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Text｜Lan Xi

As an entrepreneur of the older generation, Yu Minhong might not have thought that after decades of struggling in the business world, one day he would have to stand up and apologize, explain, and clarify public opinion so frequently.

The cause of this incident was that a host under Oriental Selection mistakenly quoted the phrase "broken mountains and rivers" to describe the rugged terrain of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau during an outdoor live broadcast on June 22. The incident fermented several times, and the phrase "broken mountains and rivers" was interpreted by public opinion in turn, and eventually evolved into a sudden cyber violence.

This is not the only "melon" about Oriental Selection recently. Not long ago, Dong Yuhui said in an outdoor radio program that he "does not enjoy the job of anchor". When Yu Minhong was a guest in the live broadcast room of Wumart founder Zhang Wen Zhong, he was asked by the latter about his experience in selling goods. He replied, "Oriental Selection is in a mess now, and I don't have any ability to give you any suggestions."

Not to mention that in the context of the "working people" that is popular on social media today, Dong Yuhui's words are just a common complaint. Even Yu Minhong's words, which are obviously humble and polite, have been over-interpreted by the media. If you have paid attention to Yu Minhong's previous interviews, it is not difficult to find a large number of similar remarks.

Yu Minhong also said in an open letter after the live broadcast that he said this because he felt that "almost no real entrepreneur would think that the business he runs is well organized and perfect. Almost no entrepreneur would be satisfied with the current status of his business and stop moving forward."

There were explanations, clarifications, and apologies, but even so, the facts still dealt a heavy blow to Oriental Selection: Dong Yuhui's words "I don't enjoy it" were considered by the outside world to mean that the previous turmoil had not been effectively dealt with, and Yu Minhong's remarks caused the share price of Oriental Selection to plummet by more than 10% during the day.

Overall, the fact that the "Shattered Mountains" incident has fermented to this day is not an unlucky story of "when it rains it pours", but the inevitable result of Oriental Selection being put under the spotlight and repeatedly scrutinized under a magnifying glass for a long time after a series of public opinion storms.

01

In the memories of many veteran netizens, the first incident in which the power of traditional media to set the agenda fell into the hands of others was probably the online spoof video titled "A bloody murder caused by a steamed bun."

Since "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or in the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival in 1993, Chinese films have begun a rapid decade of international status. At that time, Chen Kaige, who had won many international awards, brought in an investment of 340 million yuan to make a domestic commercial blockbuster.

Thus, the much-criticized bad movie "The Promise" came into being. Hu Ge, who was still a grassroots netizen, walked into the cinema with great expectations. After watching the movie, he thought to himself, "I might as well use the ticket money to buy more steamed buns to eat." With a lot of resentment, he created "A murder caused by a steamed bun" to spoof and criticize the movie.

You have to know that it was 2006, when network bandwidth was still measured in KB. The number of views and downloads of "A Murder Caused by a Bun" far exceeded that of "The Promise" itself. This of course aroused the wrath of Director Chen. He said in public more than once that he would sue Hu Ge and hold him accountable to the end.

However, Chen Kaige did not expect that he was at a delicate juncture of changing times. On the Internet, there were endless voices supporting the "murder case caused by a steamed bun", tens of thousands of netizens launched a signature petition, and talented people in major BBSs also gave Hu Ge countermeasures.

In contrast, traditional print media did not play any key role in this incident. The direction of public opinion forced the incident to come to nothing in the end, and spoofs began to prevail on the Internet, becoming the main battlefield for secondary creation.

Standing today, it is still difficult for us to tell who is right and who is wrong in this incident, but one objective fact is that it was precisely because the Internet was so inclusive at that time that online art creation opened up another way of thinking besides being serious.

Just like people have been run over by the wheels of history, it is meaningless to discuss whether the loss of power of traditional media is a good thing or a bad thing. In the context of expressing equal rights, tolerance should be the most important keyword.

But this is not the case. In order to satisfy the growing appetite, the boundaries of traffic are constantly expanding. The inclusiveness of public opinion has not become higher because "everyone can speak". Instead, it has been shattered by the spectators' rising expectations. They cannot tolerate any grain of sand in their eyes and cannot forgive any flaws.

Expressing equal rights should not be like this.

02

In the six years from 2018 to 2023, the GMV of live e-commerce has increased from 100 billion to 5 trillion, accounting for 31.9% of the total online retail transactions. Even in the history of the entire Internet, a growth narrative of this scale is rare.

