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Course:ASIA150/“Wanghong”: Chinese Internet Influencers

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Resources Guideline to "Wanghong": Chinese Internet Influencers

Introduction to "Wanghong"

  • In the book Amusing Ourselves to Death, author Neil Postman pointed out that all public discourses in real society (American society in the book) are increasingly appearing in the form of entertainment and becoming a cultural spirit. Our politics, religion, education, and commerce are all willing vassals of entertainment, and as a result we are an entertainment-to-death species. "Wanghong" economy is the nascent Chinese digital economy based on influencer marketing in social media. "Wanghong" is the Chinese term for an internet celebrity. The E-sport subtopic will include contents such as the representative "Wanghong" in e-sports, Clubs, the history of these representatives, E-sport live streaming platform, secondary creation culture and sequestration. Foodies advertise restaurants and post eating content in "Wanghong". “Wanghong” has international influences in terms of their business and fame. We will discuss their global influence and how it reflects on different countries. The “Wanghong” Economy section describes different models involved in the cash-generating activities in the market, including tipping, online retailing, and social media advertising. The policy section discusses China’s will of encouraging the social media industry, and its restrictions on the matters such as not allowing referral traffic and other services for cryptocurrency-related business activities.

E-Sport

Chinese E-Sports "Wanghong" Overview

"Wanghong" in the field of e-sports are usually former professional players of clubs. Since Chinese e-sports started late compared to Korea, some e-sports games are not perfect (e.g. CSGO, DOTA, PUBG). Among them, the league of legends related "Wanghong" is the most mature and representative compare to others.

E-Sports Clubs, The Birthplace of E-Sports "Wanghongs"

Among the early E-Sports clubs in China, the early representatives are two major clubs, RNG (Royal never give up) and EDG (Edward Gaming), which fans affectionately refer to as the pig and dog battle, with Uzi in RNG being called dog by fans and clearlove in EDG being called pig. https://k.sina.cn/article_1762593102_690f094e001005t6t.htmlThey are still the oldest, most popular and most influential clubs in the Chinese gaming scene. The e-sports clubs usually open official microblogs to promote and communicate with their fans.

RNG: https://weibo.com/SHroyalClub EDG: https://weibo.com/edgteam

RNG (Royal Never Give up, HuangZu)

Royal Never give up (HuangZu), RNG eSports club was founded in May 2012, it is used for different gaming divisions, among which League of Legends division has won several championships. Most of these ex-professionals retired and transformed into "Wanghong", because of their extraordinary skills and the popularity they brought during their time as professionals, these factors made them active for a long time on live streaming platforms; nowadays mainstream platforms such as Douyu https://www.douyu.com/ , Hu Ya https://www.huya.com/ , Weibo https://weibo.com/login.php, DouYin (Tiktok) These factors have made him active for a long time on live streaming platforms (nowadays mainstream platforms such as Douyu  and Hu Ya ), Weibo, and short video creation. "Wanghong" representatives such as Uzi https://weibo.com/n/UziQAQ , 55kai https://weibo.com/white55kai will be introduced below.

EDG (Edward Gaming)

EDG (Edward Gaming) is very similar to RNG and was founded in Guangzhou on September 13, 2013. Its highest achievement is the S11 season 2021 League of Legends Global Finals championship. https://pandaily.com/chinese-team-edg-wins-league-of-legends-s11-championship/ The EDG player with the most fans, is the professional player Clearlove. since Uzi is similar to Clearlove, they are still active pros. They have less of an internet meme culture than 55kai.

"Wanghongs"

55Kai

55kai, real name Benwei Lu, game ID: Wh1t3zZ, born in Hong Kong on August 11, 1993, is a former mid-single in the League of Legends division of the Royal eSports Club, who retired after finishing second in the S3 Global Finals. After retirement through interesting live content, and unique live style gained a large number of fans, through a large number of live gifts, endorsements and with his girlfriend (UU, Mengyue Zhao) operating Taobao store in income. 2017, 55kai live process 29 kill victory of a PUBG game triggered the use of hacking questions, December received widespread attention in the gaming community. Then 55kai held a fan meeting offline, during the live broadcast, 55kai as well as his fans used insulting words to attack the upkeepers and netizens who questioned 55kai's use of hacks. Later on December 8, 2017, for the fan meeting insulting incident, 55kai apologized to netizens on live stream and on Weibo https://www.zhihu.com/question/263781703 , saying that he "did not guide everyone correctly" and announced that he would stop broadcasting for a period of time to reflect on The actual fact is that you can find a lot of people who have been in the business for a long time, but the entire apology statement did not mention whether or not they "used hackers".

