“Top internet celebrity” Guo Youcai: It is said that he was signed for 50 million yuan and earns more than 1 million yuan a day. Why is it him?

Recently, a new internet celebrity, Guo Youcai, has emerged, causing heated discussions among netizens. Why does traffic tend to be biased towards grassroots? Let’s read this article to find out.

The surging traffic of ordinary people's counterattack chose Guo Youcai.

Guo Youcai, who had been on the verge of going viral twice, finally succeeded in reaching the peak of traffic for the third time with a heart-wrenching song "Promise", ushering in the highlight moment of his career as a short video expert.

On May 19, the tenth day since Guo Youcai became famous, with more than 1 million people in the live broadcast room and countless people at the scene, Guo Youcai's fans exceeded 10 million, and the number of fans increased by 1,000 every second. To celebrate this moment, Guo Youcai, a 1999 young man wearing a retro shirt, a slicked-back hairstyle, and a pager hanging on his waist, sang the famous song "Promise" again.

At noon on May 19, Guo Youcai's number of fans officially exceeded 10 million

The live broadcast room's carnival was continuously refreshed, and cheers came from the scene. So far, Guo Youcai has become another counterattack model sought after by the whole network with his achievement of gaining 10 million fans in 10 days. He became famous so quickly that many people didn't even have time to know him.

Along with the growth of his fans, Guo Youcai's income and commercial value have also increased. A blogger analyzed that after his explosion, Guo Youcai's income from a single live broadcast is more than 1 million. An insider revealed to us that Guo Youcai was recently signed by a local MCN agency with a signing fee of 50 million yuan.

A blogger analyzed Guo Youcai’s income from live streaming.

Many people say that Guo Youcai is another lucky person chosen by traffic.

It is undeniable that Guo Youcai's popularity is related to the platform's traffic preference. After all, in any era, there is always a lack of audience for grassroots counterattack stories, especially in the current era of more negative emotions. But among thousands of story samples, why did the traffic favor Guo Youcai?

Similar to many counterattack stories, Guo Youcai's own experience is grassroots enough. His mother died when he was 10 years old, he was fostered in relatives' homes since he was a child, and he started working at the age of 13. But the difference is that Guo Youcai's counterattack narrative is more complete. He spent 6 yuan to buy music lessons because of his dream of music, and his girlfriend Su Chang never left him for many years, which have become aspects that netizens are keen to interpret.

Moreover, Guo Youcai not only touched upon the youthful memories of those born in the 1970s and 1980s with his nostalgic singing live broadcasts, but he also leveraged the popularity of local cultural tourism with the representative scene of Heze South Railway Station. "One song makes a city popular", which brought Guo Youcai's traffic value to a new level and triggered a nostalgic live broadcast trend across the entire network.

The song "Promise" made Guo Youcai quickly famous

1. Earning millions a day and worth tens of millions, why is it Guo Youcai

Five months ago, Guo Youcai was an ordinary worker who set up a barbecue stall at night and live-streamed during the day. In less than a month, Guo Youcai is now worth tens of millions and has become a model of counterattack that is sought after by everyone on the Internet.

Although Guo Youcai has been making short videos for quite some time, he did not make much of a splash in the early days. According to Chanmama data, in April, Guo Youcai's live streaming popularity peaked at around 5,000, and it only reached 10,000 on April 27. Earlier, Guo Youcai mainly posted funny short videos on Kuaishou, and his earthy "Heze Step" also caused a stir. But currently, no early videos can be seen on either Kuaishou or Douyin accounts, with only 6 singing videos.

In 2022, Guo Youcai, who loves music, began to change his account to live broadcast his singing. Guo Youcai, who started live broadcasting his singing, was one step away from breaking out of the circle. At that time, the live broadcast with Dayuan Ge brought Guo Youcai a wave of traffic peak, but it did not ferment further afterwards.

It was not until this year that Guo Youcai appeared at the long-out-of-service Heze South Station in a retro look and an old motorcycle behind him that he gradually began to attract the attention of netizens. The emotional and nostalgic song "Promise" became popular all over the Internet and became an opportunity for Guo Youcai to break out of the circle.

"It's easy to resonate with people, especially those born in the 1970s and 1980s, who miss their youthful days," "The 1990s sang about the sad experiences of the 1980s," "This guy is not singing about songs, but about our lives," and many netizens expressed their feelings. Whether it's the choice of songs, the nostalgic scenes, the classic 1980s makeup, or the crude MV filters, they all triggered many middle-aged people's memories of the "golden age."

Although Guo Youcai is only 25 years old, his audience is mostly over 30 years old. According to Chanmama data, Guo Youcai's audience is mostly 31 to 40 years old, and male users account for 67%. It can also be seen from the live audience that the audience is mostly middle-aged.

