Anti-IQ tax finally has traffic on Douyin

They do not engage in popular science, do not regard themselves as conscientious merchants, and often call themselves liars and consumers as big enemies. For a time, the "Internet old men" of the two industries were rampant on short video platforms, attracting a surge in fans and bringing a new trend, but from a commercial perspective, this road is not smooth.

Who would have thought that young people would "rectify" such a complicated industry by role-playing, and the characters they played were old scammers.

"I have been selling tea for more than 60 years. You have misunderstood me too deeply. The most I can sell you for Laobanzhang, which costs 20 yuan, is 88,000 yuan." "You said you can make money by selling Pu'er, but do you understand Pu'er? This piece costs 888 yuan, and the cost alone is 20 yuan."

An old man with a weathered face tells the "industry insider information" seriously to the camera. This is the typical content of the Douyin blogger "Laojiu Haocha".

They do not engage in popular science, nor do they consider themselves to be conscientious merchants. On the contrary, they often call themselves liars and call people who buy tea "big enemies". Their main theme is sarcasm and irony.

Don't be fooled by the "Internet old man", the nasolabial folds and big eye bags are all caused by the filter of old age, the real person is a young man with a relaxed face. The "Old Nine" behind the camera is actually "Little Nine", and his true face is revealed in the pinned video.

When fake scammers take over, real scammers must be beating their chests and stamping their feet: If I had known that telling the truth would work, why would I bother? Amid the calls of "family", heart-wrenching industry jokes have emerged.

According to DATA from Xinbangyoushu, Laojiuhaocha's Douyin account became popular since late March, gaining 1.35 million followers in 7 days, a 980% increase rate. Its current number of followers has reached 2.24 million.

Interestingly, the same pattern of young people using old-man special effects and telling sarcastic industry jokes first appeared in the cultural relics industry. Bloggers "Wang Gaoxing's Small Circle" and "Anan Bisheng" suddenly changed into "Old Swindler" in the middle and end of last year, accumulating 310,000 and 490,000 fans respectively.

The copywriters in the antique circle are also quite aggressive: "I have been in the antique business for more than 60 years, and this year is the most difficult to cheat. Two years ago, I must have been able to sell this kind of small string for 2,000 yuan with a cost of 50 yuan. Alas, this year I can only sell it for 1,800 yuan."

For a time, the "Internet old men" of the two industries were rampant on short video platforms, and their peers followed suit. Bloggers from other industries also joined in, including directors and wine sellers, but in terms of results, they were far inferior to those in the tea and cultural relics industries.

If we talk about the similarities between the two industries, everyone who understands them will understand - from a distance, it is about self-cultivation, but from a close distance, it is full of chaos; the water is too deep, there are too many pitfalls, and the routines are iterating much faster than the products.

Young practitioners are "renovating" the industry in a peculiar way, and the influx of traffic is the result of consumers' voting.

Practitioners and consumers trapped in the chaos of the industry are going crazy and rebelling together. The number of fans of the Internet old men may not exceed tens of millions, but they have brought a rare new trend to the two industries.

01

Most of the seemingly exaggerated industry jokes told by the "Internet old man" actually have a basis in reality.

If you have never bought broken silver tea for thousands of dollars or pure natural cherry blossom pink star and moon bodhi for hundreds of dollars, you will not be able to appreciate the mystery of the "Internet old man".

Behind the crazy words are the bitter tears of consumers.

For example, the most representative joke about Laojiu Haocha: A 20-yuan Laobanzhang is sold for 88,000 yuan.

On the eve of March 15, 2020, The Paper went to Menghai County, Yunnan, the origin of Pu'er tea, and exposed the chaos there, including terraced tea posing as ancient tree tea and Laobanzhang impersonation everywhere.

Lao Banzhang was originally a place name (the first of the five Banzhang villages), which is near Menghai County. It is a well-known mountain in the tea industry, and the Pu'er tea produced there is sold at a high price.

In the news video of that year, a piece of tea with "Banzhang Ancient Tree" printed on the package was sold for only 30 yuan. The tea stall owner admitted that it was counterfeit: "Generally it is not, it is usually sold like this." "If it is sold in Beijing, it can be sold for a good price."

The "Dzi beads" that Wang Gaoxing's small circle often used to make fun of also had similar chaos. Dzi beads are also called "eye beads of heaven". This black and white craft jewelry mainly made of agate is endowed with colors such as "Tibet" and "Buddhism". It is divided into old beads and new beads, and its structure is extremely complex. Nowadays, the market is relatively chaotic, and the phenomenon of passing off new beads as old ones is rampant.

