618 is coming, but Dong Yuhui and Xiao Yangge have slipped off the sales list

As the main live broadcast force of 618, big anchors are the important bargaining chips of the platform for 618, and their competition is the competition of the platform. But with 618 approaching, Dong Yuhui and Xiao Yangge have slipped off the list of goods sold.

As the vanguard of the 618 promotion, big anchors are important bargaining chips in the platform’s 618 war, and the competition between them is largely the competition between platforms.

Li Jiaqi prepared for 618 early and distributed 300 million red envelopes in his live broadcast room; Simba, who denounced Kuaishou, apologized on the eve of 618 and his account was finally unblocked; JD.com also invited Zhou Hongyi to live broadcast and sell goods. While other big anchors were preparing to make a big move, Douyin's top brothers collectively took a step back: Xiao Yangge was busy shooting short dramas, and Dong Yuhui was busy participating in activities and doing cultural and tourism live broadcasts.

According to the live broadcast preview released by Yuhuixingxing, Dong Yuhui will only appear for four days from May 20 to May 26, with a total of 7 hours of live broadcast. Xiao Yangge has live broadcast for three days since May, with a total of 14 hours, and a total GMV of more than 200 million yuan. Previously, Xiao Yangge's live broadcast frequency has indeed gradually decreased, and there are many rumors in the market that "Xiao Yangge has changed his career", and intermittent return to the live broadcast room may also be to stabilize the traffic and fan stickiness of the live broadcast room.

On the eve of 618, a Douyin user took a step back in advance.

The Douyin sales rankings for April released by Bianniu.com integrated with Sanyancha data showed that after falling out of the top 20 in February and March, Crazy Brother Yang once again failed to make the top 20. And Dong Yuhui also dropped to ninth place after entering the top three of the Douyin sales rankings for three consecutive months.

It is not difficult to explain why Crazy Brother Yang fell off the list. In April, Brother Yang only live-streamed for three days. On April 27, he live-streamed for 5 hours and brought in over 100 million yuan in sales. On April 29, he live-streamed for about 40 minutes and brought in no sales. On April 30, he live-streamed for 1.5 hours and brought in 500,000 to 700,000 yuan in sales.

As for the reason why Dong Yuhui fell from the top three to ninth, one view is that this is related to the fact that Dong Yuhui started his walking broadcast in Henan in late April.

The real situation may not be so. According to the data from the third-party data platform Feigua, from April 25 to April 29, that is, the five-day trip to Henan, the cumulative sales of the Yuhuixing live broadcast room exceeded 130 million yuan, with an average daily sales of 25 million to 50 million yuan. From April 1 to April 24, the average daily sales of Yuhuixing were 7.5 million to 10 million yuan. Obviously, the "Henan trip" contributed a lot of GMV to the Yuhuixing live broadcast room.

In fact, the decline in GMV of the Youhuixing live broadcast room in April was related to Dong Yuhui's withdrawal from the live broadcast room.

According to the previous schedule with Hui, Dong Yuhui usually appeared in the live broadcast room from 8 to 10 p.m. But in April, in addition to the days when the live broadcast room was closed, Dong Yuhui did not appear in the live broadcast room for at least 12 days. This situation seems to have become a routine. As of May 20, Dong Yuhui only appeared in the live broadcast room 6 days in May.

The reason behind their falling off the list is that these two big anchors who once competed for the top spot on Tik Tok are fading out of the live broadcast room.

Big anchors have limited time and energy. Even Dong Yuhui, the ceiling of knowledge anchors, has been questioned for his poor quality of explanation. After all, he is no longer just an anchor in front of the camera, but also the head of the team with Huixing. Xiao Yangge not only needs to perform in front of the camera, but also needs to manage a company with nearly a thousand people. Even if big anchors often appear in the live broadcast room, with their limited energy, it is only a matter of time before the GMV scale of the live broadcast room hits the ceiling. Instead, it is better to explore other businesses with greater growth potential.

The deeper reason is that the live streaming e-commerce industry has been developing for many years and has bid farewell to exponential growth and entered a period of stable development. According to iResearch data, the overall scale of China's live streaming e-commerce industry will reach 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 35.2%. It is expected that the annual compound growth rate of China's live streaming e-commerce will be 18% from 2024 to 2026. At this stage, it is better to develop multiple lines at the same time rather than a single line.

Under such circumstances, it is inevitable for top anchors to seek transformation. Brother Yang followed the trend to shoot short dramas, and Dong Yuhui bet on cultural and tourism live broadcasts.

