The elderly live broadcast in the early morning, selling both pity and goods

This article analyzes the common characteristics of elderly anchors who broadcast live late at night - they talk about their family's difficult background and sell food and daily necessities to make a living. It provides a thorough analysis of the phenomenon of elderly live broadcasting late at night, and is recommended for those who are interested in live broadcasting.

“Thank you for your order” “I hope you like my product”

At 1 a.m., the old man who could not even speak clearly was still saying "thank you" repeatedly in the live broadcast room.

According to the grandfather, his wife and daughter-in-law both suffer from mental illness, and it is not easy for his son to take care of the three of them alone, so he had to come out to live broadcast to supplement the family income. Such a family background aroused the sympathy of many netizens, and many users took the initiative to enthusiastically give gifts and buy products in the live broadcast room.

Some careful netizens found that the old man said in the live broadcast room that he would have no food if he didn't live broadcast. Once, his eyes were red, and he seemed to have cried. Netizens said anxiously: "Everyone should quit, the old man will stop broadcasting if there is no one." Later, netizens verified that the old man's family was indeed in financial difficulties, and he had no choice but to come out to live broadcast.

The dilapidated village houses, damp and mottled walls, old and messy backgrounds, the situations of the elderly who live broadcast late at night are surprisingly similar. These elderly people are generally over 50 years old. Because their sons have accidents, their daughters-in-law have remarried, and they have left their children behind, they need the help of others to live broadcast to make a living.

There are many users who watch the live broadcast room of the elderly late at night and place orders out of tenderness. At this time, they shop mostly out of sympathy and pity, rather than actual needs.

Image source: Douyin comment area

It is beyond reproach that the elderly are self-reliant, but speculation and deception are also growing in secret . Maybe at the beginning, some elderly people really wanted to sell some things to make a living after learning about the live e-commerce channel, but after being discovered by a team with ulterior motives, the situation of "consumption of sympathy" emerged.

What are the elderly who broadcast live late at night selling? Who is paying for them? How far can the elderly broadcasters go?

1. Late-night live broadcasts: What are the elderly selling?

The elderly people who live stream late at night have a common label/personality – “poor”.

Happy families are all alike, but unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way. Everyone’s story is different. Elderly anchors will directly explain the reason for bringing goods in their short videos - because they come from rural areas, have poor family conditions, do not have stable jobs, and have experienced major changes (usually their children are sick and leave their young children behind), they need to use live streaming to bring goods to save their families.

For example, @尹小乖 (Snack Shop) described in his profile that he had farmed and picked up scraps, and his family was heavily in debt due to his wife's health problems; @64年大叔赵学良 revealed an even more sad family experience: he is 66 years old, his son and daughter-in-law are disabled, and he has to raise three grandsons and one granddaughter, and support a family by himself.

@64-year-old uncle Zhao Xueliang Douyin video screenshot

The homepage of @向日葵 (老王陪女儿打怪怪) shows that his daughter Xiao Wang is ill and needs long-term dialysis treatment, so his father Lao Wang sells goods through live streaming to make up for the lack of medical expenses. Most of his videos are about the daily life of the father and daughter, the process of going to the hospital for treatment, etc., which look real and resonate with people.

Many netizens expressed their support in the comment section, "Come on, persuade uncle to sit for a while longer during the live broadcast! Superman has to protect himself after enduring for so long!" Some patients also expressed their envy of their father-daughter relationship, "I have been suffering from uremia for 15 years, doing dialysis alone, earning money for medical treatment, changing two cars, and doing dialysis alone without a house. Every time I see some patients with family members accompanying them during dialysis, I envy them."

@向日葵 (Old Wang accompanies his daughter to fight monsters) Screenshot of TikTok video

There is nothing wrong with trying to shoot videos and do live broadcasts to supplement family income, but what is surprising is that these elderly people often live broadcast for a very long time and at a very high frequency.

The platform’s public live streaming records show that @尹小乖 (Snack Shop) has broadcast 23 times in the past 30 days, and the time is concentrated between 9 pm and early morning.

Generally speaking, many top anchors prefer to broadcast from 7pm to 12am, and the broadcast duration is 4-6 hours. These elderly anchors often broadcast late at night, and some of them are already proficient in live broadcasting. They will directly point out in their introductions that they welcome fans to buy from Ofo, and some elderly people will show their talents in the live broadcast room. Whenever a new user enters the live broadcast room, they will express their gratitude in time and invite the user to join their fan group.

@尹小乖 (零食铺) always repeats "Thank you for placing orders" in the live broadcast room, and is familiar with the live broadcast room gameplay. For example, during the live broadcast process of several hours in a row, the links of various products will be listed in order, and there are hundreds of products listed in the window for fans to place orders at any time.

Judging from the small shops associated with these elderly anchor accounts, the products they sell are also highly consistent, with prices ranging from a few yuan to dozens of yuan, and the categories mainly include food and household cleaning products.

The author once bought goods in the live broadcast room of @向日葵 (老王陪女儿打怪怪). Its live broadcast room mainly sells food and beverages, daily necessities, beauty products and other categories, with the average customer price ranging from 9.9 yuan to 88 yuan. The product selection is very close to the preferences of young women living in cities.

For example, we can see that the products launched on August 14 include Kato setting powder, AKF blush contouring palette, Spes wash-free spray, Zhuben cleansing oil, Dopamine Girl pure cotton pajamas, etc., all of which are mainly for female users, and these brands have a certain popularity on the Douyin platform. It seems that the account owner has put a lot of effort in selecting products.