Under the nostalgic narrative and emotion, the reason why Guo Youcai was able to attract such a large amount of traffic in a short period of time is that he successfully attracted many mid-level Internet celebrities to "take advantage of the traffic."

At first, only some local internet celebrities in Heze went to Heze South Station to live broadcast, but as their popularity quickly increased, internet celebrities from all over the country began to flock to Heze South Station. Many internet celebrities even started queuing at three in the morning just to get a front-row spot for the live broadcast.

Not only that, many Internet celebrities began to imitate Guo Youcai's nostalgic live broadcast. Including Heze South Station, a group of live broadcast singing anchors began to appear in stations across the country, such as Lanzhou West Station, Pengxi, and Chengdu East Station. Many people even began to imitate Guo Youcai's makeup and live broadcast at Heze South Station, imitating openly.

It cannot be ignored that although Guo Youcai's popularity has a strong grassroots attribute, his live broadcast technology is not grassroots at all. Whether it is the smooth side-cutting camera movement, aerial photography perspective, or high-quality sound equipment, it is something that many anchors without technical team support cannot achieve.

It is reported that Guo Youcai's live broadcast technology is supported by another internet celebrity team @声卡姐. As Guo Youcai's fans exceeded 10 million, @声卡姐 also gained a wave of traffic.

Although it is a live broadcast, Guo Youcai's popularity is due to retro music, and Guo Youcai's live broadcast is essentially an online concert. Compared with live broadcasts that promote products or chat, this kind of content can also attract netizens to stay in the live broadcast room. At present, Guo Youcai's version of "Promise" has reached one million collections on QQ Music, and ranks first on the hot song list, new song list, and music index list on the QQ Music station.

In fact, the retro style that fits the public mood has laid the crowd base for Guo Youcai's popularity. The inspirational image of a little man has provided space for netizens' interpretation. Coupled with the traffic boost from mid-level Internet celebrities, multiple factors have together made Guo Youcai a multi-millionaire Internet celebrity.

2. One song represents one city. After Tianshui, is Heze next?

Different from many internet celebrities who suddenly became popular, "The Promise" not only made Guo Youcai popular, but also Heze culture and tourism.

As Internet celebrities from all over the country flocked to Heze South Station for live broadcasts, more and more tourists also came. According to public reports, the number of daily passengers at Heze South Station has exceeded 300,000. On May 14, Heze South Station received 980,000 passengers.

Because the abandoned Heze South Railway Station is a key element of Guo Youcai's nostalgic narrative, and Guo Youcai has also vigorously promoted his hometown Heze many times in live broadcasts, many people have begun to become curious about Heze, a previously unknown small city.

Today, Guo Youcai is not only a personal narrative IP, but is also deeply tied to Heze's culture and tourism, becoming the walking spokesperson for Heze, Shandong.

Of course, the reason behind this is that Heze Culture and Tourism is trying its best to catch this huge traffic.

After Guo Youcai's live broadcast gradually gained popularity, Heze Tourism Group seized the opportunity and provided strong support for his live broadcast. When the live broadcast network card was stuck, the communication company was quickly mobilized for on-site support to ensure that the live broadcast was not affected. To ensure smooth traffic, the local public security, urban management, traffic management and other departments quickly improved the infrastructure and repaired the road overnight. There were even local people who provided free big pot dishes for tourists at their own expense on site, "letting everyone feel the enthusiasm of us Shandong people."

In order to achieve better live broadcast effect, the local government also turned on the lights again at the long-abandoned Heze South Station. This scene added more light to Guo Youcai's live broadcast and warmed the hearts of many people.

In addition, Heze Tourism also took the initiative to cooperate with Guo Youcai's live broadcast, committed to expanding Guo Youcai's traffic into the popularity of the entire city. Guo Youcai's new live broadcast venue is located in the Heze National Flower Expo Park, which has a larger passenger capacity than the previous South Station and is a tourist attraction. In the new live broadcast background, the words "Peony Capital·Beautiful Heze Welcomes You" are particularly eye-catching, and it can be inferred that the new venue has also received support from the local government.

In addition, through the live broadcast, it can be found that Guo Youcai’s live broadcast not only provides free water to the audience, but also has security personnel to maintain the order of the live broadcast.

The official account of Heze Culture and Tourism has also been continuously linked with Guo Youcai, while promoting local attractions and food. After Guo Youcai's traffic increased significantly, Heze Culture and Tourism jointly released a content titled "Inspirational young man Guo Youcai recommends Heze barbecue" with @好客山东 on May 11. In the video, Guo Youcai, wearing a black T-shirt, introduced himself to netizens as "I am Heze Shuge Guo Youcai, I am waiting for you in Heze", and sang "Promise".

Immediately afterwards, @Heze Culture and Tourism successively released promotional content such as "I went to Heze South Station, Guo Youcai kept his promise, and there are these places in Heze worth visiting" and a promotional video featuring Guo Youcai.

