Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi, who were copied by Shanzhai, are all businessmen

This article delves into the traffic business behind celebrity imitation shows, revealing the business logic and potential legal risks behind this phenomenon. I hope that reading this article will help you understand the Internet traffic economy.

The celebrity imitation show is actually a traffic business.

During the short holiday, many celebrities such as Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, and Hu Xijin were copied on short video platforms, and the behavior of the imitators caused great controversy.

1. The big guys were copied

According to Sanyan Technology, starting from May 2, a netizen named "Lei Min" began to post short videos. He wore the same blue suit and T-shirt as Lei Jun, and his hairstyle was basically the same. One of the BGMs used in the video was the well-known "Are you ok". Before this, his videos were all some positive energy short jokes, but he was dressed like a scavenger.

Zhou Hongyi, who has been at the forefront of the traffic trend recently, has not escaped. A blogger who calls himself "Zhou Honger" began imitating Zhou Hongyi on April 25. In addition to wearing glasses, wearing his signature red clothes, and having a short haircut, he also imitated Zhou Hongyi's speaking speed and gestures.

Several of the videos imitate Zhou Hongyi selling cars. "Zhou Honger" said that he was going to sell his "Bao Shi Jie" (Chevrolet car key, with the word "Bao" before the logo and the word "Jie" after the logo) and was going to buy a domestic brand SUV. Before this, Zhou Honger's videos included stock-related ones and Simba's calls to Kuaishou.

Earlier, there was a Hu Xijin imitator who became popular, commenting on hot events by replicating his makeup, speaking style and tone. His performance almost successfully "surpassed" Hu Xijin himself. Some comments said that since I saw you, I have never seen the real Hu again. How did you find this track?

In response to these imitation behaviors, some netizens pointed out that these people are likely to receive "special attention" from the legal departments of companies such as Xiaomi or 360.

In this regard, the customer service of the short video platform stated that if such imitation is investigated, it can be regarded as an infringement of others' portrait rights or privacy rights, but the parties involved need to initiate an infringement report. If the imitator cheats money, induces rewards in the live broadcast room, and insults others, ordinary users can report it.

There is a precedent for the platform's statement. In February this year, a well-known blogger was reported by Xiaomi for calling Lei Jun "Jun'er" in multiple videos, and was asked to remove the relevant content. At that time, Xiaomi gave the reason for the complaint: because the author had long used "Jun'er" to refer to the leader of Xiaomi, and ridiculed and mocked the leader of Xiaomi through joking means.

In Tang Chen's opinion, if it is just for entertainment, there is nothing wrong with this kind of imitation. On the contrary, it can enhance the public affinity of corporate leaders, narrow the distance between the brand and the public, and maximize the value of traffic to alleviate their own traffic anxiety on the basis of moderate ridicule.

As analyzed in the article "The whole network is learning "Lei Studies", will Lei Jun be hurt by the traffic?", in this regard, Lei Jun has become the Lei Jun of the times and a benchmark. He said that he follows the trend of live broadcasting and shooting short videos because he wants to resonate with young people and speak something that young people can understand.

As a result, a Xiaomi SU7 launch conference and a personal show live broadcast allowed the entire automotive circle, mobile phone and digital circle, marketing circle, parenting circle and even the success circle to witness the madness of Lei Jun's traffic black hole.

This has also successfully stimulated various business leaders to lower their status and shoot short videos and live broadcasts. For example, Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, and Lei Jun jointly released a video, praising "Xiaomi SU7 is too powerful, Ledao is not easy to price"; FF founder Jia Yueting also published an article to criticize Xiaomi Automobile while he was far away overseas; Nezha Automobile CEO Zhang Yong said: "It's not shameful to learn marketing from Lei Jun!"

Traffic brings greater commercial benefits, and it is much higher than traditional marketing methods. Zhou Hongyi directly praised Lei Jun to the height of "the god of marketing", and while getting a wave of traffic, he also bluntly revealed its operating logic. He said that Xiaomi's Lei Jun and Huawei's Yu Chengdong are god-level Internet celebrities, "They have a lot of fans, and through their constant speeches and various communications, I think each of them has at least helped their companies save billions of advertising fees."