Judging from the sales data, the elderly who have been able to work on live streaming for a long time have also achieved stable sales. @尹小乖 (Snack Shop) has 233 items in its live streaming display, with a total of 120,000 items sold; @向日葵 (Old Wang accompanies his daughter to fight monsters) has sold a total of 250,000 items; @赵老汉百货超市 once revealed that it had achieved nearly 130,000 yuan in revenue in 6 months.

@尹小乖 (snack shop), @赵老汉百货超市 video screenshots

Behind the sales volume, who is paying for the elderly anchors?

Among the main consumers of short video platforms, women account for a higher proportion, and many girls have strong empathy. Therefore, in the comment section of elderly anchors, you can often see remarks like "Grandpa broadcasts live until very late every day, he must get a good rest and take care of his health."

Data from Chanmama shows that female fans account for more than 70% of the live broadcast rooms of elderly anchors, and most of them are young people, with people under 35 years old usually accounting for more than 80%.

2. How far can live streaming of the “selling misery” style go?

Live streaming with goods seems to be a way to make money that “anyone can start live streaming at any time”, but in fact it is not simple. A mature anchor often needs a team to support him.

Judging from their unfluent live broadcasting skills and strong accents in dialect, these rural elderly people are relatively uneducated and may not have figured out what live broadcasting is. However, most of the short videos they posted were heavily edited, and many of the products in the live broadcast room came from the Select Alliance.

Is it a good business model to rely on elderly anchors to be the main force in live broadcasting? Kas believes that popularity gathered by sympathy cannot last long, and the prospects for elderly anchors are not bright.

First, the physical condition of the elderly is often unstable. Live broadcasts in the early morning, which last up to 4-8 hours, are not something that young people can sustain, let alone the elderly. Even if the anchor is still strong, the audience will worry about the damage to his body caused by frequent live broadcasts. Therefore, elderly anchors are not suitable for long-term live broadcasts, but must control the frequency and working hours.

Screenshot of @赵老汉百货超市fans group message

Second, sympathy is limited, and the spending power based on sympathy is also limited. Users may place orders for an elderly anchor in his live broadcast room, express encouragement and support, and then may stop following him. Without "loyalty" to the anchor himself, there is no repurchase rate. These users are likely to sympathize and care equally for every "drowned person" recommended by big data.

Third, whether the elderly can get compensation that matches their labor is a question that netizens are more concerned about.

In the past two years, the topic of whether elderly anchors are kidnapped by MCN agencies and whether there are teams packaging their personalities has been discussed many times.

Last year, an 89-year-old grandmother's live broadcast attracted the attention of practitioners. At that time, she was concentrating on doing handicrafts in front of the camera, live broadcasting from 12:30 in the evening to almost 8 in the morning. The floating barrage in the live broadcast room read, "My husband passed away early, my son became disabled due to high-altitude work, and my daughter-in-law left her 3-year-old granddaughter to her. She usually does some handicrafts. The village made a live broadcast in the hope that it would help the strong grandmother."

Since the old man’s live broadcast room has restricted comments and the account has never posted any content, people doubt its authenticity. Currently, Kas can no longer search for the account on Douyin.

Douyin expert @南非格莱奥 also released a short video saying that 95% of the elderly anchors with rural backgrounds and miserable life stories are actors packaged by MCN agencies. They have their own set of live broadcast operation methods. For example, buying 1,000 yuan of traffic at the beginning of the broadcast can get 5,000 traffic recommendations within half an hour. With the company's image packaging, speech training and other means, these elderly anchors can easily gain tens of thousands of fans.

The City Business Daily also reported that many MCN agencies have used the elderly as a "traffic password." These MCN agencies have businesses all over the country and will go to remote areas to find suitable candidates. Many MCN agencies have also embarked on the path of "selling courses", recommending the elderly to buy and participate in "live streaming with goods" training.

Xinhua Daily Telegraph once reported that many short videos about "old fruit farmers' unsaleable products" were pieced together in terms of pictures and sounds, and the "unsaleable products" were fabricated. There is an industry chain behind this kind of "selling misery to bring goods", which is full of "marketing routines" from actors to scripts, production to promotion under the guise of helping farmers.

These tactics may bring short-term sales, but if they fail, they will overdraw user trust. Even if there are people who really need help due to family difficulties or unsalable crops, users are likely to no longer believe them. Then, the proliferation of elderly anchors may also affect users' perception and impression of the entire platform.

The platform has also dealt with "selling misery" and "acting" to bring goods. In August 2021, Douyin carried out a network cleanup operation, banning these accounts that "sell misery" to attract attention and shutting down e-commerce permissions. In the same month, Kuaishou also launched a special rectification campaign, specifically banning a number of accounts that sell misery.

Perhaps it was because the platform's actions aroused the host's vigilance and attention, which led to a change in his video shooting style.

For example, the videos initially shot by @赵老汉百货超市 were set against the background of dilapidated houses. From the second half of 2021 to the present, in the content posted by its account, the protagonist Zhao Laohan is dressed in a suit and looks energetic. Both the lighting and the background are relatively sophisticated, and he looks like a fashionable grandfather, with an obvious change of style.

@赵老汉百货超市TikTok video screenshot

It is undeniable that the business of selling misery is easy to do, but once the miserable character collapses, it will be a double disaster for business and traffic. The existence of elderly people live-streaming late at night implies "tragedy", which should not be commercialized or beautified, and the sympathy of users should not become the prey of ulterior motives.

Author: Lou Xingchui

Source: WeChat public account "Kas Data"