UP Master Crossing Regions, a "Big Gamble" on Traffic

This article introduces the phenomenon of UP hosts on Bilibili switching to other regions, the reasons behind UP hosts' choice to switch to other regions, and the impact of switching to other regions on bloggers.

In January this year, @凉风kaze updated the last episode of "Watching Countless Movies" on Bilibili, announcing the completion of this series of videos.

After more than four years of continuous updating, the column was finally brought to an end by the UP host himself.

It is worth mentioning that the end of this column is not only a "end of my youth" in a sense, but what makes most users feel sad is that the animation field, which has long been criticized, has lost another veteran creator .

@凉风kaze's creative journey began in 2016, when Bilibili was still dominated by the second dimension. Relying on his humorous commentary on anime series, Liangfeng quickly became the top UP host in the animation area of ​​the platform and gradually accumulated 7.8 million fans on Bilibili. In the glorious era of animation, he, Fanshi, Pingzi and others were dubbed the "Three Fantasy Gods" of the animation area by users. When Bilibili went public in Hong Kong for the second time, Liangfeng was one of the UP hosts who "rang the bell" on behalf of the animation area.

However, in his later video creation, the concentration of "animation" continued to decline, and "Read Countless Movies", a column that originated from the promotion of animation dramas, has also been mixed with more real-life, film and television content in the four years of updates. Even so, in the eyes of many users, the end of "Read Countless Movies" also marks that the UP host has completely left the animation field and turned to the life area.

It's not just @凉风kaze. Kas discovered that as the original partitioning mechanism of Bilibili was broken, many UP hosts have more or less started cross-regional creation in the past two years . For example, another top UP host @中国boy超级大刚 has been criticized by many fans for moving closer to the life area and reducing the update of game content.

Nowadays, cross-region creation is not a new thing, but it is worth pondering why UP hosts choose to cross regions? Is this a dangerous move?

1. UP Master’s Cross-Region Attempt

@凉风kaze's "Read Countless Movies" series of videos was launched in 2019. The initial idea was to solve various problems that fans had in finding anime. In the first video, Liangfeng found a total of 26 anime based on various blurry screenshots or simple text impressions sent by fans, and gave a simple explanation of the plot. This "question and answer" format was gradually fixed in subsequent updates, becoming the representative work of the UP host, and brought a lot of traffic.

In his personal column, he said that the purpose of opening the column is to "mainly introduce old films (games/comics/movies/animation/others), supplemented by Amway", and hopes to provide an atmosphere where like-minded people can help each other and maintain healthy interactions.

Initially, this series of videos focused on the anime field, but as time went on, fans' needs changed, and the videos gradually expanded from the ACG field to film and television, real people, and street scenes. @凉风kaze's video creation focus also shifted further from the two-dimensional world to real-life life stream videos and film and television. At that time, Bilibili was criticized for its "de-ACG" strategy, and Liangfeng's change in the focus of content creation was also seen as a signal of "leaving" the animation field.

In fact, the signs of UP masters trying to transform appeared very early. Since the end of 2019, "Yuepian Wuxian" has introduced film and television related content. Some old viewers suggested separating it from animation content, but in the end it was merged into one; in terms of content creation, it has increased its trial of life and funny content, co-created with other UP masters, and absorbed traffic outside the animation area. In 2022, Liangfeng opened a small account @凉风不姓凉, focusing on sharing daily life and life streaming videos after marriage. It is not difficult to see its exploration of future creative directions.

The announcement of the end of "Watching Countless Movies" was also seen by users as a sign that Liangfeng had "cut ties" with past content creation. Observing the works since then, the focus of creation has shifted to daily content, showing its determination to enter the living area.

Liangfeng's transformation may be based on multiple factors, such as the decline in traffic in the animation area, the difficulty in monetization, or what he said in the video, "the energy consumption is getting bigger and bigger", but the dissatisfaction caused by this "cross-area" is also obvious. What makes old fans angry is that their original focus is to "watch anime" and "find anime", and Liangfeng's shift to the lifestyle area is undoubtedly a departure from the animation area that brought it huge traffic; and for other users, more doubts actually come from the decline in content quality caused by the lack of successors.

His attempts at lifestyle content have also caused him to hit a public black mark. In a video in April 2021, Liang Feng accepted a netizen's request to "find the address by looking at the picture" and accurately located the address where the photo was taken by searching the street view and asking friends. After the video was released, Liang Feng was questioned by the public for guiding "human flesh search", and his reputation and number of fans declined.

@凉风kaze is not the only one who "leaves" a certain content section. Another top UP host who has tried to cross regions is @中国boy超级大刚.

In the early days, China Boy’s creative field was the game area, and he gained a lot of popularity with humorous and imaginative game videos. Recently, it seems to be an indisputable fact that China Boy’s content focus has shifted to the life area. For example, in cooperation with other members of “Yin Yang Guai Qi”, he produced a number of series of content such as Full-time Newbie, Haunted House Adventure, Random Challenge, and Tricky Office. In the recently released works, the proportion of life content has exceeded that of game content.

However, based on past work updates, China Boy's personal image and account content have reached a certain unity, and his fans are sticky and large enough, so this cross-regional creation has no obvious impact on him. Although he is sometimes criticized for "departing" from the game, overall, since the sense of separation between life and game content is not strong, and users are selective in their content consumption, China Boy himself is also balancing the proportion of the two, so there has not been a large loss of fans.

If China Boy's cross-regional attempt can be described as "going with the flow", then the "transformation" path of @Lexburner, who was previously in the same "Yin Yang Boy Group" as him, was more tortuous.

