After spending 50 million yuan to "fail", the top Douyin star began to lose fans

Perhaps it is because fame brings trouble, "TikTok's No. 1" Xiao Yangge has been embroiled in controversy since last year. Readers who are curious about what happened can take a look together.

He was busted 10 times by well-known counterfeiters in half a year, and was involved in controversy over vulgar products and the "Caotou Roukourou" incident at the 315 Gala... Before that, when faced with controversy, Brother Yang would choose to respond through live broadcasts, or apologize or explain. Until the recent "high-priced water" controversy at the electronic music festival, he responded for the first time with a short video.

As the only super internet celebrity on Douyin with more than 100 million fans, Brother Yang has always been in the midst of a traffic storm, and his every move can become a hot topic and trigger discussions.

Since 2023, Xiao Yangge himself has deliberately faded out of the public eye. Not only did he ask his apprentice during the live broadcast, "If I quit the Internet, will you support me?" The frequency of his live broadcasts has also become lower and lower. He even considered handing over his account with over 100 million fans to his apprentice.

However, Xiao Yang, who chose to remain silent on the Internet, has been making a lot of moves behind the scenes. He registered a company, spent 100 million to buy a building, built a live e-commerce base, entered the cross-border live e-commerce market, held concerts and electronic music festivals, and invested in short dramas... It is not difficult to see that Xiao Yang is placing his "crazy" ambitions on a larger business landscape, and has taken the initiative to transform from an Internet celebrity to an entrepreneur.

But at this stage, it is still difficult for Brother Yang to leave the live broadcast room. He also needs to continue to maintain the basic plate of live broadcast e-commerce and continue to seek new possibilities. At present, Brother Yang still cannot do without traffic, and the traffic in the past seems to be escaping Brother Yang.

1. 20 yuan a bottle, "unprofitable" Xiao Yangge caused controversy

Xiao Yang Ge, who had been off the air for a month, just returned and was embroiled in the controversy of "overpriced water".

On May 3rd and 4th, at the DXYG-VAC electronic music festival held in Luogang Park, Hefei, an audience member said that the tickets for the festival were 680-1580 yuan, but bottled water was not allowed to be brought in, and the highest price of drinking water sold in the venue was 20 yuan. Another audience member who had reserved a booth complained that he spent 22,800-259,800 yuan to buy a booth, and the booth price was advertised to include drinks, but when he arrived at the venue, he only had mineral water and green tea.

Before the festival officially started, Brother Yang revealed in the live broadcast room that he spent 50 million yuan, "Brothers, don't listen to the media's nonsense about how much money we make from holding a music festival. We don't make money, brothers." After the festival ended, when the two words "high price" and "Brother Yang" collided, there was a lot of traffic, and the related entries quickly became a hot search on Weibo, with a reading volume of 150 million.

Faced with negative controversy, Xiao Yangge chose to respond through a short video on May 7:

At other electronic music festivals, the price of drinking water is also around 20 yuan. "Rip off customers" is an act where operators use illegal means to defraud consumers, infringe on consumers' legitimate rights and interests, and obtain illegal profits. However, electronic music festivals clearly mark prices and do not engage in fraud. After discovering that some stalls were priced too high, they requested a price reduction on the afternoon of May 3, which was adjusted to 10 yuan, the lowest price in all previous electronic music festivals. "From now on, drinking water will be free at our electronic music festivals."

The explanation for the price may be acceptable rationally, but emotional users may not buy it.

In the comment section, one party thought that there was nothing wrong with Xiao Yang's explanation, "some things just change price depending on the occasion", while the other party thought that the 20 yuan price tag was indeed expensive, "why didn't you provide benefits for your family?"

This is the first time that Xiao Yangge has responded to controversy with a short video. On the one hand, it is to deal with the continuous public opinion to prevent further damage to his image and personality; on the other hand, it is also a step for Xiao Yangge to fade out of the live broadcast room and the identity of an Internet celebrity.

Two months ago, after the 315 Gala exposed the "Caotou Roukourou", Xiao Yangge was involved in controversy. At that time, he did not respond in the live broadcast room or social platforms, which caused dissatisfaction among fans and viewers. It was not until March 18 that the Three Sheep Network issued a relevant statement, and Xiao Yangge himself bowed and apologized in the live broadcast room on March 20, and soon after stopped broadcasting for nearly a month.