It is not difficult to understand why online live streaming - especially e-commerce live streaming - has become a hotbed of cyber violence, because the public's awareness of emerging industries often lags behind the development speed of the industry itself. In other words, compared with traditional e-commerce, the greater the advantages of live streaming e-commerce, the more industry problems that need to be solved.

Compared to swiping through a cold list of products, anchors can undoubtedly provide consumers with more companionship and emotional value; compared to flipping through reviews and debating whether to place an order, the experience of live streaming is more direct; compared to going to the recommendation page of a store and taking the trouble to go to the recommendation page, live streaming has more accurate group positioning, and every grassroots brand has the opportunity to counterattack and become a dark horse.

However, the other side of the matter is the problem of lagging maturity under the rapid development and iteration of the industry. The uncertainties brought about by product selection, operation, after-sales, and even the personal qualities and knowledge reserves of the anchors are enough to be infinitely magnified in a picky environment, and eventually become the direct cause of the failure.

To the extent that being a host has become a "high-risk profession", because in such an environment, the factor that ultimately determines whether you stay or leave is not elsewhere, but whether you have a mentality strong enough to withstand countless bad reviews.

Ultimately, this is a contradiction where supply and demand can never match. Hundreds of millions of people support the basic foundation of e-commerce live streaming, but people require the anchor behind the screen to be a perfect "sage". This goes against common sense in any case.

It is precisely because they are thoughtful and mistake-prone people that the industry is able to see such great differentiation. Just like the Spring Festival Gala, which has decades of history, has countless verbal gaffes and accidents but rarely receives large-scale criticism, only when consumers can face up to the e-commerce live streaming industry will new changes occur in the environment.

This is not to excuse the Oriental Selection host's slip of the tongue. The description of "broken mountains and rivers" is indeed inappropriate. But if a misused idiom can overturn people's impression of "Guilin's landscape is the best in the world" over the past few decades, and even exaggerate it to the level of the country and family, and use it to characterize the host and even Oriental Selection, it is of course also biased.

The person involved, Shi Ming, published a long apology one week after the incident. He explained that he was unable to see the feedback in the comment section in time during the outdoor live broadcast, so he was unable to correct his slip of the tongue in time, and he made a sincere apology.

What is even more concerning is that he said that he had the idea of ​​quitting. Since there are so many uncertainties in the expanded content beyond the live broadcast script, it would be better for him to only recommend products in the future and no longer give expanded explanations.

Although the risks are gone, consumers' expectations for Oriental selection, or for high-quality content, knowledge and ideas will no longer exist.

What kills industry diversity in the cradle often starts with trivial things.

03

Hupu Forum launched a rating system some time ago, in which the anchor Dong Yong Guai Ge ranked first in the categories of internet celebrities and anchors, with more than 1 million people giving him a full score, among which the most popular sentence was "Life kisses me with pain, but I repay it with songs."

Such a "man who is closest to perfect marks" has also been besieged by many people who like to make fun of him. Accusations of hypocrisy and persona are endless. Every word he says in the live broadcast may be interpreted as another unique meaning.

It is certainly difficult for Winter Swimming Pigeon to understand the extreme swings in the Internet's attitude towards him, so he almost rejected interviews from most media. Although he has become popular all over the Internet, it is still not easy to find his trace in reality. I think it is very difficult for him to deal with those media that put narrative first.

What I want to say is that sudden public opinion is not scary, and companies now have a complete set of processes to deal with public relations crises. However, in the context of the increasingly severe long-tail effect of online public opinion, it is difficult for every company and every individual to remain immune.

In other words, whether it is a company or a host, a piece of negative news may very likely mean that they will be repeatedly roasted on the bonfire in the months or even years to come, and such cracks are precisely the best breeding ground for self-media to earn black traffic in order to attract attention.

It is not difficult to understand the gradually tightening policies. Xinhua News Agency pointed out in an article on June 29 that "Internet black mouths must not be left alone. Once illegal activities are discovered, they must be cracked down upon, with a high-pressure stance and heavy blows to create a clear Internet space."

Oriental Selection is no longer a new player in the field of live streaming e-commerce. According to the latest official data, the number of its own-operated products has exceeded 400. It is conservatively estimated that in addition to fruits and vegetables, there are at least 300 factories cooperating with Oriental Selection. Behind each factory, workshop and job is the livelihood of a family.

This is also why Yu Minhong is willing to take sole responsibility for this incident. He said, "The anchors, including Dong Yuhui, are still children. I can calmly accept any comments from everyone, but please don't attack these anchors."

In an environment where the economy is under pressure, both companies and individuals deserve more tolerance. The country will not be truly "broken" because of a host's slip of the tongue, but the public opinion environment will become difficult to move forward amidst the insults.