With 17 million fans, middle-aged and elderly people also love to "chase stars"

A piece of social news one month ago made a Douyin internet celebrity famous. The news content was that a 72-year-old lady from Jilin took a train alone to Bozhou, Anhui to "chase stars". For this reason, this article comprehensively and systematically analyzes the role of middle-aged and elderly people on short video and live broadcast platforms. Through two typical accounts and related data, it analyzes the strong consumption power and broad market potential of middle-aged and elderly people. For content operators and brands, this article provides some reference ideas.

A piece of news punctured the information cocoon, and we got to know two middle-aged and elderly top idols. This aroused our curiosity and interest, and we began to understand their video styles and the group of fans behind them who are always attracted to them.

A piece of social news one month ago made a Douyin internet celebrity famous. The news content was that a 72-year-old woman from Jilin Province took a train alone to Bozhou, Anhui Province to "chase stars" and find a male internet celebrity named Xiucai. Passersby were worried about her safety and called the police.

This news made netizens wonder who "Xiucai" is. Some people searched and found that the male internet celebrity named "Xiucai" has accumulated 9.628 million followers on Douyin. His comment area is crowded with middle-aged and elderly aunts and grandmas whose avatars are photos of themselves with flowers and whose nicknames are "Flowers Bloom and Fortune Comes" and "Years Are Quiet and Good". Fans affectionately call him "Xiucai Brother."

Many young people who followed the trend and watched the video were stunned by the screen full of "Xucai's younger brother", but the next discovery gave them another "blow on the head". Many people accidentally ran into their mothers in the comment section of Xiucai.

After some investigation, another account @一笑倾城 was also found. Compared with @秀才, this account has more fans, reaching 17.11 million. @秀才 and @一笑倾城 are the top idols in the middle-aged and elderly online world. One has fascinated thousands of aunts, and the other has attracted countless uncles . Judging from the comments, the fans' enthusiasm for them is also quite explosive on the entire platform.

A piece of news with a strong sense of contrast punctured the information cocoon shrouded by short video algorithms. This aroused our interest and led us to study the video styles of these two middle-aged and elderly top streamers, as well as the group of fans who stand behind them and are always moved. How many Internet celebrity accounts can middle-aged and elderly people create by chasing stars? What efforts do we have to make in order to make them willingly follow?

1. Xiucai and Yixiaoqingcheng, the Internet idols of the elderly

"Height is not a distance, age is not a problem." "The little sister sent her lover to Damendong, but it happened to be raining and windy! Should the little brother leave or stay?" In the video, the man wearing a black suit and holding a cup of tea slowly walked over is called "Xiucai". He likes to sing love songs to his fans the most. He will pick peppers in the vegetable garden while telling them: "It's not my fault that I love you, it's because you are too beautiful!"

Screenshot of @秀才TikTok account

In his Douyin profile, Xiucai claims to be 39 years old. The content is relatively uniform, basically lip syncing, and he has sung old songs such as "Love You Like You Love Me", "You Are My Person", "Waiting for You for So Long", "When Will This Worry End", "Big Eyes", and "Hot Love". It is worth noting that he has a shy expression when singing, and covering his mouth, licking his lips, and raising his eyebrows are the three essential parts of the video, creating an ambiguous atmosphere with a teasing nature, which has won the hearts of many aunts/mothers-in-law.

In 2020, Xiucai started posting videos on Douyin. As of now, he has accumulated 9.629 million followers, mainly attracting middle-aged and elderly women. The audience portrait of his live broadcast room shows that female audiences account for 87.12%, and people over 50 years old account for the highest proportion, reaching 38.33% . Users aged 41-50 also account for a large proportion, reaching 20%.

Under @秀才's account, fans would share details of their lives every day, such as: the elderly at home had surgery, there was a wedding banquet at home, grandchildren were sick, she herself was sick, her teeth fell out again, and she slept less and less every day recently. Corresponding to @秀才, @一笑倾城 attracted many men over 45 years old and amassed 17.11 million fans. This 33-year-old rural girl from Heze, Shandong, started updating videos on Douyin on April 12, 2019.

