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first there were the sweet dramas about middle-aged and elderly bosses, and then there were the male celebrity anchors who were focusing on the "middle-aged female" market. recently, the personal short video accounts of many middle-aged male celebrities have attracted many "sister" and "auntie" fans by posting short videos about their life insights. more than 80% of their fans are women. they then started live streaming to sell women's clothing, skin care products...

upstream news reporters found that most of these male stars were born in the 1970s and 1980s, and many of them have had representative works in film and television works that have been deeply rooted in people's hearts. for example, zhu yongteng starred in "the sky of eighteen years old" and played wuqing in "the four famous catchers"; he shengming played the fourth prince in "palace lock heart jade" and "palace lock pearl curtain"... although they rarely appear on the screen now, they still have good audience appeal. industry insiders told upstream news (reporting email: [email protected]) reporters that mothers and middle-aged and elderly female users aged 30-50 or even older constitute the core customer base of these male star live e-commerce.

"tender and domineering president" character setting: chatting about emotions with "sister"

on september 6, a reporter from upstream news saw on douyin that the description of actor zhu yongteng's douyin account was: actor, beauty expert; starred in more than 60 tv series and movies, including "the princess goes to get married", "ashes of love", "three lives, three worlds", etc. the text specifically noted "individual, no organization".

zhu yongteng, who broadcasts live with the persona of a "gentle and domineering president", mostly shoots short videos in which he talks about his views on women from the perspective of a successful man, demonstrating a strong resonance between him and female users.

zhu yongteng's douyin account contains many works that talk about women's independence and emotions. douyin screenshot

as of 3 p.m. on the 6th, his douyin followers were 5.94 million, with 16.87 million likes. his first video was released on december 31, 2019, announcing his entry into douyin. so far, he has released 830 videos. his recent video works include "beautiful woman", "no forgiveness, no owe", "have you loved the wrong him", etc. click on these videos, and you will see zhu yongteng dressed handsomely, holding a cup of coffee very elegantly, and the first sentence he said is without exception "sister..."

in these videos, zhu yongteng said affectionately, "sister, you have to be beautiful first before you can be better. we need to manage our young mentality with our heart." "sister, you should never forgive someone who ignores your emotions. why should you appear when he needs you? why should he leave you aside when he doesn't need your time?" "sister, if the man you love now doesn't make you a better person, then i'm sorry, you may have loved the wrong person"...

according to chanmama data, 84% of zhu yongteng’s video viewers are women, and about 36% are users over 50 years old.

there are many flowers and applause in the comments of fans on zhu yongteng's douyin video. douyin screenshot

most of the comments under zhu yongteng's video are female avatars, mostly middle-aged women, and most of them directly call zhu yongteng "brother". some fans' comments are: "good brother, hello, thank you for your support and help," "dear brother, i just love myself..." "hello brother, thank you for your harsh words, i know, thank you for your advice. i will remember it and engrave it in my heart."

upstream news reporters saw that in a beauty live broadcast in mid-august, zhu yongteng brought his 76-year-old mother to the live broadcast room. after his mother shared her experience using a product, zhu yongteng announced: "i have only one guarantee, you will not want to use other products after using it."

data shows that 83% of he shengming's video viewers are women. screenshot of douyin

he shengming's personality is similar to zhu yongteng. he played the role of the fourth prince in the tv series "palace" more than ten years ago and gained super popularity. on september 6, upstream news reporters noticed that he shengming's douyin account was also marked as "actor, singer". he currently has 4.66 million douyin fans and has won 55.23 million points. the first video was released on may 4, 2020, and a total of 288 video works have been released. many of his video works are also about life insights. for example, in "the most beloved", he shengming held a folding fan in his hand and said handsomely and unrestrainedly: "the person you love most in this life is the person who loved you most in the last life. what comes is a debt, and it must be repaid."

many fans left messages like this: "when fate began, i saw you on douyin; when fate ended, i saw you disappearing from the crowd; fourth prince, you are the reason for everything" and "the temperament in he shengming's bones is really unmatched."

according to chanmama data, 83% of he shengming's video viewers are women, and 42.34% are users aged 31-40.

"economically applicable man" character: pragmatic, friendly and down-to-earth

a staff member of a statistics agency told upstream news reporters that among male celebrities, in addition to the "domineering" personality of zhu yongteng, actor ren zhong's "economical and practical man" personality is equally popular.

upstream news reporters saw that unlike zhu yongteng, who mainly sells beauty products, food and beverages, clothing and underwear, ren zhong's live broadcast room focuses on selling household and daily products. he always appears in home scenes wearing a black t-shirt and a baseball cap, introducing products while grilling. previously, the sales of suitcases in his live broadcast room were close to 3 million yuan.

during the live broadcast, ren zhong was different from zhu yongteng. he tried to get closer to his fans through a pragmatic, reliable and family-friendly style. when introducing products, he also had a sense of life. for example, when selling shrimp paste, he said: "for 99 yuan, you can get 2.4 jin of shrimp paste, which can be used for hot pot, making wontons, dumplings, and shrimp paste cakes to put in bread." when selling backpacks, he emphasized that it provides convenience for children to go to school.

ren zhong has more than 2 million followers on douyin. screenshot of douyin

a staff member of a statistics agency told upstream news that unlike li jiaqi's address to "all girls", middle-aged male celebrities use the same address to fans in their videos and live broadcasts, calling them "sisters". these people are actors themselves, and their sense of camera, body language, and lines are better than those of ordinary people. middle-aged and elderly female users aged 30-50 or even older constitute the core customer base of these male celebrities' live e-commerce.

live broadcast sales reached 8 times a day, with monthly sales exceeding 2.5 million

upstream news reporters noticed that there are product display windows on the douyin accounts of zhu yongteng and he shengming, which are convenient for fans to choose and purchase products. both of them have been live streaming to sell goods recently.

in "zhu yongteng's showcase", there are 231 good products, 14.3 million items have been sold, and 6.16 million people have followed his lead. his reputation score for live streaming is 4.5 (out of 5), which is only higher than 43% of his peers. in the public notice of live streaming live streaming live streaming in the past 30 days, there are 7 live streaming ...

upstream news reporters logged into the xindou and feigua data platforms and learned that zhu yongteng's sales in the past 30 days were between 2.5 million and 5 million yuan, which is higher than 70% of his peers.

