Why does a 24-hour unmanned live broadcast attract 200 million viewers?

How does 24-hour unmanned live broadcast make the audience addicted? What kind of consumer psychology is hidden behind the popularity of slow live broadcast? In this article, the author discusses the reasons why the emerging form of slow live broadcast with the flavor of the New Year has attracted 200 million viewers from multiple dimensions such as platform construction, Internet economic transformation, New Year IP, and e-commerce live broadcast. Recommended reading for those who are interested in IP operation, market consumption, and e-commerce operation.

As the Spring Festival approaches, travelers are returning home. According to preliminary analysis by the Ministry of Transport, the total passenger flow during this year's Spring Festival travel season was about 2.095 billion, nearly twice the same period last year, and recovered to about 70% of the same period in 2019.

Three years of fighting the epidemic have made this Spring Festival even more special. For some families, this year is even the first real "reunion year" in the past three years. Before New Year's Eve, Xinhua News Agency released a themed video titled "This is the meaning of going home". In the video, a mother saw her daughter returning home and ran away with excitement, and a child stood at the entrance of the village, waiting for his father to return home. In more than five minutes, every frame was the tears of joy of the elderly and the unbridled laughter of the children.

Video related screen and comment area

As for the various details in the video, such as the firecracker debris in the village alleys, the festive new clothes on the elderly and children, the car trunks full of New Year's goods, and the blessing characters and spring couplets on the doors and windows of every household, they are constantly reminding us that the New Year (Lunar New Year) is getting closer.

It is worth mentioning that this year, Guangdong, Shandong, Liaoning and other places have adjusted the "ban on fireworks", announcing that some areas will allow fireworks to be set off during specific time periods; Hangzhou said it will moderately expand the areas where fireworks are allowed to be set off to increase citizens' experience of setting off fireworks. The optimization of relevant policies by various provinces and cities is bound to add fuel to the rising atmosphere of the New Year.

National-level applications that are deeply involved in people's lives have always been the best atmosphere group for the Spring Festival. In the past few years, Internet giants have used red envelopes worth hundreds of millions of yuan to greet the people across the country. This year, red envelopes were not absent. At the same time, the New Year's Goods Festival of e-commerce platforms such as Taobao Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo was held as scheduled, and the Spring Festival service continued; short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have successively broadcast the Spring Festival Gala of various local stations simultaneously; NetEase recently announced a cooperation with CCTV.com to build the first Metaverse venue for online Spring Festival Gala viewers.

2023 is the eighth year of Alipay's Five Blessings Collection. In addition to continuing this iconic event this year, Alipay also launched the Spring Festival Metaverse venue "Fuqi Paradise" and the Life Account "New Year's Flavor Slow Live Broadcast" - netizens "cloud-watch" Shanghai Yuyuan Lantern Festival, Chaergan Lake Winter Fishing, Harbin Ice and Snow World. Spontaneously greet each other in the comment area, pray together, and feel the New Year atmosphere. So far, this series of slow live broadcasts with the theme of New Year's flavor has accumulated more than 200 million views.

As the number of Chinese netizens reaches its peak and young people spend more and more time surfing the Internet every day, the flavor of the New Year in online life seems to be becoming increasingly rich and intense.

Some slow live broadcast images

01 How did the slow live broadcast of the New Year attract 200 million viewers?

The industry generally defines slow live broadcast as a form of live broadcast that uses live broadcast equipment to record real scenes for a long time in real time and present them in their original form. It has the characteristics of less picture modification, no editing, and no host. At the same time, slow live broadcast mainly provides three types of user value:

The first is leisure and aesthetic value, such as “cloud tourism”.

For example, in Pu'er, Yunnan alone, 42 scenic spots have opened slow live broadcast accounts. Yunnan Province has also integrated local tourism resources into a platform in the form of slow live broadcast, making it convenient for tourists from all over the country to watch;

The second is the accompanying social value, such as "cloud cat raising" and "cloud vegetable planting".

As early as 2013, CCTV.com broadcast a 24-hour live broadcast of the life of giant pandas on the IPANDA Panda Channel, which won a large number of fans at home and abroad. Nowadays, slow live broadcast is also a regular online content style for many zoos in China;

Finally, it is the audience's sense of participation in major theme events, such as "cloud supervision". During the past Double 11, Cainiao would show users the process of shipping from its warehouse in the form of uninterrupted slow live broadcast.

In the slow live broadcast of the New Year atmosphere, these three values ​​are combined.

