Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, June 2 nd Title: Revealing Emotional Anchor’s Art of Collecting Money: Acting and Speculating, Selling Miserable Goods.
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter
In Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker and other short video platforms, there are a group of anchors who solve emotional problems for netizens. They can solve complicated contradictions and disputes in daily life in minutes, attracting a large number of middle-aged and elderly viewers.
A survey by Xinhua Viewpoint reporter found that these emotional anchors often write, direct and play false stories under the guise of "mediation", with the actual purpose of bringing goods. Most of the goods sold are fake and shoddy, which is suspected of fraud.
Making up stories "selling miserably" has tens of thousands of fans.
The reporter searched several short video and live broadcast platforms with the keyword "emotional anchor" and found that under the label of "positive energy", the screen was full of incredible ethical stories, such as "my ex-boyfriend took out his kidney for his girlfriend but chose to disappear" and "my husband died for 6 years and met again on the way to work".
Once you pay attention to an emotional anchor, the platform will continue to push similar emotional anchors. In the live broadcast room, the anchor usually conducts so-called contradiction mediation and dispute settlement in the name of accepting the request of the "client". After the broadcast, the anchor took "everyone likes it to 100,000, so I will contact the client for mediation" as a gimmick, accumulating the audience and popularity in the live broadcast room, and distributing more traffic in the background accordingly.
From fighting between husband and wife to quarreling between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, from maintenance disputes to child abuse, the drama of "mediating contradictions" by anchors is constantly staged in videos or live broadcasts. Some of the protagonists in the story are terminally ill boys, and some are mothers abused by their children. They have left messages to the emotional anchor for "help" because of their "miserable experiences".
The anchors sometimes look dignified and sometimes impassioned. After the connection, it only takes a few hours, and seemingly extremely sharp contradictions will always be solved.
According to the reporter’s investigation, the number of fans of emotional anchors in Tik Tok is more than 10 million, and there are also tens of thousands of fans. Some millions of fans often watch live broadcasts of anchors with more than 100,000 people.
Not only live broadcast, but also some anchor numbers broadcast "series" in the form of short videos. A Tik Tok named "Dai Sige" has broadcast more than 200 short videos so far, with more than 5.4 million fans and more than 46 million likes, and the highest rating of a single video exceeds 2.8 million.
The content of "selling badly" has won the trust of a large number of middle-aged and elderly audiences. The helplessness, fear and deception of the parties in the video not only satisfied their curiosity, but also won their sympathy. For example, in the live broadcast room where the plot is "treating the mother", there are barrage screens such as "This girl is so kind", "Too filial", "Help her" and "Help me place an order when my son comes back".
Wang Xiaoyan, a senior anchor, said that these emotional anchors won by team ability and script plot, and the people and stories were carefully compiled and interpreted.
The parents of Ms. Yin, a citizen of Nanning, Guangxi, are over 60 years old. Both of them pay attention to a large number of emotional anchors and spend several hours watching these short videos or live broadcasts every day. "They are actually attracted by the dramatic conflicts in these videos. Some anchors have intense emotions, strong inflammatory language and like moral criticism, which is particularly easy for middle-aged and elderly people to become addicted. " Ms. Yin said.
Some live broadcasts earn tens of thousands of yuan, and the sales are often defective products and no fakes.
In fact, the emotional anchor interprets the story of "ups and downs" according to the script, creates "conflicts and disputes" and acts as a "mediator", with the ultimate goal of "sucking powder to raise the number", so that fans can bring goods after reaching a certain number.
An emotional anchor told reporters that the daily income of an ordinary live broadcast room with tens of thousands of fans ranges from several thousand yuan to ten thousand yuan, such as rewards, parking fees with goods and profits with goods. In a live broadcast room with over one million fans, the income can easily reach more than 50 thousand yuan.
An emotional anchor selling e-books introduced that the total number of fans of his team in Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker is about 3 million, and the team’s income mainly consists of two parts: first, fans reward, which mainly attracts fans to "encourage and support" the plot parties and mediators in the process of resolving emotional disputes; The second is the income from goods, because the cost of selling emotional counseling e-books is almost zero, and the profit is extremely high. The monthly income of its team can reach 1.2 million yuan.
In order to close the distance, the audience in front of the screen is called "family" by the anchor. "Family, come and want to hear what happened to their mother-in-law relationship. Please pay attention or join a fan group."
When the reporter entered the Tik Tok named "Colette March for Love", the anchor was broadcasting a "party". With tears in her eyes, the client told the story of being driven out of the house by her mother-in-law, which attracted more than 600 fans to watch in just a few minutes.
