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from brothers to enemies

text｜liu nandou

editor｜yang ruiqi

the former "loyal brothers" have now become enemies. similar scenes have been staged too many times in film and television works, and now they are actually being reproduced on the internet.

since the dispute over hairy crabs began on august 31, simba and xiao yangge, two top anchors, have been on the hot searches every day, and the dispute has not yet been completely resolved.

the two used to call each other "brothers" and did a good job of being friendly and respectful to each other. but they each represented different platforms, and there was an obvious conflict of interest. the root of the traffic business is of course still traffic, but now the world has changed. in the past, traffic came in droves, but now it has become something that needs to be actively sought, even if both sides need to tear off the "brother" mask.

don't let go of that crab

it all started with two people working together to sell a hairy crab.

on august 31, simba was promoting "mrs. crab" hairy crab cards in the live broadcast room. he was preparing to restock the stock when he learned from the brand that he had been reported by other anchors and could no longer sell the products.

"straightforward" has always been simba's strongest personality on the internet. he has fired at top anchors such as dong yuhui and li jiaqi, and has been merciless to platforms such as douyin and kuaishou. what's more exaggerated is that he has even fired at the "financial sponsors" of brands. in 2020, simba asked fans to return the honor mobile phone because he was dissatisfied with the refusal to give away earphones. "i can't make friends with huawei even if i spend 40 million. we will never cooperate."

simba 2020 honor live

so when facing xiao yangge this time, simba also "spoke without hesitation", "is there any anchor in china who can have the same mechanism and price as simba? you have a lot of fans, but your sales and anything else can't beat me... you don't have quality inspection, after-sales, or compensation attitude, and all you have left is hype."

simba's words quickly fermented, but xiao yangge did not respond immediately. instead, lu wenqing, the co-founder of three sheep, couldn't hold it back during the live broadcast and shouted to simba, "i have too many ways to know what you are doing. if you bite me again, i will fight to the end."

the four words "stay with me to the end" were exactly what simba wanted. the dispute that originally arose from the sale of hairy crabs suddenly became unimportant, and exposing the dirty laundry of the three sheep became the focus.

on the evening of september 2, simba made full preparations and started live broadcast again, revealing several core controversial points to the outside world at once.

first, the tit-for-tat lu wenqing had been sentenced for "brushing orders" in the past; second, there were quality problems with the products in xiao yangge's live broadcast room in the past, but he did not compensate consumers, including the braised pork with preserved vegetables and preserved vegetables that were exposed at the 315 gala, as well as maotai liquor, hair dryers without any quality certification, and low-quality kitchen knives, etc.; third, a female anchor under three sheep "had an affair with a senior executive" and was "sent to jail" by xiao yangge and lu wenqing.

(photo source: weibo)

the three pieces of news were more explosive than the last, allowing simba to quickly gain a commanding position in the public opinion field. on the other hand, xiao yangge's response was clearly in a passive situation.

on september 4, lu wenqing issued an apology statement, admitting that he had "taken a detour", but clarified his affair with the female anchor. as for the issue of consumer compensation, he shifted the focus to "our company has not received any punishment from any relevant department regarding the incident."

(photo source: tiktok @圍炉(卢)夜话)

the reason for not punishing them is very simple. the relevant departments of hefei city stated that three sheep only acted as an "advertiser" in the case of selling bad pork, and could not be punished as a "seller" for selling problematic products. therefore, three sheep's response was not problematic in terms of facts and "legality", but it was problematic in terms of "reason" to maintain consumer trust.

perhaps observing that public opinion was rarely favorable to him, simba issued an announcement on the evening of september 4 to seize the opportunity. first, he prohibited xinxuan's live broadcast rooms from selling hairy crabs, so as to avoid being accused of "stealing traffic." second, he used a real "killer move" - ​​giving xiao yangge a week. if he "still didn't take a stand against consumers," simba would pay 100 million yuan out of his own pocket to compensate consumers on behalf of xiao yangge.

