The anchor fled Hangzhou? Company | Live | Hangzhou

"I don't want to be a live streamer anymore," Wang Sha sat in front of the reporter, with exquisite makeup and a hoarse voice.

When she first started working as an e-commerce anchor in Hangzhou, she had a plan to buy a car and a house within 3 years, full of confidence. At that time, she heard that the anchor's monthly income of 100000 yuan was commonplace. But now, exactly three years have passed, and she hasn't earned that much money, and she rarely thinks about settling down and buying a house again.

"But without being an anchor, I don't know what else I can do," Wang Sha quickly added. Before becoming a live streamer, she was a nurse in a hospital in her hometown of Shanxi. "Not being a live streamer earns less, so I definitely can't accept it."

At the beginning of this year, the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province provided a monitoring data showing that there were over 5000 registered companies and nearly 50000 live streamers in Hangzhou. Quickly, people calculated an account - one in every 244 people in Hangzhou is a broadcaster.

Recently, a questionnaire survey showed that out of nearly 10000 recent graduates surveyed, 60% would consider emerging professions such as internet celebrities and live streaming when seeking employment. It is foreseeable that the number of anchors will continue to increase.

There are more practitioners, but market demand has not expanded, competition in the industry is accelerating, and anchor salaries are constantly decreasing. According to statistics, the decline is generally between 30% and 50%. Staying or leaving, wavering and repeatedly struggling, may be the psychological state of many anchors in Hangzhou today.

However, this may be the way the industry should develop. Live streaming e-commerce is no longer popular, returning to rationality. E-commerce anchors are no longer synonymous with "internet celebrities", no longer representing internet celebrities, but becoming an ordinary profession.

The anchor is livestreaming sales and selling toys. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lin Guangyao

Industry salary reduction

The reporter and Wang Sha were in a caf é, and she only brought a glass of plain water. Recently, she has been drinking Chinese medicine to regulate her body every day, so she can't drink coffee. "Being a live streamer for three years is enough, I can't do it anymore," the doctor advised her, patiently speaking.

In Hangzhou, many e-commerce anchors are easily recognizable. Not based on appearance, but solely on sound. Almost every anchor's voice is hoarse. When a new anchor auditions, industry insiders can easily tell if they have rich live streaming experience.

Live streaming costs a lot of voice. Wang Sha's throat is always inflamed repeatedly, and once it hurts, it becomes fiery and her voice becomes blurry. Liu Tong is also a live streamer. She caught a cold while blowing the air conditioner, and her throat was almost speechless. During the live broadcast, her colleagues listened anxiously and repeatedly confirmed her physical condition. In the end, the originally scheduled 5-hour live broadcast ended 2 hours earlier.

Anchor Zou Qian is considering changing her job and just finished an interview before meeting with reporters. The other party wants to create a "sun never sets" live broadcast room that runs 24 hours a day, while newcomers are usually assigned to a "big night venue" and broadcast from 2am to 8am. Due to the reversal of day and night, the host can receive some additional subsidies, which are 50 yuan per day.

Irregular working hours are a common occurrence for broadcasters. If encountering a live broadcast room with a starting number or when launching a new product, the host needs to test all kinds of times and evaluate the best stage of traffic. "I never think of the number now, it's too torturous." Zou Qian had experienced before that sometimes it was already 0:00 when the evening shift was off, and the morning shift was waiting for 6:00 to start broadcasting. She had to wake up at 4:00.

It is difficult to control the traffic in the live broadcast room, and sales are also affected, but this pressure is transmitted layer by layer and directly falls on the shoulders of the anchor. "There are seven or eight anchors on the same account, and we have a meeting once a week. There is a large screen in the conference room, and each anchor's performance this week is listed in order of ranking, one by one. The pressure to rank last is particularly high, and the last few may be eliminated," Liu Tong said.

In order to boost performance, in the live broadcast room, the anchor has to always maintain a state of mind. "No one interacts with you, and you don't make a single order for an hour. You also have to direct and act on your own, talking to yourself in front of the machine, and looking very excited." Liu Tong said, "But I'm human, not a robot, how can I not have negative emotions?" During one broadcast, she was asked many requirements, one time to change clothes, one time the lights were too bright, and another time she said her face was too white, constantly adjusting. These trivial matters annoyed her and she resigned after the broadcast.

Liu Tong has been a live streamer for 3 years, and many companies have changed. "I can't even count it myself, really." The job of a live streamer is difficult to stabilize, and the live streaming project itself is fast food. "The company I signed with was originally going to broadcast an account, and I prepared it for 10 days. The personnel were ready, the traffic videos were taken, and the inventory was organized. Before the broadcast started, the project was cancelled." And more accounts, due to poor live streaming performance, would stop broadcasting for a period of time.