The reporter learned that in the live broadcast room of the anchor, you don’t need to pay any fees to pay attention to the anchor, but to become a "fan" of the anchor, you need to pay a shaking coin worth 0.1 yuan RMB. "After becoming a fan, speak in the live broadcast room, and the user name will be marked with ‘ Family label ’ , become the anchor ‘ Family ’ 。” Tang, an elderly enthusiastic audience of an emotional anchor, said. Being "fans" and "family members" means building trust and close emotional ties with the anchor and being willing to spend money for the anchor.
After the emotional story is over, there are often many people performing "fake bargaining" in the live broadcast room, and the sales are often defective products and no fakes. Many anchor performances turned against "manufacturers", letting them make profits or even take money, forcing price reduction or reproduction. For example, when they sell cosmetics, daily necessities and jewelry, they "fudge": "They buy things to help more clients solve problems in the live broadcast room", "Factory direct sales, absolute lowest price, genuine products" and "The manufacturer has put a quality guarantee of 200,000 yuan in my place, so the family can rest assured".
According to some users in Tik Tok, the goods they bought in the live broadcast room of emotional anchor were of poor quality, the goods were not on the right board and the after-sales service was poor. Ms. Liu, a 64-year-old citizen of Jinan, told the reporter that after the goods such as silver ornaments purchased in the live broadcast room were identified as fakes, she repeatedly contacted the customer service and never got a reply. After complaining about the incident in the live broadcast room, she was called "black powder" by the anchor, personally attacked and kicked out of the live broadcast room.
Recently, a survey conducted by an institution on the experience of the elderly being cheated on the Internet shows that "false advertising" is the most common risk of the elderly when surfing the Internet, accounting for more than 30%. Followed by online fraud, accounting for about 22%. Among different groups of elderly people, the proportion of elderly people living alone in rural areas who are deceived is as high as 90%. In the most common deception scene, "live broadcast, short video" is indispensable.
Emotional live broadcast forms a complete industrial chain, and the platform should strengthen supervision.
In March, Tik Tok Security Center issued the "Public Notice on Punishment for Violation of" Selling Miserable Goods and Performing Speculation ",saying that the platform has imposed penalties for violation of regulations on selling miserable goods, fabricating bizarre stories and performing hype, and some anchors mediate emotional disputes, fabricate bizarre stories and use sympathy, with the ultimate goal of bringing goods.
The reporter’s investigation found that the emotional live broadcast market has formed a relatively complete industrial chain from actors to scripts, from "sucking powder" to bringing goods. Some WeChat WeChat official account even have an article titled "Mai Shou Lian Manual". Mai Shou can communicate with the anchor alone or with many wheat, or find his own partner to temporarily play. The most popular plots include cheating, liking my cousin, rural plots, domestic violence and so on.
"widely used among anchors ‘ Family ’ Address is emotionally attractive to the audience. Most emotional anchors are biased towards ethics, family disputes, and the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, which is extremely attractive and deceptive to middle-aged and elderly people who lack social interaction. " Zhu Guowei, a professor at the School of Business Administration of Hunan University, said.
"Emotional anchors sell bad hype by fabricating stories, which has a certain deceptive nature and is suspected of breaking the law." Wang Sixin, deputy dean of the Institute of Community of Human Destiny, Communication University of China, said that relevant parties should intensify efforts to rectify and purify cyberspace.
Chen Guanwen, a lawyer of Shandong Rizhong Law Firm, said that it is a typical price fraud to induce consumption by performing routines such as "bargaining", falsely raising the price first and then reducing the price at a loss.
Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that the platform should strengthen the supervision of commodity quality and price and improve the consumer evaluation mechanism.
Experts suggest that the relevant regulatory authorities should improve the platform management measures and increase penalties. If the platform fails to fulfill its obligation to review the qualifications of operators, or fails to fulfill its obligation to ensure the safety of consumers, causing damage to consumers, it shall bear corresponding responsibilities according to law.
Wang Sixin believes that the pace of social life is accelerating, and many middle-aged and elderly people lack children to accompany them, so their emotional needs cannot be met. At the same time, they lack full understanding of new technologies and means, have poor discrimination and are easily confused. The whole society should strengthen the reminder and care for this group. In addition, consumers should actively report the fraud they find, and relevant departments should also increase the punishment for illegal acts. (Reporter Wang Yang, Pan Qiang, Xie Ying, Li Ziwei)