@一笑倾城TikTok video screenshot

In terms of shooting techniques, @一笑倾城 is similar to @秀才. She also likes to do the "eyebrow-raising" action when lip-syncing, but the amplitude and frequency are not so frequent. In terms of character positioning, these two talents belong to the "entertainment + talent" route, and their daily updates are to cover and sing along with some popular songs.

The difference is that @一笑倾城 has a signature sweet smile, and she laughs in almost every video. In the early days, she would film singing in the fields, and recently she began to try to use retro makeup with karaoke subtitles, going for a nostalgic record style. In the video tags, @一笑倾城 likes to use #牌微笑# and #微胖# , especially "微胖", which appears very frequently, which can also reflect the aesthetic taste of many middle-aged and elderly men.

@一笑倾城TikTok video screenshot

There are a large number of influencers on the Douyin platform. Why can they be loved, praised and followed by so many middle-aged and elderly people? For many young people, the videos of the two influencers mentioned above may lack novelty, but for their core audiences, it is completely the opposite. The latter are not looking for the host's talent, drinking competition, or PK shouting, but companionship, trust and respect.

Kas believes that the biggest advantage of these two influencers is that they are down-to-earth. Only those influencers/merchants/brands who can do this can truly capture the hearts of middle-aged and elderly users. To be fair, the two bloggers’ clothing, beauty filters, expressions, video copywriting and shooting are very good.

The scenes can be quickly understood by middle-aged and elderly fans, and there is no sense of distance in the expression.

At the same time, their facial features and looks are of the regular and delicate type among ordinary people, which can make fans who like this kind of appearance feel close to and admire them. In addition, during the live broadcast, the experts also adopted the personality in the video, being gentle, polite, and actively performing their talents, which makes it difficult for middle-aged and elderly fans not to feel at home and be "served" clearly.

@秀才's TikTok video comment area

When some young people are keen on chasing "male beauty", "beautiful women" and "high-value experts" and are addicted to the Coconut Tree Live Room, their parents may be watching the short videos and live broadcasts of @秀才 and @一笑倾城. The different choices of the two generations are based on their own emotions and entertainment needs, which are beyond reproach and should be treated equally and respected.

2. Which live streaming rooms do middle-aged and elderly people pay for?

In fact, the consumption power of the middle-aged and elderly people aged 45+ is not weak, which may be an important reason why the above-mentioned experts are willing to update and live broadcast steadily.

According to Kas, @秀才 and @一笑倾城 mainly monetize through live broadcast rewards, that is, asking fans to pay for the emotional value they provide, and they have not yet opened product showcases or live broadcasts to sell goods. The reason behind the popularity of these two high-followers is that short video platforms are sinking faster and there are more and more middle-aged and elderly people.

"2022 China Short Video Live E-commerce Development Insights" shows that users over 41 years old account for 36.3% of Douyin and Kuaishou, and users over 51 years old account for 18.9%. Nearly 30% of users have a monthly online spending capacity of more than 2,000 yuan. Middle-aged and elderly people watch live broadcasts in their daily lives, and the amount of online payments is also increasing step by step. Entertainment and consumption needs are rapidly released on short video and live broadcast platforms. Among them,

Douyin covers a wide range of life and consumption scenarios for middle-aged and elderly people after retirement.

Douyin was launched in September 2016. Its initial positioning was a niche and trendy product. In 2018, with the rapid increase in the number of users, Douyin changed its slogan to "Douyin records a beautiful life" and shifted its target audience to people of all ages. Its function also changed from entertainment to expression and sharing.

According to the "2021 Douyin Data Report", "retirement" was recorded 7.15 million times on Douyin. The daily entertainment of the elderly has shifted from TV programs to Douyin: 98.97 million people searched for "old songs" on Douyin; the income of traditional cultural anchors increased by 101% year-on-year, and the income of folk art anchors increased by 232% year-on-year. Today, Douyin has attracted many middle-aged and elderly users, and a group of them have become masters with more than one million fans, such as @潘的老妈, @康康和爷, @郑渊洁, @陕西老乔, @吉公爷·游本昌, etc. What type of content do middle-aged and elderly people like to watch? Which live broadcast rooms do they pay for?