On the short video platform, a typical Dzi bead content is as follows: The blogger went deep into the Chongsaikang Market in Lhasa, Tibet, where there were many Tibetan men waiting for transactions. The blogger locked onto a Dzi bead with a unique structure, and after a fierce bargaining with the man, he finally sold it on the spot for more than 100,000 yuan.

Collecting Dzi beads from Tibetans in person, showing their sincerity, determination and strength, makes people admire and want to place an order. At this time, another blogger jumped out to popularize science: "Tibet does not produce Dzi beads at all. 95% of the Dzi beads there are imported from other places using modern technology."

This phenomenon of two different sounds colliding is very common in the tea and cultural relics circles.

The blogger here said, look at this century-old tree tea in my house, its color is so dark; the blogger over there said, look at this tea from the same batch, the one on the left has been damp, its color is so dark that it can pass as old tea.

The blogger here said, look at this bead of mine, it’s not dyed, I’ll smash it with a hammer to show you during live broadcast; the blogger over there said that with current dyeing technology, it is possible to dye the inside a long time ago.

What should we do when the two sides are arguing and one side is louder? Here comes the old man from the Internet, straddling the truth and falsehood, and completing the feat of "popularizing science" with memorable industry jokes.

In the final analysis, it is a scientific truth: a businessman's mouth is a lie; a newbie who doesn't learn is a fresh leek.

02

The more the "Internet old man" dares to speak, the more excited his fans become. This is a rebellious conspiracy between young practitioners and consumers.

People are afraid of being cheated elsewhere, but when they come to the comment section of the "Internet old man", they brag so much that even they are afraid of it, and support irony with irony.

People show off in the comment section of Laojiu Haocha: "I usually drink the 888,000 yuan one, yours is a bit low-grade and I'm not interested." "If I buy it, it must be 88,000 yuan. It doesn't matter whether the tea is real or fake. What matters is face." In the comment section of Wang Gaoxing's small circle, people are "showing off", all of them have dzi beads the size of knuckles, and someone showed off a piece as thick as an arm and asked "how about mine?"

The two sides even formed a dream linkage, with fans showing off their forearm-thick "Dzi beads" and boasting that "you need big beads to make tens of millions a year", and someone replied: "This teacup is great, make some Lao Ban Zhang."

In other places, my heart is as hard as a rock, but in front of the old man from the "Internet", I was deeply moved: "He could have just robbed you, but he still wanted to give you a cake of leaves."

If anyone dares to take it seriously and say that this "Internet old man" is bragging, fans will rush up to check his identity: You are the one selling tea/skewers, right?

Not only do they join in verbally, but fans are also willing to spend money on the "old liar". According to new Douyin data, Lao Jiu Hao Cha's live broadcast sales in the past 30 days were 10 million to 25 million yuan, while Wang Gaoxing's small circle is relatively small, with sales of 10,000 to 25,000 in the past 30 days.

A "tea circle primary school student" who has been working in the tea industry for 11 years told Alphabet List that the success of the "Internet old man"'s anti-IQ tax content mainly lies in hitting the "customer pain points."

In this complex industry, the "truth" has become the most common pain point, not quality and price. People are not afraid of spending 88,000 yuan, but they are afraid that what they buy is garbage. The same is true in reverse. People are not afraid of spending a little money to buy garbage, but they are afraid that the garbage is not cheap.

Another "tea lover" with more than ten years of experience described Laojiu Tea as an "emotional outlet" for consumers.

"I don't think it has any advantages or disadvantages (to the industry). It's just a joke about the chaos in the industry. I would rather say that this kind of video may just be a literary work, a joke. I don't like to make a big deal out of it." Hai Langgan, who has been working in the industry for six years, commented.

03

Short videos and live streaming sales are not the initiators of the chaos in the industry.

Many practitioners said that the tea and cultural relics industries are not "standard products" industries, lack clear industry standards, and industry chaos has always existed. However, short videos and live streaming have lowered the entry threshold of the industry, and driven by traffic, the chaos has been further amplified.

Hai Langan said: "The online environment has indeed exacerbated the chaos... To put it bluntly, anyone with a mobile phone can sell goods these days, the threshold is lower and it is more difficult to protect rights, this is a fact." He was once furious because his competitors sold bodhi root products in colors such as cherry blossom pink and imperial green, and he posted three videos in a row to denounce them.

On the other hand, the younger consumer groups have also led to a continuous influx of newbies into the industry, and they are the hardest hit group of people who are "cheated".

According to the 2021 "Douyin E-commerce Tea Industry Insight Report", the scale of consumers aged 18 to 30 in the Douyin tea industry has grown rapidly, with a year-on-year increase of 639% from July to December of that year.

