On August 7, badminton player Wang Chang was chased by fans at the airport.
At Germany's Frankfurt Airport, fans of table tennis player Sun Yingsha placed support ads for her. Picture provided by interviewee
Editor’s note
At the just-concluded Paris Olympics, some fans inside and outside the stadium tried to suppress each other, which aroused public attention to the "fandomization" of sports. From now on, Nandu and n Video will launch a series of investigations into the chaos of sports “fandomization”, focusing on the crazy sports fan economy, the truth about the industry chain behind it, the difficulties in governing the “fandomization” of sports, and the “entry” and “exit” of fans. circle”, with a view to promoting the improvement of relevant supervision and disposal mechanisms.
At the Paris Olympic Games, Chinese athletes contributed wonderful performances, and the help of spectators and fans outside the field made the competition more exciting. At the same time, the table tennis women's singles final set off a "fan war", with a large number of comments abusing athletes and attacking the coaching staff on social media, revealing a corner of the chaos of "fandomization" in sports.
From outdoor advertising, customizing peripheral support, and online rankings to "generating data", to online trolling and scolding wars, sports star cards being sold at high prices, and card removal in live broadcast rooms being accused of gambling risks and inducing unscrupulous people. Chaos such as excessive consumption by adults, the behavior of athlete fan groups and surrounding derivative industries have aroused widespread concern and heated discussions.
Sports industry experts reminded reporters from Nandu and n Video that it is a good thing that more and more teenagers like sports stars, but the behavior of teenagers needs to be guided correctly. "When 'simple love' is used by some people or institutions to seek improper benefits in a way that violates the spirit of sports or even touches the boundaries of the law, this type of behavior deserves vigilance."
Chaos
" On August 3, in the women’s singles table tennis final of the Paris Olympic Games, Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha competed. In the end, Chen Meng defeated Sun Yingsha 4-2 and won the championship. However, many netizens pointed out that "the cheers from the audience have a clear tendency." Some viewers booed when Chen Meng scored, and some viewers were accused of making an insulting gesture of "raising the middle finger" to Chen Meng, which was criticized. It is the bad culture of "rice circle" that has been brought to the game stands.
Outside the stadium, a "fan war" is also taking place, with a large number of hate speeches criticizing athletes and attacking the coaching staff emerging on social media. Nandu reporters found that most of the fans who spoke in the Weibo super chat after the game expressed regret and heartache for Sun Yingsha's failure to win the gold medal. However, there are still some extreme fans who made comments attacking Chen Meng and questioning the coaching team under related topics. Some even Some fans posted "Five Questions about Chen Meng" and wrote, "As Sun Yingsha's senior, you are only trying to snatch benefits for your own selfish desires. Where is the etiquette?" It is ridiculous.
In fact, before the women’s singles table tennis finals of this year’s Paris Olympics, the phenomenon of “fandomization” in sports had long been exposed.
In the 10-meter platform final of the 2023 National Diving Championships, Chen Yuxi won the championship, and Quan Hongchan won the runner-up. A fan shouted "the referee is unfair" at the scene, believing that Quan Hongchan was "squeezed". Quan Hongchan was surprised by the fan's words and deeds, sighed helplessly on the spot and advised the fan. However, after the game, there were still many voices on the Internet questioning that the referee deliberately suppressed the score, and there were even attacks and abuses against Chen Yuxi.
Internet troll business is still not extinct
On August 7, the Ministry of Public Security issued a document stating that the network security department of the public security agency attaches great importance to the "rice circle" chaos and actively works with relevant departments to crack down on related illegal and criminal activities in accordance with the law. A netizen was detained for posting slanderous comments about relevant athletes and coaches. At the same time, multiple platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and Toutiao have successively issued articles to address illegal content related to the "fandomization" of sports, including bullying athletes, attacking coaching staff, carrying conspiracy theory content from external sites, and maliciously interpreting female table tennis players. Irrational behavior such as identity and background.
However, the Internet troll business around the "fan circle" phenomenon of controlling comments and attracting disfavors has not disappeared.
On August 8, a reporter from Nandu contacted a businessman engaged in the Internet troll business. He said that he could provide services such as "commenting on behalf of others", "private messages on behalf of others", "sending messages on behalf of others", and "redirecting comments and likes", and showed his own Multiple accounts. The merchant said that he currently has about 10 Weibo accounts, each of which can post about 5 comments, and each account comes from a different IP location. "It's all operated by live people, so you don't have to take responsibility, and you're not afraid of being investigated."
According to his introduction, the buyer can provide specific text for the comment content of the navy, or it can be freely expressed based on the general framework provided by the buyer. The quotation shows that one Weibo account posts 5 comments for 50 yuan, and 10 Weibo accounts posts 50 comments for 400 yuan. The merchant said that it can also provide a service of machine review, which is cheaper than manual reviews. The price is 50 yuan for 100 reviews, but the content is completely random.
"You can also buy an account and comment as you like. One account costs 40 yuan, and three accounts cost 100 yuan." The merchant emphasized to Nandu reporters that the accounts it sells "do not have real names, and no information can be found."
