With a million followers in 7 days, is “profiteering” also the secret to internet celebrity traffic?

A live broadcaster who sells expiring food products calls himself a "swindler" and becomes popular in 7 days with millions of followers. The author of this article uses the Douyin blogger @临期也狗 as an example to decipher the traffic code of the Douyin "swindler". Let's take a look.

In order to save money and enjoy snacks at the same time, this generation of young people has made expiring foods popular.

But you may not know that behind what you think is "taking advantage" and "fleecing the sheep", there are actually huge commercial profits.

Similar to how Xin Jifei exposed food additives, Douyin now has bloggers exposing the “hidden rules” of the near-expiry food industry.

They call themselves "swindlers" and are relentless in their pursuit of expiring foods that bring huge profits.

▲Image source: Douyin @Sharp Business Pang Ding

When you thought these popular bloggers were “working for the public” and you were cheering for them, they started promoting products, catching you off guard.

To buy or not to buy? That is the question.

01 "Swindlers" become the password for traffic

TikTok blogger @临期也狗 is one of the popular “swindlers”.

"Linqiyegou", who has been in the near-expiry food industry for more than four years, is familiar with the inside story of the industry and is very adept at "self-exposure".

He can buy Want Want Black Tea Latte Flavored Milk Candy for 90 cents when it is about to expire, which retails for more than 7 yuan. He buys a bottle of cocktail that normally sells for more than 100 yuan for 6 yuan and sells it for 15.9 yuan. He buys White Elephant Korean Turkey Noodles that sells for 8 yuan in supermarkets for 1.5 yuan and sells it for 3 yuan, making a profit of 1.5 yuan per bag.

▲Image source: Douyin @临期也狗

Buy at low prices and sell at high prices. It is true that all businessmen are dishonest. "Linqiyegou" calls himself a "dishonest businessman" and he is absolutely right.

But in the entire supply chain, there are even more cunning ones than "expiring products".

The supermarket sells sparkling juice for more than ten yuan, but he can buy it for 1 yuan and sell it for 3 yuan. Even if the price has dropped sharply, the buffet owner will not be tempted.

When there is only one month left in the shelf life and the price drops to 50 cents a bottle, these sparkling juices will be circulated in buffets for us to drink unlimitedly.

▲Image source: Douyin @临期也狗

Supermarkets usually sell Wangzai milk for more than 3 yuan, but it is 2 yuan during discounts, but the purchase price of "Linshiyegou" is only 80 cents. Moreover, you must check the date of discounted products, otherwise it may be more than ten days past the expiration date, and it will go bad if you drink it slowly.

The layman watches the excitement, while the expert watches the details.

When "Expiring Food Is Also a Dog" revealed the inside story, young people who were immersed in the maze of "low prices" of near-expiring food were undoubtedly poured a bucket of cold water and became much more sober.

"Linqiyegou" has become popular on the Internet with this "business conscience". At present, his Douyin account has 2.1 million followers, and data shows that 940,000+ followers were added within a week, ranking first in the weekly follower growth list.

The blogger @尖商胖丁, who gained more than 780,000 followers that week and ranked third on the follower growth list, is also a self-exposed person in the near-expiry food industry.

Judging from the content and style of their works, the accounts of "Linqiyegou" and "Jianshang Pangding" are very similar, especially in that both of them, without exception, exposed the huge profits of near-expiry foods such as instant noodles, milk, nuts, Red Bull, and cocktails.

▲Image source: Douyin @Sharp Business Pang Ding

"Having a similar type of person" is not scary. As long as you grasp the traffic code, you have the opportunity to become an Internet celebrity.

The number of Douyin fans of "Jian Shang Pang Ding" has now reached over 2.63 million, and many of his works have received over 100,000 likes.

02 Selling millions of goods in 7 days

"Xin Jifei taught us how to read the ingredient list, and Ye Gou and Jigglypuff taught us how to read the date."

As more and more netizens came to support him, "Linqiyegou" and "Jianshang Pangding" gradually became as famous as last year's phenomenal internet celebrity Xin Jifei, and were hailed as "Xin Jifei of the near-expiry food industry."

But there is a saying that goes, no one will teach you how to make money unless he wants to make money from you.

The two people who taught netizens how to identify near-expiry food tricks on Douyin not only had window displays in their accounts, they also quickly walked into the live broadcast room and put up the shared bikes.

