The number of views exceeded 5 billion, and "Southern Little Potato" was crowded in Harbin

When the number of short video views exceeded 5 billion, a wave of southerners flocked to Harbin. In this article, we will analyze the detonation point behind the short video and the story behind the southerners flocking to Harbin, and reveal this urban carnival where the north and the south meet.

Harbin Ice and Snow World is undoubtedly the most popular tourist attraction this winter, and short video platforms such as Douyin have played a great role in promoting it. With the help of a large number of short videos, both "Southern Little Potato" and "Northern Big Sweet Potato" have the urge to go to this ice and snow capital to explore it.

Regrettably, the opening of the Great World was accompanied by not only applause but also doubts.

On December 18, a netizen posted a picture of himself queuing in the Ice and Snow World. In the picture, tourists were all crowded together, looking like a dark mass. According to the netizen's description, the temperature in Harbin broke minus 20 degrees Celsius that day. Many people had queued for four or five hours in such cold weather to play the "big slide", but because the project was so popular, it was very likely that they would not be able to play in the end. Under the double blow of physical and mental stress, some tourists lost control of their emotions and asked the park to "refund their tickets".

Soon, #冰雪大世界tourists' calls for refunds became a hot topic on TikTok and Weibo. From the perspective of public opinion, most netizens sided with the park, believing that the Ice and Snow World is a place to appreciate ice sculptures, not an amusement park. It is normal that some popular projects cannot be experienced, and the tourists' demand for refunds is unreasonable. However, the Ice and Snow World officials quickly issued an apology and handled the refund procedures for the relevant tourists.

This is not the first city to be "popularized" by short videos this year. Looking back at this year, there is Zibo, which became popular for "barbecue", Rongjiang, which became popular for "village supermarket", and Tianjin, which became popular for "grandpa diving"... Under the huge influence of short videos, more and more cities that were not seen in the past have attracted the attention of netizens and transformed into "Internet celebrity check-in spots".

With the huge amount of traffic coming, how much can the creators get from it?

01. Order volume increased by 631%, Harbin became popular because of Douyin

Although Harbin winter tourism has always been popular, this year is still unprecedented. According to the "2024 New Year's Day and New Year's Eve Travel Insights" released by Ctrip, the number of orders for Harbin during this year's New Year's Day holiday increased by 631% year-on-year, and Harbin was also listed as a "popular domestic tourist destination during the New Year's Day holiday."

Such a result is expected. After all , a month ago, short videos about the Ice and Snow World and Harbin tourism had already become popular on various social platforms.

"The theme of this year's Ice and Snow World is 'Dragon Soaring over Ice and Snow, Chasing the Asian Winter Dream'. The overall scale of the park reaches 810,000 square meters, and the ice construction area reaches 610,000 square meters. It is the largest and most spectacular event in history."

"Sisters are in luck. Some netizens said that children under 160cm tall are not allowed to slide on the slides at Harbin Ice and Snow World. They need to be held by their parents. However, they can also choose to be held by handsome boys from the Sports Institute who are over 185cm tall."

@Entertainment Circle Xiaoyuer Tik Tok screenshot

"Look at how happy it is to visit the morning market in Harbin: 17 beef buns for 10 yuan, an egg burger for 3.5 yuan, with eggs and meat patties in it, an old lunch box with two meat and one vegetable, and a bottle of water for 12 yuan..."

In the videos taken by netizens, Harbin has low prices, beautiful scenery, and Harbin people are hospitable and humorous. Harbin has become the "second hometown" of many young people, and the enthusiasm for traveling to Harbin has been stimulated. Among them, people in the south, who cannot easily see snow due to geographical factors, are even more excited and can't wait to go there to experience the "Ice and Snow Kingdom".

However, because they have never faced such cold weather, many southern netizens doubted their own travel equipment and posted what they prepared on the Internet, hoping to get help from northern netizens. Due to the different understandings of temperature between the two sides, many jokes were made, and northern netizens were often shocked that southerners did not prepare enough or too much.

