10 seconds, Messi "flash mob" live broadcast room

Messi's China tour has become the focus of fans these days, and various platforms will not miss the opportunity to enjoy this traffic feast: Kuaishou, Taobao Live and Douyin are all participating, but each one participates in a different way. In addition to the organizers' various unprofessional and confusing behaviors, the operations of various platforms are also hard to describe. Let's take a look at the author's analysis.

At 4:15 p.m. on June 14, an hour after Messi's Taobao live broadcast ended, new netizens continued to rush into the Taobao live broadcast room of "Messi is coming - looking at the Azhu Pavilion from afar", and flooded the screen with messages such as "When is Messi coming?", "Where is the coal boss?" and "Give me back Messi" . At this time, in the live broadcast room with 200,000 people pouring in, the background board still showed a photo of Messi wearing the Argentina national team uniform, and the words "There will be a response if there is a ball" were printed.

The advance of the live broadcast caught many fans who were looking forward to interacting with Messi off guard. At 3 pm, Messi, who was originally scheduled to appear in the Taobao live broadcast room from 6 to 9 pm on the 14th, appeared three hours earlier. Despite this, Messi's 15-minute live appearance still attracted nearly 3 million viewers.

After the originally scheduled offline meeting was cancelled, this live broadcast opportunity, which was said to be Messi's only interaction with fans, was actually prepared in a somewhat hasty manner: not only did the network freeze several times, but the excessive volume of the on-site translation also covered up Messi's voice.

The fans who had experienced the Kuaishou live broadcast incident of "Messi only appeared for 50 seconds in 50 minutes of live broadcast" wanted to have a real interaction with Messi on Taobao Live, but they did not expect to come with high expectations but leave disappointed.

Messi's trip to China is destined to be a feast of traffic. As soon as the Argentine Football Association officially announced his visit to China, the ticket price had already been hyped up to 10,000 yuan before it was released; the "highest price of 4,800 yuan" tickets were sold out in 20 minutes; after Messi and his team arrived in Beijing, a large number of fans greeted them at the entrance of the hotel, which indirectly led to the official cancellation of Messi's offline meeting; there was even an outrageous rumor that "dining with Messi costs 300,000 yuan per person, and Messi will toast and take photos", which was finally refuted by Ping An Beijing with a humorous "If these 300,000 yuan can be defrauded, then the police uncle will toast you a glass."

Faced with this feast of traffic that everyone wants to grab, Internet companies are the first to get restless. Each company is doing everything they can to establish a relationship with Messi.

Kuaishou, which was the first to launch the video, launched the slogan "Messi's China Tour! Live Report" on the evening of the 12th, but Messi only appeared on camera for less than 1 minute in the 50-minute live broadcast that night. Then Kuaishou released the full clip of Messi's interview on the 13th, and this clip has been played on Kuaishou live for a day. The platform's operation has caused netizens who follow Messi to complain in the barrage area, "It has been played hundreds of times" and "It has been played for 20 hours in a row and is still being played." Seeing Messi rubbing his knees in front of the camera to relieve his nervous social phobia, netizens couldn't help but feel sorry for Messi, "Poor boss Messi."

Taobao, which lost the initiative, launched the slogan "The only chance for Messi to interact with fans during his trip to China"; Douyin, which came last, continued its advantage in live broadcasts of sports events after winning the World Cup copyright last year, and will broadcast the football friendly match between Argentina and Australia on the 15th.

For fans who cannot see Messi offline, no matter which platform gains the most benefits in this battle for traffic, as long as they can see Messi a few more times, it is an opportunity not to be missed.

01

Kuaishou has the most hype because it is "Live coverage of Messi's China tour" and it is also the first of the major Internet platforms to broadcast live. This live broadcast at 7 o'clock on Monday night is also full of sincerity for most working people.

On the evening of the 12th, before Messi appeared, more than three million people flooded into the live broadcast room. After the anxious waiting of netizens, Messi finally appeared at 30 minutes and 50 seconds of the live broadcast. The barrage area was immediately filled with "Messi Messi" and "Messi King of Football", and the number of people in the live broadcast room immediately soared to 5 million.

Messi looked around in the live camera, sometimes lowered his head to look at his clothes, sometimes smiled shyly at the camera, and kept rubbing his knees with both hands to relieve his tension. In response to questions from Liang Hongye, a reporter from Sports Weekly, Messi answered questions about the Champions League final: "I watched it. It was a standard final, played at a very high level."

Just as the fans were looking forward to the next question, Messi "disappeared" in the live broadcast room, and the live screen switched back to the two hosts. Messi appeared on the screen for only 50 seconds and spoke for only 10 seconds.