The reason why they were able to temporarily abandon their live broadcast rooms and seek transformation was that their accounts already had a fan base. When Dong Yuhui was not in the live broadcast room, although the sales and traffic of the live broadcast room declined, at least it remained at the top of the list. While Xiao Yangge disappeared from the list, Xiao Yangge's apprentice, Boss Qi, entered the top 20 of the list for two consecutive months.

Of course, the big anchors will not completely fade out of the live broadcast room. For the sake of fan stickiness, they cannot completely stay away from the live broadcast room.

01

Compared with January to March, the popularity and GMV of Yuhuixingxing in April and May did decline.

In terms of traffic, in March, a total of 360 million people visited Yuhui's live broadcast room, but this number dropped to 312 million in April, and by the middle of May, the number was less than 100 million.

In terms of GMV, in January this year, Dong Yuhui won the first place in Douyin's monthly sales list with 921 million yuan in 22 days of live broadcast. In February, the sales reached 410 million yuan after 16 days of live broadcast. In March, the popularity of Yuhui Tongxing had already declined. Although his live broadcast room ranked first in Douyin's monthly sales list that month, its sales dropped to 600 million yuan.

The decline in popularity and GMV is largely related to Dong Yuhui's absence from the live broadcast room.

From April 12 to 14, Dong Yuhui did not appear in the live broadcast room for three consecutive days. The maximum number of online users in the live broadcast room with Hui Xingxing did not exceed 50,000, with a cumulative number of viewers of 16 million and an average daily sales of 7.5 million to 10 million yuan. Similarly, from April 18 to April 21, Dong Yuhui also did not appear in the live broadcast room, with a maximum number of online users of no more than 50,000 and an average daily sales of 7.5 million to 10 million yuan.

In contrast, on the evening of April 7, Dong Yuhui live-streamed for two hours, with the peak popularity of the live-streaming room reaching 250,000, the cumulative number of viewers exceeding 11 million, and sales of 10 million to 25 million yuan.

Obviously, whether Dong Yuhui appears in the live broadcast room has a considerable impact on the popularity and sales of Youhuixingxing.

In fact, a big shot on Douyin has already begun to think about quitting.

Brother Yang has already expressed his stance. Last year, when Brother Yang's apprentice "Red Light Yellow" caused controversy by promoting YSL beauty products, Brother Yang's vulgar promotion also sparked discussion. Brother Yang asked his apprentice in the live broadcast room, "If I announce my retirement from the Internet, will you support me?"

At the beginning of March this year, when Crazy Xiao Yang talked about the plan of Three Sheep in 2024 in the live broadcast room, he also mentioned that this year there will be fewer live broadcasts with goods, and there will be more entertainment live broadcasts, such as focusing on electronic music festivals, concerts, film and television projects, etc. If there are special events, consider handing over the account of your fans directly to the apprentice.

Image source: Douyin @Three Sheep Theater

But Dong Yuhui was unwilling to be a "peddler" from the beginning. After the small composition incident last year, Dong Yuhui once said to Yu Minhong,

I am a lazy person who likes to be pretentious. I get headaches, fevers, and coughs when I sell goods. "I can't take advantage of everyone's love and care for me and turn myself into a sales champion to gain more benefits."

In response, Yu Minhong said, "I don't want Yuhui to sell things every day. I think his contribution to the company is a cultural contribution, a contribution to values, and a contribution to the development of Eastern philosophy." Not long after, Dong Yuhui said in an exclusive interview with China Daily: "In fact, I still don't like selling goods."

In March this year, when talking about the plan of Youhui Xingxing, Dong Yuhui also said that he would spend 1/3 of his time promoting agricultural products, 1/3 of his time leading everyone to go out and appreciate the mountains and rivers of the motherland together, and the rest of the time would be used to do things related to literature and film, and interview celebrities and entrepreneurs.

02

The pressure from public opinion is a common problem faced by Dong Yuhui and Xiao Yangge.

Since becoming famous, Dong Yuhui has faced various controversies. According to statistics from a third-party organization, Dong Yuhui was on the hot search 223 times in 2023 alone. After the essay storm, the situation was even worse. In the first two months of 2024, Dong Yuhui was on the hot search 80 times. Finally, at the end of February this year, after being questioned for "unprofessionalism" and "discrimination against women" for refusing to talk about underwear, Dong Yuhui cleared his Weibo in anger. Dong Yuhui called his behavior "the anger of a common man" and said, "It can't change anything, but I just want to do it."

