“Most of the miserable videos sold are’the opening picture, and the content depends on editing.’ The characters and backgrounds are all fictitious, and the story scripts can be bought everywhere online.” Lin Hua (pseudonym) who runs an MCN agency in Sichuan told Xinjing A reporter from Shell Finance, “The anchor uses these tragic stories to touch the kindness of netizens and achieve their own profit-making goals.”
A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics found that behind these “selling miserable” content, whether it be from the character design, the language skills, the copywriting preparation, and the filming team, there are many traces of man-made packaging. Among them, the price of “short video script” ranges from a few yuan to hundreds of yuan.
Lao He (pseudonym) once started a “sell miserable” business with a few friends in an advertising agency. He not only set up his studio in a dilapidated county and town, but also arranged an elderly friend to act as an actor, wearing ragged clothes every day. The characters in the film must highlight the’poor and down’, how pitiful they come, and only in this way can they arouse the sympathy of netizens.”
The code to get rich in live streaming: “Sell miserable”
“Selling miserables” has a long history of bringing goods, and the “Jiangnan Tannery Closure” that once appeared in the streets and alleys is a typical example. Nowadays, with the outbreak of short videos and live broadcasts, this approach has been moved from offline to online. The hot search for “fruits are not selling well, help us” many years ago brought it to a climax.
“Before, because I saw a 60-70-year-old man sitting pitifully under the fruit tree in the live broadcast, coupled with the bleak background music, I couldn’t help but place an order.” Ak (a pseudonym) was impressed by this scene, despite the price. It is more expensive than supermarkets, and the size and taste of the fruits received are very average, and many of them have become moldy and rotten.
“Later, I learned that it was a scam.” Akko has since been wary of selling goods with bitterness.
“In the past, I only knew that most of the’agricultural products are unsalable, helping farmers’ are scams, but I didn’t expect that there will be more scenes and content.” Xiao Fei (pseudonym), who is also obsessed with short videos, told the Shell Finance reporter that he accidentally I swiped a single mother on the video platform and took a disabled child to sell some hand-made gadgets on the street. In the video, the child sits on a paper shell and cries non-stop, while the mother comforts the child while constantly selling products to passing pedestrians.
When looking at the other party’s video number, he found that this account has more than 100,000 fans, and there are many products hanging in the product window, each of which has dozens or even hundreds of people buying. After adding the other party’s WeChat account, Xiao Fei noticed that this person’s circle of friends would publish similar selling videos and personal donation links every few days.
“At first I felt that it was not easy for the other party, but later I found something strange. Many videos have close-ups and splits, and I feel that the shooting angles and techniques are very professional.” Xiao Fei therefore left a message questioning the authenticity of “difficulty in life”, but He soon discovered that the other party deleted his message and blocked his attention.
In an interview with Shell Finance reporters, many consumers said that on weekdays, they often see sad videos such as “selling goods at low prices to raise treatment fees for children” and “old people in rural areas selling mountain products to make a living.” However, these accounts usually clear all videos at intervals, and you will soon be able to see similar content on other newly established accounts.
“Selling miserables is a’get rich code’ for live streaming and bringing goods. Tell a tragic story to make netizens sympathize. Once you touch the hearts of netizens, you will easily succeed.” Lin Hua told reporters that such UP owners will post some in the video first. Similar to video content such as visiting orphanages, helping street children find their parents, and delivering takeaways to widows and widows picking up rubbish, and leaving text: I hope my friends can light up the little red heart and support the UP owner to promote positive energy every day! .
“Many netizens usually like and follow these videos after they have swiped it. When the number of likes reaches a certain scale, the account will be recommended by the system and get more fans and traffic.” Lin Hua said, by this time already. The UP host, who has established a “positive energy” image, naturally started the “Love Live Broadcast”.
The Shell Finance reporter learned that most of the commodities sold in such “sell miserable” live broadcasts tend to be relatively cheap things such as mountain products and overstocked products from factories.
“UP owners have a thorough analysis of the human nature of consumers. These products are not expensive, but they can also reflect love, and consumers are easy to build trust. When buying, they are more impulsive than regular live broadcasts to place orders, even if the goods are not on the board. It will be too deep.” Lin Hua said.
The video content of a certain account has a variety of products hanging in the window.
The tragic story + the weak self-improvement to attract fans, accumulate enough popularity to realize the live broadcast
“Selling miserable” marketing was once the norm on short video platforms and live broadcast platforms. Some anchors “cry” to sell goods just to feed their families, and some factory owners said that “the epidemic caused the factory to close down, and the cost price was sold to employees for severance payments.” .
“How can there be so many videos that do good things without asking for rewards? They are basically created.” Lao He (pseudonym), who has long since retired, knows how to do it. Two years ago, he envied the anchor for “making money at every turn of the goods”. In his life, he got a few friends in the advertising company to start a “sell miserable” business.