Some netizens couldn't believe it was over so quickly, and kept posting comments in the barrage area, "It's over," "Just ten seconds?", "Where's Messi?"; some netizens saw the two hosts talking leisurely in front of the camera and couldn't help but say, "I'm here to watch Messi's live debut, not your debut."

Although many people in the bullet screen area advised the netizens who had just entered to leave, "Dismiss, Messi's live broadcast is over", they could not resist the naive questions of netizens who had just entered the live broadcast room, "Messi hasn't come yet?" Netizens who had experienced this absurd live broadcast still held out hope and asked, "Messi will be live at 8 o'clock?"

However, Messi did not appear again until the end of the live broadcast. In a nearly 50-minute live broadcast with a total of 190 million views, Messi only appeared for less than a minute and answered a question . Netizens also questioned whether this was a recorded video. Afterwards, Weibo topics #Messi Kuaishou live broadcast for one minute##Messi's first Kuaishou live broadcast was criticized as a fraud# successively became hot searches on Weibo, and many netizens said that Kuaishou's live broadcast was "cheating traffic."

Although it broke the hearts of the fans, the traffic from Messi that Kuaishou got was real. On the evening of the 13th, when Kuaishou released the full content of Messi's exclusive interview, as of 8 pm on the 13th, the cumulative number of views in the live broadcast room reached 150 million, and the highest number of people online at the same time was nearly 6 million.

Kuaishou made full use of this interview clip. Not only did it have a "dud" on the evening of the 12th, attracting 190 million views, but also attracted another 150 million views on the 13th. On the 14th, it was played on the Kuaishou live broadcast official account for a whole day, and the maximum number of online viewers remained at around 30,000.

On the day when Kuaishou played Messi's interview video on a loop, Messi's live broadcast, which was originally scheduled to appear in Taobao Li Xuanzhuo's live broadcast room at 6 pm, was moved up by four hours. Taobao even secretly made a trick, saying "It's not a recorded broadcast, it's a real live broadcast! Real interaction!"

The live broadcast was hosted by anchor Li Xuanzhuo and well-known commentator He Wei. Before the live broadcast began, many fans were waiting in the live broadcast room, and they all left comments in the barrage area hoping that the host would convey their love for Messi. Facing the expectations of netizens in the live broadcast room, the host kept comforting the fans, "Messi will arrive in 10 minutes," "The latest news is that there are still 5 minutes," "Messi has arrived, right in front of us, wearing a microphone"...

One hour after the live broadcast started, 1.68 million people flocked into the live broadcast room. Messi walked into the live broadcast screen and shook hands with the two hosts. The barrage area was also filled with fans' screams of "Ahhhhhhh" and the name "Messi".

But the live broadcast did not go smoothly.

"Do you know how to call your name in Chinese?" At the beginning of the live broadcast, the first question the host threw to Messi was to ask him to say his name in Chinese , but Messi did not hear it clearly. The microphone was too quiet and the voice was not clear. The scene was once awkward.

There are many other points that have been criticized: network lag, the on-site translator's voice was too loud and covered Messi's voice, etc. After the two sides came to an end of the interview, the host asked Messi to choose a favorite sachet to give back to his children. When Messi really only chose one, netizens once again directed their anger at the host, "Why is the host so stingy?" "Messi's three children are not enough to share."

At the end of the interview, the host asked Messi to send a blessing in Chinese, "Happy Dragon Boat Festival!" The live broadcast returned to the awkward situation at the beginning. Messi even stepped on his feet, but finally said the blessing stumblingly. The scene where the host forced Messi to express himself in Chinese was also complained by fans, "Why do you have to make him speak in Chinese?"

What made netizens even more angry was that even this much-criticized live broadcast lasted only 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, Messi disappeared from the live broadcast room again. The cumulative number of viewers for this live broadcast was 2.9 million, and Li Xuanzhuo gained about 10,000 fans.

Although the host repeatedly emphasized during the live broadcast that any commercial elements had nothing to do with Messi, when Messi appeared in the live broadcast room, commercial advertisements including "Hengyuanxiang" and "Avita" kept scrolling above the screen.

Previously, the official account of the organizer of the Argentina China Tour, "2023 Football Champions Tour", also stated that the organizer did not arrange for Argentine player Messi and other players of the two participating teams to participate in any charity or commercial activities for this event.

Interestingly, Messi's live broadcast replayed the scene of Messi's interview on Kuaishou. On the evening of the 14th, Messi's interview footage also appeared in Li Xuanzhuo's Taobao live broadcast room. The Argentine players Enzo and Alvarez, who were supposed to appear in the live broadcast room at 10:30, were still late. Netizens who didn't know the truth asked in the live broadcast room, "Is this a live broadcast or a recorded broadcast?"