The anchors often talk about the above roast. But none of these are enough to make them leave. It was only in the past two months that Wang Sha truly had the idea of giving up - the anchor industry has generally seen salary cuts.

A while ago, Wang Sha wanted to switch jobs and interviewed two live streaming companies, offering a base salary of 20000 yuan. The interviewer was surprised and said that the anchor has not given a salary of 20000 yuan yet, with a maximum of 15000 yuan. Wang Sha was also surprised. "No company has ever negotiated prices before, so you can give whatever you want." In her current company, she operates four accounts and has more than ten anchors. She secretly inquired and found out that her highest basic salary is 20000 yuan per month. Recently, some new anchors who have just joined the industry have come to the company and are said to be willing to work for 8000 yuan. "I really can't understand, anchors are competing with each other and lowering their own prices."

When the market was slightly better, Liu Tong's monthly salary at the end of the month was 35000 yuan, plus a 1% commission, making a monthly income of 50000 yuan is not a problem. After resigning last time, she signed a part-time contract with a live streaming company. There was no base salary or commission, and the salary was calculated based on the live streaming time, ranging from 300 to 400 yuan per hour. "I really didn't like this 300 yuan before." Liu Tong was very dissatisfied with the salary. "At the beginning of this year, the hourly salary for part-time jobs was still 500 to 700 yuan." But she had no choice, which is a common market price.

The anchor is selling pearl jewelry in the live broadcast room. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Han Chuanhao

Golden Time

"It's easy to make money," Liu Tong recalled that 2020 was the golden period for broadcasters.

E-commerce live streaming emerged in 2016. "At that time, entertainment broadcasters were unwilling to switch to e-commerce broadcasters, thinking that promoting products could not be brought to the forefront." Ren Zhuang, the head of Tianzi Live Operations, said that he was an experienced operator of live streaming rooms. However, soon people witnessed the power of e-commerce live streaming. In October 2017, Taobao's former live streaming sister livestreamed for 5 hours and helped a fur shop in Haining sell 70 million yuan worth of goods, almost earning a house overnight. Becoming famous in the first battle, live streaming broke through the circle among e-commerce practitioners. In the following two years, the model of live streaming e-commerce gradually matured.

The industry rapidly expanded in early 2020. Under the impact of the COVID-19, "cloud" into the live broadcast room has become the "lifeline" for physical businesses. Sun Laichun founded the skincare brand Lin Qingxuan in Shanghai, with 337 stores mostly located in first and second tier cities. Due to offline operations being "frozen", Sun Laichun was able to survive for more than 70 days even after using the money on his books. He personally broadcasted it and received over 60000 views during his first live broadcast, with sales exceeding 400000 yuan. Later, the company's offline shopping guides competed to launch live broadcasts online. Half a month later, e-commerce sales performance increased fivefold.

There are countless similar stories. Major brands and businesses have set up live streaming rooms one after another, fearing to fall behind in the new arena of live streaming e-commerce. With more live streaming rooms, anchors have become scarce resources.

At that time, Liu Tong was still a junior student and sometimes took on part-time jobs. She worked as a women's clothing model and calculated the cost based on the number of clothes. Each set cost around 200 yuan, and she took 20-30 photos per day, each requiring 40-50 photos. Women's clothing is usually photographed off-season, wearing short sleeves in winter and down jackets in summer. Outdoor photography is done from morning till night. My friends recommended her to try being a live streamer, "Live for 4 hours every night, it's really exciting." Liu Tong quickly signed up for a live streaming company and became a beauty anchor. A single product with an average order price of tens of yuan can easily sell for tens of thousands of yuan in a live broadcast, and she quickly became the company's top seller.

In 2020, because she enjoyed watching live broadcasts, Wang Sha went to Hangzhou and wanted to become a live streamer. "It's relatively easy for newcomers to enter the industry," Wang Sha said. Many institutions in Hangzhou lack anchors, and job postings have been hanging online, but there are very few job applicants. She went to various live streaming companies for interviews and only needed a brief audition explanation, because her family had previously opened a clothing store, and she often went to the store to help. If she had something to say, she could quickly pass the exam. The interview was successful on the first day, and the next day it was directly broadcasted. I worked as a live streamer in a company incubated influencer room, and the influencer only needed to appear on the monthly update. Wang Sha broadcasts for 4 hours every night with a fixed monthly salary and can rest for 4 days.

