"Foot" anchor has no time to be silent
Zhang Jingwen was sleepy.
To the camera in front of her, she yawned long.
She tried to control herself, but failed, so she went on to hit the second, third...
Although the computer screen showed that it was only 9:30 in the morning, after experiencing 8 hours of live broadcast for 5 consecutive days, Zhang Jingwen's body can only use this reaction to remind the owner that you need to rest.
Counting from the start of work at 8 o'clock, there are more than 6 hours of live broadcast that day waiting for Zhang Jingwen.
"Yawning is considered a rest, because you don't need to speak at this time." She negotiated with her body in her heart.
This is just the first week that Zhang Jingwen, who is less than 22 years old, joined the new company as a cargo anchor.
Affected by the powerful catalyst of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, live broadcast sales will usher in explosive growth in 2020.
The well-known Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi, Luo Yonghao who is "live-streaming debt repayment", and entertainment stars and business leaders who continue to test the waters are all moving this seemingly potential business model to the center of the stage, wanting to get a drink from it. The number of people in the soup also expanded rapidly.
However, very few people can rush to the front of the track.
Several top anchors accounted for more than 90% of the traffic. Statistics show that less than 10% of the anchors have more than 100,000 followers on the entire network, and nearly half of the anchors with goods have less than 10,000 followers.
The number of fans on the Jingdong Live account of Zhang Jingwen's company is less than 2,000.
Since her broadcast, the number of simultaneous online viewers has not exceeded three digits, most of the time it is in the single digits, most of the time the number is 2-herself and the backstage operations staff.
There are many more "hosts who are almost invisible" like her.
"Hey" to the air
"Nobody, but I still have to keep talking."
At midnight, Luo Yang just finished a 4-hour live broadcast in a small room in Guangzhou City.
As soon as he left the camera, he took the water glass on the table and poured it out.
Luo Yang was not in a hurry to go home, but was going to go to the massage room downstairs for a massage. "Sitting for 4 hours with back pain." His voice was a little hoarse.
The live broadcast just now sold laptops, and the data showed that the final transaction volume was less than 10,000 yuan.
Luo Yang was a little surprised, "It would be nice to have an order!"
During the "Double 11" event in 2020, Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi's first live broadcast totaled sales of more than 7 billion yuan, surpassing the combined box office of all movies on the National Day.
However, when public opinion marveled at the explosive power of this emerging industry, many amateur anchors’ wishes before the start of work were still "today's not hanging zero".
When Zhang Jingwen first entered the business, he sold thangkas.
Thangka is a niche cultural product, and the anchor must memorize relevant information, including obscure and unfamiliar terms.
After preparing for more than a week, Zhang Jingwen aired it.
The freshness and desire for expression in the face of the camera inspire her passion, and she can talk from beginning to end during the 6-hour live broadcast.
No one placed an order on the first day, no one placed an order on the second day, and there were not many people in the live broadcast room on the third day...
Explaining to the air is something that the anchor "Foot" often does.
According to Luo Yang's observation, under normal circumstances, no matter how full the mood is, the "self-healing" limit is no more than two hours.
During this period, if there are no people in the live broadcast room, it is inevitable that the anchor will be distracted and sleepy.
However, the rules of the live broadcast platform do not allow them to do this.
After yawning, Zhang Jingwen slowly drank saliva, and took a chance to stay silent for ten seconds by sorting out the merchandise.
Soon, a line of words floated above the computer screen on the desk: The anchor did something unrelated to the live broadcast content or product, and violated Rule 7-1 (no product explained).
"Speak quickly! Otherwise, the current will be restricted!" The operation staff shouted in the ear, and Zhang Jingwen recovered. "Welcome to the new baby in the live broadcast room to pay attention to it. You can't buy it here. You can't buy it. Only full of benefits!" Without thinking, this sentence came out of her mouth.
Regardless of whether it is an e-commerce platform or a short video platform, most of the live broadcast rules formulated by each company are similar: anchors cannot be silent for a long time, nor can they say too many things that are not related to the product, and cannot use absolutes or bands such as "top" and "ancestral". Misleading vocabulary.
Once the rules are violated, the live broadcast room will be deducted "platform credit points", ranging from current restriction, to suspension of broadcast for rectification or even permanent closure.
For the first time in Luo Yang's life, it was also an electronic product that was broadcast and sold, and the turnover was 0 in 4 hours.
Later, it was discovered that because he said a few banned words, the platform stopped pushing streaming to the live broadcast room very early. "This means that most of the time at that time, no one can access my live broadcast."
Zhang Jingwenmian emphasized that the emotional emotions still failed to attract passing fans.
Soon, her voice lowered again.
Sometimes she couldn't hold it anymore. She would put the "in the toilet" sign in front of the camera and hide in the sanitation interval, "Anyway, I'm not a big V, no one wants to look at me."
