"Perhaps there was too much talk about the Internet celebrity economy and Dong Yuhui's success in the previous paragraph. Today there are rumors that 360 will also do live broadcasts to bring goods, and they are even pretentious about imitating Oriental Selection and learning what Yu Minhong does. It makes me dumbfounded." 2 On March 6, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 (601360.SH, hereinafter referred to as "360") Group, responded to the rumors that "360 will enter the live broadcast to bring goods" that has attracted the attention of the outside world. In a Douyin video, 360 has no plans to do live broadcast to bring goods.
Earlier media reports stated that 360 Group has decided to make live streaming one of its annual plans, and Zhou Hongyi will participate in it. "First build Lao Zhou into a big Internet celebrity, and then promote sales," the report said. The logic of 360 Live Broadcast may follow Dongfang Selection to identify potential anchors to carry out daily sales, and then learn from Yu Minhong to use Zhou Hongyi's personal influence to attract traffic to the live broadcast room and increase popularity.
Zhou Hongyi denied this in the air, "I have also communicated with Dong Yuhui, an outstanding young man. In terms of live streaming, he and I are too far apart. There are 100 Yu Minhongs between us, so I don't think I have the ability and potential to do live streaming, and I will not ask myself to do things that I am not good at."
Zhou Hongyi said that the end of the universe is not just about live streaming, but selling goods is just a model of the internet celebrity economy. In the era of short videos, the way users receive information has changed, and entrepreneurs must also understand and adapt to user habits to help the company develop its core business.
He mentioned that he often talks about the Internet celebrity economy recently because he likes innovation and is interested in new business models and new social phenomena of the Internet celebrity economy. Recently, movie stars have taken turns to go to Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room for live broadcasts, not to sell movie tickets, but to combine movie promotion and Internet celebrity live broadcasts. He believes that as live short videos further penetrate into people’s lives, more business models will be created in the future.
Although he denied the rumors of 360 entering into live streaming, it is obvious that in recent times, Zhou Hongyi has shown a strong interest in the internet celebrity economy and the ever-popular Oriental Selection.
On January 10, Zhou Hongyi posted on Weibo: "Old friends came to Dongfang Selection to collectively learn about the Internet celebrity economy, strive to understand the traffic code, keep up with the times, and listen to Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui share their efforts and persistence." Zhou Hongyi also posted several photos of the scene on Weibo. He was accompanied by well-known entrepreneurs such as Chen Dongsheng, Feng Lun, and Liu Yonghao.
Later on February 1, when Andy Lau and the "Mr. Red Carpet" team visited Zhou Hongyi's live broadcast room, Zhou Hongyi also suggested that Andy change his career to become an Internet celebrity. In his opinion, Andy Lau has 75 million fans on Douyin, far more than Dong Yuhui. If he can become an Internet celebrity, his future will be limitless.
At the Feng Lun Feng Ma Niu year-end show, Zhou Hongyi and the host Cheng Qian started to fight each other, which became the focus of heated discussions in the Internet circle. Later, Zhou Hongyi and Fu Sheng, the chairman and CEO of Cheetah Mobile, who had had grievances for many years, shared the same stage for a live broadcast. They met and laughed away their grudges.
In the video, Zhou Hongyi did not seem to deny the idea of continuing to do live broadcasts and build himself into an Internet celebrity. He mentioned that he has two characteristics that others do not have. First, he is the person who may make the most mistakes on the Chinese Internet, so there is no chicken soup for success. If he does not talk about success, it is more about the experience and lessons of failure.
"Second, I may have the thickest skin. Many entrepreneurs are ashamed to talk about their mistakes. They talk more about their greatness and the glorious past of how they succeeded. I am one of the very few willing to share my failure experience and lessons. I think this may be more valuable to many entrepreneurs and many small and medium-sized enterprise owners. So I will share around how startups and small and medium-sized enterprises grow and develop." Zhou Hongyi said.
He also cited Lei Jun of Xiaomi and Yu Chengdong of Huawei as examples, saying that they are both great internet celebrities. “They have a lot of fans. Through their constant speeches and various communications, I think everyone has at least helped their company save billions in advertising fees.”
He mentioned that he also hopes to save hundreds of millions of advertising fees for 360 in the future. "In the face of the Internet celebrity economy, when short videos and live broadcasts change the world, and of course when big models change our industry, I am always full of curiosity and exploration spirit. I always hope to join the game, jump into this new sea and learn to swim without fear of choking or failure."
"Some people also ridiculed me, saying that my business is not doing well, and I still talk so much every day. This just shows that I have been working hard and have failed repeatedly." Zhou Hongyi said that as long as I work hard, there will always be a chance to be caught. The worst thing would be if the company becomes passive because it encounters some temporary difficulties, is unaware of new things, and does nothing.
As of the close on February 6, 360 closed at 7 yuan, up 9.55%.