GMV of some brands in the "6·18" live broadcast room dropped by <>%.

Multi-platform live streaming anchors hit the "invisible wall"

This year's "6·18" mid-year promotion is underway, and after the huge cross-platform layout of big anchors and head MCNs, how are they living on the new platform?

On June 6, the reporter learned from a number of practitioners that some brands did not adapt to the algorithm push mechanism of the new platform, and the GMV (total merchandise transaction) after cross-platform fell by 8% year-on-year. Nowadays, although businesses and live broadcast agencies no longer struggle with "choosing one of the two", they still have to carefully measure the hidden barriers between live broadcast platforms, and calculate the optimal solution of input and output in different traffic gameplay, user portraits, and algorithm logic.

Invisible barriers

This "wall" is the moat for the platform to maintain its core competitiveness - "the platform also has its own strong attributes, such as Douyin is suitable for explosive products, but Taobao Tmall is suitable for brand power, and both roads have their own suitable brands."

Break through barriers

Streamers need to calculate the optimal solution of input and output in different traffic gameplay, user portraits, and algorithm logic - "If you blindly deploy multiple platforms, it will blur the brand's own positioning in the early stage of development." ”

It is difficult to cope with the new assessment mechanism GMV does not rise but falls

Chang Lening, a contracted anchor of a 3C digital brand, said that the brand began to deploy the Douyin live broadcast room in April this year, using the original Taobao live broadcast team, but the team was not familiar with the streaming rules of Douyin live broadcast, and once fell into a situation of losing money and making money. Chang Lening said that during the "June 4" period this year, the GMV of the brand's live broadcast room as a whole fell by about 6% year-on-year.

After the anchors make their debut on the new platform, they also have to accept the psychological gap between the final effect and the premiere results of the old platform. For example, during the "June 6" period, Luo Yonghao and "Make a Friend" entered JD.com, and according to the official Weibo of "Make a Friend", Luo Yonghao's live broadcast debut on JD.com attracted a total of 18 million views and sales of 1700 million yuan. Such data is not prominent in Luo Yonghao's live broadcast resume. Luo Yonghao, who became popular on Douyin in 1, received 5 million views in 2020 hours of his debut. Last year's "Double 3" Taobao debut, the estimated turnover of 4800 hours of live broadcast was also about 11 million yuan.

They are all live broadcast platforms, but they play different routines. Douyin and Taobao differentiated algorithm mechanisms and assessment standards, anchors must learn to adapt. "In the live broadcast room of Douyin, there is often a situation where only one product is broadcast in 5 hours, which is almost impossible in the Taobao live broadcast room." The anchor of the live broadcast room of Douyin clothing is willing to confess.

This also means that compared to the Taobao live broadcast room, the Douyin live broadcast room is more purposeful and urgent, which makes it inevitable to make wishes physically and mentally exhausted. In 4-5 hours, she only explained 1-3 products, the process was boring and mechanical. Because of this, the salary of Douyin anchors is usually higher than that of Taobao. Xu said that in terms of hourly wages, Taoji is basically 120-150 yuan / hour, while Douyin is around 300 yuan / hour.

Despite double the hourly salary, there are still anchors who choose to return to Taoji after trying the Douyin live broadcast room. "Not everyone is suitable for the Douyin live broadcast room." Freelance e-commerce anchor Shen Mengyuan clearly recognized this after the first live broadcast on Douyin.

Coopetition instead of "one of the two" Merchants also have to adapt to the rules

Last year, such as Luo Yonghao, Liu Genghong and his wife, Oriental Selection, Yaowang Technology and other Douyin head anchors entered Taobao Live, opening the curtain of cross-platform migration between anchors and live broadcast agencies, and earning enough attention from the outside world for a while.

In order to compete for business resources, in the past, platforms often tore their faces during "June 6" and "Double 18" and angrily criticized each other for "choosing one of the two".

In 2018, "Double 12", Douyin and Taobao fully launched the cooperation of shopping cart link function, and the two sides experienced a short honeymoon period. According to the "Douyin Shopping Cart Double 12 "Chopper" Battle Report", Douyin brought more than 12.120 million orders to Taobao and Tmall throughout the day on December 50, and the Douyin Top 1 account facilitated more than <> million yuan in turnover for Taobao Tmall.

But the honeymoon period soon reached an impasse. In 2019, Douyin opened a small store on Douyin, officially starting the process of e-commerce commercialization. In 2020, Douyin announced that the live broadcast room no longer supports third-party source product trailers. Taobao also immediately fought back, while deploying short videos and commercialization, it once restricted the return of Douyin's advertising data.

On March 2021, 3, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) promulgated the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions, which clearly stated that e-commerce platforms are prohibited from choosing one of the two. At this point, the platform cannot force the brand to make a choice with a simple and crude "one of the two".

