Kuaishou, also announced that she will start the 618 live-streaming sales on May 26. She constantly updates her account with "bargaining" videos and bluntly stated that she will challenge "single live-streaming sales exceeding 1 billion" on 618.

"Reconciliation" means that on the one hand, Simba still finds it difficult to break away from Kuaishou e-commerce, and on the other hand, Kuaishou is also inseparable from Simba.

Although the sales volume of Simba family in Kuaishou's e-commerce has gradually declined, they are still the undisputed top anchors of Kuaishou.

Kuaishou's 618 event cycle this year lasted from May 20 to June 30, the longest of all e-commerce platforms. A longer cycle requires a better operating rhythm, otherwise it will make consumers feel "tired". "Reconciliation" with Simba and the Simba family may be because Kuaishou needs an anchor who can fully mobilize consumers' interest to promote this 618 event.

2. The top TikTok stars collectively “disappeared”

A TikTok guy seemed to have "disappeared" during this 618 event.

Xiao Yang, who has been frequently involved in controversy recently, had his last live broadcast on May 17. Cicada Mama shows that Xiao Yang ranked 25th on the weekly list of Douyin's live broadcasters. Xiao Yang, who once said that he would reduce the number of live broadcasts for selling goods and increase the number of live broadcasts for entertainment in 2024, did not start warming up for 618 like other anchors, nor did he disclose his live broadcast arrangements for 618.

Xiao Yangge and Da Yangge appeared in the anchor's pre-warming video

In contrast, Little Brother Yang and Big Brother Yang frequently appeared in short videos of Three Sheep's anchors Zhuo Shilin and Boss Qi, promoting the 618 live broadcast on the 24th and attracting traffic for the "Sheep Army".

Another anchor, Luo Yonghao, is also temporarily absent from Douyin 618.

The Douyin account of "Make Friends" maintained the rhythm of daily live broadcasts, but on the evening of May 20, Luo Yonghao appeared in the "Make Friends" Taobao live broadcast room, directly increasing the number of viewers of this live broadcast to more than 10 million.

"Make Friends" continues to live broadcast, but the soul of the show, Lao Luo, may be the key to the popularity of the live broadcast room. According to Chanmama data, the daily live broadcast viewership of "Make Friends" is basically concentrated between 1 million and 3 million. At the same time, on the weekly list of Douyin's influencers, the "Make Friends" live broadcast room ranks 14th. The recent popularity peak occurred in the live broadcast on April 1 when Luo Yonghao appeared, with 10.78 million viewers for the entire live broadcast.

Luo Yonghao appeared in Taobao's Make Friends live broadcast room

The disappearance of the two Douyin "number one" is due to the fact that Douyin's 618 only started on May 24, and Luo Yonghao had previously announced his retirement from the Internet to return to entrepreneurship, and Xiao Yangge has recently started filming short dramas. The time for both of them to live broadcast has been reduced, and it is difficult for them to balance multiple jobs; on the other hand, it is because Douyin's "interest e-commerce" pays more attention to content and algorithms. Without high-quality content, it is difficult for traffic to remain on one anchor for a long time. In order to reduce risks, Jiao Ge Pengyou chooses to use the "matrix number" to attract more traffic, while Xiao Yangge shares the traffic through "apprentices" and live broadcast slice numbers.

Unlike the two currently “silent” top stars, the live broadcast room of “Walking with Hui” started the 618 preemptive event on May 21.

After 18:00, Dong Yuhui's live broadcast became more popular

Dong Yuhui, who was absent for many days, has appeared in the live broadcast room recently, and live broadcasted for four consecutive days from May 13 to May 16. Dong Yuhui is the traffic guarantee for Hui Xingxing. According to Chanmama data, the number of viewers of Dong Yuhui's live broadcasts recently is basically between 6 million and 11 million, while the number of viewers of daily broadcasts is mostly between 2 million and 4 million.

Dong Yuhui's joining brought more traffic and sales to the "Walk with Hui" live broadcast room during the 618 shopping festival. On the weekly list of Douyin's sales influencers, the "Walk with Hui" live broadcast room also topped the list with sales of over 100 million yuan.