The Douyu live platform disclosed the handling of the 55kai incident in response to the incident. On January 17, 2018, Douyu Live announced that it had punished platform anchor 55kai by fining him 1 million yuan and suspending him from the live broadcast. Live broadcast room. January 17, 2018 , Douyu Live announced the punishment of the platform anchor, fined 1 million yuan and suspended its live broadcast. February 12, 2018, 55kai was named by Focus Interview and imposed a cross-platform ban. https://www.sohu.com/a/222583238_827543

Due to the fire during the live broadcast, it brings a huge amount of viewers and a huge income from gifts. Despite being blocked, the amount of his assets still far exceeds the norm.

Uzi

Uzi, real name: Zihao Jian. game ID: Uzi. Uzi was born in Hubei Province, China in 1997. In 2012, Uzi joined the League of Legends professional league at the age of 15. Uzi played the role of  ADC in the team. In the second year, the young boy Uzi shocked the players all over the world with his extremely cool plays in the League of Legends World Finals. Since then, Uzi has been adored by players as the most almighty League of Legends player in China. Players respectfully call him "the eternal God".https://www.zhihu.com/question/363721472/answer/1189506944

However, in 2018, Uzi led his RNG team to win all the tournaments they participated in. But in the most important global finals, rng lost to a European professional team because of Uzi's arrogant mentality. Since then, players in China have stopped respecting him and instead mocked him as a "giant baby".https://www.sohu.com/a/342653001_120085542

Due to his long-term lack of physical exercise and obesity, Uzi's health is out of condition and he had to retire in 2019. Uzi's annual salary is about 5 million Canadian dollars to 600 Canadian dollars, and he also found a model as a girlfriend.

WuhuDasima

Wuhu Da Sima, real name: Jinlong Han, Anhui province Wuhu city, game ID: WuhuDasima. Early for the professional club CC club coach.https://baike.baidu.com/item/CCNB%E6%88%98%E9%98%9F/23758526 After, He retired into the field of video teaching, through homemade instructional commentary game content to the game's players to gain play volume and fans (square play, hypothetical principle, spoon type play). 2016 joined the Douyu live platform, WuhuDasima opened a new chapter in his lifehttps://www.douyu.com/606118 and was subsequently praised by netizens for his unique live-streaming style. In January 2022, he was elected as a member of the 14th Wuhu Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference http://ah.anhuinews.com/rs/202201/t20220107_5739306.html to enhance the influence of network culture on Wuhu area through Wanghon 's perspective; use its influence to drive the development of Wuhu City.

The e-sports "Wanghongs" will not only publish its views on the official account of Weibo to interact with fans, Bilibili https://www.bilibili.com/ , the secondary creation of fans, and short video platform content on such video platforms play a key role in promoting the meme culture of the e-sports "Wanghong". Among them, autotune remix video culture in bilibilihttps://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1vi4y1u72Q?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click , live content collection https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1W7411Q71B?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click , secondary creation of video content https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1vi4y1u72Q?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click are all adding to the popularity of these "Wanghongs".

Foodie

Foodie in "Wanghong" refers to people who show eating as content. They will eat a large amount of food in front of the camera. People watch foodie's videos with the feeling of eating with someone or with vicarious satisfaction.

  • Craig, D.,  Lin, J., &  Cunningham, S. (n.d.). "Wanghong" as Social Media Entertainment in China. SpringerLink. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-65376-7 Chapter 4, pages 121-122, explains about the creators of "Wanghong". This book gives a brief description of "Wanghong" food content creators and how the government had criticized the content as amoral.
  • Liang, L. (2022, January 7). Consuming the pastoral desire: Li Ziqi, food vlogging and the structure of feeling in the era of microcelebrity. Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/gs/article/id/1020/

Peer-reviewed academic article. It examines how Li Ziqi’s food vlogging in a rural area and how shows cultural nationalism.

  • Wang, X. Y. (2020, September 1). 'eating for the eyes' in the age of smartphones. Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing Blog. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/assa/2020/09/01/eating-for-the-eyes-in-the-age-of-smartphones/

The post in London University describes a social media culture where people go to restaurants in "Wanghong" and post pictures of food on social media. People focused not only on eating delicious food but on recording it on social media.

  • Li, A. (2018, April 15). It's not just internet stars, foods are becoming "Wanghong" sensations too. SHINE. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.shine.cn/feature/taste/1804153136/ This article examines the foods that became famous by Wang Hong.
  • Tidy, J. (2020, August 20). Mukbang: Why is China clamping down on eating influencers? BBC News. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53840167 This article explains the Chinese government prohibited eating broadcasting by launching the “clean plate” campaign. Outside of China, however, these warnings do not appear to be an issue.

"Wanghong" in Other Asian Countries

Overview

Although "Wanghong" is a term which is created in China, we also can "Wanghong" in other countries. People call them "Influencers" or "Internet Celebrities". "Influencers" and "Internet Celebrities" might have different meaning from "Wanghong" since "Wanghong" represents a certain type of influencer, but their works are somewhat similar to "Wanghong". In this chapter, we will exam the interactions between Asia countries in terms of "Wanghong" or "Influencers" and if there is any similarity within Asia.

