The 12-year-old "Empresses in the Palace" has also made the 39.9 yuan EQ course popular

This article analyzes and studies the phenomenon of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" sweeping Douyin and driving emotional intelligence courses. It is found that emotional intelligence courses are being sold behind the scenes, and there may be deception in the course content. This article is suitable for everyone to watch, and be vigilant against fraud.

"The Legend of Zhen Huan", which has been popular for 12 years, is sweeping Tik Tok again.

"Want to improve", "Improve cognition", "Can speak", "Know how to express", "Know the world", "Zhen can chat"... Last month, a group of accounts explaining "The Legend of Zhen Huan" emerged on Douyin. These accounts have many similarities, such as the avatars are mostly "red background + text", the names are mostly related to human relations and conversation, and the IP addresses of many accounts are located in Shandong. The content is "Chinese translation" interpretation of "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

New Douyin data shows that more than ten of these accounts started updating their works on "The Legend of Zhen Huan" in August, and quickly accumulated followers from zero to tens of thousands in one month, with the highest monthly increase of nearly 600,000 followers.

In addition, their business models are also roughly the same - that is, monetization or sales through knowledge payment.

For example, you can put a link to an "emotional intelligence course" or "social skills course" that costs dozens of yuan in the video, and at the end add a sentence "If you don't understand the twists and turns here, then click on the emotional intelligence course in the yellow car below", thereby completing a smooth traffic diversion.

In addition to "The Legend of Zhen Huan", other TV series with profound ideas can also become a tool for attracting students to the course. For example, "Do You Know It Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin" and "Nirvana in Fire" are also called "electronic pickles" by netizens, and modern dramas starring Wang Zhiwen such as "The Way of Heaven" and "Blue Porcelain".

The halo of hit dramas such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has indeed brought a lot of traffic to these courses, but judging from user feedback, there are also many controversies.

Is it the familiar "scam" routine, or is there real stuff hidden? Considering that these accounts are so popular, I spent 39.9 yuan to test them out to see what the twists and turns are.

1. The Matrix account gained millions of followers in a single month, a "speed bump" for fans of "The Legend of Zhen Huan"

"What role did An Lingrong play in the blood test?"

"What is the Empress Dowager doing to set the stage for reminding the Emperor to put on more clothes when it's cold?"

"What did Concubine Duan's eyes say at Princess Wen Yi's birthday party?"

The answers to these questions can be found in the "Chinese translation" video of "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

For example, An Lingrong, as the "hooked wolf" in the Queen's camp, seemed to be speaking for Zhen Huan, but in fact she was fanning the flames. Her words directly led to Wen Shichu's self-castration, and indirectly caused Shen Meiyu's death in childbirth. She severely damaged two generals in Zhen Huan's camp and eliminated Concubine Qi, the rival of the Queen's team. She was the biggest "winner" in the "blood test".

These contents are undoubtedly "speed bumps" for fans of "The Legend of Zhen Huan". In order to watch the coherent plot, netizens often "follow + urge for updates", which allows the bloggers who comment on "The Legend of Zhen Huan" to quickly increase their followers in a short period of time.

On August 11, "想进进" released its first "Palace Fighting Subtext" video, which received over 510,000 likes. On August 12, it released its second "Chinese Translation into Chinese" work, and gained more than 10,000 fans in just two days.

New Douyin data shows that accounts such as "想进進" saw their number of followers jump from 10,000 to 600,000 in less than a month and a half.

However, although the account is created quickly, the videos also "disappear" quickly, perhaps due to copyright reasons.

New Douyin data shows that accounts such as "Want to Make Progress" and "Can Talk" have added more than 20 new videos in the past month, but the number of videos displayed on the account homepage is less than 10. A blogger explained in the introduction that if the video disappears, it has been removed from the shelves.

At present, LeTV and Youku are the two video platforms that own the copyright of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", but Douyin does not have the copyright of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and has not reached any copyright cooperation with Youku and LeTV.

In order to reduce the loss of the work being removed from the shelves, opening a secondary account and incubating a matrix has become one of the ways to spread the risk. As a result, a wave of "Renaissance" about "The Legend of Zhen Huan" swept Douyin.

From "Know how to express" and "Improve cognition" to "Zhen is good at talking" and "Zhen is reasonable", and then to "Speed ​​bump" and "Endless cutting", similar accounts have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

In the comment section, netizens often post screenshots of a series of accounts and call for them to be merged together.

Looking at the profiles of each account, "Want to make progress" and "Can speak" have tagged each other's accounts on each other's homepages. Similarly, "Know how to express" and "Raise cognition" are also brother accounts.

None of these accounts’ homepages show the MCN agency they signed with, so they are not from the same agency. However, their names and profile pictures are very similar, and the IP addresses of many accounts are from Shandong, and the content seems to be from the same “template”.

First, take a clip from the TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan", whether it is the "highlights" such as Concubine Wan's miscarriage, Concubine Xi's return to the palace and the blood test, or the foreshadowing plot that drives the development of the plot, such as Shen Meizhuang's poisoning, the emperor and the queen discussing the "returning to the palace gift package", etc., all of them can become the material for the video.

Secondly, cut a plot into N segments, interpret the deep meaning behind the lines sentence by sentence, freeze the frame and add filters to distinguish them, and add "Chinese-to-Chinese" subtext explanations.

Take this video created by "Hui Shuo Hua" based on the play "Empress and Concubine Hua" as an example:

Eunuch: Madam, please choose the play first

Concubine Hua (grabs the script): I remember there was an excellent custom-made Spring and Autumn Period, which tells the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. What do you think of it, Queen?