▲Image source: Douyin @临期也狗直播室

Logically speaking, "unscrupulous merchants" should be condemned by everyone. But in fact, there are quite a few consumers who place orders.

According to the data, "Linqiyehgou" has conducted 6 live broadcasts in the past 7 days, with an average sales volume of between 250,000 and 500,000, and a GMV of up to 1 million to 2.5 million.

In addition, "Swindler Fatty" has conducted four live broadcasts on Douyin in the past seven days, with sales of 250,000 to 500,000, and GMV also reached 1 million to 2.5 million.

We should not be surprised by this. This can be said to be a two-way race between "unscrupulous merchants" and consumers.

In the comment section of the works of the two "food profiteers", there are often voices of "buying" from netizens. After all, although the middlemen make a profit from the price difference, the selling price is indeed cheap; although the product is about to expire, it has not expired yet and will not make you sick.

For the attractive price, "family members" are also willing to make a rush.

▲Image source: Douyin netizens

For those who are about to expire, it is even more necessary to expand sales channels through live broadcasting.

In the video, he stressed more than once that selling near-expiry food carries a great risk. Since the value of near-expiry food is assessed by the number of months remaining in its shelf life, if it cannot be sold within the shelf life, it will be a complete loss for the owner.

Just like milk, if it cannot be sold this month, it will enter the break-even stage next month, and start losing money the month after next.

Traffic means sales. The tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of netizens pouring into the live broadcast room can help them relieve sales pressure to a certain extent.

03 The embarrassment of “righteous internet celebrities”

When internet celebrities enter the live broadcast room to sell goods, doubts about “cheating leeks” always follow.

Especially "righteous people" like @辛吉飞, @临期也狗, and @尖商胖丁.

Because their traffic is obtained by exposing capital routines and industry insider information, and they stand on the same front with ordinary consumers, they have gained a lot of attention and support.

However, when they started live streaming to sell goods, they stood in the camp of capital and wielded the "sickle" towards consumers, which was a betrayal of traffic.

This is the embarrassment of the “righteous internet celebrity”.

Wang Hai, the anti-counterfeiter, is facing such a situation. Last year, Wang Hai pursued the crazy Xiao Yangge relentlessly. Not long ago, the two of them were connected in the live broadcast room and had a good chat. Many people angrily scolded Wang Hai, "He was bought so quickly."

▲Image source: Douyin @王海

The backlash of public opinion against Yegou and Jigglypuff has already begun to show.

Some netizens compared and found that the prices of products in the live broadcast room were not as cheap as the shipping prices exposed in the video, and were almost the same as the prices on other platforms. What’s worse, some products were more expensive than those in the flagship store.

Consumers who came for the low prices failed to take advantage of the low prices and ended up being the "leeks" to be harvested. Feelings of disappointment spread in the comment section.

▲Image source: Douyin netizens

In comparison, Xin Jifei's path to commercialization was much more gentle.

After becoming popular last year, Xin Jifei appeared in the live broadcast room of Kuaishou store. Although he did not sell any products but only introduced the ingredients of the products, it still caused great controversy.

Since then, Xin Jifei has not embarked on the road of live streaming to sell goods. Although he would live stream on his account @辛吉飞小助手, he only explained food processing-related content to the audience and did not put any products on the shelves.

Most of Xin Jifei's monetization methods are through inserting advertisements in videos or authorizing live streaming. He is very cautious about live streaming sales.

Perhaps it is because of this that Xin Jifei still receives support from netizens today.

▲Image source: Douyin @辛吉飞小助手 live broadcast room

However, it is not practical to ask "Linqiyegou" and "Jianshang Pangding" to imitate Xin Jifei's slow-paced monetization method.

After all, the near-expiry food industry is fighting a "blitzkrieg."

The mountains of food and drinks that were about to expire piled up behind them made it impossible for them to slow down.

References:

1. New broadcast: Another Xin Jifei? "Food profiteer" reveals industry insider information, gaining millions of followers in a week

2. TopKlout: After the transformation into selling goods, can Xin Jifei still have “technology and hard work”?

3. Huxiu.com: "Trader" failed in Shanghai tail goods business

Author: Su Ziqiu

Source: WeChat official account: "Internet Brand Officer (ID: szwanba)"