Just 10 days after his comeback, he was embroiled in controversy again. Brother Yang needs to respond quickly to restore his image which was damaged not long ago.

In the response video, Brother Yang’s words are thought-provoking.

After questioning some media outlets for trying to gain traffic, Xiao Yang posted a set of data. The total exposure of the electronic music festival on the entire network reached 5.2 billion times, and there were 29 groups of artists from nine countries including Britain, Germany, France and the United States. "On May 3, the number of tourists entering Luogang Park reached 360,000. The number of spectators inside and outside the venue for two days reached 100,000, of which music fans from other provinces accounted for as high as 80%, which played a positive role in the development of Hefei's culture and tourism." He also emphasized the difficulty of running a business.

When entrepreneurs such as Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun transformed themselves into "Internet celebrities" and stepped into the live broadcast room, Xiao Yangge no longer regarded himself as an Internet celebrity, but preferred to emphasize his identity as an "entrepreneur".

2. If you don’t live stream, you will lose followers. If you live stream, you will also lose followers?

The electronic music festival received 5.2 billion impressions, but Xiao Yangge lost followers. On the day of posting the response video, Xiao Yangge's account lost 39,000 followers. Compared with the number of 122 million fans, the number of fans lost is not that large, but it is enough to arouse Xiao Yangge's vigilance.

On May 8, Xiao Yangge live-streamed again to sell goods, with 27.37 million viewers. In the account profile and a live broadcast in 2023, Xiao Yangge clearly stated that he would only broadcast one day a week on Saturdays in the future. This live broadcast on Wednesday was obviously a small "accident."

According to Chanmama data, the live broadcast on May 8th helped Xiao Yangge gain 156,000 followers. But another set of data is somewhat different: on May 8th, Xiao Yangge's account gained a total of 82,000 followers. In other words, if there was no live broadcast, Xiao Yangge would have lost 74,000 followers on May 8th.

Xiao Yangge has lost a lot of fans recently

Looking at the timeline, according to the data from Huitun Doushu and Chanmama, Xiao Yangge lost 453,000 fans in the past 30 days. Except for April 27 and May 8, he lost fans at other times. April 27 was Xiao Yangge's return to live broadcast after a month of suspension, and May 8 was Xiao Yangge's first live broadcast after the electronic music festival incident. The sales data of both live broadcasts exceeded 100 million yuan.

On the surface, Xiao Yang's fans are still willing to support him, and he can also attract traffic through live broadcasts. But except for these two days, Xiao Yang started live broadcasts on April 29, April 30, and May 5, but he still lost fans.

Brother Yang, who once had a crazy increase in followers, is now quietly losing followers.

According to Chanmama data, on January 20 this year, Xiao Yangge's number of fans rose to 123 million, but on March 28, Xiao Yangge's number of fans dropped back to 122 million and remained at this level. In the past 30 days, Xiao Yangge has lost nearly 15,000 fans per day on average.

The loss of fans is due, on the one hand, to the fact that Brother Yang reduced the frequency of live broadcasts and updates, and on the other hand, to various controversial events.

Above: Xiao Yangge’s live streaming data as of May 9, 2024

Below: Xiao Yangge’s live streaming data from January 1 to May 9, 2023

In early March this year, Brother Xiao Yang said in the live broadcast room that there will be more entertainment live broadcasts in 2024, and the number of live broadcasts with goods will be reduced. If he wants to do special events with goods, he may hand over the account with over 100 million fans to his apprentice. This statement can also be supported by data. According to the data from Chan Mama, as of May 9, 2024, Brother Xiao Yang has broadcast 55 shows, including 48 with goods. Compared with January 1 to May 9, 2023, Brother Xiao Yang broadcast 74 shows and 66 with goods. Both the overall number of live broadcasts and the number of live broadcasts with goods are decreasing.

Similarly, Xiao Yangge's daily short video updates are not very frequent, and monthly updates are the norm. In 2024, Xiao Yangge updated a total of 4 short videos, two of which were about the promotion of electronic music festivals and responses to controversial content, which means that only two daily videos were updated in 4 months.

In the fast-paced era of traffic, with fewer live broadcasts and a lower update frequency, even Brother Yang, who has a huge fan base, cannot escape the fate of losing traffic.

Since last year, Xiao Yangge has been embroiled in negative controversy. In the past six months, he was exposed as a fake by Wang Hai's team 10 times. He and his apprentice "Red Light Yellow" were involved in a vulgar live broadcast controversy. The 315 Gala's trough meat incident made Xiao Yangge's reputation plummet.