However, such a lazy strategy cannot be used too many times in one day's live broadcast.
After all, in the operating background, the boss of the company may be monitoring her at any time.
As long as you dare to speak, everything else is easy
When Luo Yang began to enjoy an after-work massage, Zhang Yu was still looking at the computer in a film industry park on the edge of the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing. He wanted to select a few suitable people from many resumes to interview.
Zhang Yu is the manager of a live MCN agency (that is, an Internet celebrity brokerage company in a popular sense), and is responsible for cultivating anchors with goods incubated by Internet celebrities.
In his opinion, the anchors in the circle are divided into three levels. The first level is represented by Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi, and has its own team. Almost every live broadcast has sales of "100 million yuan" or "10 million yuan". "As a unit; the second-level anchors are mostly trained by large-scale MCN institutions. Although they are not as popular as the top V, they are already well-known in various vertical fields. A live broadcast has basically won several hundred thousand yuan in sales. Not to mention.
"The rest are the low-level anchors who have rapidly increased in the past two years. Some are part-timers on the track, some have signed contracts with small companies, and some have personally worked for their own factories and shops." Zhang Yu said that the threshold for this line is low, but it can be at the bottom. Only a handful of people who have worked hard enough and are lucky enough to survive for a long time.
Liu Shasha, 34, is the one who has survived.
Under her ID named "Rongcheng Liu Shasha", 600,000 fans gathered.
The goods she sells are very single, all middle-aged and elderly clothing.
Liu Shasha, who has only a junior high school education, opened a clothing wholesale store in her hometown in Rongcheng, Hebei. In the first half of 2019, the average daily sales of more than 100 orders made her lose money.
One day, she accidentally saw her 11-year-old son using the live broadcast platform, and the anchors' sales of thousands of orders shocked her.
"My clothes are cheap and durable. Can they be sold online?" Liu Shasha began to study live streaming.
In June last year, Zhang Jingwen, who studied hotel management, graduated from University.
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, it was difficult to find a counterpart job. She tried to apply her resume to the company that recruited anchors. “At that time, there was a shortage of anchors everywhere, there was no professional requirement, and the basic salary was not bad.” Zhang Jingwen, who is quite handsome, quickly received no. There are fewer interview notices, and some recruiters tell her directly as soon as they meet: "As long as you dare to speak, everything else is easy to handle."
From habitually talking about "babies" and "family members", to accumulating vocabulary and sentences to introduce products, to knowing how to allocate energy-reasonable "fishing" when there is no one, once someone asks for the details of the product, no matter what If you are tired, you have to mobilize your emotions and answer everything. In the first company that sells antiques, Zhang Jingwen learned the skills and basic routines of being an anchor.
Compared with Zhang Jingwen, Liu Shasha is all self-taught.
Knowing that her eloquence is not good, she wakes up at 5 a.m. and broadcasts her mother's trekking team.
Others were walking in the front, and she followed with her mobile phone behind her, "What do you say when you encounter it".
The safari walked for two hours a day, and Liu Shasha broadcasted it live for two hours for two months.
At first she was embarrassed to show her face. Later, in the live broadcast room, there were constant "old irons" who praised her for her good voice, plus thinking that "you can't cover your face if you want to sell goods", Liu Shasha was heartbroken and flipped the camera to interact with netizens. .
Even with a lot of preparations, Liu Shasha struggled for more than two hours when he recorded a 30-second warm-up video for the first time.
Statistics show that in the first half of 2020, my country's e-commerce live broadcasts will exceed 10 million, with more than 400,000 active anchors and more than 20 million products on the shelves.
When an industry changes from the blue ocean to the red ocean, when the most people "go to the sea", this law also applies in the live broadcast circle.
In the second half of 2020, Wang Yan, who has worked hard in Beijing for many years, gathered the funds at hand and registered a live broadcast company.
"Looking at the data, I feel that doing this will not be too bad." The reason that prompted Wang Yan to make the decision was simple.
However, she was already a step slower.
After just three or four years of development, the pattern of live delivery platforms has basically taken shape: Douyin, Kuaishou favors celebrities, big V "people bring goods", Taobao relies on e-commerce foundation to promote "goods bring people".
Wang Yan started from scratch, with no contacts or sources of supply. In the end, she chose Jingdong, which also started in the live broadcast field late, and hoped to get the first piece of cake there.
I thought this business was good for making money
Liu Cheng, who is still in his sophomore year, was the first batch of anchors that Wang Yan recruited.
There are few professional courses and nothing to do. I heard that when the anchor earns a lot, Liu Chengcheng posted a resume online.
Wang Yan gave Liu Cheng a basic salary of 6,000 yuan, working 6 days a week and 8 hours a day live broadcast, plus 1,000 yuan per month for full attendance.