Packaging identity is the first step. Lao He deliberately opened his studio in a dilapidated county town, and arranged for an elderly friend to act as an actor. He wore torn clothes every day and appeared decadently and lonely in the vegetable market. On Lao Cai and other occasions, “the characters on the spot must highlight the’poor and down’.”
Copywriting preparations often determine the flow. In the short video, this “worn and down man who has a few acres of land in the countryside” lives in a dilapidated tiled house, and his daily life is either “shivering in the rainstorm and insisting on selling fruits”. Either it is “three rounds of serious illness just to raise money to visit children in different places.” But Lao He and his friends stepped forward at a critical moment, bought all the fruits at a price beyond the normal price, carried daily necessities to visit each other’s home, and secretly squeezed hundreds of yuan before leaving.
In just a few months, Lao He’s account quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of fans, and from time to time he “unintentionally” learned in the video that the fruit planted by the other party was approaching the harvest time, but he couldn’t be too busy alone. At this time, Lao He patted his chest loyally and said that he would take someone to help picking for free.
In the early stage, all the preparations were made for live broadcast. Lao He contacted local farmers and contracted thousands of kilograms of unpicked fruits at a low price, and then created a picking scene through the live broadcast. He expressed his gratitude to the other party that he hoped that netizens would also show their love and put up the products that were already prepared. Sales link.
“You must have sensationalism during the live broadcast. Not only you have to incite the love of netizens, but also the actors must thank the camera for the camera, so as to push the atmosphere to a climax.” Lao He said, these fruits originally cost two or three yuan per catty. , The price in the live broadcast room will double to six or seven yuan, although the goods will usually be sold short, and even temporary replenishment, “do it a few times a month, you can earn hundreds of thousands of yuan each year.”
“I have indeed heard that many colleagues deliberately fabricate and sell tragic stories in order to make huge profits.” Wang Dan (pseudonym), who runs an MCN agency in Zhejiang, told reporters that “tragedy-style” short videos are now more popular than other types of short videos. Concerned, a big reason is the use of the “inferior person effect.”
The so-called “inferior person effect” was proposed by American scholar Simon in 1956, which means that people ignore the disadvantages such as low winning ability and insufficient resources and support the weak. That is, by showing weakness, those who are at a disadvantage can often gain support from more people.
Wang Dan said that most of these short videos consist of a tragic plot, self-improvement of the weak, and the completion of the harvest. “Usually, controversial topics such as husband’s cheating, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law disagreement will be selected at the beginning to quickly attract fans’ attention. Decided to get out of the predicament. For example, the woman who was cheated by her husband decided to divorce, the business failed to re-emerge, and then fans like and support. In the end, the UP owner hopes that netizens can buy something to support themselves and complete the harvest.”
CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) and other joint statistics show that the number of domestic short video users in 2020 will reach 873 million, accounting for 88.3% of the total number of Internet users, and the average monthly usage time per capita is 42.6 hours, which has nearly doubled compared with 2018. According to the “QuestMobile2020 Silver Hair Economic Insight Report”, the number of Internet users of silver hair over 50 has exceeded 100 million, and the user growth rate is higher than that of all Internet users, becoming an important increase in mobile Internet users.
“The huge user group contains unimaginable commercial value, especially the silver-haired elderly people are the core group of countless MCN agencies and video UP owners. However, the conventional live broadcast of goods cannot achieve its’extreme profit’ purpose, using the love of netizens. Selling miserable cards will naturally become a shortcut to quickly attract fans and realize cash.” Lin Hua said.
The script can be customized for one hundred yuan, and the tear-gas story is linked to sell goods
Shell Finance reporters searched for “short video scripts” on Taobao and found that there are about a hundred stores selling similar products, with prices ranging from a few yuan to hundreds of yuan. The reporter randomly contacted a seller. After learning that the script “Helping the Poor Elderly” needs to be customized, the other party said that it was not a problem. It only costs 140 yuan to get a 1-minute video copy written by a dedicated person.
During the reporter’s investigation, another shopkeeper directly asked the reporter to provide his favorite style, “make it into the type you want” and “you can do it in any style”. In order to win the trust of reporters, the shopkeeper claimed to have many cooperating internet celebrities and listed specific account names, 90 yuan per episode, and 80 yuan per episode for more than 10 episodes.
In response to miserable marketing and delivery requirements, the other party said that they can write a script of “the team does a good job and help the elderly” as required, and can also design the storyboard script within 1 minute, 120 yuan per episode, 10 episodes or more, 100 yuan per episode . “The original package is modified satisfactorily. Based on so many feedbacks from the cooperation, it is recommended that more than 10 episodes form an independent style and cultivate verticality. The single episode effect is not as good as the series.”