(photo source: kuaishou @辛有志辛巴818)

on september 7, xiao yang finally spoke out. he cried in the live broadcast room, but did not directly respond to simba's "killer move" or even directly retort. he just said, "brothers, if you really want to scold, you can scold me, but please don't scold my colleagues."

the matter should have ended with simba's "great victory", but the seven-day appointment was up and the "dragon king" did not return. on the evening of september 11, when simba was ready to give out 100 million yuan in the live broadcast room, the live broadcast room was banned by kuaishou.

kuaishou officials did not give a time limit or reason for the ban, but even if simba did not live stream, he had fulfilled his promise to the outside world. many netizens posted screenshots in the comment section, saying they had received money from xinxuan group.

(photo source: kuaishou @辛有志辛巴818)

the matter is not over yet. the key point is that the suspicion between xiao yangge and his female anchor "mo mo" has not dissipated. the attraction of gossip is sometimes even greater than consumer rights protection. in fact, the main terms that xiao yangge has been on the hot search in the second half of the show are all related to "cheating" and "mo mo".

there is no official source to confirm simba's statement, but "momo" has indeed disappeared from the internet since the end of last year, and her whereabouts are unknown now. only some internet celebrities who claim to know "momo" are constantly leaking information, but the authenticity is questionable.

as long as "mo mo" does not appear, the outside discussion about "brother xiao yang's collapse" will not disappear, and this death battle between the "number one brothers" has not yet come to an end.

brothers at odds

although they come from different platforms and are often dubbed as "the no. 1 on douyin" and "the no. 1 on kuaishou" by the outside world, there are striking similarities between the business paths of xiao yangge and simba.

before the quarrel broke out, in terms of emotional connection, the two had always called each other "brothers" or "master and apprentice" to the outside world, and they were as close as brothers. when talking about each other in the live broadcast room, simba would mention how he took care of xiao yangge when he was not yet famous, and xiao yangge repeatedly expressed his respect for simba.

during the 618 event last year, the two of them rarely appeared together on the same microphone, and xiao yangge said the words that were later repeatedly quoted by countless media, "ba ge will always be my role model."

once such a "brotherly" relationship is constructed on social media, once it breaks down, it is easy to fall into the accusation of "ungratefulness". this may also be the internal reason why brother yang was reluctant to use harsh words when responding.

from the perspective of specific business logic and development nodes, the two have even more similarities.

first, in terms of the creation of matrix anchors, although there are also signed celebrities, the core anchors are well-known to netizens through the "master-apprentice system". brother xiao yang's apprentices include "red light yellow", "zui ge", "boss qi", etc., while simba's apprentices include "shi da piaoliang", "dandan", "zhao mengche", etc., all of whom are anchors with top sales performance in their respective groups. this packaging method with a strong sense of the underworld may be more easily recognized by their respective audiences.

(photo source: kuaishou)

the establishment of the matrix anchor also made the two of them want to quit in the first half of this year, hoping to retreat to the second line to be good managers and decision makers. in several live broadcasts in april, xiao yangge repeatedly stated that this year he would reduce the number of live broadcasts to sell goods and focus more on his own brand and company affairs. simba also revealed that he wanted to stop live broadcasting, settle down for two years, learn about artificial intelligence, and then choose a new track to start again after two years.

but the fact is that if the two super anchors step down, it will have a great impact on the overall revenue. the "apprentices" are not yet at the level of being able to truly replace the "master". therefore, until now, the two still have to appear in the foreground frequently. this is also the case for other super anchors. after dong yuhui separated from oriental selection, the decline in oriental selection's live broadcast data is also obvious to all.

in addition to "recruiting disciples", both of them also like to operate fans and build brands through concerts, music festivals, etc. in november last year, xiao yangge spent 30 million to hold a star-studded concert at the hefei olympic sports center, and simba spent more than 30 million to hold a concert at the bird's nest when he held his wedding in 2019. the actual revenue that this kind of activity can generate for the two groups is very limited, and the main value is to further retain fans.

