"The First Village of Live Broadcasting" Gold Rush
The students of Yaoshiji E-commerce School are taking classes. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuqian photo
The shop owner who is selling live. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuqian photo
Zheng Liuping, who is selling live-light toys, is live streaming. Photo courtesy of interviewees
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, every road leading to Beixia Zhu was blocked by a tricycle or van that was pulling goods. The three-wheelers wore slippers and smoked while waiting for the traffic police to evacuate the road. In the evening, these three-wheelers were replaced with luxury cars such as Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
This ordinary village, 2.2 kilometers away from Yiwu International Trade City, is labeled by the media as "China's first micro-business village" and "Internet celebrity live broadcasting first village." Every shop in the village will have a live broadcaster selling anchors. In front of the camera, they screamed with exhaustion, "Baby, this is the last set of benefits for today!" If you are lucky, thousands of orders are thrown, and the goods are blinking.
The shop signs read "Live", "Explosion" and "Artifact". The trash can also read "Walk into the North to Zhu and realize the dream of wealth". Entrepreneurs from all over the country rushed in. "This is a place full of money in the air." An entrepreneur said.
According to data provided by the Beixiazhu Village Office, there are currently more than 13,000 employees in Beixiazhu social e-commerce, with a peak value of more than 20,000. The average age of employees is about 26 years old, mainly after 90s. They created a new retail order with an average daily volume of 600,000 pieces for Beixia Zhu and surrounding areas, with an annual transaction scale of nearly 10 billion yuan.
Behind the heat, some problems have begun to emerge: outrageously rising house prices, unable to retain the influencers of Internet celebrities, and the lack of influential big brands... An Internet analyst who surveyed here told the Beijing News reporter, "Any The shops of Beixia Zhu are all the same. There is no concept of product category, only the concept of'red is not red'." In his view, Beixia Zhu trapped in this model needs to be changed in order to have a bigger one. development of.
Rich dream
"Welcome all the babies, the family members who come in, point your hearts!"
At 19:30 on May 27th, a 48-year-old "three ugly sister" set up a live ring light, sound card and two mobile phones at a home textile store in Xiazhu Village, North. She specifically painted her eyebrows and painted gorgeous lipstick. Holding the microphone in one hand, the other arm twisted around the waist and knees.
"Three Ugly Sisters" comes from Changchun, Jilin, and has more than 30,000 followers on the fast track. In Beixia Zhu Village, she is not a "net red". The anchor, who has hundreds of thousands of fans, is barely known as a little influencer.
The earliest occupation of "Three Ugly Sisters" was a taxi driver. Later, when she got divorced, she sang around with her stereo. A week ago, she smelled the business opportunities of Beixia Zhu.
She first sold pots to a kitchenware store, sang and danced, and wobbled the burden, selling more than 30 pots in 4 hours. In order to compete for sales, she lowered the price by 20 yuan and was beaten by other anchors who sold the same product in the shop, and eventually lost her job.
As a result, "Three Ugly Sisters" changed live broadcast to another home textile store. Seeing new fans coming in, she used all her strength to make them happy, raised her eyebrows, and cast a few winks.
"Old irons don't support me, I can't get out there anymore, I have to go home to drive a taxi..." There are fans who even Mai came in, and they talked to her for more than half an hour, and she couldn't show any impatience. . In her view, the network anchor is also a "net beggar."
Although the "Three Ugly Sisters" spent one night to sell several summer cool quilts, ice silk mats and four-piece suits, but after the live broadcast, she only received 3 orders.
Out of the live broadcast room, she lit a cigarette and looked lonely. "My age and body type, whether it's clothing or cosmetics...I have no advantage in selling anything. Some are better than our young and beautiful women. Pots and sheets can only be sold once. No one wants to buy pots every day, then I can sell them tomorrow what?"
Compared with "Three Ugly Sisters", "Mr. Xingdi" has 280,000 followers on the fast track.
"Mr. Xingdi" broadcasts five or six hours a day. The 29-year-old is from Huanggang, Hubei, tall, thin and white.
"Mr. Xingdi" likes to tell his inspirational stories during the live broadcast. He described himself as a wealthy second generation, broke away from his father for the sake of ideals, ran away from home with 1,000 yuan, and came to Yiwu alone to start a business.
"Fans like to hear how bad you are, and they like to learn successfully." "Mr. Xingdi" said.