Wang Lei, the person in charge of Yu Garden Market, told reporters that it is a tradition for Shanghai locals to visit Yu Garden to enjoy the lantern festival during the Spring Festival. This year, Yu Garden created the "Shan Hai Qi Yu Ji" theme lantern festival based on the traditional Chinese myth "Shan Hai Jing". In addition to showing the Yu Garden Lantern Festival in real time, the slow live broadcast also inserted the mythical beasts in "Shan Hai Jing" in the form of AR special effects.

Harbin Ice and Snow World has made ice sculptures modeled after traditional Chinese architecture, breaking through regional constraints with the help of slow live broadcasts, bringing a strong northern Chinese New Year flavor to audiences across the country. "Everyone wants to see something colorful during the Chinese New Year, which is the preference of the Chinese people. Even if it is a fixed camera position and there is no explanation, it is still attractive."

Slow live broadcast user "Donggua" explained to the reporter that the festive atmosphere is the main reason why she frequently visits the slow live broadcast room in recent days. "In reality, many shopping malls and tourist attractions are also busy, but I really don't want to go out in such a cold day."

Slow live broadcast content integrated with AR special effects

At the same time, the reporter observed the major cultural and tourism live broadcast rooms and found that the audience was also keen on wishing a happy new year and praying for blessings in the comment area. "We did not guide them, it was a spontaneous behavior of the audience. However, the southwest of Yu Garden is adjacent to the City God Temple, so in the real world, this is a place with a strong atmosphere of wishing a happy new year and praying for blessings."

The presence of so many interactions in the live broadcast room was beyond the expectations of the platform and merchants. However, considering that even after three years of the epidemic, people are still generally optimistic about the future, at this time of the Spring Festival, facing the festive pictures and music, praying and making wishes is probably just "following the New Year's atmosphere."

In the final analysis, the fact that workers who have been busy for a year watch the slow live broadcast of the New Year atmosphere together is not only because people have more leisure time during the Spring Festival and are curious about the New Year customs in various places, but also reflects the Chinese people's recognition of their national identity and culture. It also reflects the emotional resonance that people can feel in the collective participation of traditional festivals.

When slow live broadcast is used for cultural communication, certain prerequisites are required. In addition to allowing viewers to interact with each other, cultural sharing and emotional connection from the group are also required to retain the audience. "Zheng Xiaodi, an associate professor at Shandong Normal University, once explained this in a paper on slow live broadcast. The implication is that content is important for slow live broadcast, but the theme represented by the content may be the real reason why people are deeply attracted to a fixed-camera, unexplained image.

According to public data from Douyin, the total number of viewers of 38,515 zoo live broadcasts in 2022 was nearly 400 million. Pandas, mongooses, orangutans... cute animals and fascinating exotic scenery are becoming the traffic code for slow live broadcasts. In the "Five Fortunes Mid-term" of Alipay, the cumulative number of viewers of cultural and tourism slow live broadcasts exceeded 200 million, which also shows the huge impact of the New Year atmosphere on the popularity of slow live broadcasts.

As of press time, the cumulative number of viewers of the Yuyuan Shopping Mall's Life Live Room has exceeded 66 million, and Harbin Ice and Snow World has also attracted more than 20 million viewers. In addition, 7 million people watched the giant pandas eat lunch in the Xixiakou Tourism live broadcast room. Some viewers said that they watched from 7 a.m. to noon and were addicted to the pandas' eating live broadcast. At present, nearly 100 scenic spots have launched slow live broadcasts on Alipay, and nearly 90% of the live broadcast rooms have attracted more than 10,000 viewers.

02 Live broadcast of the New Year atmosphere resonates with the fireworks in reality

The popularity of Alipay's New Year content this year is also due to its efforts to build and accumulate the New Year mentality over the past years. Alipay once calculated that one out of every two Chinese people has scanned, collected, or sent blessings. Alipay's Five Blessings campaign has been held for eight consecutive years, and has almost formed a tacit understanding with users.

Although I only have enough money for a bottle of Coke each time, I will definitely collect it. It doesn't take time anyway. Of course, it's mainly a habit. "Netizen Lithium added that it is easier to collect the five blessings this year. One reason is that he has observed that a large number of businesses are issuing blessing cards, and you can get them as long as you use the relevant services. In his Alipay friend list, many people even have dozens or hundreds of blessing cards.

