Not long ago, JD.com made a hot search after it significantly increased the wages of its front-line procurement and sales employees during Double Eleven all-night live broadcasts, up to 100%.
A while ago, the Dong Yuhui and Oriental Selection incident that attracted more attention came to an end. Dong Yuhui was promoted one after another, gained fame and real power, while Sun Dongxu gradually withdrew from the Oriental Selection.
In these two cases, one is that star employees who do not have real power won, and the other is that front-line employees who work hard at the grassroots level also received praise for live broadcasting. These things that attracted countless people's attention once again made people feel the "victory of ordinary people" in the live broadcast industry. But these things are like big waves, covering up a small wave.
Some time ago, a junior student in died suddenly when he returned to a rental house off campus after live-streaming the game all night for five consecutive days. But the company only responded that it had no employment or internship relationship with the college student.
The gap between capitalists and workers, between big Internet celebrities and small shrimps seems to exist naturally and is unfathomable.
Internet live broadcast has turned into a bustling Red Sea, causing more people to struggle desperately in the sea but unable to "come ashore".
01
After the Oriental Selection controversy broke out, Yu Minhong once said in a speech, When you rely on a highly capable employee to build a business model and develop, you are working for the employee.
JD.com chose to increase the salaries of front-line purchasing and sales "brothers" during this difficult season to stabilize military morale, partly because of the live broadcast room myth created by these purchasing and sales teams during Double Eleven.
But such accidental events did not change the identities of these anchors.
Compared with these "benevolent" managers, whether it is Dong Yuhui or JD.com's purchasing and sales team, they are still just "senior workers" and have only become the "vanguard" of capital.
From another perspective, in the self-media or Internet industry, these anchors who have received a lot of attention have already earned money that many people will never make in their lifetimes. They are considered a lucky enough group.
Those who are struggling in the live broadcast industry and even being swallowed up by the entire industry are the small netizens at the bottom.
In November this year, a junior student from Pingdingshan broadcast live broadcast for nearly 9 hours all night at his internship company. After the live broadcast, he died suddenly while returning to his current rental house to rest.
And this is already his fifth day of live broadcasting all night long.
The cause of the tragedy is that the school requires students to intern for at least six months, but many companies are not willing to accept interns.
But this game live streaming company has simple requirements. All you need is to be able to play games, and it even gives priority to recruiting interns.
After joining the company, the company initially only required live broadcasting during the day, but later the company supervisor would persuade and induce the interns. For example, more people would be rewarded for live broadcasting at night and they could make more money. Although the interns were unwilling, they still had to No live broadcast all night.
This junior student fell into the trap step by step. After five days of live broadcasting all night, he died suddenly in his rental house.
However, after the public opinion broke out, the company just distanced itself from the relationship and repeatedly avoided the work content.
Compared with many people's imagination of making money while playing games, the content of this college student's live broadcast is actually "liver replacement", which is to help others complete some very monotonous but time-consuming daily tasks. It can be said that the work content of
has nothing to do with the word fun. In many game groups, the liver substitutes even jokingly call themselves "black slaves". "Contemporary black slaves" like
are not uncommon.
Some time ago, after the CEO of Douyu was arrested on suspicion of opening a casino, another old story was revealed, that is, he claimed sky-high liquidated damages from female college students on the grounds of breach of contract.
For these female college students who have just entered the society or even have not yet entered the society, the contract signed by Douyu is to broadcast exclusively on the Douyu platform. The minimum effective live broadcast days per month is 24 days, and the minimum effective live broadcast duration per month is 120 hours, so we have to broadcast at least 5 hours a day.
takes into account the pre-preparation required for live broadcast and the risk of possible interruption of the stream. To complete the 5-hour requirement, the actual live broadcast of takes a very long time compared to that of .
It takes a lot of effort for full-time anchors to complete the minimum requirements. For these college students who are only part-time live broadcasters, completing the minimum requirements is already extremely difficult. If
fails to meet the standards, then not only will the anchor not get any money this month, but he will also have to pay 5 million to the company. Not only will he have to work with a loan, he will have to work with debt, which is even more exaggerated than selling his body. Huang Shiren will feel ashamed.
The higher penalty is the exclusive live broadcast clause. The
exclusive live broadcast terms require that the anchors who signed the contract shall not unilaterally terminate the contract in advance during the validity period of the contract, and shall not live broadcast on third-party platforms. If breaches the contract, the anchor will have to return all the income earned on the platform and pay a liquidated damages of 80 million yuan.
Although the breach of contract refers to the mcn organization and the anchor, most of the time, the anchor is the only one who bears the liquidated damages.
The anchors who have signed a contract with Douyu have made less than 200,000 yuan in three years, but they have to pay tens of millions in liquidated damages after the contract is terminated.