Dong Yuhui, who quit Weibo, still cannot avoid being judged by Weibo netizens. Since March this year, Dong Yuhui has been on Weibo's hot search list many times, such as his grand tour to Hubei, poor quality of explanation, museum live broadcast delaying tourists' itinerary, and being questioned for being too arrogant when speaking English with Huo Qigang.

Dong Yuhui once mentioned that he was afraid when he saw trending searches, "There's no end to them. There are all kinds of weird trending searches. I'm afraid, really afraid."

Xiao Yangge is also afraid. In December last year, when talking about the fact that the live broadcast room was becoming increasingly boring, Xiao Yangge said, "Too many people are staring at me. If I were to play the same tricks as before, I would have been gone long ago. If the live broadcast room was still full of fights and quarrels like before, it would have been over long ago."

Not long ago, Brother Xiao Yang once again topped the trending searches because the electronic music festival he hosted was questioned for "ridiculously high prices" and was accused of overcharging customers. Some netizens complained that at the event, a glass of purified water sold for 20 yuan, while Red Bull and Pulse sold for 28 yuan and 30 yuan a bottle respectively.

Brother Xiao Yang came forward to explain the situation, saying that all food and drinks at the festival were clearly marked with prices, and there was no fraud. After discovering the high prices, they had lowered the prices, with a bottle of water selling for 10 yuan, the lowest price ever at the festival. According to The Paper, staff from Wuhan Tieshu Culture Media Co., Ltd., one of the organizers, also said that the sales prices of items at the festival were public and checked by the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau.

Of course, the reasons why Douyin's top players have reduced their live streaming sales are not limited to this. The risks and challenges faced by live streaming sales are getting higher and higher. In the past five years, the scale of live streaming sales in my country has increased by 10.5 times, but the number of related complaints has increased by 47.1 times. On this year's Consumer Rights Day, Dong Yuhui and Xiao Yangge were both caught in a public opinion storm because they were accused of selling problematic braised pork products.

The "Public Opinion Analysis Report on Consumer Rights Protection in Live Streaming Sales (2023)" also shows that Crazy Brother Yang's share of consumer rights protection in live streaming sales ranks second only to Li Jiaqi, reaching 31.3%, among which problems such as false propaganda and uncivilized sales are prominent; Dong Yuhui ranks sixth with a share of 4.4%.

The public statement of entrepreneurs who retire at the right time and retreat to the second line to work behind the scenes is that they can focus more on corporate strategy, while the reason why big anchors retreat behind the scenes is to spare more time for company management and seeking new development paths.

As the legal representative and person in charge of Yuhuixingxing, Dong Yuhui has to focus more on the operation and management of Yuhuixingxing. He once said in the live broadcast room, "As soon as I open my eyes, I have to pay rent, which is the salary of so many people."

When Dong Yuhui was questioned about the deterioration of his lecture quality, he also said frankly, "Now my energy is greatly dispersed. Maybe our company must have such a period of time when it is quickly getting on the right track. Please bear with me for a while. Of course, I will try to reduce some of it as much as possible to give myself more preparation time, but after the company is relatively on the right track, I may be more relaxed."

Dong Yuhui is only in charge of a team of dozens of people, while Xiao Yangge is in charge of a large enterprise with nearly a thousand people. According to New Fortune, Xiao Yangge and his brothers already own 54 companies with a total registered capital of 330 million yuan, of which more than 40 are controlled companies. Their businesses involve all aspects of live streaming e-commerce, such as internet celebrity brokerage, content distribution, and supply chain management.

When Xiao Yangge disappeared from the live broadcast room, his five apprentices took up the main responsibility. For example, Boss Qi, who has been in the top 20 of the sales list for two consecutive months, has only more than 6 million fans on Douyin. In November last year, Boss Qi's monthly sales exceeded 100 million yuan, becoming the first anchor among Xiao Yangge's apprentices to exceed 100 million yuan; his apprentice Zui Ge also had a monthly sales of more than 50 million yuan. In addition to the family-run live broadcast room brought by his apprentices, Xiao Yangge has incubated a matrix live broadcast room on Douyin with sales exceeding 10 million yuan for at least 4 months.

Not only Dong Yuhui and Xiao Yangge, but also Li Jiaqi's live broadcast time is gradually decreasing. A year ago, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast time has been reduced from 5 to 6 hours to 3 to 4 hours, and the rest of the time is produced by assistants. Since this year, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast time has been further reduced. For example, from April 25 to May 5, Li Jiaqi's personal live broadcast room was broadcast by assistants, and Li Jiaqi disappeared from the live broadcast room for 10 days.

