Taobao needs Luo Yonghao

Luo Yonghao, who “retired from the Internet”, returned briefly.

Just yesterday, the “Make a Friend” official and “Luo Yonghao” himself announced that he will make his Taobao live broadcast debut at 8 pm on October 24, the pre-sale day of Tmall Double 11.

This news is a little surprising. The reason is that Luo Yonghao officially announced his “retirement” a few months ago; in addition, it is not common for a head anchor like Luo Yonghao to appear on two platforms at the same time.

The reason for the former is relatively easy to understand. When the official announcement was made to withdraw from the network, Luo Yonghao once issued a statement, indicating that the withdrawal from the network will not permanently withdraw from the public’s attention. In addition to the main AR field, Luo Yonghao will have more than a dozen live broadcast opportunities a year. Therefore, “replay” is still reasonable.

But it’s a bit strange to leave Douyin and go to another platform. This is not a common occurrence in the field of live streaming.

This is because, in the early years, the head anchor used to be the core asset of Dou Kuai Tao, a live broadcast platform. This has been proven many times earlier. In 2017, Wei Ya, as the absolute head anchor at the time, won the praise of Jiang Fan, the then president of Taobao, with a turnover of over 70 million. “The achievement of a live broadcast with millions of viewers and a turnover of hundreds of millions is no longer an embellishment, but the mainstream of the future business model.”

Jiang Fan’s praise is not unreasonable. Before Wei Ya, although live streaming was regarded as the future, there were no specific figures to prove it. Super anchors represented by Weiya directly participated in shaping the viewing and consumption habits of Taobao Live users. This is a crucial step for the platform.

This was also verified again in the later event of Luo Yonghao’s entry into Douyin. At that time, Douyin’s live broadcast delivery business had been tested internally for a long time, but before Luo Yonghao’s single-game results of over 100 million arrived, Douyin’s live broadcast delivery business also faced the dilemma of small players and few players.

The big anchor was so important to the platform at that time, and the poaching between the platforms was undercurrent. According to the self-media Zhu Sima Ji, Kuaishou CEO Su Hua personally flew to Hangzhou to meet Wei Ya Dong Haifeng and his wife, and issued investment intentions to them. But not long after that, Jiang Fan went to Humble Holdings in person. After that, Yunfeng’s capital from Ali’s department invested in Qianxun, and Ali used the capital to bind Wei Ya.

That is to say, in the 1.0 stage of the live streaming industry, events like Luo Yonghao’s “jumping” to Taobao will never happen. The platform’s attitude towards big anchors is similar, which will make them bind big anchors at a great cost, and finally maintain the situation where a single head anchor is bound to a single live broadcast platform.

However, the time has come to 2022, and the industry has changed a lot.

The first thing to change is Douyin, which is directly related to interests. For Douyin, Luo Yonghao’s role is of diminishing marginal effects. Luo Yonghao’s entry into Douyin brings the greatest value, not a host who steadily increases GMV, but a huge advertising effect. Let consumers know that Douyin can also buy things, and let merchants know that Douyin can also sell goods. Therefore, Luo Yonghao’s greatest value was born on the day of Douyin’s premiere. After the advertising effect is completed, the purpose of Douyin has been achieved.

that’s the truth. Make a friend CEO Huang He also confirmed to (ID: DomoreDumou) that the official resources given to Luo Yonghao are gradually decreasing. After the advertising effect was achieved, Douyin began to allocate more resources to brand live broadcasts and other directions that can bring more revenue to the platform. Although there are not too many resources in the head, Douyin still created an annual e-commerce GMV of 800 billion last year. The data far exceeds Kuaishou and Taobao Live.

On the other hand, although Taobao once briefly had a neutral attitude of “difficult to intervene” towards super anchors like Li Jiaqiweiya. However, during the period when Wei Ya was banned for tax evasion and Li Jiaqi disappeared for a short time, Taobao Live lost two super anchors all at once, which resulted in a very strong withdrawal reaction. According to the monitoring of third-party data agencies, the first big promotion node since then: 618, Taobao Live has rarely lost to Douyin and Kuaishou.

For Douyin, the role of the head is no longer so obvious. But for Taobao, super anchors are more and more important. This has been fully verified in the time after Taobao lost Weiya. Previously, Taobao Live wanted to introduce some mid-waist anchors like “Yili Xiaoshazi” and “Xiao Shenlong” to Taobao to fill Wei Ya’s traffic vacancy.

However, the effect of 618 proves that the traffic vacancy has not been truly filled, and the role of big anchors at key nodes is irreplaceable. At this time, the only choice is to use another super anchor to fill Wei Ya’s pit. The most suitable candidate is Luo Yonghao, the fourth of the four kings of live streaming. In addition to Luo Yonghao, the “Oriental Selection” live broadcast room that was popular on Douyin not long ago is also in the category of Taobao live broadcast selection. However, it was Yu Minhong himself, not Dong Yuhui, who showed up.

In fact, the official make a friend also confirmed to the official that this live broadcast, making a friend was achieved at the invitation of the Taobao live broadcaster. And Luo Yonghao accepted the company’s arrangement to live broadcast. This is more like a mission in the “a dozen live broadcasts” that Luo Yonghao claimed before he quit the network.

On the other hand, make a friend also said to a friend that making a friend is an independent institutional company, and the development of multiple live broadcast platforms is one of the company’s strategies. In the future, the company will not rule out making independent apps and developing Kuaishou live broadcast and video accounts. possibility.

Such a company strategy is generally similar to the current mainstream live streaming MCN. The MCN Qianxun behind Wei Ya has arranged a number of delivery experts in Douyin and Taobao, and they have all achieved certain results. As for Yu Minhong and Dongfang Selection, they started to build independent apps earlier, grabbing private domain traffic, and not betting all their treasures on Douyin.

Such a choice does not have much loss for Douyin, but it has multiple benefits for Taobao Live and the MCN organization itself. The phenomenon of industry reshuffle may not happen again, but the flow of top anchors to Taobao can indeed stimulate the vitality of consumers. After all, the latter is a purer e-commerce platform, and users enter the live broadcast room with a clear shopping purpose.