"he shengming's showcase" shows that 3.15 million items have been sold, with 1.84 million people following his lead. his reputation score for live streaming is 4.7, which is higher than 87% of his peers. his reputation for content and service is both 5 points. in the past 30 days of live streaming, there were 15 live streaming sessions, including 8 on august 7, which started at around 3 pm and ended at around 11 pm that night. the work was done at full capacity.

the feigua data platform shows that in the past 30 days, he shengming has broadcast live 15 times, with an average of 275,000 viewers per show and sales ranging from 2.5 million to 5 million yuan.

the data platform shows that zhu yongteng's live streaming sales in the past month ranged from 2.5 million to 5 million. screenshot of feigua data

on september 6, upstream news reporters contacted the teams of he shengming, zhu yongteng and ren zhong as well as their mcn agencies, but received no response.

how can these middle-aged male stars seize this wave of "middle-aged women" customer market in the future? according to e-commerce insiders, compared with ordinary talents, the aura of celebrity artists is a plus, but without continuous operation over time, the sales effect may be worse than that of ordinary talents.

take he shengming, who officially joined the video account this year, as an example. before joining the video account, he shengming had already successively deployed platforms such as taobao live and douyin live, and started many live broadcasts on the two platforms in 2021. he currently has 4.66 million douyin fans.

relevant data shows that the average customer unit price of live streaming sales on douyin and kuaishou is 130 yuan and 88 yuan respectively. at this year's wechat open class, wechat officials announced that the average customer unit price of live streaming sales on video account exceeded 200 yuan. the person in charge of video account once said that female consumers accounted for 78% of video account consumers, consumers in first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities accounted for more than 60%, and people aged 30-50 contributed 40% of the increase in video account.

e-commerce insiders suggest that because this group of people is highly consistent with the main audience of middle-aged male celebrities, many male celebrities who have tried live streaming sales on other platforms and are good at managing their personalities can quickly replicate their previous live streaming sales paths on video accounts, seize the development nodes of video accounts, set up live broadcast rooms on video accounts, quickly start selling goods, and use the previous supply chain to quickly increase the reach of content and products in the target circle.

middle-aged and elderly people are increasingly fond of "passionate orders"

according to the "china aging industry development report", from 2014 to 2050, the consumption potential of china's elderly population will increase from about 4 trillion yuan to about 106 trillion yuan, and its share in gdp will increase from 8% to about 33%. although the middle-aged and elderly people are not likely to shake the young people's leading position in short videos and live broadcasts, the activity of middle-aged and elderly users in live broadcast rooms is constantly rising, and they are more and more fond of "passionate orders".

china media research (csm) conducted the sixth annual survey on short video users in september-october 2023. according to the survey results, short videos have a balanced penetration among users of all age groups. the highest proportion is 30-39 years old, accounting for 21.8%; the combined proportion of users in the age groups of 40-49 and 50-59 is 34.7%, and the proportion of users in the age group of 20-29 is only 15.5%.

according to the "silver crowd insight report" released by the industry research institution, from the perspective of time, the phenomenon of middle-aged and elderly people being addicted to the internet is becoming more and more prominent, with an average of at least 4 hours a day using the internet, and it will show an upward trend in the future. from the perspective of consumption, in september 2023, the proportion of online consumption of the silver-haired population in the range of 1,000-1,999 yuan will be 32.5%, a year-on-year increase of 0.6%; the proportion of online consumption in the range of 2,000-2,999 yuan will be 8.4%, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%.

the male celebrity's persona in promoting products easily reminds people of a male internet celebrity who was once very popular on douyin and had many "auntie" fans with millions of fans. he was banned by the platform for illegal behavior, which made some fans a little worried about the promotion behavior of these celebrity anchors.

zhang wei, a senior psychological counselor and writer, told upstream news that one of her clients is a middle-aged woman who is usually very frugal, but she spent a lot of money on giving tips to anchors and buying health products online. in fact, she knew rationally that those things were useless, but she still couldn't control herself.

"the midlife crisis does not only exist in men. after retirement, many middle-aged women begin to weaken their roles in the workplace and in life, and are prone to feeling empty inside. coupled with their economic autonomy, they are easily captured by traffic and algorithms." zhang wei said, "in fact, there are a few male celebrities, internet celebrities, and others who may use this 'routine' to comfort women and provide emotional value, just like a certain male internet celebrity before."

zhang wei suggested: "many middle-aged and elderly women still have a girlish heart and still yearn for the unfulfilled dreams and emotions of their youth. this is a fact. as a psychological counselor, my advice is: you should prioritize your needs, such as health needs, dignity needs, and security needs, which should be ranked first. you must find the right way to comfort yourself, make yourself stronger, and make yourself feel happy and happy. relatives should also give enough care and not be easily 'cheated'."

upstream news reporter tang hao, zhu liang, intern wu ruijie