But even though Li Jiaqi disappeared from the live broadcast room, the audience of the live broadcast room could still reach more than 10 million; the "All Girls" live broadcast room and "All Girls' Wardrobes" live broadcast room broadcast by other anchors could also maintain a stable audience of about 2 million and 5 million.

03

The deeper reason why big anchors leave the live broadcast room is that the live broadcast industry has entered a slow development track and needs to open up new businesses.

Xiao Yangge has set his sights on short dramas. After falling out of the top 20 in the sales rankings in February, Xiao Yangge responded in the live broadcast room that it was to concentrate on filming movies and TV shows. In April this year, the Three Sheep Group launched the account "Three Sheep Theater" on Douyin, which currently has 43,000 fans. The introduction says that self-made high-quality short dramas will be updated one after another, and announced that the first short drama "Master Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss" has officially started filming.

The top video on Xiao Yangge's Douyin account is a photo of him and Stephen Chow, which has received over 14 million likes. Xiao Yangge has also publicly stated that he dreams of becoming a comedian and wants to star in Stephen Chow's comedy movies.

Dong Yuhui also looked for new ways to grow and monetize his livestreaming studio. In April this year, Dong Yuhui's livestreaming studio received advertising sponsorship for the first time, with the Polar Fox car and OPPO phone becoming the exclusive car and phone for the "Traveling with Hui Through Mountains and Rivers" column, respectively.

At present, there are three live broadcast formats incubated by Yuhui Xingxing Live Room. In addition to "Love Life" which is responsible for daily live broadcast and sales, there is also "Read Mountains and Rivers" which focuses on cultural and tourism live broadcast, and "Break Ten Thousand Volumes" which is responsible for guest interviews and reading sessions. It is obvious that Yuhui Xingxing Live Room still has more commercial space to explore.

The top players on Douyin have reasons to leave the live broadcast room, retire or transform, but the reality is not that easy.

Xiao Yangge is now a benchmark anchor being cultivated in Hefei, and is also a traffic signboard for the development of Hefei's local e-commerce industry. Hefei's e-commerce layout around Xiao Yangge has also been launched. Crazy Xiao Yangge has been live-streaming for key enterprises in Hefei for two consecutive years. Xiao Yangge also has a certain influence on the introduction of MCN agencies in Hefei. According to a report by China Entrepreneur, the well-known game MCN agency Xiaoxiang Daye settled in Hefei High-tech Zone in 2023, which is related to the influence of Crazy Xiao Yangge.

The same is true for Dong Yuhui. He once said in the live broadcast room that Hui Xingxing must have enough money to pay the employees' salaries, plus the normal daily operating costs, all of which are maintained by selling goods.

Dongfangzhenxuan and even Douyin need top anchors like Dong Yuhui. On March 13 this year, Dong Yuhui revealed in the live broadcast room that Douyin proposed many development ideas and expectations to Yuhuixingxing, especially hoping that Yuhuixingxing would develop faster. "Douyin's requirements are too high, and there is a gap between Yuhuixingxing and Douyin's expectations."

Before the 79-yuan eyebrow pencil incident, Li Jiaqi once said to the camera in the live broadcast room, "I don't need to work anymore." "Really, I have a headache every day, sitting here every day." Li Jiaqi's voice was hoarse and he looked very tired. But despite the popularity of anchors such as Wangwang, they still cannot replace Li Jiaqi.

Luo Yonghao originally started live streaming to sell goods in order to pay off his debts. After paying off his debts, Luo Yonghao chose to start a business again. However, despite announcing his retirement from the Internet, facing the performance pressure and traffic decline of Make Friends, Luo Yonghao had to resume live streaming many times and carry the banner of Make Friends live streaming.

The traffic of live e-commerce is so huge that even big anchors cannot quit even if they want to. Those caught up in live e-commerce are not only the audiences who are caught up in consumerism in front of the camera, but also the big anchors who are illuminated by the spotlight in the live studio.

References:

"Escaping from live streaming, Xiao Yangge changed his career" Yan Finance

"Dong Yuhui responds to the poor quality of current explanations" Caijing.com

"Crazy Little Brother Yang, Made in Hefei" Chinese Entrepreneur

"Is it difficult to sell goods through live streaming? Li Jiaqi, Dong Yuhui and others were named, Simba and Xiao Yangge deliberately disappeared" China Business News

"Crazy Little Yang" hosted an electronic music festival and was questioned for overcharging customers. Why is the water at the music festival so expensive? 》Chaotic News Client