The live broadcast calendar of "Walk with Hui" shows that Dong Yuhui temporarily missed the 618 beauty and skin care pre-launch special event, but participated in the digital home appliances special event on May 22 and the Hubei return event on May 23.

This is also quite consistent with Dong Yuhui's previous personality. In January this year, Dong Yuhui said that he still couldn't overcome his inner feelings when selling cosmetics, because cosmetics involved the boundaries of his knowledge. In the 618 special event for digital home appliances, Dong Yuhui talked about electrical appliances, introducing various values ​​and advantages of electrical appliances. According to Chanmama, the sales of this live broadcast reached 10 million to 25 million yuan.

618 is a training ground for the platform and also a training ground for the live broadcast room. Compared with Xiao Yangge and Luo Yonghao who have participated in many 618s, this is Dong Yuhui’s first 618 after "going solo", so he naturally wants to come up with a good result.

3. Video accounts, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili each have their own top

Before June 18th, the "Yan Yi couple" became popular for selling goods worth more than 24 million yuan in seven hours.

This anchor, who switched from Kuaishou to Video Account, follows the family drama route on a daily basis. Her videos about the nanny at home have gone viral many times and attracted a lot of attention. The labels of "mom", "entrepreneur" and "heroine" are also constantly attracting fans.

Similar to Guo Yiyi who became popular before, the user portrait targeted by Yan Yi and his wife is also middle-aged women in their 40s who are wealthy and have free time. This is also consistent with the consumer portrait of Video Account: Yibang Power reported that at this year's WeChat Open Class, the relevant person in charge once said that female consumers accounted for 78% of Video Account consumers, consumers in first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities accounted for more than 60%, and people aged 30-50 contributed 40% of the increase in Video Account.

Although the arrangements for 618 have not been revealed yet, the video account, which is the "hope of the whole village", has repeatedly revealed relevant data and information about live streaming sales before 618, which seems to imply that it will not be absent from this 618. The two "number one ladies" may be the killer weapons that the video account will use in this 618, attracting more live streaming experts and merchants to join the video account and participate in the 618 live streaming sales.

Zhang Xiaohui and Yi Nengjing's 618 live broadcast preview

The "number one sisters" of Xiaohongshu also revealed Xiaohongshu's ambition from the side.

Zhang Xiaohui, Dong Jie, Yi Nengjing and other Xiaohongshu top anchors have successively launched 618 live broadcasts, and various shopping lists and pre-event videos have repeatedly attracted attention. On the platform side, Xiaohongshu started the 618 promotion on May 19, which was the earliest among all e-commerce platforms.

Another company that is also gearing up for the event is Bilibili, just like Xiaohongshu.

Parrot Pear, a top female celebrity who sells goods worth over 50 million yuan in one show, will have three live shows on June 18, which is a much higher frequency than the previous live broadcasts once every three months. Mr. Mideng, a top male celebrity who sells goods worth over 3.3 billion yuan a year, will have 19 live shows starting with the pre-broadcast on May 17, covering multiple platforms including Tmall and JD.com.

Bilibili, which has gradually filled the gap in live streaming e-commerce, is continuing to increase its investment during this 618 shopping festival, joining hands with other e-commerce platforms or brands to improve its own business ecosystem.

Top anchors of Station B join 618

Video accounts, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili, many content platforms that are eager to seize the live broadcast boom and run fast, are obviously unwilling to miss this 618. 618 is no longer a carnival for individual anchors and one or two platforms. However, due to different development stages, each anchor and platform has different focuses and gameplay. Some return to the consumer experience for stability, some make up for the shortcomings of goods and services, some seek stability, and some sprint.

E-commerce will always be the most basic and effective way to monetize, and 618 is still a good opportunity to test the platform's capabilities. In this 618 when pre-sales are cancelled and the consumer experience is returned, the top anchors in many live broadcast rooms will also face a big test. It is worth looking forward to who can come up with a satisfactory report card.