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not all traffic businesses are good businesses.

text｜chen shoucheng

editor | director

tietou, the anti-counterfeiting internet celebrity, finally suffered the biggest setback in his life.

on august 27, the binjiang district branch of the hangzhou public security bureau announced that it had filed a case for investigation against dong moumou (online nickname "tietou") and others on suspicion of extortion.

before this, tietou was banned from the entire internet for exposing himself in a live broadcast room for pornographic content. shortly after being banned, tietou went to japan to do a controversial "big job". but now, tietou was seen again, in a notice with white text on a blue background.

in addition to tietou, anti-counterfeiting influencers kuangbiao brothers also had their car overturned for "anti-counterfeiting" used car dealers, and anti-counterfeiting "technology and hard life" xin jifei had his car overturned for selling defective products. nowadays, it is not even a new thing for anti-counterfeiting influencers to be exposed.

on the internet, every kind of "traffic" has the possibility of being converted into money in proportion, and "anti-counterfeiting" is no exception. the rise of the anti-counterfeiting online celebrity track is essentially because the audience likes to watch and the client likes to invest.

however, when "fighting counterfeiting" becomes a means to grab traffic and then seek monetization space, "fighting counterfeiting" has gradually changed its meaning. only by truly measuring the "fighting counterfeiting" track of internet celebrities in terms of monetization space can we realize the contradiction of fighting counterfeiting as an internet celebrity behavior.

iron hair family history

if we review tietou's behavior, we can easily find that tietou is not a "counterfeiting" influencer in the standard sense. to be more precise, he is an "emotional" influencer who is good at grasping the public's emotions.

the two "highlight" moments in tietou's life had nothing to do with traditional "anti-counterfeiting".

the first time was in august 2023, when tietou released four videos in succession, claiming that hangzhou new oriental violated regulations in tutoring and demanded that it suspend tutoring and refund the fees. compared with the past, tietou is not a "consumer" of tutoring, and new oriental is not a "seller" of fake goods. but tietou saw through the gray area where hangzhou new oriental was located and the huge traffic it might have, and therefore quickly gained 200,000 fans and topped the weibo hot search list.

tietou may not have such an accurate calculation. but this man who is good at manipulating emotions has a natural intuition about content. he knows what kind of content can cause huge discussions. the flames of public opinion are burning fiercely, and he is taking advantage of the fire.

the second time was in june 2024, when tietou had been banned for pornographic live streaming. but he did not stop wanting to be an internet celebrity, but instead played a big one in one go. this time it had nothing to do with anti-counterfeiting. he went directly to japan, urinated + wrote toilet with spray paint, harvested huge traffic by consuming nationalist sentiment, and once again became the owner of the highest position in the entire network's hot search, and even "went out of the circle" overseas.

if tietou's account was still there, this kind of emotional marketing would undoubtedly receive a huge return in traffic - it can be compared to the previous incident of xiangpiaopiao's packaging mocking japan, which ushered in a surge in the popularity of the live broadcast room and even the subsequent live broadcast rewards. however, tietou has no chance.

however, tietou, who is good at grasping the flow of emotions, is not an extremely smart algorithm manipulator. on the contrary, he himself is a person who is controlled by emotions. in other words, tietou really believes that he is a hero who fights against counterfeiting. people who share the same views as him are attracted by his "righteousness" and become his loyal followers.

however, this kind of "truthfulness" and "lack of pretense" also made him "arrogant" and exposed his weaknesses one after another.

in september 2023, shortly after tietou had cracked down on counterfeiting at hangzhou new oriental, he announced that he would crack down on counterfeiting at dongfang zhenxuan. however, this time, dongfang zhenxuan, as a live e-commerce company, was different from educational institutions like hangzhou new oriental. the tough response attitude made tietou quickly give in and release a video to apologize.

in january 2024, tietou talked about his pornographic experience in the live broadcast room and proudly stated that his case had passed the statute of limitations. this incident quickly became a stain that tietou could never erase, and soon after, tietou's account was banned. tietou, who is good at manipulating emotions, was once again attacked by his emotions.

when tietou appeared in the public eye again, netizens could only look for his name in white letters on a blue background.

fighting counterfeiting as a content product

tietou is just one of the many anti-counterfeiting influencers. compared with others, he is the most special one, and therefore the first to fall. tietou's rise is not an isolated case. behind him, there is a new popular track of douyin.

in this track, there is xin jifei who fights against counterfeit and shoddy food, superbtai who fights against vendors who short-change customers and taxi drivers who charge exorbitant fees, the kuangbiao brothers who roar against counterfeit scales, linqi yegou who shares the inside story of the expiring food industry, laojiu haocha who exposes the inside story of the tea industry, and many more.

there are endless anti-counterfeiting internet celebrities. essentially, it is because "anti-counterfeiting" can easily touch the nerves of users. it is a traffic event that combines online and offline and can trigger multiple topics.

on the one hand, as spokespersons for ordinary consumers, anti-counterfeiting influencers have stepped forward to expose and rectify fraudulent weighing and arbitrary charges, which actually gives relief to ordinary consumers who have suffered unfair treatment but dared not speak out. this kind of emotional value positive feedback makes it easy for them to be sought after by ordinary consumers, become influencers with millions of fans, and gain space for commercial conversion.

on the other hand, the behavior of anti-counterfeiting influencers is similar to "shorting" in the stock market, and actually plays the role of a third-party regulator. in the process of anti-counterfeiting influencers, anti-counterfeiting influencers can gain traffic and revenue, bad market behaviors are rectified, and regulators have countless more eyes, which is a win-win situation for market behavior.