"Mr. Xingdi" has sold cosmetics, daily necessities, and accessories. He often shoots some vlogs in jewelry factories to show fans the process of designing, casting, processing, testing and packaging.
Fans were interested in his vlog, so he privately believed that he would bring a batch of goods.
Zheng Liuping, a 31-year-old Anhui native, was one of the earliest people to do live broadcasts with Beixia Zhu.
Zheng Liuping said that he and his wife took turns broadcasting live for 8 hours a day. "We took out a hand warmer and shouted at the camera,'Does the old iron want it, six pieces and five one'."
Zheng Liuping now sells more "own brands". He rented an underground warehouse of more than 30 square meters, and hired several female workers to assemble popular light-emitting dolls, confession balloons, feather hairbands, etc.
During the live broadcast, Zheng Liuping was wearing a black suit, wearing a pink flower-shaped children's headband and a unicorn headband, holding three confession balloons in his hand and sitting on the boss chair of the office, "Today's last set of benefits , If you don't place an order, it will be a second!"
His live broadcast attracted many businessmen looking for sources of goods. The highest record is a live broadcast with tens of thousands of people watching, the most sold a few hundred orders at a time, and earned more than 100,000 a week.
Sell whatever you want
Jin Xingxi, the director of the village of Zhuxia Village in the north, recalled that in the past, Zhuxia in the north had developed industries such as the calendar of the New Year's picture and the amount of cutting tools, but they all declined. In 2010, Beixiazhu completed the reconstruction of the old city, built 99 new houses, and introduced the logistics industry, so a group of merchants selling tailed goods gathered around.
Around 2015, WeChat emerged. Merchants selling end products have started to do micro-commerce. In April 2017, the World Wechat Conference was held in Kitashitaju, attracting many buyers to station here.
In 2018, live streaming brought goods to replace WeChat. In Beixiazhu, some WeChat merchants have directly become supply chain merchants. They buy goods from manufacturers at low prices and then sell them with the influencers of the internet celebrities.
Internet celebrities sell explosives, and what they upset is also explosive. Usually, the popularity of the explosive money lasts for two or three months. "There is no distinction between categories, and you will sell whatever you want."
The 24-year-old girls are both a supply chain merchant in Kitashita Zhu. Since the end of last year, both have sold flowers, alcohol, masks, and finally helmets. At the end of March, more than 3 million masks and 200,000 bottles of alcohol can be sold a day.
Both have earned more than one million yuan a month. "My partner earned two Mercedes-Benz cars, adding up to four or five million."
In the market of explosive products, there is no vicious competition. Shuangshuang said, "All businesses are busy with supply, and the market is in short supply."
A "boutique scarf and hat shop" in Kitashita Zhu is known as the birthplace of the net red explosion. The shop anchor Ali has sold 200,000 "roll caps" in a single month.
In order to fry a hat into an explosion, Ali designed a video. She looked for someone to be an old man, crossed the road slowly, and then rushed over to a young man, without a word, crossed the road with the old man on his back.
The video became popular, and the hats worn by young people became popular. Ali immediately hung up a link to the hat and started selling live to sell hats to fans, selling thousands of them a day.
As soon as the exploding hat was born, all the shops selling hats in Kitashita Zhu also caught the wind and sold the same hat.
"The business information here is passing very fast." "Mr. Xingdi" told the Beijing News reporter, "Even if you are not the first to smell business opportunities, always follow others to make explosive money, such as the helmet is hot, then also Docking manufacturers and supplies with the wind, although earning a little less than others, can still live a surplus. Every day, Kitashita Zhu is brand new and different. You can't imagine what it will look like tomorrow."
Zheng Liuping said that in the northern Xiazhu, people are most sensitive to the voice of money. Some people like to hear "di, di, di", the printer is going out to order, and some like to tear tape. Who is packing and shipping, the tape is ripped from morning to night, and some even in the middle of the night, the business must be terrific.
Net Red Incubation Class
At 9 a.m. on May 29th, in the classroom of a 5G live broadcast building less than 1 km from Kitashita Zhu, a class called Yaoshiji E-commerce School, more than 50 students were on the "How to shoot short video clips with vibrato" course.
Jiang Gang, Liu Gang, is the "Principal" of this e-commerce school. He told the Beijing News reporter that less than two months after its establishment, the college has already run 11 training courses. "Traditional teachers can't teach how to increase powder and sell goods, so we have tapped the talents of various e-commerce platforms from the society. Schools like ours are difficult to see in other cities."
