how to become a up host with millions of fans
2024-09-13
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what does it feel like to be a up master with millions of fans? can up master become a reliable job?
data from a questionnaire survey titled "what are contemporary young people paying attention to in employment" previously released by sina weibo showed that among the nearly 10,000 recent graduates interviewed, 61.6% would consider becoming an internet celebrity or doing live streaming when looking for a job.
the "china online performance (live broadcasting and short video) industry development report (2022-2023)" shows that the live broadcasting and short video industries directly or indirectly drive more than 100 million employment opportunities. as of 2022, more than 150 million anchor accounts have been opened, and more than 1 billion short video content creator accounts have been opened. the report found that at present, the anchor group has gradually shown a trend of high education, younger age, and professionalism, and short video creators are developing towards the two poles of young groups and middle-aged and older groups.
recently, a reporter from china youth daily and china youth network interviewed up hosts who have millions or even tens of millions of fans on multiple platforms across the entire network, using their real career track conversion stories to provide reference for young people's employment and career choices.
ok brother: when the going was tough, i just set up a tent and slept overseas.
ok brother has accounts on multiple social media platforms, and his videos "ok brother's global ocean exploration" can be viewed 20 million times in a single episode. as of press time, he has 1.159 million fans on bilibili alone and 4.264 million fans on douyin.
although brother ok travels all over the world and catches seafood everywhere, he is not good at speaking english. when he encounters various seafood while diving, he always says "okok, i've got them", while putting them into the net bag he carries with him. this became the origin of his name "brother ok".
ok brother started to be a up master in july 2020. being a up master and choosing the "sea-hunting" track was really helpless. "i lost money in the car business before 2019, so i went to cambodia to find my childhood good friend. there are many chinese people there, and i want to see if there are any job or entrepreneurial opportunities." ok brother likes diving, and he targeted a diving resort in cambodia, where there are many diving shops opened by foreigners and many chinese tourists, but no diving shops opened by chinese.
in 2019, ok passed the diving instructor exam and opened a small shop in cambodia. but the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic caused his revenue to decline month by month, and he had little money left after paying the rent every month. later, he could neither pay the rent nor return home.
"when i was watching videos, my thoughts were the same as most young netizens. i saw that those beach-hunting bloggers had 2 million or 5 million followers and it seemed easy. i thought to myself, it wouldn't be bad if i could shoot beach-hunting videos, and i could go around the world to hunt beach," brother ok told reporters.
in the earliest stage of the rush, he would update the video every day. the first destination for catching seafood was turkey, where air tickets were cheap. he would go to the sea at 9 o'clock in the morning, shoot videos for 3-6 hours, spend another two hours cooking a meal with the seafood he caught, and edit the videos for 3-4 hours. he did this every day.
in turkey, he updated 24 videos in 24 days; in cyprus, he updated 14 videos in 15 days. he rented the cheapest car and stayed in the cheapest hotel. in the most difficult times, ok and his girlfriend camped in tents in turkey and cyprus, with a daily accommodation fee of only 50-80 yuan; in egypt and tanzania, he spent 100 yuan to rent the cheapest old car, and ate and slept in the car.
however, the number of fans did not increase much. eight months after the video was filmed, ok brother arrived in oman with only 50,000 to 60,000 yuan left.
once, the computer he used to edit videos broke down and he had to go to the city to repair it. on the way into the city, his car crashed. “it costs one or two thousand yuan to repair the computer, and two or three thousand yuan to repair the car. i felt so bad.” in this episode, he edited his experience into a video and released it. unexpectedly, many fans wanted to send him computers from all over the world.
the enthusiastic interaction from fans gave him the confidence to continue updating. later facts proved that after that period, his fans increased from 100,000 to 500,000 or 600,000.
in the 11th month, brother ok broke even for the first time through the income from short video platforms. the income from various platforms combined can reach more than 10,000 yuan per month. "if you really want to switch to this track, then i suggest you anticipate that there will be no increase in followers for a year in advance and make a budget," brother ok said.
the reporter switched to become a travel up host, and every scenic spot is a knowledge point
diversified employment for young people is a new trend in youth employment. the report of the 20th cpc national congress pointed out that a rich and diverse range of jobs is an important part of high-quality and full employment.
b station up masters and xiaohongshu bloggers are both emerging employment tracks in recent years. according to b station's 2023 financial report data, more than 3 million up masters earned income through the platform in 2023, with an average monthly submission volume of more than 23 million.
bi xiaobin was originally a reporter for a central portal website, specializing in popular science. today, he is a well-known up host "huya youth plus" with more than 1 million fans on multiple platforms across the internet. advertisers ask him to customize advertisements, and major platforms will also pay him traffic rewards. now, he and his girlfriend drive around china while shooting videos to make money, and their family's annual income has increased compared to the past.