"Wanghong" from Another Country

This post introduces a "Wanghong" who is Korean. The Korean "Wanghong",  慧敏欧尼, works as a "Wanghong" and advertises some Korean brands.

Japanese YouTubers, "J-vloggers"

J-vloggers introduce Japanese culture through YouTube. They attract people who are in outside of Japan to watch their videos and visit Japan.

Internet Influencers in Various Countries

The article introduces that there are different kind of internet influencers in different countries, and it argues that there are some social conflicts or cultural issues among the influencers because of the cultural difference.  

Social Influence with Micro-influencers in Southeast Asia

This paper describes social changes in Southeast Asia countries, influenced by Micro-celebrity.

  • Siti, Mohamad. “Micro-celebrity Practices in Muslim-majority States in Southeast Asia, Popular Communication.” Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, vol. 19, no. 3, 2020, pp. 235-249, ttps://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2021.1913492. Accessed 4 April 2022.

New Trend in Korean Cosmetic Advertisement

This article explains that many cosmetic brands started advertising with influencers instead of celebrities. However, the mainstream of cosmetic advertisement is still working with celebrities.

How Influencer Marketing Can be Successful in Southeast Asia

This article shows some features of Southeast Asian countries and how it is related to influencer marketing.

"Wanghong" Marketing in Korea

Many companies started their marketing with "Wanghong" in order to attract Chinese customers. This article points out that "Wanghong"'s awareness and expertise are important factors in Wang Hong's marketing in Korea.

  • Gil-sung Kim. "Effects of Influencer Marketing on Brand Attitude and Purchasing Intention: A Case of "Wanghong" Marketing of Korean Companies." The Korean-Japanese Journal of Economics & Management Studies, 93.0 (2021): 41-53.

"Wanghong" Economy

Overview

This essay provides an overview of how the "Wanghong" uses the power of Chinese Domestic Platforms, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Weibo, to increase their exposure and generate profits. It also introduces how "Wanghong" leads to a new market and economic model - a flexible business ecosystem that helps companies to create corporate revenues.

The history of "Wanghong" and the conversion of internet view traffic into money by internet influencers have also been mentioned. It analyzes the "Wanghong" production and monetization models of two companies, Weibo and Alibaba, that integrate the advertising of the internet influencer and e-commerce ecosystems of internet monetization models.

Milestones

The table shows how three leading platforms: Alibaba, Tencent, and Weibo, play a key role in expanding the "Wanghong" Economy. From the first financialization of Papi Jiang, which was assisted by Alibaba to create a 12M Value in 2015, to the release of Tencent's ""Wanghong" Economy Research Report: Development of Female-led Social E-Commerce, which estimated 528 Billion at the end of 2016, the "Wanghong" market has hit the milestones in the short period of time. Through "Wanghong"'s live streaming, content production, and e-commerce, it has a huge potential to become the most profitable market.

"New Daddy"

There are an increasing number of "Wanghong" who give their host platform, mostly DouYin, the nickname of "Baba" (Daddy), in their daily interaction with the audiences. For the ""Wanghong"," the exposure to the audience in the host platform is the way to have financial returns.  

For some rural areas in China, the local government would support the "Wanghong" Economy (E-commerce) to raise regional income and create more jobs. In this case, Dou "Baba" would give the live streamers many chances to become successful, which corresponds to the traditional father figure in Chinese culture.

Online Retailing Model

Sometimes "Wanghong" would cooperate with brands or manufacturers to design and produce self-creating products. "Wanghong" would sell their items by creating posts, doing Livestream, and making films to advocate their followers to purchase.

"Wanghong" strongly influences the consumers to buy the products. The fans would feel a sense of intimidation by having their designed products.

Social Media Advertising Model

"Wanghong" would collaborate with established brands to advertise their products and services to their followers. They would get paid by the brands for every post/ video they posted online.

For example, many fashion "Wanghong" would follow this model to do advertisements and earn money. The clothing or make-up brands would ask the influencers to post their outfits or reflect on using make-up products. Thus, by having the desire to dress similar to the ""Wanghong"," their fans would rush to purchase the advertised brands' products.

Tipping Culture

As the "Wanghong" Economy has developed rapidly in recent years, people have started to discuss one of the ""Wanghong"'s" earning methods:  Tipping when doing live streaming. The report discovers a positive correlation between the tipping amount and the live streaming time. The longer the "Wanghong" stays on the Livestream to make viewers more entertained, the more money they would get tipped by the audience.

