From "Sister Rain in the Northeast" to "Steel-toed" and "Big Blue", and then to crazy Brother Xiao Yang, online celebrity, who are active in social media, have fallen into a crisis of trust for various reasons, ranging from being denounced by netizens to being fined, banned and even sanctioned by law.
According to incomplete statistics, before 2024 is over, 16 houses in online celebrity have collapsed one after another. When a series of house collapse events are staged one after another like dominoes, people can’t help wondering: How far can online celebrity’s mode of bringing goods go? Will consumers continue to pay the bill?
Driven by the wave of digitalization, sturm und drang, a live e-commerce industry, has quickly become a golden channel to realize online celebrity’s talent. It seems that overnight, online celebrity people on all platforms have devoted themselves to the torrent of live broadcast with goods, and realized the realization of traffic easily.
Take the "Northeast Rain Sister" whose house collapsed recently as an example. The data shows that it has been popular since 2023 and has 24 million fans. Since 2024, its team has broadcast 28 live shows with goods, with accumulated sales exceeding 100 million. In the nearly one month around September alone, there were 4 live shows with goods, with an average audience of more than 5 million, and the total sales of 4 live shows ranged from 25 million to 50 million.
So, how did the "Northeast Rain Sisters" get angry? Generally speaking, online celebrity’s popularity can’t be separated from his unique personality. "Northeast Rain Sister" takes pseudo-local customs as a selling point, and creates an image similar to "Wolf Warriors version of Plum Qi". In the video, she holds a big jar and an iron pot on her shoulders, and one person can pick up half a pig and cook a family’s diet and daily life alone, claiming to "show everyone the most authentic rural life". Through a series of video presentations, she successfully created a hard-working, simple and powerful image of rural women in Northeast China, opened up a new track, and once became a big online celebrity with 24.5 million fans.
Online celebrity’s success depends not only on the creation of people, but also on the operation of the team and the support of fans. The team is responsible for planning, shooting and editing, and fans are the foundation of online celebrity’s survival and development. Under the careful operation of the team, one online celebrity after another has been pushed to the Internet front desk, attracting a huge fan base with their unique personnel and style.
With the blessing of traffic, many online celebrity and the teams behind them have also begun to seek commercial transformation. Live broadcast with goods has become the most direct way to make money, and those who are interested have built a huge commercial map on this basis. However, more and more problems are gradually exposed in online celebrity’s freight forwarding industry, especially the crisis of trust directly pushes this industry to the forefront.
Recently, the media interview found that "Sister Northeast Rain" and her apprentices only rented a house in the village, and only came to shoot a video and broadcast live. "These people are not recording rural life, but performing rural life." Her elaborate rural life design was revealed as a rented rural house, and the planning and packaging behind it were all to attract the audience.
What is even more shocking is that the sweet potato vermicelli she sold in the live broadcast was found to contain no sweet potato ingredients, and there was false propaganda, and she was fined 1.65 million by the regulatory authorities.
From September 23 to October 12, it took only 20 days for Sister Rain in Northeast China to experience powder dropping, penalty and house collapse, which was really staggering.
Rural life is fake, people are fake, and even the goods sold are fake. This incident, like a loud slap in the face, made the public deeply doubt the authenticity and integrity of online celebrity. It reflects many problems such as lack of trust, chaotic team management and difficult supervision in online celebrity.
Similarly, the online celebrity "Liangshan Qubu" and "Zhao Linger" arrested last year were carefully hatched by a media company. By designing scripts and words, the company fabricated a simple hero image and a pure and kind heroine image for the two, creating a "original ecology of Liangshan" and winning the attention. After earning traffic, they opened online stores and broadcast live goods, and sold agricultural products nationwide under the banner of "helping farmers" and "high quality and original ecology", involving more than 10 million yuan.
In a story full of falsehood and deception, the collapse of online celebrity’s houses became inevitable. When the lies were exposed and the truth surfaced, the disenchantment of online celebrity became an irreversible trend.
Many online celebrity live broadcasts are not based on real experience, but are influenced by brand sponsorship, which makes consumers begin to doubt whether online celebrity’s recommendation is sincere. Driven by interests, the image presented to the public by online celebrity and his team became indistinguishable, which led to "family in mouth, business in mind" becoming the public’s new evaluation of online celebrity.
When there are more and more examples of "Northeast Rain Sister", the public’s trust in online celebrity has dropped to freezing point. People are beginning to realize that online celebrity, who seems sincere and grounded, is actually just an actor wearing a mask, and their performance is just to attract traffic and earn money. This cognitive change has made the public’s attitude towards online celebrity more pragmatic and rational. They no longer trust online celebrity’s recommendation and delivery easily, but pay more attention to the essential factors such as price, quality, logistics and after-sales service.
In this context, the live e-commerce industry has also reached the moment of big waves. Online celebrity and merchants who only pursue short-term interests and ignore the quality of goods and user experience are doomed to be eliminated by the market. Only those online celebrity and merchants who can insist on quality and pay attention to user experience can stand out in the fierce market competition and become the best in the industry.
This year’s double 11 Shopping Festival has started, and all major platforms are gearing up for this annual feast. Different from previous years, in double 11 this year, major e-commerce companies seem to pay more attention to quality and service. Ali made it clear that this year’s live e-commerce in double 11 has entered a new stage of quality live broadcast from the entertainment red man mode. This means that the cooperation between merchants and online celebrity is slowly "cooling down". No matter users or businesses, they no longer excessively pursue the effect of online celebrity anchor bringing goods, but pay more attention to the quality of goods and services. This change is undoubtedly very suitable for the current market situation.
As consumers gradually return to rationality, they no longer blindly pursue online celebrity and flow, but pay more attention to the actual value of goods and the quality of services. Therefore, the platform must also evolve to adapt to the changing needs of consumers.
When live e-commerce is no longer deeply tied to online celebrity Talent, the whole industry will also usher in new changes. Those online celebrity talents who can’t adapt to market changes are doomed to be left behind by the platform and the times.
In the face of the increasingly standardized short video and live broadcast industry, fake people are like castles in the air, which is difficult to last long. Only by continuous learning and outputting high-quality and valuable content can we gain a firm foothold in the fierce competition and promote the upward development of the industry. At the same time, online celebrity should also strengthen the restraint and self-discipline of their own behavior, and win the trust and support of consumers with integrity and quality.
Comprehensive report by poster news editor Yu Chunhong