kuaishou (photo source: douyin @小杨甄选kuaishou @辛有志辛巴818)

frequent scandals due to quality issues are one of the similarities between the two, and are also the focus of professional anti-counterfeiting people. not only is there a rumor that xiao yangge's "mei cai kou rou" is counterfeited, simba's previous "sugar water bird's nest" incident was also a sensation. perhaps it is precisely because of his "rich experience" in handling compensation issues that simba has the upper hand this time.

however, simba also has times when he learns from xiao yangge. in april this year, xinxuan group issued an internal letter, officially announcing the establishment of a subsidiary responsible for the live streaming slicing business, and announced that the "slicing distribution" business will become one of the key areas of xinxuan group's efforts in 2024. xiao yangge was the first to make this business popular.

(photo source: weibo @sina technology)

three sheep officials once disclosed that in 2022, more than 11,000 people obtained the slice authorization of the three sheep network, with an average income of 17,000 yuan per person. based on this estimate, in 2022, brother yang can make nearly 200 million yuan through the live streaming slice business.

similar styles, similar paths, and good relationships have repeatedly bound the two in media narratives, at least on the surface, to win-win situations. but now that they have fallen out, it is hard to say that it was just because of a hairy crab.

constant "cake"

they are friends when they have common interests, but when it develops into a zero-sum game, they can only become enemies.

if the pie can be made bigger, they can still be friendly with each other and can reminisce about the past via live broadcast during every annual big sale. but if the size of the pie remains unchanged, then no matter how "brotherly" they once were, they will have to show their fangs and start fighting for the meat.

the live streaming industry has not had a smooth year this year. the results of the 618 promotion have already sounded the alarm for the industry. dumo once wrote an article (click here to read: "dong yuhui doesn't want to be an internet celebrity, and those who want to be internet celebrities can't afford 618") to analyze the specific situation of 618. the data of most top anchors have declined compared with previous years. the anchors with good results often also brought a lot of welfare products, and the final profit situation is questionable.

(data source: analysys)

according to data from analysys international, in the just-concluded second quarter, the year-on-year growth rate of transaction volume in china's live e-commerce market has dropped to 12.6%, the lowest in the past two years.

the only remaining growth is also limited to the top anchors. the only area of ​​live streaming that is still growing is brand store broadcasts, which belong to the mid-range and below. according to the "2023 china live e-commerce industry research report" released by iresearch consulting, the market size of store broadcasts has exceeded 50%, reaching 51.8%. the top anchors can get less and less meat.

"2023 china live e-commerce industry research report" (data source: iresearch consulting)

in addition, the battle between platforms has also seen the emergence of new players, who are eager to further erode market share. after xiaohongshu launched dong jie, zhang xiaohui and other representative figures, it recently added li dan, whose style is different from that of most previous anchors, and is expected to open up a new track.

video accounts should not be underestimated. at the 2024 wechat open class at the beginning of the year, tencent publicly disclosed that in 2023, the gmv (gross merchandise volume) of live streaming sales on video accounts increased nearly 3 times, and the number of orders for video accounts surged by more than 244%.

although quarreling is unlikely to solve the fundamental problem, it can at least have a "temporary treatment" effect. on the first day when simba scolded xiao yangge for "hairy crabs", the cumulative gmv of the live broadcast reached 185 million yuan, far exceeding the estimated gmv of more than 90 million per game in the past 7 days. the live broadcast on september 7 when xiao yangge cried had a gmv of more than 150 million, which was the best live broadcast of crazy xiao yangge's account in the past four months.

although it is understandable that top anchors are anxious about traffic, it is not advisable to simply relieve anxiety through "war of words" and "spreading negative information".

the live streaming e-commerce industry is already difficult to attract incremental users. if negative news about top anchors appears on hot searches every time, users' impression of the entire industry will become worse and worse.

it may take some time to find the right method, but it is the only way for the healthy long-term development of the live streaming industry. win-win cooperation may win more than two companies; lose-lose cooperation may hurt more than two companies.