Judging from the current public information, in the fan portraits of some top influencers in the outdoor, music, and emotional categories, middle-aged and elderly users account for a high proportion of fans. For example, singer @唐艺 has accumulated 44.143 million fans on Douyin. The user portrait of watching her videos shows that people over 41 years old account for 28%, which is equivalent to 5.45 million middle-aged and elderly people who pay attention to her content and dynamics on a daily basis. At present, Tang Yi mainly monetizes through live streaming, and the GMV of goods brought in in the past 30 days has reached 10 million to 25 million. (GMV of 120 million in 3 months, can the myth of outdoor live streaming "No. 1" continue?)

@唐艺抖音视频快照In some jewelry live broadcast rooms, middle-aged and elderly people are the main consumers that cannot be ignored. Previously, Kas analyzed the top anchor @新疆和田玉老郑 in the jewelry category of Douyin, who has accumulated 900,000 fans on Douyin and the estimated GMV in the last 30 days is as high as 500 million to 750 million. Data shows that in Lao Zheng's live broadcast room, 69% of users are female; in terms of age distribution, users aged 31-40 account for the highest proportion (32.17%), followed by users aged 41-50 (21.58%), and then people over 50 years old (20.66%).

@和田玉老郑TikTok video screenshot

Many middle-aged and elderly people with strong monetization capabilities have also emerged in hobby tracks such as square dancing, fishing, and Go. For example, @段希帆, who has been analyzed by Kas, currently has 2.907 million followers on Douyin, and the GMV of live streaming sales in the past 30 days has reached 1 million to 2.5 million yuan.

Of course, it is not just Douyin. The middle-aged and elderly are also the group that Kuaishou and Video Account want to capture. Among them, the majority of the Video Account users are middle-aged and elderly. Li Hao, founder of Kas Consulting, once estimated that the GMV of Video Account e-commerce will reach 300-400 billion this year, and the growth story has just begun.

Judging from the user portrait of Video Account, the age of Video Account users has been declining over the past year, from being mainly over 55 years old in the third quarter of last year to being mainly over 35 years old at present. However, users over 45 years old are still the most active group on Video Account and the group with the most purchasing power on Video Account e-commerce. (With a higher volume than Douyin, "five high" brands should not miss Video Account again)

In the "acquaintance" social field of WeChat, users have a stronger natural sense of trust. When users make an appointment to follow a host, they will probably regard this host whom they have never met as a friend or acquaintance in their hearts. The reason why they don't easily return the goods is that they don't want to embarrass or disturb the acquaintance. Video account e-commerce based on trust is extremely friendly to the growth of white-label or new brands, because users who have not been crazy baptized by traditional e-commerce and algorithmic e-commerce often trust the recommendations of "people around them" more than brands, and the hosts who accompany them every day are like half of "people around them".

For example, @羽享国际高端皮肤美容, which Kas mentioned in the article, is a benchmark merchant in the video account skin care track. Through WeChat DouTou flow and public-private domain linkage, Mr. Yu’s monthly GMV can reach 30 million.

@羽享国际High-end skin care short video and live broadcast screenshots

From the perspective of industry trends, according to data disclosed by CNNIC, as of the first half of 2022, the scale of live e-commerce users in my country has reached 469 million. The proportion of live broadcast users over the age of 50 is on the rise. They have money and free time, and avant-garde consumption concepts. After gradually getting used to online consumption, they are increasingly becoming a user group that live broadcast e-commerce platforms are trying to attract.

For brands/merchants, they can segment the types of middle-aged and elderly users based on region, age, hobbies, circles, etc., and then carry out refined operations in terms of content verticality and personal settings, and specifically build account advantages that are attractive to a specific group of middle-aged and elderly people, so as to fully tap and mobilize their consumption enthusiasm, and then gain a group of middle-aged and elderly users with sustainability and stability.

In short, there is still a vast commercial space waiting to be explored for the middle-aged and elderly groups. For brands that want to acquire more users and expand into a larger market, it is equally important to put aside arrogance and seriously study the interests/hobbies/aesthetic tastes of the middle-aged and elderly as it is to attract the attention of young people.

Author: Lou Xingchui

Source: WeChat public account: "CaasData (ID:caasdata6)"