On May 17, Guo Youcai once again appeared on @Heze Culture and Tourism and stated that he "has been hired as the Heze City Culture and Tourism Recommendation Officer."

“Heze Culture and Tourism Industry must work hard to seize this overwhelming wealth. Can the lobby be developed to add some Heze culture and snacks?”, “I suggest that Heze Culture and Tourism Industry turn the South Station into a 1980s-themed square block,” “You can take this opportunity to plan a grassroots talent contest”... In the comment section of the official account, local netizens gave suggestions to Heze Culture and Tourism Industry, hoping that their hometown can successfully stand out from the crowd.

The consumption boom of cultural tourism and the blessing of Internet traffic are helping small cities break out of the circle one after another. Last year's Zibo and Harbin, and this year's Tianshui are all successful cases. At present, Tianshui, which has been bustling for several months, has begun to lose its popularity. Guo Youcai's traffic opportunity and Heze's active acceptance of cultural tourism have allowed Heze to fill the gap and become a new city that breaks out of the circle.

3. After his rapid counterattack, how long will Guo Younian remain popular?

From the perspective of grassroots counterattack, Guo Youcai is not an isolated case.

Before Guo Youcai, Nomi, who became popular with the phrase "Thank God, thank God, I want to diss you (Disney)", was the last grassroots counterattack model chosen by traffic. Last year, Yu Wenliang, Zhang Tongxue, Foshan Dianhan, etc., were actually typical small-person narrative models.

Just as the lessons learned from these former "top streamers", the rapid rise also means that the traffic will inevitably cool down. Guo Youcai and his girlfriend are also aware of this. "The Internet is just a passing cloud, and life still needs to be down-to-earth," said Guo Youcai's girlfriend Su Chang.

But back to Guo Youcai himself, although both are stories of grassroots counterattack, there are still many essential differences.

After Guo Youcai became popular, many netizens first thought of Zhu Zhiwen, the "Big Coat Brother" who became popular on "Avenue of Stars" many years ago, rather than Nomi or Yu Wenliang. Guo Youcai's popularity is more due to his talent, and therefore, this time Guo Youcai has made a breakthrough from a short video content platform to a music platform.

With this attribute, Guo Youcai's musical dream has become a space for infinite interpretation, and music blogger has become his prominent and respectable label. "Because of his love for music, Guo Youcai, who was struggling to make ends meet, spent 6 yuan to buy a course to learn", "spent 300 yuan to buy a guitar"... Such stories are widely circulated on social platforms.

During the live broadcast on May 19, Guo Youcai also stated that "I wrote the story of my journey into a song, and I am currently arranging and composing it to release my own original song."

From a commercial perspective, Guo Youcai's current live streaming income mainly comes from talent rewards. Although there have been many commercial cooperation offers, Guo Youcai has neither live streaming nor commercial cooperation. In fact, Guo Youcai's popularity this time is more like a reappearance of TV talent shows on the Internet platform. In comparison, as a talent, Guo Youcai's monetization path and speed are also faster.

On the other hand, another key point in Guo Youcai's narrative template is his girlfriend Su Chang's long-term loyalty, which has also become a branch line for netizens to interpret. "My good wife helped me rise to the top, and I will repay her with ten thousand gold coins" has become a summary of the two's five-year love. At the same time, the support of the prospective mother-in-law has also triggered discussions among netizens, and everyone has said, "She is a good judge of people," "She has a very positive outlook," and "She has good eyesight."

On May 20, Su Chang and her mother appeared on Guo Youcai's live broadcast. "This is the girl who silently supports me," Guo Youcai confessed affectionately on the spot, pushing the live broadcast atmosphere to a climax.

In fact, this story also hits the current public sentiment. When there are more and more negative voices such as not trusting relationships and breaking off engagements due to excessive betrothal, the companionship between Guo Youcai and Su Chang has inspired everyone to discuss and praise positive energy relationships.

Moreover, Guo Youcai himself has maintained a humble attitude amid this rise in traffic. Although his net worth has reached tens of millions, Guo Youcai still live-streams during the day and sets up a barbecue stall at night, which has attracted a lot of passers-by.

These factors determine the difference between Guo Youcai and other grassroots counterattack stories. While enriching the story dissemination template, it also lays a good foundation for extending the shelf life of its own traffic.

Many people, including Guo Youcai, know that the peak of traffic will eventually pass, and unexpected reversals of public opinion or new hot spots may cause it to fall from the altar. But in itself, whether it is Guo Youcai or Heze, finding a way to take advantage of this wave of traffic and at the same time continue the popularity and influence as much as possible is already a success.

Author: Mia

WeChat public account: chopped pepper spicy (ID: ylwanjia)