The owner said that the script writing mode is mainly to match the appropriate teacher according to the needs after payment, and then communicate the detailed requirements in the group, and tailor the script to meet the expectations.
“Most of the content of the miserable videos is edited.” Lin Hua told the Shell Finance reporter that the logic behind it stems from the mismatch of news to deceive the love of netizens. Netizens don’t know exactly what is going on in the local countryside, and they are easily incited by similar plots.
Lin Hua revealed that short video scripts can be bought everywhere on the market, and professionals can also be found to customize them according to the content of the product and the number of actors.
“Many more unscrupulous teams don’t look for actors at all, but temporarily recruit a local person, make up a reason to give some money and use the other party to play some tear-jerking stories, and even get the other party dirty and cry through various methods.” Lin Hua said that as soon as netizens erupted in sympathy, they would live broadcast rewards. “The team has a reputation for money and love. Those locals who don’t know the truth are often left unattended after being used.”
In fact, it’s not difficult to detect the purpose of this type of video. Shell Finance reporter searched on the short video platform and found an UP owner with 191,000 followers. In the video, his identity is sometimes “daughter who is admitted to college and stepmother is unwilling to give money”, sometimes is “daughter who left his son without waiting to see the daughter-in-law”, and the video copy mostly reflects that life is not easy, and finally chooses to be self-improvement, and finally hopes that netizens Like the end.
The reporter noticed that one of the videos was “The doctor performed the operation for free, but was suspended by the dean. The dean said that if the video liked more than 10,000, he would be reinstated.” The content was only a filming of the waiting area in the hospital, but the number of likes has reached 3,600. indivual. In the video message, many people said, “I hope the doctor will return to work as soon as possible.”
The reporter saw in the merchandise window of the account that there are currently 35 products hanging, of which the highest sales volume is a baby wipes at a price of 22.9 yuan, with sales of 847,000 pieces, and most of the other products are also around 100,000.
“These short videos without thesis or content are very inexplicable, but they mobilize the user’s emotions.” A consumer told reporters, “As long as the user is attracted, the delivery will happen naturally.”
On October 23, a short video about “a little boy living in a dilapidated house, raising his younger siblings alone” attracted the attention of the whole network. An unkempt child stands in front of a dilapidated house and introduces to the camera that he has no parents and no source of income. Usually, he can only earn money to support his younger siblings by doing farm work for his neighbors.
Things quickly reversed. According to an on-site visit by the Civil Affairs Department of Liangshan Prefecture, the child’s family has a two-story poverty alleviation housing. On the day of the shooting, an adult brought him to a dilapidated house, deliberately soiled his face and clothes, and then asked him to say the above content according to the script.
On October 24, the Liangshan prefecture public security agency locked the live UP host with the account of “Mr. Lu Liangshan Trip” and determined that he had acted like publishing and falsifying, gaining eyeballs, and attracting fans. And according to law, the video shooter Lu was summoned to ask him to apologize publicly and delete the video.
“Sentimental coupled with poverty, precisely hit the hearts of all parents.” Akke told reporters that he was particularly distressed when he saw the video. As a mother, he couldn’t bear similar situations with children of the same age as his daughter, and even wanted to contact the UP chief for consultation. The matter of donating money and materials, but later discovered that this was just a miserable marketing farce, “It is simply unforgivable to use the sympathy of netizens in order to make a profit.”
This is not a case of “selling miserable live broadcasts” recently. According to media reports, also in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, when pomegranates are on the market from August to October every year, some anchors and internet celebrities’ videos will appear like “pomegranate unsalable” and “a few cents a catty no one wants” sales. The miserable video, in order to arouse the love of netizens, and then place an order for purchase.
A local multi-department investigation found that the pictures and sounds in these short-selling short videos were made by patchwork, which did not match the facts and was suspected of publishing false information.
The Shell Finance reporter learned that even though the platform had been rigorously investigated before, “sell miserable” marketing routines still appeared on many short video platforms and live broadcast rooms from time to time. Most of them used “poor” and “pitiful” gimmicks to gain the attention of netizens. , Use public sympathy to defraud money.
In May 2021, the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments jointly issued the “Administrative Measures for Online Live Marketing (Trial)”, which mentioned that live broadcast room operators and live broadcast marketers must not publish false or misleading statements The information deceives and misleads users. Where the live broadcast content constitutes a commercial advertisement, the responsibilities and obligations of the advertisement publisher or advertisement operator shall be fulfilled.
“If these miserable short videos and live broadcasts are allowed to develop, the reputation of the entire e-commerce live broadcast market will definitely be hurt in the future. When the dream finally wakes up, all that is left is a piece of chicken feathers.” Wang Dan said , The anchors who deceive consumers must be eliminated, so that live streaming will develop more healthily.