bi xiaobin told reporters that his previous job involved a lot of repetitive content and little creative content. after spending three years in beijing, the various rules and regulations at work made him forget his "life list."
at the end of one year, the website he worked for asked employees to fill out a "wish list", and he wrote "i want to make a travel documentary." in the end, he took his meager 100,000 yuan in savings and started his journey around china.
at a reservoir in sichuan, he was touring while trying to find the source of the power shortage in some parts of sichuan at the time; at the man-made attraction "gaolaozhuang" in xinjiang, he joked that there was an "ancient tomb" in gaolaozhuang while introducing to netizens the surprises behind this unpopular attraction; in karamay, xinjiang, he could talk about the origin of the mud volcano and the historical changes of this oil city.
every video of "huya youth plus" has at least one "popular science knowledge point". bi xiaobin's commentary copy is the "hot topic" most commented on by netizens in the "bullet screen". in addition to being a travel up host, he is also regarded by many people as a knowledge sharing up host.
"i want to have fun and take photos at the same time, which is actually very confusing and difficult to prepare. moreover, i always want to convey some information to the audience through the video, which may affect the click-through rate and fun." bi xiaobin said that the biggest difficulty for travel up hosts is actually "updating on time". on the one hand, careful copywriting takes a lot of time. on the other hand, there are always special situations during the journey such as "cannot take pictures of the scenery", "cannot enter the scenic spots" and "cannot get tickets".
"once when i went to kanas, i thought of many places to shoot in advance, but when i got there i found that all the tickets were sold out for the next three days. i had to adjust the plan temporarily." bi xiaobin has encountered many emergencies. for example, he once had a fever for seven consecutive days and faced the dilemma of suspension of updates and business breach of contract.
the more fans you have, the more things you need to consider.
in the past two days, ok brother’s video on the uninhabited island of madagascar has become popular again as expected. his videos are always blessed by the “bullet screen army”. interaction with fans is encouragement and pressure for him. “fans like big goods, so i don’t touch small spider snails now; fans like to see me go out to sea at night, so i will go out more often at night.”
in fact, going out to sea at night is very risky. every time he goes out, he brings two sets of nets and two lights, and leaves one person on the shore to hold a light to lead the way. once when he went out to sea, he encountered an offshore current, and it took him one hour to swim back from a distance of 1 kilometer. another time, he took a small boat to an uninhabited island for the sake of cheapness, and he experienced huge waves that lasted for more than 40 minutes, "almost thinking he would not be able to come back."
many people like to watch brother ok cook seafood feasts with simple cooking methods, but eating seafood every day is actually miserable. he cannot obtain dietary fiber, vitamin c and other nutrients through natural food, and relies entirely on various health supplements.
every time he receives a business order, brother ok is "both happy and anxious." while he can make money, he always worries about how to embed the ads seamlessly, what to do if the click-through rate is not good after embedding, and whether the ads will cause disgust among fans.
bi xiaobin, the "tiger teeth youth", also has this concern. he is very selective every time he takes a business order, and only takes orders from businesses that can smoothly insert ads and do not force hard insertion. "my income depends on the support of fans. if the business order advertising is not carefully inserted, fans will be lost."
he said that "passion" is a prerequisite for being a good up host. "many people say that self-media is a red ocean now, but i don't think so. the key is to be able to persist. only passion and expertise can help you get through the difficult stage. those who are anxious to get results may not be suitable."
the travel up host "le'er josh" also has millions of fans. they are a couple. they started making global travel videos in 2019, started to have traffic income in 2022, and advertising income in 2023.
"in a 30-minute video, you have to make good use of the number of meals you eat, the attractions you visit, and the people you meet. there must be at least 20-30 eye-catching points in 30 minutes, otherwise fans won't be able to watch it." up host chen qiaoshi told reporters that he is now so entangled that even when he thinks about getting on a plane, his mind is full of "what kind of jokes can there be on a plane."
chen qiaoshi said that being a up master would have a long, unprofitable period, which might require about 100 videos to support it, and a "pure investment" of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. he said that he only had time to eat a proper meal at night, and after 2-3 years of doing this, he would get stomach problems.
the video of "leah josh" traveling in india is very popular, but behind this series of videos, the couple had stomach upset, gastroenteritis, fever, and intravenous drip several times. "there is no track that can be played and make money happily, and the same is true for travel up hosts. others are playing, and i am working."
china youth daily and china youth network reporter wang yejie source: china youth daily
source: china youth daily