The salary increase was rapid, and in the second month, Liu Tong's base salary increased to 18000 yuan. In the composition of anchor income, salary is only a part. "Do you know how good the market was at that time? I once talked to a celebrity live streaming room, and I paid 2000 yuan per hour. Without saying a word, you stood next to him, and there were people standing next to him who could get this number. It felt great." At that time, as long as you entered the celebrity live streaming room, the starting price was 1500 yuan per hour. Another time, Liu Tong was invited to shoot a promotional video for a certain Bluetooth headphone brand, with an hourly fee of 300 yuan per hour. Throughout the day, he filmed a few videos and spent most of the time discussing, "In other words, he procrastinated."

People like Liu Tong, in jargon, are called store anchors. The live broadcast room is set up by merchants, and people enter the live broadcast mostly because of the products and brands, rather than the personal charm of the anchor. Another type is called influencer anchors, and most of the live broadcast rooms are fans. Fans place orders out of trust and following in influencers. And the income of influencer anchors is much higher.

In August 2020, anchor Zheng Ke went to Hangzhou and signed a brokerage agreement with a specialized internet celebrity incubation agency to become an influencer anchor, with a sales commission of 30% to 50%. She has heard many stories of her peers getting rich - a friend of a live streamer bought a house in Hangzhou and paid a down payment of 2 million yuan. The ordinary working class saved money for many years, and the live streamer managed to do it within two to three years; They went on a trip to Sanya, and in order to have a great time, they packed the entire swimming pool and served fruit platters for 500 yuan each; In the month of Double Eleven, many people received salaries of three to four hundred thousand yuan. "In this industry, if there are no dreams, earning 10000 yuan per month with closed eyes and no pressure, earning 100000 yuan per month is commonplace."

Zou Qian graduated from school in June 2021, and by then, it had become a consensus that the income of anchors was high. She studied broadcasting and hosting, and becoming a host was one of the best graduation destinations among her classmates. "Some were teachers at eloquence training institutions, while others interned at television stations, and the salary gap between being a host was significant."

However, the anchors did not expect that such high salaries could not last for too long.

The anchor sells women's clothing in the live broadcast room, which has only one anchor and one operator. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ji Chunpeng

Difficulty in doing business

Perhaps starting from this year, or as if there were signs last year, the specific time may not be clear to the anchors, but there is no doubt that the business of live streaming e-commerce is becoming increasingly difficult to do.

"We can't make money from live streaming now," Wang Sha said. "Let's calculate." Currently, the rules of live streaming platforms have changed, and the traffic logic has shifted from "natural flow" to "paid flow.". Taking women's clothing as an example, the popularity of live streaming rooms is low, and people usually have to invest money to buy traffic. Ideally, 10000 yuan of traffic can convert into 30000 yuan of sales. Assuming a live broadcast sales revenue of 100000 yuan, the investment cost is 30000 yuan, and the return rate of women's clothing is approximately 70%. The actual sales revenue is also around 30000 yuan. Looking at the water, electricity, and rental costs to maintain the operation of the company, as well as the labor costs of the anchor and operations, "Do you still want to make money in the live broadcast room? Just don't lose money."

Various live streaming rooms are trying their best to reduce personnel expenses. The women's clothing live broadcast room that Wang Sha had previously stayed in was fully equipped with two anchors, one operator, one field controller, and one matchmaker - specifically designed to match and display clothing and accessories for the live broadcast room. The mode of live streaming has changed now. In order to reduce costs, the entire live broadcast focuses on selling one main product. The anchor hardly needs to change clothes and no longer needs a matchmaker. There is only one commentator in the live room and one operator who cooperates with the script and links.

Most live streaming companies focus on proxy broadcasting as their main business, charging service fees and live streaming hourly wages to brand merchants. Usually, the live broadcast agreement signed between the company and the brand has a minimum period of one month, and the live broadcast time and sales are evaluated. If the effect is not good, the live broadcast cannot be profitable, and the brand will withdraw the item.

It's difficult for influencers and broadcasters to just start their accounts. Zheng Ke abandoned three accounts in the first half of the year, but none of them showed any improvement. From the fourth episode to the fourth episode, it sold for 20000 yuan in 15 minutes. Based on this calculation, it could sell for several hundred thousand yuan in a night. However, it was forcibly suspended due to a complaint. "It depends on whether the boss is willing to lose." Zheng Ke said that hundreds of yuan worth of things are free, rings are sold for a penny, facial mask are sold for a dime, and the selling price even the packaging cost is not enough. The company will lose hundreds of thousands of yuan on the goods only every month. "Other live broadcast rooms sell for 199 yuan, and we sell for 9.9 yuan. The price is not as low as this, so it can't be done."

