Professional shooting, fund-raising assistance, selling star travel information... Violations of laws and regulations are hidden in the "fan economy"
What is the "business experience" behind the "rice circle"
Our reporter Qiao Ran
Reading tips
For some time, chaos appeared frequently in "fan circle" (referring to fan circle).
Some "Sister Zhan" bluntly said that there is a chain of interests in the "rice circle", and the capital giants at the top of the chain create glamorous "stars" that make fans fall into it and pay for it.
In June of this year, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China deployed special actions to focus on cracking down on behaviors such as inducing minors to assist in fund-raising, high consumption, and voting for rankings. So far, it has cleared more than 150,000 negative and harmful information and disposed of more than 4,000 illegal accounts. .
Professional auctions, fundraising assistance, and sales of celebrity itinerary information... these constitute an obscure but clear interest industry chain in the "rice circle".
With the recent emergence of the criminal detention of a "top-tier" star, this chain of interests has once again surfaced in the public.
"No one respects the money of fans." Xiaomo, a fan of a boy group, said bluntly that the fans who are the most crazy following stars are at the bottom of the chain of interests, while the capital giants at the top use "collusion." , To create a glamorous "star", let fans fall into it and pay for it.
Xiao Mo added: "The essence of the fan circle is a business, a business about the fan economy."
The more "promoted", the more channels to make money
It has been two years since Xiaomo, 27, became the "Sister of the Station". At first, because she saw a certain men's team draft on the Internet, she liked to enter the "rice circle" as a trainee.
"In the beginning, I just bought milk cards to list the favorite'idols'." Xiaomo said, as she continued to deepen, she found that the "Sister Station" among fans had more authority and could get in touch with celebrities more closely. Take more photos of celebrities and gather fans from the bottom to support the celebrities.
It takes a lot of time to become a "Sister Zhan"-open a Weibo account to follow celebrities and super chat; original, repost, and comment on your idol’s Weibo, and you can only post celebrity-related content; enter the official fan group, in Be active in the group; buy idol’s music, magazines, peripheral products, etc., and post the screenshots of the purchase to your own Weibo, write some articles about idols to prove that you are "true love", and so on.
In 2019, Xiaomo's station has more than 3,000 fans.
She started to hold lucky draws from time to time. On the surface, she called on fans to call the stars, but in fact, she was to quickly increase the number of fans.
The prize is a photo album of the star, and the photos in it were taken when Xiao Mo was chasing the star.
"The better the photos you take, the higher the selling price." Xiao Mo told the Workers Daily reporter that the photos you took can be sold to fans through Weibo. A normal photo is 70 or 80 yuan. If you can take a celebrity smile , One can sell for 200 yuan.
These photos were also made into mobile phone cases and other peripheral products for sale. "The cost is 20 yuan, and it may be sold for 200 yuan."
The more squatting stars, the faster the number of fans will increase, and the more channels for making money.
In less than a year, Xiao Mo's number of fans has exceeded 20,000, and he has become a "big fan" among fans.
Becoming a "big fan" means having more authority-you will receive news from some official studios, organize fans to promote and play the rankings; be able to reveal the star's itinerary information to the "scalpers"; and can also collect fans' money, Initiated fund-raising support.
These raised funds are generally used for voting on rankings, offline activities, and so on.
However, the reporter learned that due to the lack of a strong monitoring mechanism within the organization, the flow of funds is unknown and even the organizers ran away with money from time to time.
Xiao Mo knows that he is still far from the real million "favorites" (officially operated professional fans, similar to fan clubs).
"People are supported by an official background. Doing the same thing will make them more profitable."
A professional proxy earns nearly 70,000 yuan a month
The money for selling celebrity peripheral products, the money raised from fans, and the money for selling celebrity travel information, "As long as you persevere, you will earn money." Xiao Mo told reporters that because he is a part-time "station sister", many celebrities travel I couldn't follow the shoot, so I started to ask a professional to shoot on my behalf.
When celebrities show up at the airport, there will always be many people taking pictures, only a small part of them are "station sisters", and more are professional photographers.
Amin is a well-known proxy shoot in the "fan circle".
In his multiple WeChat groups, he posted about the itineraries of various celebrities and their proxy shooting needs.
Sometimes, Amin would stay at the airport for a day and take photos of all the stars that appeared. “As long as he is famous, has a lot of traffic, and takes good pictures, he can shoot the photos.” According to insiders, it was broadcast on a talent show. During the period, a professional shooter like Amin earned nearly 70,000 yuan a month.
Proxy auctions have formed an industrial chain, but there are many chaos in it.
Some malicious shooting acts infringe on celebrities’ privacy rights, even hinder public order, and cause personal injury, requiring corresponding civil, administrative and even criminal liabilities.
In June of this year, in response to the chaos of star chasing at the airport, the civil aviation public security organ pointed out that it would maintain a severe crackdown on violations of laws and regulations.
In addition to professional auctions, there are also a group of "scalpers" who buy and sell tickets in the "rice circle" activities.
Wang Heng (a pseudonym), 45 years old this year, is one of them.
Wang Heng publishes 3 to 4 ticket information in WeChat Moments every day, "Private Chat for Detailed Price".
Buying and selling tickets is just one of his "businesses", and he will also provide charter services for fans who need to follow stars.
For 800 yuan a day, wherever the celebrity goes, he drives the fans to wherever he goes.
"The current'fan circle' doesn't make money before. The tickets for the "Youth Has You 3" finals can be fetched for 15,000 yuan, and one ticket can earn more than 4,000 yuan. Of course, I don't lose it now. "Rely on doing" "Scalper", Wang Heng, who graduated from junior high school, has bought a house in Dachang County, Hebei.
The reporter learned that there are some "scalpers" selling celebrities' travel destinations, flight numbers and other information, which have become the upstream of the proxy shooting industry.
Many celebrities have posted on social media, complaining that personal information has been bought and sold wantonly and exposed.
Fan economy needs to be strengthened
In the Internet age, the form and method of chasing stars has changed.
In the process of the development of the fan economy behind the "fan circle", some negative events have also appeared.
For example: pouring milk freely for the celebrities' collection of milk cards, "Sister Station" fund-raising assistance and finally absconding with the money, etc.
"Some specific behaviors of fans may have bad social impact. Fans pouring milk is an obvious example. Even after a certain'top-lier' was detained recently, some fans said they were going to'robbing prison'. These are all suspected of breaking the law." Zhao Zhanzhu, deputy director of Beijing Yunjia Law Firm and a researcher at the Intellectual Property Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said, “For obvious violations of the law, we must severely crack down on them in accordance with the law. Propaganda and education, let them lead by example and correctly guide the behavior of fans."
Zhao Zhanzhu also pointed out that the "rice circle culture" manipulated by the capital behind it will especially have a bad effect on minors.
"For this kind of phenomenon, it can be stopped by setting an age limit." He pointed out, "Of course, the law alone is not enough to solve this problem. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of the moral culture of the entire Internet and curb unhealthy trends in a timely manner."
A few days ago, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China thoroughly cleaned up illegal and unhealthy information related to fan groups. So far, it has cleaned up more than 150,000 negative and harmful information, handled more than 4,000 illegal accounts, closed more than 1,300 problematic groups, and disbanded 814 unhealthy topics.
In addition, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China urged the website platform to strengthen the management of key links such as ranking lists and group circles by canceling product functions that induce fans to support the rankings.