Furthermore, there was also a herd effect when people started to tip the live streamers. The audience would follow the number of first tippers to donate the ""Wanghong"." In that case, some agencies would pretend to donate a large amount of money to deceive the following tippers. Thus, the Chinese government has also set regulations to prevent the situation.

  • LIAO Li, WANG Xincheng, WANG Zhengwei, ZHANG Jinyan. "Factors Affecting Online Celebrities' Tips" 1421 By PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University; Business School, University of Hong Kong, 8 Nov 2021

Perfect Diary Brand

Perfect Diary, a Chinese Cosmetic Brand that started its operation in 2016, has achieved in earning 3.8 Billion RMB from "Wanghong" Marketing in three years. Moreover, it has over 17 million followers multiplatform, which has a significant exposure among the netizens.

Moreover, the brand has co-branded with the famous make-up ""Wanghong"," Li Jia-Qi, to help spread out their products to the followers. Naming after Li's pet's name "Never" in their "Explorer Eyeshadow Palette: Animal Series," Over 150000 Palettes had been sold out in just a few seconds after being released. Thus, the domestic and international brands want to seize this opportunity to have profited from the "Wanghong" Economy.

Better than A-List Stars

According to the statistics collected by CBN Data in May 2016, the "Wanghong" market has been estimated to have over 58 Billion RMB, which is more than the revenue of movie industries, around 44 Billion. Moreover, people have pointed out that "Wanghong" is more friendly than the movie actors, making the individuals feel intimidated to be with them.

However, it is hard to create a ""Wanghong"." To cultivate a potential ""Wanghong"," the Multi-Channel Networks (MCN) helped them pay for make-up, dressing, and the training to perform in front of the people. They have also been recognized as an agency to assist "Wanghong" in approaching works and becoming different brand ambassadors. MCN plays a significant role in expanding the "Wanghong" Economy.

Prevention of "Wanghong" Economy Chaos

As the "Wanghong" Economy has grown tremendously in recent years, the incidents of online celebrities involved in tax evasion happened inevitably. For the government, the "Wanghong" Economy is still an emerging industry, so the regulations toward the sectors aren't thorough.

To prevent the situation, some financial and tax experts recommend that the government create a new branch for the tax department to research the "Wanghong" Economy. It is necessary to enhance the government's prevention, protection, and comprehensive management of the ""Wanghong"." By those actions, the government can effectively manage the chaos and help build a better future environment for the ""Wanghong"."

Policy and governance of "Wanghong" in China

Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)

  • Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberspace_Administration_of_China. A Wikipedia page. The Cyberspace Administration of China is the central internet regulator, censor, oversight, and control agency for the People's Republic of China. The CAC comprises the government State Internet Information Office and the party Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission. Founded: 2014. Headquarters location: Beijing, China. Director: Zhuang Rongwen (庄荣文). Purpose: Cyberspace policy and regulatory oversight. Parent organization: Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission

China targets celebrity online information in ramp up of fan culture crackdown

China’s New Internet Censorship Rules Outline Direction For Content.

  • https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/china-censorship-law-bytedance-1203455740/. A journal article published on Jan 3, 2020. China, one of the world’s most censorious nations, is prone to handling speech issues with a “big stick bludgeon technique that doesn’t give people enough guidance or clarity and leaves people guessing and unsure,” says Jeremy Daum, senior fellow at the Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, who notes that “the laws for what counts as illegal or now ‘negative content’ are quite vague.”

China’s policy on cryptocurrency and referral traffic:

  • referral traffic describes the people who come to your domain from other sites, without searching for you on Google. When someone visits a link from a social network or website and they end up on another site, tracking systems from Google recognize the visitor as a referral. China’s policy on cryptocurrency and referral traffic: Internet companies are not allowed to provide services such as online business premises, commercial display, marketing promotion, referral traffic and other services for cripto currency-related business activities. https://www.sohu.com/a/491834298_260616. A news on the topic of China’s policy on cryptocurrency and referral traffic.

Book: "Wanghong" As Social Media Entertainment In China"

  • Craig, David et al. "Wanghong" As Social Media Entertainment In China". Palgrave Studies In Globalization, Culture And Society, 2021, p. CHAPTER 2 Policy and Governance. Springer International Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65376-7. Accessed 4 Apr 2022. A chapter in a book, investigating governance and policy of "Wanghong" in China. Note that governance here refers to not only state-based policy and regulations, but the larger system of control by multiple stakeholders in any system.

Primary source: government statement

  • The State Council. (2005). Decisions on Allowing Non-Public Capital Entering the Cultural Industries [国务院关于非公有资本进入文化产业的若干决定]. State Council Bulletin No. 16 of 2005. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2005/content_64188.htm. A government statement, stating its will of encouraging the social media industry. “To fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the whole society to participate in cultural construction, and further guide and standardize the entry of non-public capital into the cultural industry.”, said in the document.

Kuaishou

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