If there is a turnover in the live broadcast, the company will take out 20% of the commission given by the platform as a bonus for the anchor.
After working for more than 3 months, Liu Cheng only had a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan. That was because he worked as both an anchor and an operating staff for 15 consecutive days. He worked from 10 am to 2 am in exchange. "I thought this business was good for making money. At first, I was young and frivolous."
The survey data directly hired by BOSS shows that in the first half of last year, the average monthly salary of a cargo anchor was 11,220 yuan, which was at a high level among all positions in the industry.
However, income polarization in this field is serious, with 71% of anchors earning less than 10,000 yuan a month.
After spending a year and a half in the anchor circle in Guangzhou, Luo Yang, who has studied broadcasting and host, is already a somewhat qualified part-time anchor-this means that he has the confidence to discuss live broadcast prices with merchants one by one.
In order to get a good price, Luo Yang figured out many ways.
When you meet with a business, you should wear the feeling of an influencer; WeChat Moments should update the live photos from time to time, or take photos with other famous anchors; When encountering a live broadcast with a high volume of orders, you should save screenshots of the data , "In short, you must be able to package, let the merchants think you are good enough."
During the "Double 11" period last year, Luoyang had at least one live broadcast every day, and the price also rose. The highest price was 2,000 yuan in 4 hours.
However, by the beginning of this year, the same live broadcast duration could only be 600 yuan.
Moreover, Luo Yang found that some merchants who plan to live broadcast for a long time began to train their own anchors, which squeezed his living space to a certain extent.
"However, it is not so easy to cultivate." Once, an anchor who went to work with Luo Yang was signed the next day by the company.
Two weeks later, Luo Yang, who was browsing the information on the Internet, was surprised to find, "That buddy is looking for orders like me again."
Accompanying the low threshold is extremely high liquidity.
"At the end of November last year, the boss hired a big brother who was born in 1991. The long-term rental platform "Blow Lei" he used to work for, he wanted to change careers." Liu Cheng, born in 2000, said: "The first time we met was the last time we met— —The big brother resigned two days later."
Because soon after entering Jingdong Live, Wang Yan needs a long enough live broadcast time to get more resource recommendations, "If others don’t broadcast us, we will have more exposure." She arranged a three-shift working mode for her anchors. , "Big Brother" was scheduled to broadcast from 5 pm to 2 am the next day.
If you don’t have enough experience to sell, and you have to stay up all night under high pressure, "Big Brother" quickly loses.
His departure made Wang Yan realize that only young people could be recruited in this industry, "Energetic and able to survive." So a week later, Zhang Jingwen became Liu Cheng's new colleague.
On various recruitment platforms, the age limit for "carrying anchor" positions is mostly between 18 and 28.
"They are like a blank piece of paper, which is conducive to becoming an Internet celebrity." As a manager of the MCN organization, Zhang Yu pays more attention to the development potential of young applicants. "The trouble is that once the training is successful, they will not show mercy when they jump up. ."
According to surveys, 58.2% of e-commerce anchors have been on the job for less than one year, and the average job-hopping interval is only 6 to 8 months.
Zhang Jingwen’s decision to quit was easy, “I didn’t want to commute for a long time because the previous company moved.” She knew very well that being young is her biggest advantage at the moment, and someone wants to change a place.
In addition to up-streaming is down-streaming
On the morning of the sixth day of the New Year of the Rat, Liu Shasha decided to start selling goods live for the first time. “Affected by the epidemic, everyone stayed at home at that time and it was easy to use their phones.”
Even so, Liu Shasha did not expect that the 4 hours of live broadcast attracted more than 1,000 people to watch. In the end, a total of 1268 pieces of 8 clothing were sold, "equivalent to my 10-day offline order."
Zhang Yu was surprised by the rise of "vegan anchors" like Liu Shasha. They have not received systematic training, and they are not outstanding in terms of appearance, literacy and eloquence, but they can achieve results that surpass small anchor companies. It's like a'metaphysics'."
Most anchors have mysterious experiences.
In order to sell the first thangka, Zhang Jingwen couldn’t remember how many days she had been self-confident; later, in an ordinary live broadcast, she was drinking water and fishing, and someone directly placed an order for 5000 without asking. Diverse thangka, "I was so surprised that I almost didn't spray water on the spot."
After a long time, Zhang Jingwen and her colleagues concluded that in an ordinary live broadcast room, there are only two factors that affect sales: whether the price of the product is cheap enough and whether there are enough people watching the live broadcast.
In many cases, she even thinks that the things that are sold through her own mouth are originally what fans want to buy, and whether it is live broadcast or not does not matter at all.