Survey
Fans reserved the venue to watch the game and cheer
A few days later, at about 23:00 on August 9, the results of the Paris Olympics table tennis men's team finals will be announced. In a cinema located in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Nandu reporters saw that the audience was glued to the screen. What was playing was not a movie, but this heart-tugging game. The audience who reserved the theater was none other than the national table tennis player Wang Chuqin. , fans of Sun Yingsha.
When Wang Chuqin faced the second match point in the deciding game, Xinyi (pseudonym), who was sitting next to the Nandu reporter, took out her mobile phone and recorded the moment when the men's table tennis team was about to win the Olympic championship in the team competition. Soon Wang Chuqin successfully won the championship, and the audience burst into thunderous applause. After Xinyi finished recording the video, she quickly opened the "Shatou" cp (Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin) Guangzhou fan group and sent a message: "Congratulations to Olympic champion Wang Chuqin!"
Staff from many cinemas in Guangzhou confirmed to Nandu reporters that among the Paris Olympic events shown , the most popular one is undoubtedly the table tennis mixed doubles final held on the evening of July 30. The person competing is none other than the most popular "Shatou CP" in the domestic sports circle. "cp" is the abbreviation of the English word "couple", which means pairing or couple. The term "CP fans" comes from the Korean entertainment industry and refers to fans of a certain pair of characters or public figures with a matching relationship. This type of fan group is keen to combine elements such as interactions and shared experiences between two people they like to form a special emotional connection.
CP fans of Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin call themselves “french fries pie”, and Zhenzhen (pseudonym) is one of them. She told Nandu reporters that she participated in two offline viewing events of the Paris Olympics held by fans on July 30 and August 3 respectively. Recalling the experience of watching the game with her fans, Zhenzhen couldn't hide her excitement and couldn't wait to share the video with Nandu reporters. In the video, fans who had just watched the mixed doubles final held up various banners and shouted in unison: "Wang Chuqin! Sun Yingsha! See you at the top!"
The generosity of offline support is staggering
In addition to watching the game collectively to cheer, More and more sports fans are beginning to participate in offline support activities, including birthday celebrations for athletes and advertising campaigns. A Nandu reporter's investigation found that there are usually certain requirements for participating in offline support activities. The organizers will check the applicant's social platform account, Weibo super chat level, etc., to identify the fan's identity and determine whether he or she is qualified to participate. "French pie" Du Fan (pseudonym) said that in November last year, in order to participate in Sun Yingsha's birthday support event in her city, she had to hide her cp fan identity and pretend to be "Sa Wei" (Sun Yingsha's only fan). "There is a sister whose mobile phone screen saver is 'Big Head' (Wang Chuqin's nickname)." The reviewer thought she was "Tou Wei" (Wang Chuqin's only fan), and she could only use other things to prove it. "
In November 2023, during Sun Yingsha's birthday, her "big fans" and support stations launched a series of support activities. The generosity of fans was staggering.For example, it chartered the Nanjing Line 4 subway for carriage decoration advertising, and distributed 100,000 boarding passes with birthday celebration messages to Air China flights departing from Terminal 3 of the Capital International Airport.
One of the support stations even chartered 82 large screens at the baggage claim area of Frankfurt Airport in Germany. In order to allow Sun Yingsha, who will participate in the 2023 wtt Frankfurt Championship, to see the support advertisement with her own eyes on the day of arrival, the support station staff tracked her flight landing in real time. According to the situation, coordinate the advertising time with the airport. A reporter from Nandu asked for a quotation from a domestic company that acts as an agency for advertising support. The customer service staff said that it would cost more than 200,000 yuan to put 164 large-screen ads at the Frankfurt Airport baggage claim area for a week, and 100,000 customized Air China boarding passes would cost 35,000 yuan. Du Fan said that according to his understanding, most of the funds for fan support activities are shared equally by core members.
Nandu reporters noticed that the fan clubs of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha have been involved in fundraising disputes. At the end of 2022, Wang Chuqin's official fan club sold support uniforms through social platforms, which was questioned by netizens as a disguised fund-raising. At the end of 2021, fans of Sun Yingsha posted on Weibo Chaohua that fans selling birthday merchandise but not disclosing the details constituted illegal fund-raising. Subsequently, the fans association was disbanded and reorganized, and a new official fans association was established at the beginning of the next year. The new recruitment announcement stipulated that "no funds will be raised in any form."
Market
Athletes’ cards have been “speculated” to high prices
“Shasha personally signed the Lingyun card, I like it very much!” A fan of the National Table Tennis Team shared on social platforms the Lingyun series collection card he received. This is the first product of the "China Sports" collection card issued by China Sports Newspaper Co., Ltd., covering 28 sports and 163 Chinese athletes. There are 6 cards in each pack, 10 packs in each box, and the price is 1599 yuan/box.
On August 3 this year, the "China Sports" collection card Qiankun series was released to the public. The official price is 3,799 yuan per box, with 10 cards per box. There are 19 card types in this series, and each card has a limited number.