Queen: Since you want to see it, light it first.

Hua Fei: Then I will perform another scene of Xue Dingshan’s expedition to the west.

Noble Lady Cao: Concubine Hua's brother had made great military achievements, just like the great Tang Dynasty general Xue Dingshan who successfully conquered the enemy and became famous through the ages.

Concubine Hua: Lady Cao is really good at talking, Your Majesty, please give me some advice.

Queen: I only like to read Jing Ke, the Persuasion to Virtue, and a copy of Yao Tai.

Through the translation of "Chinese to Chinese", the blogger interpreted that the Queen seemed to indulge Hua Fei, but in fact she was full of hidden meanings:

The first move was that the Queen ordered two plays and Concubine Hua ordered three plays. One was to highlight Concubine Hua's extravagance and wastefulness, and the other was to show that Concubine Hua was committing an act of usurpation.

The second trick is to choose Jing Ke, who is good at persuading people to do good. The lady in this play is very wealthy but mean and greedy. The Queen chose this play to allude to Concubine Hua.

Finally, the ending can guide attention or conduct commercial traffic, such as "If you are deficient in the ability to speak and do things, and can't understand the twists and turns in other people's words, then you must take a look at the "certain course" in the lower left corner.

It has been observed that the main monetization method of these accounts is payment for knowledge, mostly courses related to emotional intelligence and social skills.

For example, the popular product “23 Lectures on Social Skills” in the “Want to Make Progress” video was priced at 39.9 yuan and has sold a total of 79,000 copies. This course alone has sold 3.15 million yuan.

2. Is the EQ course that costs 39.9 yuan real knowledge or just a tax on your IQ?

In order to explore the mysteries of "human relations and worldly wisdom", I spent a huge amount of money of 39.9 yuan to evaluate the course "23 Lectures on Human Relations and Worldly Wisdom".

After purchasing the course, click on the Douyin mini program "Hai×Zhidao" to start learning. All content is recorded in video.

The course consists of 23 episodes, each lasting approximately 3 to 10 minutes. In the video, a middle-aged man sits in front of a tea table and explains the logic of gift-giving, wine table culture, the truth about connections, and the skills of responding to leaders, among other theories of social etiquette.

Taking the episode on drinking table culture as an example, the instructor said that the underlying logic of drinking table culture is obedience test and sincerity test. After explaining these two terms, before he knew it, the class, which lasted less than 5 minutes, was already halfway through.

“A cooperative relationship that seems to be equal and mutually beneficial is actually never equal.”

"Maintaining a relationship has a price, and being drunk is one of the prices."

"A person who is always respectable and a person who is wary is not trustworthy."

After outputting a long paragraph of golden sentences, congratulations, you have theoretically mastered the underlying logic of the drinking table culture.

Although some netizens said: "There is nothing to say in the video, it's all lies." However, in the course evaluation, some netizens said that it was "very inspiring" and "very helpful for me who just entered the workplace."

Whether a course is useful or not may vary from person to person. Even if a user is dissatisfied after taking the course, the tuition fee goes into the pocket of the course seller, completing a "one-time deal."

However, we found that when netizens were dissatisfied with the course and wanted a refund, the conditions for a refund were quite harsh. According to the regulations, a full refund could only be obtained if the learning progress did not exceed 5% within 7 days or the viewing time was less than 30 seconds.

But after watching the course for 12 seconds, I found that I had reached 2% of the learning progress. This means that the 5% refund is not calculated based on the entire course, but on the episode that was clicked. After listening to only a few paragraphs, I no longer meet the refund conditions, and it is difficult for people to make an accurate judgment on the quality of the course with such a short viewing time.

On the Black Cat Complaint Platform, a user said that after purchasing a course and clicking on it, the progress exceeded 5%, which was mandatory automatic learning.

In addition to Hai×Zhidao, other knowledge payment platforms such as Dou×Zhidao also face similar after-sales complaints. Some netizens said that courses purchased on official accounts and other platforms also encountered problems such as difficulty in refunding and false advertising.

With the rise of short video live streaming, the ways of attracting paid knowledge have become more diverse, and various training courses have emerged in an endless stream. Not only that, "teaching people to give courses" has also become a hot business.

Searching for "knowledge" and "classroom" as keywords on Douyin's mini-programs yields nearly 80 mini-programs related to paid knowledge. Some platforms offer a full range of courses, including adult education, children's education, and talent skills, while there are also mini-programs specifically designed for vertical industry training, such as tea art and aquaculture.

It is worth noting that the qualifications and experience of the course instructors also seem to be yet to be verified.

For example, many course lecturers wear masks and have mysterious images. Their personal introductions are also very vague, such as "xx who has been deeply involved in dealing with people for 15 years" and "xx teacher who studies the logic of the bottom layer of society", etc. They cannot use substantive information such as certificates as endorsements. The homepages of many knowledge payment mini-programs show that it is very convenient to join the platform and open a lecturer identity. With just a few simple steps, you can become a platform-certified lecturer.

For traffic businesses, earning commissions by selling courses through popular content seems to be "a very profitable business". When one set of content becomes outdated, it can be replaced with another set of content to become effective again. However, from the perspective of ordinary users, too naked "cutting leeks" of traffic will only lead to disgust with the content and unfollowing.

The routines are the same every year, but they are new this time. How far can the "talkative" people who are trying to make money while the market is hot go this time?

Author: Bamboo WeChat public account: Xinbang