"You play with Douyin, others use it to make money. Playing and professionalism are two different things, we are to make them more professional. Maybe the future live broadcaster is now the marketer."
The students who come to the class include not only the treasure mom who brought two babies to start a business in Yiwu, the owner of the factory, but also the early education kindergarten who wants to transform, and the Henan farmers who live broadcast and bring goods.
"I hope to meet my classmates on big hits in the future." A male student said, "This year is a big outlet for live broadcasts. I live in Suzhou, the store is in Wenzhou, and the factory is in Guangzhou."
The course lasts 7 days and is divided into experience classes, junior high school advanced classes and private teaching classes. The cost is 1980 yuan. This day's class is theory. The lecturer teaches "Why play Douyin", "How to get popular quickly", "Which are high-quality videos", "How Douyin is realized"...
"There was a short video shot by a student, which became popular at 4 pm, immediately hung up the merchandise and started live broadcasting. It was broadcasted to more than 10 am the next day, sold 8,000 pieces, and earned more than one hundred thousand." said the female lecturer of Mei Fei Se Wu, "Some students manage dozens of mobile phones in order to maintain their numbers, and it is normal for a number to sell for thousands of dollars..."
Another classroom is taking private lessons, and the room is completely covered by curtains. Lecturer Zhou Meide is an uncle about 40 years old. He is instructing beauties such as beauty, lighting, appearance, live vocabulary, and personalization. "Don’t be too beautiful. Your short video assignments, your face shot A blank piece of paper, like a vampire..."
Zhou Meide put up a mobile phone demonstration, "When facing the camera, don't use the tone of reporting to the leader. You must treat the fan as a child, teach him and feed him patiently. For example,'Hi, babies! Today Let me share with you an egg trick.'This is much more natural."
Recently, Zheng Liuping rarely broadcast live again. He turned into an entrepreneurial mentor and gave lectures to newcomers of white entrepreneurs. The content was generally a history of success. "I often tell them that Yiwu is not full of BRICS. Every industry is based on the 28th law. 20% of people do well and 80% do not."
In addition to private training institutions, the local government has also begun to regulate and guide the anchors who bring goods.
"We manage the company, and the company manages the internet celebrities." Lou Chun, the director of the Zhenxing Community, which belongs to Beixia Zhu Village, said, "We have drawn up'Chong Ai Internet Red Ten Articles' and'Internet Red Convention Ten Articles'. The incoming streamers must follow this process."
The Yiwu Municipal Government and an industrial and commercial vocational and technical college established training courses to organize students to take the examination for the certification of live broadcast personnel. Those who pass the examination will receive a special professional competency certificate issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. "In the future, if you are going to be the anchor, each platform will be standardized, and you will not be allowed to go without a qualification certificate," said a training official.
Everyone is betting
Nowadays, the rent increase is too ridiculous, which is the biggest headache for village director Jin Jingxi.
"It's already hard to find here." Jin Jingxi said, "Today, there are a few foreign merchants who chase me behind to ask for a house. I said, there is really no house."
Jin Jingxi said that the 1,200 stores in Beixia Zhu have long been saturated. In order to get the storefront, some merchants try their best to pry away the original merchants and simply raise the rent.
Jin Jingxi told reporters that the rent increase of Beixia Zhu began in 2018. At that time, all the shops of Beixia Zhu were rented out, and there was no more space. The businessman who wanted to come to the station and stared at whose rent was coming, he went to discuss the price with the landlord. Some people were willing to pay an extra RMB 60,000 to RMB, and they just pryed away the original merchants. "The rent has been raised from more than 10,000 a year to more than 100,000 today, almost double that of the surrounding villages."
Jin Jingxi said that every time the villagers’ congress is opened, the first agenda is that the village cadres persuade the villagers not to increase the rent without authorization. "Most villagers support it, but some landlords only look at the immediate benefits. Sometimes we are really helpless."
"Rising rents are not necessarily the cause of landlords, and merchants also have reasons. For merchants who deliberately raise prices, some people are not coming to do business, but are rushing to the doctor in an emergency." Executive Vice President and Secretary of Yiwu Social E-commerce Association Chang Yu Hanbing said, "From another perspective, rents are rising ridiculously every year. The merchants made money in the first year of distribution and originally planned to create their own brand next year, and all the landlords took them away."