Second, the traffic business is behind it

It is worth mentioning that Lei Jun has been questioned for imitating Apple founder Steve Jobs and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the process of making mobile phones and new energy vehicles. This earned him two nicknames: "Leibs" and "Lesk", implying that he is jumping across the boundaries of the mobile phone and digital circles and the automobile circles. In a recent live broadcast, Lei Jun himself responded that the similarity in clothing was purely coincidental, and if he really wanted to imitate Jobs and Musk, he could do better.

Lei Jun did not avoid this question because imitation itself can bring great market attention to Xiaomi's products and brands. In the same way, amateur bloggers' imitation of celebrities is a huge traffic business.

This type of commercial imitation is very common in the entertainment industry. Intuitively, the "copycat star" column that imitates celebrities has always existed and effectively boosted the ratings of TV stations. For example, Southeast TV once had a variety show "Happy 100", in which the "Happy Star Face" unit was very popular. More well-known ones are Hunan TV's "Variety Show" and CCTV's "Open Door Daji".

"Celebrity face" has become the gimmick and laughing point of the show, and ordinary people have also stepped onto the stage by imitating celebrities. While gaining exposure, they have also gained commercial performances and endorsement opportunities. Ordinary people like A Bao, Big Coat Brother, fake Liu Xiang, fake Jay Chou, etc. have almost all become popular at one time or another.

This model has become faster and more mature in the era of short videos. On the one hand, the decentralized traffic distribution and rich media content expression of short videos have a stronger visual and emotional impact on the audience, and have greatly lowered the threshold for users to use and consume.

On the other hand, these mobile Internet natives are more proficient in using short video tools. They stand on the shoulders of "giants" and, with their imitation skills, they can quickly capture traffic and monetize by grasping the preferences, weaknesses or desires of the public in the virtual world of smart terminal screens. Moreover, they know very well which platform is suitable for attracting traffic and which platform is suitable for monetization.

Not only that, the professional operation of relevant MCN agencies has led to a large number of similar accounts. Once one account becomes popular, another one can be quickly copied. In this process, the role of the platform is very vague, acting as both a beneficiary and a referee.

This contradiction has led to some imitators "going too far" and only being warned or removed from the shelves. In the face of huge profit temptations, this low trial and error cost traffic generation model is undoubtedly a huge temptation for most bloggers and MCN agencies.

Most of these "fake celebrities" make a lot of money on short video platforms by attracting business cooperation and live broadcast rewards. Industry insiders have learned that the promotion fee for fake celebrities to do advertising placement is around 5,000-30,000 yuan, and they also need to pay a commission rebate of about 15%, which fluctuates depending on the similarity and the number of fans.

But the end of the traffic is live streaming. Their commercial value is also highlighted in the live streaming room. Based on the industry average commission rate of 20% and the actual order rate of 50%, the anchor can get at least 4 million for a sales volume of 40 million, and there is still about 2 million after tax. It may not reach this number even if they accept business cooperation for a year.

Previously, similar news such as the fake Lu Ha making 5 million a month and the fake Jack Ma making 40 million a month by selling products were constantly amplified, allowing more people to see the business opportunities behind imitating celebrities.

Some people may ask, how long can this kind of attention and popularity gained by imitating others last? In fact, these imitators don't care about such "academic" questions. For them, calculating short-term benefits is the most practical. Lu Han's imitator "Lu Ha" once said, "We are indeed taking shortcuts, but we really don't want to follow our parents' old path."

If it is not overly spoofed, distorted or morally flawed, their shrewd "ways to get rich" are not out of place in the current context. They may not conform to the secular understanding of success, but they have indeed made a lot of fun on the Internet and brought happiness to their fans.

Author: Tang Chen; Editor: Tang Chen

WeChat public account: Tang Chen (ID: late-news)