Messi interview video played on Taobao

02

Unlike Kuaishou and Taobao, which invited Messi into their live broadcast rooms, Douyin focused on live broadcast of events.

On June 11, Douyin officially announced that Douyin and PICO will broadcast live the friendly match between the Argentine national football team and the Australian national football team at the Workers' Stadium at 8 pm on the 15th. At that time, users can not only watch the live broadcast for free, but also spend 3 yuan to watch the exclusive VR live broadcast and unlock the close-up viewing experience on the sidelines.

It is not difficult to understand the move of Douyin, which is to continue the live broadcast of sports events and continue to strengthen Douyin's sports event operations. After Douyin spent a huge amount of money to purchase the copyright of live broadcast of events last year, there were endless doubts from the outside world. Through the live broadcast of the World Cup last year, Douyin fired an important shot in the sports track.

According to the World Cup viewing report released by Douyin last year, the cumulative number of live broadcast viewers of the 2022 World Cup reached 10.6 billion, with a total of 1.3 billion live user interactions; the number of live viewers of the finals reached 230 million, with a peak of 37.06 million concurrent online viewers. The live broadcast of the World Cup also allowed Douyin to gain a phenomenal live broadcast room that was popular for a month in the fourth quarter of last year.

Douyin's layout in the sports track can be traced back to 2018, when ByteDance and the NBA reached a long-term cooperation, and watched NBA daily game highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, etc. through ByteDance's mobile platforms including Toutiao, Xigua Video and Douyin. In 2019, Douyin invested in Hupu Sports, and won the broadcasting rights of the America's Cup and the Bundesliga in 2021.

On June 15, Douyin just announced that it had reached a cooperation with China Media Group and became the rights-holding broadcaster of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou.

But after winning a brief user carnival through sports events, how to avoid subsequent user loss has become a new challenge facing Douyin.

In addition, sports events are diverse and have long cycles, which not only tests the platform's operational capabilities, but also requires the platform to make long-term investments in funds, personnel, etc. Moreover, as competition intensifies, the investment is still rising.

Faced with huge investments in many aspects, the only commercial monetization method currently available is still selling memberships. How to explore new profit channels and break out of the dilemma of operating sports events that lose money but gain publicity is also a new challenge that Douyin needs to solve.

03

Behind the division of Messi, the major Internet platforms have their own calculations.

With the help of Messi's live streaming traffic, Taobao hopes to show its support for newcomers to Taobao. The Taobao live streaming room where Messi landed was Li Xuanzhuo, a wine anchor who just joined Taobao on May 31. Previously, Kuaishou was his main live streaming platform, and he currently has 12.1 million fans on Kuaishou. According to public reports, Li Xuanzhuo's Kuaishou live streaming on May 26 this year had a total sales of more than 53.96 million yuan, ranking first on the Kuaishou overall list.

Moreover, for Internet platforms like Taobao, which mainly target females, Messi’s arrival may also break through the existing user circle. Just like Taobao’s introduction of Luo Yonghao, football stars represented by Messi can also attract more male users to Taobao’s live broadcast room.

Especially when the traffic of various platforms has reached the ceiling, snatching Messi may also play a role in revitalizing old users. Taobao has clearly pointed out that compared with the growth of GMV this year, the more important indicator is the growth of DAU. Zhuang Shuai, an expert in the retail e-commerce industry and founder of Bailian Consulting, believes that the competition for Messi by the platform can help increase user activity.

However, Li Chengdong, founder of Dolphin Club and e-commerce expert, said that the scramble for Messi by various companies is useless and is just to create hype. It has no sustainability and is considered a brand exposure cooperation.

It is not uncommon for various platforms to compete for celebrities. Previously, there have been competitions for stars such as Jay Chou and Andy Lau. In Zhuang Shuai's view, with the continuous development of live e-commerce, celebrities have always been an advantageous resource that major platforms compete for.

With the help of the celebrity effect, even if the Internet platform cannot directly direct traffic to live streaming sales, it can still demonstrate the strength of the platform and enhance user stickiness.

As long as the traffic anxiety of Internet platforms is not alleviated, events like the division of Messi will never stop.

References:

"Messi, one man stirs up the Chinese Internet" E-commerce Online

"When Douyin entered the World Cup, TikTok poached NBA players" Alphabet List

"Has the Internet Found a New Spring Festival Gala?" Alphabet List

"The live broadcast ended in less than 15 minutes! Messi, who was so nervous that he stepped on Jio, became the "hot commodity" in the "618" platform competition" Daily Economic News

"Messi starts broadcasting on Taobao" Beijing Business Daily

Author: Xue Yaping, Editor: Zhao Jinjie

Source public account: Alphabet List (ID: wujicaijing), let the future be more than just big.