Internet analyst Liu Yanfei has been surveying Beixia Zhu for more than half a month. Liu Yanfei found that the things Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya sold could be found in Beixia Zhu within a few days, and the price was lower.
"In any store, web celebrity anchors can make up 10 to 20 celebrity products. What they are looking for is nothing more than the "latest concept", and Kitashita Zhu can satisfy them."
Liu Yanfei believes that everyone is doing explosive money, everyone is doing money business, fast-in and fast-out, it has nothing to do with the goods, no one intends to fight a protracted war.
In his view, this is an adventurer's business, everyone is betting, and the risks are high. "You don't know what can sell fire, it's important to follow. It's like a gust of wind, a gust of wind, and it's gone if you say no."
Liu Yanfei once met a young man who was looking at a popular light-emitting toy at the time and invested 500,000 in the factory. But the heat of this toy quickly disappeared, and the goods hit the hands and lost more than 300,000.
This new format is developing too fast
Keeping up with the trend to make money and keeping everything in line with profit-seeking attitudes, such a phenomenon has worried the grassroots officials in the north of Zhuhai.
Lou Chun, director of the Zhenxing Community, which belongs to Beixiazhu Village, said that they have thought of many ways to support excellent original e-commerce brands. For example, through government resources, help excellent self-made brands get the booth of Yiwu Small Commodities Expo; transform the village culture auditorium into a new product release hall, business meeting place, and establish a "wind direction research institute".
"Live streaming is an emerging industry, and everyone is very worried about the prospects. We invite some big coffee to talk about which policies are to be introduced."
Huang Qi, a member of the Party Working Committee of Futian Sub-district, also believes that many shops are following the trend of Taobao and it is difficult to occupy the commanding heights in online celebrities.
"Any industry, there must be some pains along the way." Huang Qi said, "Yiwu's model is that the government is like a shop second, we see the vitality and future of this spontaneously formed market, we have a responsibility to guide and regulate it correctly, Let it go on in a healthy way. To be honest, this new format is developing too fast, and we are still in the stage of starting and operating a lot of work, and try it while walking."
"I didn't say that I came out of the north to Zhu, the whole country was all the rage, and the effect of shaking the arm was formed. Of course, this may be related to the fact that there are more small net reds in North Xia Zhu and less large net reds with more than 5 million fans.
Huang Qi said that the brain drain is another pain point for the Northward Zhu. The leading anchor who started the business in Beixia Zhu, once he had influence, immediately moved to big cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. "Let's go one after hatching."
An Ruoxi, who has 7.5 million fans, has made several live broadcasts in Beixia Zhu and sold out almost every time. But it didn't take long for the An Ruoxi team to leave Beixiazhu and go to Guangzhou for development.
"We have made suggestions to the city, for example, as a first-line celebrity anchor of marketing talents, can we enter the talent recruitment plan. In addition, we are also working with some universities to establish entrepreneurship bases." Huang Qi said, "As the'live broadcast first If villages are to be deserved, they must become the industry's leading and strategic source, which depends on high-end talents."
Talking about the future of Beixia Zhu, both Huang Qi and Lou Chun believe that the future will definitely require high standards to plan e-commerce towns.
"Beijing Xiazhu is already saturated, so we will expand the supporting industries such as incubation base training, catering and leisure accommodation to the surrounding Dongfu Zhaicun, etc. Now many of their stores are also pretty good." Huang Qi said.
Lou Chun said that in the future, according to the concept of net red town, they also want to build a "Star Avenue" in the north of Zhuhai. "Maybe it will attract a lot of people to come to check in."
In their imagination, the village committee can set up an operating company, set up advertising space, and discuss financing with some platform companies, and may have the opportunity to go public in the future. "So many projects have funds running."
"Mr. Xingdi" did not understand the concerns of grassroots officials. In their view, anyone who can catch the wind will make money. A few days ago, "Mr. Xingdi" and his friends established the "Yiwu New Land Economic Research Institute".
In the night, under the heavy rain, he and four friends stood in front of the signboard of "North Xiazhu E-Commerce Town" and shouted the crumpled flyer, "We have integrated more than 1,000 vendors of stall products. The stall service."
Beijing News reporter Wang Yuqian intern Du Meng Zhang Yifan