Lex, who started out as an anime reviewer, was once known as the "anime leader". After B Station intended to create an UP host IP with self-made variety shows and pushed the "Yin Yang Weird Boys Group" to the forefront, his content creation gradually tended to co-create life-oriented content with other UP hosts. After the "Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World" incident, Lex returned to B Station. Due to the impact of the incident, he finally chose to create film and television reviews. Currently, the average traffic per episode remains above one million, which is lower than his previous level.

2. UP hosts cross regions, a “big gamble” on traffic?

Where does the UP host go when crossing regions? The living area is undoubtedly one of the answers.

Many top UP hosts on Bilibili, represented by the "Yin Yang Guai Qi" boy band, started testing the waters of life content very early on. Recently, this testing has shown a tendency to spread to various interest circles. "Life +" has become a universal content template . The "random challenge" and "don't laugh" challenges that were once criticized by the public as "boring", and the recently popular "shared location hide and seek" game, have also become large-scale cross-regional team-building sites for UP hosts.

This is not difficult to understand. On the one hand, the traffic of the life area is large enough . At present, the life area is one of the largest content areas of Bilibili, and the number of submissions ranks first. The content it covers is also rich enough, with multiple subcategories such as comedy, parent-child, travel, agriculture, rural areas, painting, and home furnishing, which is convenient for UP hosts to show their hands and feet; on the other hand, compared with content sections that require professional knowledge and skills, the threshold of the life area is low enough . After all, who doesn’t have a life?

As the top creators of Bilibili are moving towards refinement, the cost of content creation has actually been raised simultaneously. For example, in the food section, it may take more than ten days for an UP host to make a fine dish or dessert. It is normal for UP hosts to spend a lot of energy on core content creation. In this case, expanding the content field, using easy life Vlogs as a creative branch, showing life, and shaping personality have become particularly attractive options.

In addition, the unique advantages of the living area in monetization have also prompted UP hosts from various interest circles to flock in. The rich implantation scenes have allowed UP hosts trapped in niche circles to broaden their monetization channels.

It is foreseeable that there may be quite a few UP hosts who will extend their content to the lifestyle area in the future. The UP host in the handicraft area @才疏学浅的才浅 said that he might increase the creation of lifestyle Vlogs this year. The UP host in the same frame with him @枪弹轨迹, who was originally a well-known UP host in the ghost animal area, recently started the road of "entering" the home dance with several videos.

If we shift our perspective to the platform, we will find that compared with the previous clear zoning mechanism, the number of integrated creations has increased significantly . First, UP hosts are not restricted to creating content in a specific section, and there are even UP hosts in the mixed section such as @-LKs-. Second, the boundaries between content have become less clear. Station B encourages UP hosts to jointly contribute to maximize the fan effect, which means that the barriers to zoning have been further broken down.

This actually requires UP hosts to balance the proportion of core content and "sideline" content. Faced with cross-regional demands, some UP hosts choose to add new content in addition to the original content , such as @中国boy超级大刚; some choose to share part of the content creation by opening a secondary account.

For example, @记录生活蛋黄派, the account focuses on food making, while the small account @记录小生活蛋黄派 is more free-spirited, and is very different from the main account in terms of content direction, length, and shooting style.

The secondary account mainly features vertical screen videos, ranging from half a minute to two minutes in length, and focuses on recording daily life. For Danhuangpie, it may take ten days to make a roast goose on the main account, but the content on the secondary account can be quickly completed in the intervals between filming. These life stream videos are not suitable for display on the main account, but they help supplement the content on the secondary account. Currently, the number of fans of @Danhuangpie who records small life has risen to 910,000.

But in a sense, crossing regions is still a dangerous behavior for UP hosts.

First of all, an unavoidable topic is traffic. Unfortunately, in Kas Observation, the traffic of most creators' "sideline" content is far lower than their core content. This is not difficult to understand. The logic of Bilibili is still "content is king". The important bond between UP hosts and fans is content, and the "binding" relationship is also based on their content capabilities. In long-term viewing, users have developed a habit of consuming UP host content, but this content demand is selective, which means that once the UP host transforms, its newly created content is likely not to be as attractive as the original content.

A more cruel statement is that users may not be that interested in the life of the UP host. After shifting the focus to the life area, @凉风kaze's traffic continued to decline. According to the data from the new website, in the past 30 days, 凉风 has lost nearly 100,000 fans.

Only a small number of UP hosts have the ability to keep their fans on their content, including some UP hosts who have highly personalized their accounts and have a certain IP effect. However, compared with Douyin and Kuaishou, users of Bilibili are more demanding . Even the top UP @中国boy超级大猿 could not avoid criticism of "losing the original intention" and "changing the taste" during the transformation process.

On the other hand, cross-zone is equivalent to stepping out of the comfort zone, taking root in an unfamiliar field, and becoming a "newbie". For example, entering the life zone means, to a certain extent, exposing one's life and values ​​to the audience. Once the persona collapses, the impact on the account will not be ignored. The latest example is @老少女阿珂, whose reputation in the comment area has dropped rapidly after the persona of an independent designer collapsed.

@中国boy超级大猿 has also encountered such a "risky" moment. In June last year, he partnered with medical UP @兔叭咔 to interact with fans. When asked about a letter about a relationship problem, he made inappropriate remarks such as "must teach her a lesson" and "must take revenge". Such remarks aroused public disgust, and it was inevitable that he would "turn over".

This is the case even for the top UP hosts. For most UP hosts, choosing to cross regions means, to some extent, facing a "big gamble" on traffic.

Author: Chao Guan

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