According to public information from Alipay, this year more than 30,000 merchants’ mini programs participated in the distribution of blessing cards, and merchants became the protagonists of the Five Blessings event. It can be seen that the "Five Blessings", which have become a new year custom, are sharing the popularity accumulated over the past eight years with merchants. During the Chinese New Year, the Five Blessings event is also a traffic feast that merchants are scrambling to enter. Distributing blessing cards, broadcasting live broadcasts of the New Year atmosphere, and opening stores in the Blessings Park are all extensions of the offline fireworks of merchants.

Merchants move their "stores" into the Metaverse

The job search platform "No. 1 Workplace" got a share of this feast. In a special recruitment event for Hema positions opened on the first day of Wufu's launch, No. 1 Workplace attracted more than 20 million viewers and received a large number of job communications and resume submissions. "The time of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new is actually the peak season for job hunting.

Whether it is because of the talent gap in some service industries during the Spring Festival, or the enthusiasm of young workers to change jobs after the Spring Festival, it has promoted the active job market around the Spring Festival. "No. 1 Workplace COO (Chief Operating Officer) Xu Yang told reporters that after the epidemic prevention was relaxed, the job market can feel the recovery of many job supply and the enthusiasm of job seekers. For society, especially the economy, this is another kind of "New Year flavor."

The process of building the platform's content ecosystem echoes the digital upgrade path of merchants. Yu Garden's slow live broadcast attracted many users by giving away free tickets in the early days. With the steadily growing scale of private domain traffic and the platform's sound business foundation, merchants will also have multiple possibilities for monetizing content in the future.

Last year, the Five Blessings IP was opened on a large scale for the first time during the Spring Festival. The Beijing Aquarium participated in the Five Blessings Cards event, which attracted more than 3 million visits a day and 4.6 million views of a single video. Subsequently, its live ticket booking volume increased to three times the previous level in just half a year, and the proportion of orders from the Alipay channel once jumped to second place among all channels.

The high order volume is not only driven by high-quality content, but also by the efficiency of the consumption chain - Alipay Life Account is connected with the mini program. Users can watch the live broadcast on Life Account and jump to the Beijing Ocean Aquarium mini program to buy tickets with one click. During the Wufu period this year, the "Chinese Sturgeon Slow Live Broadcast" of the Beijing Ocean Aquarium attracted more than 10 million viewers, and the click-through rate of ticket reservations was as high as 3.4%.

Beijing Aquarium Life Account and Mini Program

Live shows, e-commerce live broadcasts, slow live broadcasts. The continuous improvement of the live broadcast industry has made it possible to meet increasingly diverse needs and brought a richer experience. Among them, the popularity of slow live broadcasts with a New Year's flavor is obviously not a coincidence. When young people transplant various activities in their lives such as "eating, drinking, living, traveling, and entertainment" to the online world on a large scale, the demand for the festive atmosphere and sense of ritual for the New Year will naturally appear online.

At this time, Internet companies use technology to provide netizens with content with a flavor of the New Year, which is just a matter of course. For example, WeChat red envelopes, Alipay's five blessings, and the activities of collecting characters, collecting cards, and writing blessing characters on major platforms were all explorations of the online flavor of the New Year in the early years. Today, it has become an indispensable ritual for young people to celebrate the New Year.

In addition to participating in the Alipay slow live broadcast, Yu Garden introduced that it had developed New Year games with Tencent during the Spring Festival in the past, and has been operating online park mini programs. However, Wang Lei admitted that on the one hand, the online New Year atmosphere can radiate to a wider range of users and provide a New Year experience that breaks through geographical restrictions. But at the same time, there are also certain limitations in the online experience, interactivity, and atmosphere creation. "The online atmosphere is good, but if there is a chance, you can also come and visit offline."

For the general public today, you can feel the New Year atmosphere without leaving your home, and virtual fireworks are just as gorgeous. But the joy of carefully lighting the fuse with a match and covering your ears while waiting for the first sound is also unique. The epidemic prevention policy has been adjusted, and catering, tourism, movie watching, singing and dancing, all the lively atmosphere of the New Year are returning.

The Internet and the real economy have always been inseparable and resonate with each other - in reality, scenic spots have spring blessing activities, shopping malls hold year-end clearance sales, and online sales have correspondingly developed slow live broadcasts of the New Year atmosphere and New Year’s Goods Festivals... The two convey and share the strong New Year atmosphere that is nurtured in urban life.

Author: Shen Songnan; Editor: Si Wen

WeChat official account: E-Commerce Online (ID: dianshangmj), see sharpness and insights, and focus on innovative media on the Internet and new business.