"This is the first time that Southern Little Potato is traveling to Harbin. People from the north, please help me." In the video of @南小土豆, the blogger showed everyone the equipment he had just bought for the trip: a 6-jin down jacket, a 400-gram goose down jacket, two pairs of 500-gram cotton pants, two pairs of thickened windproof and waterproof trousers, and a pair of 80-gram down pants...

One netizen left a message in the comment section, "At first I was relieved that I finally had someone who knew how to wear it, but yours is too thick. This outfit is enough to chase bears in Russia."

The tourists were full of enthusiasm, and the locals were naturally unwilling to lag behind, and took the initiative to make guides for everyone. @辣辣PONY, a native of Harbin, drew up a "tourism mind map" for everyone in front of the camera. He explained everything from food, clothing, housing, transportation, and entertainment. The 7-minute video was full of practical information, and there were many "exclusive recommendations" from locals. At present, the video has received 1.33 million likes and an astonishing 1.16 million collections. Many "little potatoes" expressed their gratitude to the blogger in the barrage.

@辣辣PONY TikTok screenshot

With the friendly interaction between people from the north and south, the discussion about Harbin tourism has become increasingly popular. At present, the entry #哈尔滨冰雪大世界 has been played more than 3.1 billion times on Douyin, and #哈尔滨旅游攻略 has been played 2.58 billion times.

02. What are the “Internet celebrity cities” that were born on Douyin this year?

The popularity of TikTok has made short videos a new way for many people to show their lives, and has also made many seemingly "daily" things more attractive.

Among them, many once unknown small cities have reaped the "short video dividend" and become popular for various reasons.

In April this year, Zibo, Shandong, became famous for its high-quality and low-priced barbecue. Currently, the Douyin page #梓博烤肉 has been played 28.6 billion times, and #梓博 has also been played 21.8 billion times.

It is said online that the starting point of Zibo's popularity was that 12,000 college students were assigned to Zibo for quarantine before the New Year. When these students were about to leave after the quarantine, the local government booked all the barbecue restaurants in the city for them to practice, and invited them to come back and play when spring came.

This move touched the college students, who also did not forget this "favor". This spring, many people really went to Zibo again and took videos to promote it. Zibo also became a national top city because of these "college student special forces". According to data from Meituan and Dianping, Zibo's tourism orders increased by 2,000% year-on-year during the "May Day" period.

@月亮TikTok screenshot

In June this year, Rongjiang County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, became popular on the Internet because of its "Village Supermarket".

"Guizhou Village Super League" actually refers to the "Hemei Rural Football Super League" in Sanbao Dong Village, Rongjiang, which is a football league spontaneously organized by villagers from several villages under the jurisdiction of Rongjiang.

Although it is just a "folk competition", the enthusiasm of the participants and the excitement of the competition are in no way inferior to other competitions, which has become an important reason why "Village Super" has become popular on the Internet.

It is understood that the "Village Super League" lasted from May to July every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, attracting more than 20 local football teams to participate. The players were diverse, ranging in age from 12 to 56 years old, and from all walks of life. Although the participants were not professional players, the field gave birth to super long-distance "world waves" and "rainbow passes" and other exciting scenes, which were widely circulated on short video platforms.

The live clip of the match released by @咪咕视频 recorded the birth of this ultra-long-distance "world wave". When the player kicked the free kick into the goal, the audience was boiling. Many aunts with gray hair even "jumped" to cheer. The exciting atmosphere of the stadium also infected the audience in front of the screen. So far, the video has received 1.462 million likes, and countless netizens expressed their love for this player in the comment area;

@Hi Guizhou also released a wonderful scene of player @Kai Rong performing Neymar's signature move "Rainbow Pass". His agile posture was amazing, and the audience expressed admiration for Kai Rong's skills and talent.

@Hi Guizhou Douyin screenshot

Statistics show that the number of viewers for the online live broadcast during the game exceeded 50 million, and the cumulative playback volume of the #贵州村chao term on Douyin has exceeded 9.5 billion times.