Actively reducing exposure and passively falling into controversy, Brother Xiao Yang slowly left the live broadcast room in order to calm the controversy and seek a more long-term transformation direction.

3. Don’t be an internet celebrity, be an entrepreneur

Internet celebrities come and go, but platforms and traffic remain constant. Even though Xiao Yangge has become the only super-head Internet celebrity on Douyin with more than 100 million fans, he still cannot escape this law. How to extend the life cycle of Internet celebrities and how to create a long-tail effect of traffic are the problems that Xiao Yangge needs to solve the most.

The former Brother Yang was more like "stepping on Simba to cross the river".

Simba and his apprentice Dandan live stream goods Source: Xinxuan Group official website

Simba, the "Kuaishou No. 1", started a company, a live broadcast base, and his own brand "Xinxuan". He recruited apprentices to promote his anchors Dandan, Maomeimei, Shida Piaoliang, etc. to the public, creating a matrix; Xiaoyangge also started a company, a live broadcast base, and his own brand "Xiaoyang Selection". He recruited apprentices to promote multiple anchors to the public, creating a matrix. The difference is that Xiaoyangge started live broadcast slicing, short dramas, cross-border live broadcast e-commerce and electronic music festivals faster than Simba.

The fields and directions are different, but they have a common goal: a longer life cycle. Running a company has a longer life cycle than being a live streamer, building a brand has a longer life cycle than live streaming, and operating a talent yourself has a longer life cycle than being a live streamer...

Compared to internet celebrities, Brother Yang also chose the identity of "entrepreneur" with a longer life cycle.

Before holding the electronic music festival, Xiao Yangge also spent 30 million yuan to hold a concert in Hefei, which also brought in a lot of tourists and tourism income. Xiao Yangge is deeply bound to Hefei, and being deeply bound to a city can also extend the career life of Internet celebrities.

Xiao Yangge once held a concert in Hefei

>In this response video, Xiao Yang also emphasized that "we entrepreneurs are trying all kinds of business methods every day to create value for society, solve more employment problems, and create more profits and taxes." According to the official WeChat account of the Publicity Department of the Yaohai District Committee of Hefei City, "Yaohai Release", in 2022, the output value of live streaming sales on the Three Sheep Network exceeded 10 billion yuan, with operating service income of 860 million yuan and tax payments of 250 million yuan. In 2023, the output value of live streaming sales will exceed 30 billion yuan, and tax payments are expected to exceed 450 million yuan.

Brother Xiao Yang has been constantly expanding his business radius and business territory, and has made many attempts to become an "entrepreneur", but transformation is not easy.

Similar to Luo Yonghao who once announced that he would "quit the Internet but not the broadcasting", Brother Xiao Yang is still inseparable from the live broadcast room, and the Three Sheep are still relying on the IP of Brother Xiao Yang.

Kuaishou's "trust e-commerce" allows the "Xin Family Army" to grow rapidly with Simba's traffic and become Kuaishou's top anchors. Douyin's "interest e-commerce" pays more attention to content and algorithms, which has led to the formation of an ecosystem of anchors such as Dongfang Zhenxuan, Make Friends, and Guangdong Couple. Xiao Yangge's "Yang Family Army" can share Xiao Yangge's traffic, but if the content is insufficient, the traffic will not last long.

This can be seen from Brother Yang, who frequently appears in the live broadcast rooms of his various disciples.

Little Yang Ge and Big Yang Ge Source: Crazy Little Yang Ge Weibo

Xiao Yangge has reduced the frequency of live broadcasts, but his twin partner Da Yangge frequently appears in the live broadcast rooms of the anchors under the Three Sheep, attracting fans and traffic. The traffic is still coming to Xiao Yangge and Da Yangge, not to their apprentices. The platform and traffic are permanent, but the Internet celebrities are changing. Xiao Yangge, who has transformed into an entrepreneur, is thinking about how to maximize the return on traffic.

But traffic waits for no one. Xiao Yang, who is quietly losing fans, needs to balance himself in the live broadcast red ocean. Trying out new businesses and expanding the business territory are certainly important, but how to stabilize the basic live broadcast and the traffic at hand is the first problem that Xiao Yang, whose personality is constantly being damaged, faces.

Author: Wang Zhan, Editor: Si Wen

Source: E-commerce Online (ID: 1089127)