Of course there are many ways to blame these college students. Why do you want to make quick money instead of making money in a down-to-earth manner? You are such an adult, don’t you have any ability to judge?
However, these so-called agreements are format contracts, which are more than 40 pages long. makes it impossible for college students who are not experienced in the world to read carefully and clearly identify the traps that may be hidden in the contract terms. The legal team behind the platform is naturally very capable, and neither contracts nor lawsuits are likely to favor defenseless college students.
In such an obviously unequal confrontation, these students are at an absolute disadvantage, so much so that many college students who thought they were about to start a better life were already burdened with high debts before entering society.
Capital creates traps, dragging more and more people into the live broadcast room, but after making money, these anchors are ruthlessly abandoned as useless people.
What's more, capital has heated up the live broadcast industry. The popularity of the live broadcast industry has attracted more people into this quagmire voluntarily.
02
The brilliance of a few big anchors and the occasional brilliant "grassroots" rise stories have made getting rich through live broadcasting a beautiful "lie", attracting more and more people to join the live broadcast industry and step into the bizarre online world, hoping to Change your destiny through live streaming.
After being immersed in the Internet for a long time, more and more people have accepted this psychological suggestion- If you want to make a lot of money, just do live broadcasts.
As of 2022, more than 150 million domestic anchor accounts have been opened, and the number of online live broadcast users has reached 751 million, accounting for 70.3% of the total Internet users. The live broadcast platform is undoubtedly a small society.
went against expectations. The live broadcast did not bring them the popularity they imagined. Instead, it became a tightrope in the air that they could neither advance nor retreat from.
In June this year, Huang Zhongyuan, the "Brother Zhongyuan Huang" who was live streaming drinking, fell to the floor of his room after drinking live all night. He was not even 30 years old when he died of suffocation due to vomit.
There are still words written by him on the wall of his room, "People die for money, birds die for food", "It is better to die without money", is like an encouragement and a curse.
He is already the third internet celebrity to die due to drinking during a live broadcast in a short period of time, but no one knows who is the first internet celebrity to die due to drinking.
Until his death, Huang Zhongyuan did not realize his dream of getting rich through live broadcasting, and his family was still living in poverty. A report by
shows that among the anchors whose main source of income is live broadcasting, 95.2% have a monthly income of less than 5,000 yuan, and only 0.4% of the anchors have a monthly income of more than 100,000 yuan.
In the live broadcast industry, the "eight-and-twenty rule" is quite obvious, or even the "nine-nine rule". 10% of people make 90% of the profits, and the remaining 90% of people can only rely on the success of these people." Paint cakes” to feed yourself.
These people at the bottom have become the "silent majority" who are loud in the recommendation stream but have never been noticed by the public.
In the middle of this year, Weibo released a survey on "What do contemporary young people pay attention to when seeking employment?" The results showed that among nearly 10,000 fresh graduates interviewed, 61.6% would consider Internet celebrity live broadcasts, etc. when seeking employment. For emerging professions, has improved slightly compared to the previous Xinhuanet data of 54%.
Compared with "entering a big factory" or "taking public exams", "being an anchor" seems to be the path with the lowest threshold and can change your life.
This view has been criticized by many people before, but now that "flexible employment" is becoming more and more common, live broadcasting has become a helpless choice for many people.
College students who have just left school and cannot find a job, women who have returned to the workplace after giving birth, and even ordinary workers who are suddenly unemployed and unable to make a living, more and more people choose the live broadcast industry, which has become an ordinary background sound in the lively hustle and bustle. .
once had statistics on the original occupations of job seekers who applied for live broadcasting positions. Quite a few of them were originally employed in various sales, various assistants, and personnel in the teaching and training industry. For them, live streaming is a ferry ticket to a new world.
However, the former Li Jiaqi and the current Dong Yuhui are only a handful who have achieved both fame and fortune. Some lucky people may become Meng Yutong and make money in the controversy.
More people are the vast majority who are unknown. For them, being an anchor is just a job. It does not represent a name, nor does it have "awesome wealth." What is left is only a relatively good salary and a throat that becomes hoarse when talking.
But there is no way they can stay away from the live broadcast. The relatively good wages in the
live broadcast industry, coupled with almost no entry barriers, make it difficult for these people to escape once they step into the live broadcast room. After many people leave the live broadcast room, it is difficult to find a job with the same salary level again. Able to move back and forth in the live broadcast industry.
However, the dividends of the live broadcast industry are still disappearing.
Although more and more young people are entering the live broadcast room with the dream of eating "youth rice", live broadcast is no longer what it used to be. What is left is only increasingly long hours and lower and lower wages.
This is the current situation of anchors.