The exciting games, unique atmosphere, and local food and scenery also attracted many netizens to experience the Village Super League with Rongjiang citizens. According to Kass Observation, many celebrities and influencers such as @Host Hua Shao, @B Tai, and @Zhi Nan Finance have gone to Guizhou, further expanding the influence of the "Village Super League".

According to statistics from the Rongjiang County government, within one month of the "Village Super League", an average of 50,000 spectators attended each game, attracting more than 420,000 tourists. In May this year, Rongjiang received 1.0737 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 39.73%, and realized a comprehensive tourism income of 1.241 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.08%.

In addition, this summer, many videos of Tianjin grandpas diving in the Haihe River went viral online. Not only were these grandpas physically fit, they were also happy to entertain the onlookers before diving:

“Our slogan is: Live one minute, be happy for 60 seconds.”

“Interaction: Oh mani mani baby boom, oh mani mani baby roar…”

"Don't call me Uncle Tianjin, I'm bai bai (uncle) Tianjin."

For a time, going to Tianjin to watch the old man diving became a new check-in item for tourists from all over the world, bringing a lot of traffic and popularity to Tianjin's tourism industry.

03. How many creators can benefit from it?

Recently, four institutions including the Media Literacy Research Center of Fudan University jointly released the "New Media Communication Report on City Image (2023) - Media Evolution Empowers Urban Consumption Vitality". The report points out that in recent years, the city image communication strategy has undergone many changes with the iteration of technology. The communication of city image has developed from the initial focus on urban landscape to the "third stage" with the communication of food, street photography, entertainment and leisure and other urban life as the core.

One of the main reasons for this change is that short videos have gradually become a necessity in people’s daily lives and the main way for most people to obtain new information.

Creators, who play the most important role in the short video ecosystem, naturally also play a significant role in the city's popularity.

According to Kas's observation, most creators will become the "vanguard" of netizens when these cities just become popular, and personally go to the actual places to attract the attention of other users through live broadcasts, travel vlogs, and travel guides. Many of the creators mentioned above fall into this category.

Many well-known Internet celebrities have emerged, such as the anti-counterfeiting fighter @B太. According to Kas’s observation, @B太 can be seen in the cities mentioned above, and his positive energy also makes his videos more convincing and referenceable. It is worth noting that B太 also included his videos of checking in these niche cities in the collection #B太挖宝城, which plays a greater role in publicity.

@B太TikTok screenshot

When there are enough creators participating in the check-in, perhaps a new hot spot or popular trend will be formed, continuing the discussion of the topic, such as the "Special Forces Tourism" that was popular this year.

In addition, for local merchants and influencers, the flow of people brought by the popularity of the city is a "real" bonus. Take Zibo and Rongjiang as examples. According to the data released by Douyin Life Service: from March 1 to April 16 this year, the Douyin group purchase GMV of Zibo barbecue increased by 383% month-on-month; from May to October, the number of orders for local life such as catering, cultural tourism, leisure and entertainment in Rongjiang increased by 2.22 times month-on-month.

More accidentally, some ordinary people become "accidentally famous" because of the popularity of the city. For example, the duck-headed boy from Zibo, Shandong, only appeared in a video shot by a passerby, but he attracted a large number of fans with his handsome face and became a popular Internet celebrity.

Of course, such popularity has many hidden dangers.

One is that the popularity of most cities is only temporary and cannot maintain long-term heat. When the traffic fades, the creators who make a living from it have almost no resistance.

The second is that netizens may see you and follow you because of some special opportunity, but they have no loyalty to the creator itself. If your own creative ability cannot keep up in the future, not only will you fail to retain the popularity, it may also cause backlash.

Previously, Kas had reported on a case where a young man named Yatou started live streaming to sell goods after he became popular, but not only did his GMV data remain average, but he also lost fans. This is the case for a typical person who was popular for a while, so for most ordinary creators who are just "riding on the popularity", it will be even more difficult to monetize these traffic.

Author: Jiang Bei; WeChat public account: Kas Data