The younger age of collectors of cultural relics is even more astonishing. One parent told Zizibang that his child, who is in the fifth grade, is already playing with strings. Moreover, because there are too many children in the class who are playing with strings, the class teacher has to forbid students from bringing strings to school.

Hai Langan also said that the number of primary and secondary school students among customers has obviously increased. A high school student sent him a message, saying that the principal "does not allow the trading of strings" and asked if there were any "collections that don't look like collectibles."

It can be imagined that Xiaobai lacks judgment in this circle full of tricks, and provides fresh blood for the loudest and "dare to say anything" bad businessmen.

A newbie who had just been into the art market for less than two months told Zizibang that he was very addicted and bought various bracelets worth 3,000 yuan in the live broadcast room, but he "got it" after watching Wang Gaoxing's videos. He picked out a few bracelets and did some research, and found that "they all seemed to be garbage."

04

From traffic to monetization, the "Internet old men" still face considerable obstacles. This rebellion is not yet a game-changer in the industry.

Many people watch, but few place orders. "Don't miss a single joke, don't buy a single thing, watch when it's on, and leave when it's off, don't spend a cent, the main purpose is to keep you company." This sentence can be seen under almost every video of Wang Gaoxing's small circle and Laojiu Haocha.

This may be true in Wang Gaoxing's small circle with 300,000 fans. According to Xin Douyin, the average sales of this account's live broadcasts in the past 30 days were only 2,500 to 5,000 yuan. A similar account, Xin Yuwen Chuang, has only 120,000 fans, but its sales are 10 times that of Wang Gaoxing.

Xiaobai mentioned above also said that he did not and would not place an order, because the atmosphere of live broadcasts is very different from that of short videos, where the anchors are selling goods seriously: "The products and prices do not seem to be attractive to me."

This sense of discontinuity also exists in Laojiu Haocha.

On the evening of April 27, Laojiuhaocha started a live broadcast on Douyin, showing its true face and introducing its products in a serious manner. Its young and serious image makes it difficult to associate it with an "Internet old man". Among the products in the live broadcast room, there is indeed Laobanzhang, which costs 4,999 yuan for 357 grams, and other products are mostly below 200 yuan.

Fans kept posting memes in the live broadcast room, calling on Laojiu to "do something serious" and "give me 88,000", but Laojiu almost never interacted with these meme messages.

On the contrary, when Lao Jiu was selling high-priced tea at 4,000 yuan per piece, he emphasized that "if one is fake, I will pay 100,000 yuan", and said: "I post videos every day to criticize this and that, I cherish my reputation very much."

Even if “not spending a cent” is not a joke, the “old man of the Internet” is not having a smooth journey.

According to Xin Douyin, Laojiuhaocha's sales in the past 30 days were 10 million to 25 million, with an average sales of 1 million to 1.5 million. "Xiaoyinyouhaocha", which also produces tea-related content, has 1.77 million fans, 500,000 fewer than Laojiu, but its average sales are only half of Laojiuhaocha's.

The average sales performance is good. If you want to operate healthily, you need continuous content output and live streaming to sell goods, but for the "Internet old man", this has become the biggest challenge.

Many peers expressed dissatisfaction with this "industry joke". Under the video of Laojiu Haocha, one peer left a message to protest "Don't kill Laobanzhang with one blow". Some consumers also believed the ironic content, or were shocked by the "open fraud", or felt cheated when they saw the young face of the anchor in the live broadcast.

Under pressure from all sides, the live broadcast room of the "Internet old man" was frequently reported and banned.

Laojiuhaocha has been doing live broadcasts on both its main and secondary accounts, with only seven live broadcasts in 30 days on its main account. Wang Gaoxing posted a short video yesterday saying that not only was his traffic restricted, but even his "Little Yellow Car" account was cancelled, which means he cannot link to products in his short videos.

Many practitioners revealed similar views to Alphabet List: "Internet old men" play to emotional value, the user repurchase rate may not be high, and one-time transactions may account for the majority.

The "tea circle elementary school student" put it even more bluntly: "In the end, it's still just cutting leeks."

In the chaotic cultural and art circles and tea circles, the anti-IQ tax promotion of "Internet old man" is a dazzling lightning that splits the mask of the industry. But from the perspective of commercial transformation, this road still failed.

There seem to be two old paths left for practitioners: either "dare to say anything" to attract newbies, or do science popularization and sell goods steadily. The former has traffic, and the latter has repurchase rate. I hope only the latter has a bright future.

Written by: Bi Andi; Edited by: Wang Jing

Source: Hefan Finance (ID: daxiongfan), the most insightful business ideas.