With stricter external regulatory policies and the peak of the traffic market, the two giants of Douyin and Taobao tend to hide needles in cooperation. For example, Taobao strengthens content and user stickiness, while Douyin focuses on shelves and claims to do global e-commerce. However, on the bright side, users can still occasionally swipe the product link to jump to Taobao on Douyin short videos, and Taobao is also introducing more Douyin anchors.

However, practitioners are also well aware that despite the lack of "one of the two", there is still an invisible wall between platforms that cannot be easily crossed. This wall not only constitutes the law for brands and anchors to survive, but also the moat for the platform to maintain its core competitiveness.

"Douyin is relatively a platform suitable for impulse." Ye Yuan, the manager of the domestic beauty brand Jingjie Flower, told reporters frankly that for many brand merchants with relatively high profits and relatively low unit prices, Douyin is indeed dashing enough, "but for brands like ours, Taobao Tmall's brand awareness education for consumers is irreplaceable." Ye Yuan said that compared with Douyin, Taobao and Tmall have more accurate traffic due to their own search mechanism, so the brand education for the target customer group is more in-depth.

"The platform also has its own strong attributes, such as Douyin is suitable for explosive products, but Taobao Tmall is suitable for brand power, both roads have their own suitable brands, if you blindly multi-platform layout, it will blur the brand's own positioning in the early stage of development." Ye Yuan said.

The flow slope has a threshold

Blindly following the trend will not work

"Taobao did come to us before." Hu Hengyi, vice president of Douyin head MCN Jingtang Culture, told reporters frankly that Taobao's "flood traffic" is only limited to the scope of Douyin's super head anchors, "If there are no big anchors in MCN, then Taobao is only an invitation, and will not promise 'flood traffic'".

In Hu Hengyi's view, behind the excitement of cross-platform opening, in fact, many MCN institutions blindly follow the trend. "For many MCNs, the increment brought by cross-platform layout is very limited." Hu Hengyi said that only cross-platform live broadcasts of big anchors with very sticky fan groups such as Li Jiaqi and Simba can bring increments to the platform, otherwise behind the vast "migration" may just be some unnecessary investment. "Because in the final analysis, the new live broadcast room in the platform still relies on the traffic structure and customer group of the platform itself, and the fans who are willing to follow the anchor to the platform are still a minority."

The reporter found that Luo Yonghao's first live broadcast on JD.com on May 5, the number of viewers eventually stayed at 31.871 million, and the number of likes was 6.187 million, but the next day, the number of likes in the "Make a Friend" Jingdong live broadcast room fell all the way to 3,6, and the number of views also shrank to less than 2,70, only less than 1/10 of the previous day.

"As far as the development path of each platform is concerned, the respective attributes of the platform are actually very obvious, and if MCN institutions want to deploy across platforms, it is certainly impossible to 'transport' the live broadcast room directly from the old platform to the new platform." Hu Hengyi believes.

On the other hand, traditional e-commerce platforms, such as Tmall, JD.com, etc., have basically formed a platform pattern, and it is still difficult for new brands that want to break out of the siege. "Relatively speaking, Douyin's large market increment, as well as the new rate of live broadcast room pulling, and the input-output ratio are relatively high, but in the infrastructure construction of some service merchants, it is definitely not as good as the traditional e-commerce layout."

However, platforms are also accelerating the process of learning from each other. A month before the start of "6·18", Jingdong re-upgraded the App, putting tens of billions of subsidies, Jingdong flash sale and 9.9 free shipping at the entrance of the homepage, Taobao also once again announced that it would strengthen the content of the whole platform, put forward the slogan of "content is a commodity", and according to Douyin insiders revealed to reporters, due to the increase in the proportion of pure e-commerce customers in Douyin, Douyin's traffic has also ushered in a new round of "price increases", and traffic push will become more and more accurate.

Hu Hengyi pointed out that most MCN institutions do not want to operate across platforms, but their attitude will become more and more cautious, and the platform will force brands and merchants to make more and more cautious choices through algorithm mechanisms, screening user groups, etc., while institutions may choose a more "light" way to test the water across platforms.

At least, for now, the pillars of sales of Kuaishou and Taobao, Simba and Li Jiaqi, are still holding on to their old turf. Compared with going to other platforms to live broadcast to cause public opinion, live streaming agencies and platforms may also be exploring buffer zones. The reporter noticed that during the "June 6" period, an account called "Taobao Li Jiaqi Live Broadcast Room" placed an information flow advertisement on Douyin, and clicking on the link or the user's avatar could jump directly to Taobao's Li Jiaqi live broadcast room. According to Beijing Business Daily