During the Paris Olympics, as the popularity of athletes soared, the price of Qiankun series signature cards, originally priced at 379 yuan per piece, also increased on second-hand trading platforms. A Nandu reporter inquired on Xianyu and found that the price of a single 1/1 edition signature card of Sun Yingsha’s Qiankun series has been increased to nearly 200,000 yuan, and the 5/5 edition physical signature card of track and field athlete Xia Sining in the same series has also been increased to nearly 90,000 yuan. It is understood that "1/1" means there is only 1 card in the same series; "1/10" means there are 10 cards in the same series, and this card is numbered 1; the smaller the number, the rarer the card.
The transaction records of the star card bidding and trading platform "Katao" show that in the Qiankun collectible card series, the 1/1 physical signature card of track and field athlete Xia Sining was sold for 39,138 yuan, and the nested clothing material will allow him to participate in the 2024 World Athletics Intercontinental Tour. The Tottori station competition uniform; the 1992 Barcelona Olympic medal medal card signed by table tennis player Deng Yaping was also sold at a high price of 16,138 yuan.
In response to the above situation, the customer service staff of Beijing Chika Culture Media Co., Ltd., the producer of the "China Sports" collection card, responded to Nandu reporters saying that the company has no right to interfere with the transactions and prices of the secondary market platform, and all transactions conducted on the trading platform are It is a spontaneous personal act between the buyer and the seller. The relevant person in charge of the company said that the company will conduct control and advised fans to calmly treat the cards being speculated to high prices.
"The rating mainly depends on the signature of the signed card. If the signature is spent, it will greatly affect the price of the card. The signature is the main factor that affects its value, followed by factors such as the appearance of the card and the audience." A card dealer Staff in the rating, appraisal and sales agency business told Nandu reporters.
Online broadcast card-splitting attracts a large number of minors
The sports star card market is becoming increasingly popular, and the "card-splitting craze" derived from it has also spread to the live broadcast room. On August 13, a reporter from Nandu randomly entered a card-removal live broadcast room and found that in addition to lucky bag draws and first-order discounts for newcomers, the anchor's fast-paced speaking speed and suspenseful card display are also strategies to attract viewers to watch and place orders. one.
Nandu reporters stayed in the live broadcast room to observe for about half an hour. A blind box for star cards with a unit price of 379 yuan sold nearly 10 orders. Among them, several customers repurchased several times. The blind box finally showed "has been sold". Sold out.” On the shelves of the live broadcast room, except for a few blind boxes that cost tens of yuan, most blind boxes cost more than a hundred yuan, and the most expensive ones were as high as more than 4,800 yuan per box. In these card removal live broadcast rooms, prompts such as "Minors are prohibited from placing orders" and "No returns or exchanges after opening" will appear, and the probability of blind boxes will be announced. However, during the actual operation, customers can ask the host for other contact information. method, pay and place orders through other channels. A reporter from Nandu found that when he told the customer service staff of a card removal live broadcast room that he was purchasing as a "minor", the other party did not refuse and said that "WeChat (payment and ordering) is fine."
At the same time, Nandu reporters noticed that many online stores selling sports star signature cards marked "No minors are allowed to place orders" in the product windows. However, the customer service staff of one store frankly said that even with this prompt, the merchants could not Directly interfering with minors’ orders “mainly relies on platform control.” The customer service staff of the platform said that although the platform has reminded minors that minors are prohibited from purchasing sports star signature cards, it is actually unable to intervene when minors watch live broadcasts or purchase orders. It mainly helps consumers safeguard their rights after placing orders.
On August 8, Xinhua Daily Telegraph bluntly stated in the report "Online broadcast card removal is "hunting" minors" that the format of "buyers place orders and anchors do it for them" in the online live broadcast room has attracted a large number of minors. , and the measures taken by online platforms to intercept minors are ineffective. Experts point out that removing cards in live broadcast rooms involves gambling risks, and minors are prone to addiction and excessive consumption.
Problems to be solved
The craze for sports star-chasing has spawned a gray industrial chain
"In fact, the fanaticism of sports fans has been around for a long time, but in the Internet era, it has become known to more people through the spread of social media." Sports industry expert Zhang Qing told Nandu reporters.
On August 7, badminton player Wang Chang returned to China after completing the Paris Olympic Games and was chased by fans picking him up at the Capital Airport. The video shows that many fans ran all the way to take pictures regardless of safety, and the scene was extremely intense. At present, under the fanatical trend of sports star chasing, a gray industry chain has been spawned for following and proxy shooting and personal information checking, and its harm cannot be ignored.
Zhang Qing said that in response to some of the "rice circle" chaos that occurred during the Paris Olympics, while responding to the law and regulations, we can also establish a basic social consensus through open and rational public discussions, so as to strengthen the popular sports culture. Soil make some constructive efforts.
Coordinator: Nandu reporter Xiang Xueni
Lead writer: Nandu reporter Zhang Qianhan
Writing: Nandu reporter Zhang Qianhan Feng Yiran Trainee reporter Zheng Xinwei Intern Yu Xinhong Yao Weizeng