The process of incubating experts is like a gamble. "In the early stage, if you invest money to support your account, you can have one out of the following 10 anchors, and the investment can be recovered overnight," Zheng Ke said. However, the reality is that even among thousands of anchors, it is difficult to find an influential influencer.

Nowadays, incubators have become cautious and have mostly abandoned plans to invest in cultivating talent. When Zou Qian just graduated, she signed a contract with an organization and broadcasted a beauty account left by a former influencer. The company wrote a good script, the makeup artist put on her makeup, and Zou Qian acted like an actor, or rather a puppet, playing the role of a beauty expert.

A period of time has passed, and the industry has been filtering layer by layer like a big wave washing sand. Some live streaming companies are gradually unable to receive projects, have no choice but to lay off employees, and even go bankrupt. Some influencer incubation institutions have lost all their money and were unable to wait for the current round of events, so they had to switch careers and race tracks. A group of companies in the industry attempted to take the lead, but most of them were short-lived.

At the same time, the number of anchors coming to Hangzhou is steadily increasing, and the supply far exceeds the demand for existing positions. The depression of the live streaming market has spread to every practitioner, causing a chill. Salaries that used to cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan have ultimately become unattainable dreams at the top of the pyramid.

A live streaming base in Hangzhou is still recruiting anchors, claiming to have an annual salary of one million.

The Road to the Future

How should the future path be taken? Wang Sha hasn't figured it out yet.

It is still possible for the anchor to get a high salary, but the threshold is much higher. "It's still difficult to hire good anchors," said Dazhuang. The company has over 50 live streaming rooms and nearly 300 signed anchors, "but good anchors are rare." Currently, the highest earning anchor in the market is the "S-level" anchor, and having broadcasted a single session with sales exceeding one million yuan is a necessary condition. In addition, appearance affinity, the state in front of the camera, the verbal logic displayed on the spot, and the ability to withstand pressure through long-term continuous work are all assessment criteria. "When encountering such a host, I am willing to offer a high monthly salary of tens of thousands of yuan, and the market is indeed like this," Da Zhuang added, "but the proportion of hosts who can offer this price is less than one in a thousand among the crowd."

Some anchors choose to leave. Wang Sha has a friend who is also a clothing anchor. She has been live streaming for 2 years and is currently a police officer at the police station. Jin Jie once signed a contract with Tianzi Network and worked as a news anchor at Anhui Radio and Television Group for more than ten years. In early 2020, she went to Hangzhou to become a home appliance anchor and later switched careers to become a trainer, teaching in various places. There are also some influencer anchors who have accumulated enough fans. In order to reduce cost pressure, they have established live streaming bases in central and western cities and sent products for live streaming from Hangzhou.

Some anchors choose to stay. Liu Tong was originally a beauty anchor. "Speaking of this category is not tiring, with a flat tone and even without thinking. I used to broadcast until I was almost asleep, with my mouth relying on muscles to remember and move." In early 2022, due to high market saturation, she transformed into a shoe and clothing anchor. "The difficulty is quite high, requiring products priced at tens of yuan to have a quality of several hundred yuan. At first, I held the shoes in my hand and couldn't say anything about the materials, fabrics, workmanship, soles, insoles, etc. I memorized words every day and couldn't understand them. I couldn't remember anything and collapsed to tears."

But she was grateful for her choice. "Now, only by improving her abilities and expanding her field can she survive in this industry." If the company's beauty project falls, she can still broadcast shoes and clothing, and versatile anchors can take on more projects to ensure income.

"After chatting with you, I realized that when I was a teacher, my monthly salary was less than 7000 yuan." Zheng Ke was a technical school teacher before becoming a live streamer. As the interview was coming to an end, the reporter reminded her that the ordinary salaried class in Hangzhou worked hard for a month and may not even earn 10000 yuan. Zheng Ke said, "I don't feel it in this industry, I can only see people who earn more than me. The temptation of 'overnight wealth' is too great."

In fact, the salary of the anchors who are talked about and complained about frequently is still higher than the average level of other industries. In 2022, the average annual salary of non private sector employees in Hangzhou was 153558 yuan. The reporter consulted a friend of a Hangzhou civil servant, whose monthly income was just over 10000 yuan.

For the broadcasting industry, it may be time to remove filters and give up fantasies. The traffic of overnight wealth, the business of buying a house for two years, and most so-called ways to make fast money are ultimately difficult to grow for a long time.

After the frenzy, the anchors may have the best ending of the moment, becoming a regular and steady regular job.