fighting fake influencers is not about profit, and the same is true for the platforms that push this behind the scenes. when some users like to watch the content, the platform will push this part of the content to a larger traffic pool until it gets the maximum exposure. the platform never actively creates a craze, it is always just an amplifier of the craze. every time the traffic is concentrated, it is a moment when the demand is seen again.

with platform promotion, audience welcome and regulatory needs, how do anti-counterfeiting internet celebrities get themselves involved and become the ones being busted?

essentially, it is because when "fighting counterfeiting" becomes a content product, it gradually enters into contradictions. wang hai, a professional counterfeiter who has been on the internet for many years, has only more than 1.2 million fans on douyin. most of his videos are made of pictures and ai dubbing, and the traffic is very limited. wang hai has become the center of internet public opinion many times, all relying on weibo, and promoting hot searches through black and white investigation reports.

in comparison, the videos of popular anti-counterfeiting influencers are much more interesting than wang hai's. xin jifei has his own "technology and hard work" joke, and the "kuangbiao brothers" anti-counterfeiting ghost scales make the video shooting ups and downs, and it is exciting. mrs. b also personally travels to various places to take the audience to experience anti-counterfeiting.

the audience can naturally imagine, if an ordinary person with no sense of camera holds a mobile phone and tells an ordinary vendor that there is something wrong with his product, can he gain traffic on the short video platform?

obviously, anti-counterfeiting influencers need to pay a huge cost to promote the professionalization and sustainability of anti-counterfeiting. the former requires corresponding commercialization to cover the cost, while the latter needs to continue to discover sufficiently attractive "negative" events in order to continuously obtain traffic.

both things are dangerous.

the commercial dilemma

before tietou fell from grace for extortion, another internet celebrity who was known for his roaring anti-counterfeiting tactics, kuangbiao brothers, had already fallen from grace a long time ago.

in july 2024, kuangbiao brothers claimed that a second-hand vehicle sold by another car influencer "wanche yanxishe" with 3 million fans was suspected to be a major accident vehicle. after a third-party appraisal, it was determined that the vehicle was not a major accident vehicle. the incident then reversed. wanche yanxishe gained more than 2 million fans because of its clear and concise response in the video, while kuangbiao brothers was questioned by fans because of his anti-counterfeiting failure. after that, he was "hammered" by his partner for not paying back the debt. now he has lost more than 100,000 fans and stopped updating.

what is slightly different from other types of influencers is that the content products sold by anti-counterfeiting influencers often carry a sense of justice. when netizens follow anti-counterfeiting bloggers, they are not only consuming content, but also consuming a sense of "justice." therefore, when an anti-counterfeiting influencer has personal problems, he must pay a higher price than other influencers.

in short, the righteous mask of fighting counterfeiting has too high a standard for personal morality, which can easily cause anti-counterfeiting influencers to be quickly impacted by black-and-white values ​​and slide to the other side.

however, when anti-counterfeiting influencers need to continue their anti-counterfeiting business, it becomes increasingly difficult to find video themes that are worth anti-counterfeiting and have traffic.

for example, when the eight-liang scales disappeared from the market, or were temporarily dead in their tracks, the goals of consumers and regulatory authorities were achieved. however, at this time, the anti-counterfeiting internet celebrities who were chasing traffic have lost their targets that are easy to shoot videos and easy to gain traffic. for them, anti-counterfeiting is just a means to gain traffic rather than the ultimate goal, and contradictions arise from this.

if, like the brothers, the verification is not strict and the investigation is not clear, the anti-counterfeiting influencer may be "exposed" at any time. even though xin jifei has not "fallen over" yet, he has been repeatedly questioned for issues such as "discussing toxicity without considering the dosage" and "exaggerating by taking advantage of information gaps".

in terms of commercialization, anti-counterfeiting influencers also face difficulties. on the one hand, the traffic of anti-counterfeiting influencers is generalized. if it is not in a specific content track, it is difficult to find accurate advertising. on the other hand, when the behavior of anti-counterfeiting influencers is extreme and emotional, it is difficult to gain consumer trust and bring goods. previously, tietou only sold more than 70,000 yuan of goods in one night, which is a classic case. any kind of traffic has its corresponding value, but not all traffic is equal in value.

when anti-counterfeiting influencers take risks and choose to earn income in a way that is close to extortion, just like tietou, they will eventually end up committing crimes. fang zinan, a lawyer at global economics, told hedgehog community that it is not a problem for anti-counterfeiting influencers to exercise their supervisory rights normally. however, if they threaten or blackmail victim businesses in the name of "anti-counterfeiting" and try to make illegal profits, if the amount reaches a certain standard or there are multiple acts, they are suspected of committing the crime of extortion.

lawyer fang said that even if the merchant may indeed have some problems, the purpose of the perpetrator is not to protect rights or recover losses, but to take advantage of the public's attention, threaten to expose or even exaggerate the problems, and force the merchant to face potential risks and pay high fees. such situations will not be supported by the law and may even be considered extortion.

in the field of anti-counterfeiting, the person who has walked the most steadily and for the longest time is perhaps professional anti-counterfeiter wang hai. lawyer fang said: "wang hai started from a grassroots background, and later he supported his own investigation and even legal team. their model is mainly based on punitive damages stipulated by law, and they make profits by protecting the rights of problematic products."

for wang hai, becoming an internet celebrity is just an additional benefit of his repeated efforts to fight against counterfeiting. his way of making money has never exceeded the scope of the law. this is obviously a safer and more stable long-term behavior.

"however, wang hai's appearance also has its own unique historical background. if wang hai were to debut now, he might not choose this method."