news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Now Luo Wangyu's "quit the Internet" seems to be an explanation for the "Olive Incident", but in fact it can also be seen as a decent "quit" amid the decline of the entire top anchors.

Text | Pu Lin

"The influencers are permanent, but the trendsetters are transient." This sentence has been proven once again.

Recently, Luo Wangyu, the top makeup influencer on a certain audio platform, updated his video after a lapse of 5 months. The content of the video was announcing the CSS Olive refund plan and saying that he had decided to "quit the Internet" for a while.

Luo Wangyu updated the video after 5 months

"For all users who have purchased CSS olive essence on Luo Wangyu's account, whether it is live broadcast or window display, I, Luo Wangyu, will refund you the full amount." Facing the camera, Luo Wangyu stated calmly.

Luo Wangyu said that CSS olive essence sold for 150 million yuan here

But then, Luo Wangyu said that this product was sold for 150 million yuan here, which means that he will face a "sky-high" refund of 150 million yuan.

This figure not only broke the refund record in the live streaming e-commerce industry, but also triggered the public to deeply examine the online celebrity sales model and the integrity system behind it.

01

Luo Wangyu, who had over 20 million fans at his peak, was a top anchor on his platform. Why did he release a new work after a lapse of 5 months? This has to do with the "false propaganda of olives" incident in February this year.

In February this year, the evaluation blogger @大虎课代表 issued a comparative test report, in which 6 olive essence products were selected to test the content of two active ingredients, oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol. As a result, the products of the brand "CSS" did not detect the above two ingredients at all. The rapidly fermenting public opinion put Luo Wangyu, who once promoted the product, in the center of the vortex.

Oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol were not detected in the products of brand "CSS"

At that time, this "false propaganda" storm caused Luo Wangyu to lose followers rapidly in a short period of time. As of now, his account has lost more than one million followers.

After the re-inspection results of China Inspection and Quarantine Science Research Institute (Beijing) Cosmetics Technology Co., Ltd. were consistent with those of the above-mentioned review blogger, Luo Wangyu stated in March this year that he not only sent a lawyer's letter to the CSS brand, but also reported the brand to the market supervision department for suspected false advertising, and promised that if he won the case, the brand would compensate consumers for their losses; if he lost, he would compensate himself.

Luo Wangyu previously proposed two solutions

Now, the court has not yet made a clear ruling, and Luo Wangyu, who has not waited for compensation from the brand, feared that he would lose the trust of his fans again and finally chose to refund the consumers through himself and the cooperation organization. He said that the after-sales plan was delayed for so long because the brand was unwilling to refund until now, and the amount involved was too large - this product sold for 150 million yuan through his channel.

Photos of Luo Wangyu attending previous events Source: China Business News

Like Li Jiaqi, the "No. 1 lipstick seller", Luo Wangyu was born as a "salesman" and was once a salesperson for multiple luxury brands. In 2017, he won the sales championship of a certain brand. In 2019, Luo Wangyu began to enter the self-media industry. He quickly became popular by complaining and revealing the secrets of big-name skin care products. In just one year, he accumulated more than 6 million fans and set a record of 13 million yuan in sales for a single short video. In addition, in the beauty and cosmetics track, Luo Wangyu's fans are very sticky. At one time, the return rate of the products he brought was only 0.2%, and he was favored by many brands.

In 2023, a "good night powder" has already caused Luo Wangyu to be embroiled in a controversy over the efficacy of his products. Today's "olive incident" has had a significant impact on his reputation, professionalism, and ability to bring goods. According to public data, Luo Wangyu's live broadcast room's sales during the 618 shopping festival this year fell by more than 90% compared to the same period last year.

02

In the past, one of the core advantages of top anchors was the “lowest price on the entire network.” The anchors could use their accumulated massive fans to get bargaining chips with brands. Brands also needed top anchors’ ability to bring goods and promote products.

But now, in the era of rational consumption, e-commerce platforms have begun to compete for the advantage of "the lowest price", and brands have begun to pay more attention to profits. The effect of super-head anchors is failing.

Live streaming e-commerce seems to be saying goodbye to the top anchors. Taking this year’s 618 as an example, the performance of the top anchors was not ideal.

According to data from Qingyan Intelligence, on the first day of the 618 pre-sale this year, Li Jiaqi's beauty live broadcast achieved a GMV of about 2.7 billion yuan, but it was a 46% drop from nearly 5 billion yuan in the same period last year; Feigua data showed that the transaction volume of "Guangdong Couple" was 450 million yuan in the same period last year, but only 61.14 million yuan this year - a year-on-year decrease of 86.4%; "Pan Yurun" had a transaction volume of 29.529 million yuan in the same period last year, but 6.748 million yuan this year, a decrease of 77%...

Obviously, the live streaming e-commerce industry is in a critical period of transformation. The gradual withdrawal of the top anchors from the public eye not only indicates a change in their personal career paths, but also reflects that the entire industry is undergoing profound structural changes.

Luo Wangyu says he is ready to leave forever

Luo Wangyu's "quitting the internet" now seems to be an explanation for the "Olive Incident", but it can also be seen as a decent "quit" under the decline of the entire top anchor. Just like he said in the video: "Being liked or hated has its value, the most terrible thing is not being needed. In fact, I found out a long time ago that I, Luo Wangyu, am no longer needed as much as I used to be..."

Behind the 150 million yuan refund is a crisis of trust in anchors by consumers, and it is also a wake-up call for the entire live e-commerce industry. Luo Wangyu’s “refund & withdrawal” statement is more like an announcement of the end of an era.

Source: Blue Whale Finance, Morning News, 36Kr, etc.