"Most of us are just e-commerce migrant workers." In Wang Yan's company in an office building on the East Third Ring Road in Beijing, Zhang Jingwen, who was just broadcast, was tired.
The office of less than 40 square meters is divided into upper and lower floors, the upper floor is the live broadcast area, and the lower floor is the backstage work area.
On the white wall are slogans in large letters, "Why don't you work hard and want everything" "Everyone can be an Internet celebrity, and everyone can open an online shop."
Coffee, tea and snacks can be seen everywhere, this is everyone's "three-piece life extension".
The office on the 15th floor has a great view, overlooking the bustling CBD of Beijing, but Zhang Jingwen rarely has such leisure and interest. Most of her energy and enthusiasm in a day is consumed in a live broadcast room of less than 8 square meters. .
In the last company, except for the girl who often took over in the same live broadcast room with him, Zhang Jingwen could hardly call any of his colleagues' names, "After the broadcast, indifference can replace the previous smile within a second. No one, including me, wants to say more."
After a long time, she felt like she was wounded, selling the same products, doing the same explanations, and shouting the same routines, "Apart from issuing orders, the happiest thing is to go to the bathroom and take a water glass to the stairs. When you fetch water, you will have a brief sense of escape."
In the live broadcast room, time is also distorted.
On many occasions, Luo Yang mobilized his whole body emotions and professional skills to set off a climax of explanation. When he looked at the bottom of the screen, "less than 10 minutes have passed."
Later, he discovered that no matter how long the broadcast is, the 5 minutes before the broadcast must be when he is at his best. "Just like when I was in school, 5 minutes before the end of get out of class is the best time for the classroom atmosphere."
"Welcome to the live broadcast room"
Wang Yan's company is not Zhang Jingwen's best choice. The company's size is small, and wages have fallen instead of rising.
After barely resigning from her old club, Zhang Jingwen first went to apply for an anchor from a well-known ski brand. The other party asked to train and then take an exam before she could enter the job. She also went to the MCN organization for a few days of trial broadcasts, and found it difficult to adapt to the ubiquity there. Net celebrities develop an atmosphere, "But in a little half a year, it is not easy to eat casually in this industry."
When the period of barbaric growth has passed, in 2020, while live-streaming sales will play a huge role in the economic recovery in the context of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, problems such as traffic bubbles, price fraud, and commodity fraud frequently appear.
"Whether watching live broadcasts to buy and buy is really more economical and reliable" has become a question for many consumers.
At the end of last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Regulations on the Management of Internet Live Marketing Information Content Services (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)", which is intended to strengthen the supervision and management of this industry.
All of this implies that there is not much time left for the bottom anchor and the company.
Luo Yang has mastered the method of breaking the rules of live broadcast on the platform.
"Unprecedented" cannot be used, so replace it with "rare to see"; "lowest price" cannot be used, "very very affordable" can be used.
Although the price of a single live broadcast in the off-season is not high, fortunately, Guangzhou has a strong commercial atmosphere. Among clothing, food, tea, small household appliances, 3C and other products, there is always one that needs Luoyang to sell.
Luo Yang is accustomed to marking the talked live broadcast on his mobile phone calendar. He said that he would be a little anxious to see that most of the dates in a month are filled, but if he sees five or six or more blanks, he will be more anxiety.
Anxiety also comes from the uncertainty of the future.
Although "Internet marketer" has been officially recognized as a new profession, Luo Yang knows that the change of title will not change the shortcomings of this line of small growth space and easy replacement. "There is no longer a second Wei Ya or Li Jiaqi. ".
Zhang Jingwen occasionally scans job information related to hotel management on her mobile phone.
Click to open and close again.
She knew that she did not have a particularly prominent advantage in the anchor circle, but she lacked the courage and direction to change.
The compromise she thought of for herself was to "have a chance to jump again when Wang Yan's company does the Spring Festival."
The boss Wang Yan has a stronger sense of crisis.
The company was established for more than half a year, and revenue can barely maintain daily operations.
Seeing that the Jingdong live broadcast platform is becoming increasingly saturated, she is now pulling a dozen employees to open up a "second battlefield"-helping to promote multi-point apps that have just entered the live broadcast track, or to undertake the live broadcast business of already settled businesses.
"Since you have entered this circle, you must always find a way to go down." Wang Yan said.
"Rongcheng Liu Shasha" has been active for more than a year.
From being in charge of everything with only oneself and her younger brother, to setting up a small team with selected products, customer service and after-sales personnel, Liu Shasha is no longer a wholesaler who cannot make ends meet.
What remains unchanged is that at 7 o'clock every evening, she will still stand in front of the mobile phone she used for the first broadcast and enthusiastically say the first sentence: "Dear family, welcome to my live broadcast room. "
In countless small soundproof rooms, the anchors who were seen or not, also said the same prologue at about the same time.