Li Jiaqi, who has "disappeared" from the public opinion field for a long time, may not have imagined that he would appear in the hot search again in such a vigorous way. "Why is it so expensive? It's been this price for so many years. Don't talk nonsense with your eyes open. Domestic brands are hard to come by." In a recent live broadcast room, when introducing a 79 yuan Huaxizi eyebrow pencil, Li Jiaqi made an astonishing statement, putting himself at the forefront of public opinion. On the scene of the fire, "Sometimes I look for my own reasons. Has my salary increased after so many years? Have I worked seriously?"
This unfamiliarity and overlooking of the living conditions of young people naturally overturned the situation.
"In the past, Li Jiaqi's status was completely invisible. I tried my best to maintain the interesting status before and talk about the things I liked. As a result, I can't say anything at all now. I just want to be a smooth person. Isn't it a good thing?" After the wrong remarks, Li Jiaqi quickly made amends.
In this era where speed has almost become the essence of crisis public relations in sudden overturning incidents, every second counts to gain a favorable position for oneself before public opinion develops into a huge wave. Li Jiaqi's response can be said to be swift. But this poor response and show of weakness did not inspire the love and burning anger of ordinary consumers.
Things continued to ferment. After Li Jiaqi responded in the live broadcast room, he had to apologize again in a more sincere manner on Weibo: "I am a makeup counter salesperson, and I know that everyone's job is It’s hard work and not easy. I’m really sorry that what I said failed you.”
The emphasis on “makeup counter salesperson” may be a positive response to “the head anchor does not understand ordinary people”.
But this still cannot prevent Li Jiaqi’s rapid decline in public opinion and reputation. Fueled by mobile information, "Has Li Jiaqi changed?" has become a question that everyone is paying attention to.
Li Jiaqi was drowned in saliva
Everything in the world is impermanent.
This may be the most accurate description of Li Jiaqi’s overturn.
At the same time last year, Li Jiaqi returned to the air in a low-key manner after being off the air for three months. That night, in order to support Li Jiaqi's return, in the background of the live broadcast room of "rational consumption, happy shopping", 60 million people clicked on Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room - you know, this number of viewers even exceeded most of Li Jiaqi's live broadcasts during the 618 period.
At that time, the products were quickly sold out, and Li Jiaqi had to quickly cancel the broadcast just two hours after it started.
That was the honeymoon period between Li Jiaqi and all the girls. Wei Ya, one of the Taobao heroes, overturned, and the live broadcast world was in chaos. Li Jiaqi, who was always thinking about all the girls, was naturally the best choice at that time.
At that time, Li Jiaqi seemed to still retain his enthusiasm for live broadcasts. He tried his best to show that he was responsible for the audience's consumption. Some widely circulated stories are that a child wanted Li Jiaqi to promote self-produced snacks. The product did not pass the company's product selection meeting. Faxiao approached Li's mother and wanted to use a back door. Li Jiaqi had a big fight with her mother in front of the team.
Now, these have become excellent examples of Li Jiaqi losing his original intention.
In a world built of wealth, prestige, and power, he had close contact with wealth and fame, and had the attention and favor of the whole people. Celebrities lined up to visit his live broadcast room, but the light focused on his head most of the time. His fans formed a support group and shouted to his brother "walk the flower road" in super chat.
So much so that he seems to have forgotten that the logic of live streaming sales is from bottom to top. Only when the anchor sells the goods well can he gain popularity. The people watching the live broadcast are primarily consumers, not star-chasing girls. The products are rich and cheap enough, and it is best to buy one and get five free, which is the driving force for netizens to buy.
In the final analysis, no matter how resounding Li Jiaqi’s name is, he cannot compare with the price advantage. In the past, the advantage of Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room also came from this. Just like what he showed in "Offer to All Girls", he started a price war with the fathers of financial sponsors in a heated exchange of words. In order to help all the girls save ten yuan, the tyrannical brand was left in tears.
The image Li Jiaqi exported at that time was that he stood from the perspective of consumers and was always thinking about consumers. All girls can get the best service, the cheapest products, and the most stable emotional value from him.
He has benefited from the fact that these topics are so suitable for spreading on social media. But now, he also overturned because of this.
In fact, as early as last year, Li Jiaqi’s price advantage was no longer what it once was. The influx of people and money has accelerated the growth and aging of this industry. The bargaining power and voice of top anchors over brands are no longer as strong as in the past.
Especially since the beginning of this year, domestic beauty brands have generally experienced price increases. In early February, Li Jiaqi complained in the live broadcast room, "Now every brand comes to a meeting and says, 'We are going to increase prices.'" Immediately afterwards, assistant broadcaster Wangwang took over, "There are some things that Li Jiaqi cannot change."
But perhaps what is more urgent now is that both brands and anchors need to convince consumers, "Instead of letting you blame consumers, let them find the reasons from themselves." Some netizens summarized the main reasons for Li Jiaqi's overturn on social platforms.
In the normal consumption process, the anchor may not be able to control whether the product is expensive or not. But the consideration and concern for consumers are the value component of Li Jiaqi’s clearly marked price. When they all collapsed, the value belonging to Li Jiaqi fell rapidly without any surprise.
Hua Xizi, which one is more expensive?
Also placed in the public opinion arena with Li Jiaqi is the domestic brand Huaxizi.
After the 79 yuan eyebrow pencil, the topic #花西子是什么意思# became a hot search topic. Some netizens integrated the prices per gram of eyebrow pencils of various beauty brands and found that the price per gram of Huaxizi's eyebrow pencils is higher than that of most beauty brands. Even compared with the price of gold, it was found that the price of 1g of Huaxizi's eyebrow pencil is equivalent to 1.5g of gold.
As a result, following Yishuang and Yiwei, a new generation of monetary units - "Huaxi dollars" - specifically used to measure the extent of salary increases for migrant workers appeared.
As the incident unfolded, more details were uncovered. Controversial topics such as "Huaxizi loose powder is more expensive per gram than Chanel" and "Huaxizi's R&D center is in Japan" have begun to be associated with Huaxizi.
This is almost the biggest public opinion crisis that Huaxizi has encountered since its launch. The irony is that was brought about by the person who brought the greatest benefit to the brand.
Huaxizi is almost a brand that has grown up with Li Jiaqi. In the previously aired "A One Day Trip to Luyu", Li Jiaqi introduced Hua Xizi: "In two years, all girls should know this brand. It is doing really well. I help them check everything without being paid."
But even if there is "no pay" on the surface, this still does not affect the deep bond between Hua Xizi and Li Jiaqi.
Since 2019, Hua Xizi has been on the big ship of Li Jiaqi. According to public data, Huaxizi brand Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room sales accounted for 18.48% in 2019 and 15.55% in 2020. By 2021, when Li Jiaqi's personal voice reached its greatest level, Huaxizi's overall sales during the 618 period even reached 263 million yuan, and it exceeded 100 million yuan during the pre-sale period.
Li Jiaqi brought enough real money to Hua Xizi, and Hua Xizi also showed her sincerity. Rumor has it that during the years of cooperation, as Li Jiaqi’s net worth has skyrocketed, Huaxizi’s marketing expenses have also increased. Li Jiaqi's commission fees are generally 80%, and the highest profit share can even reach 100%-120%.
This also makes the label of “a brand led by Li Jiaqi” become even closer to Huaxizi. So much so that now, Hua Xizi wants to get off the ship, but she can’t help herself.
But the crux of the problem is that the benefits that Li Jiaqi can bring to Hua Xizi are no longer what they used to be. According to public information, during 618 this year, Huaxizi launched more than ten products in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room. However, during the pre-sale period, Hua Xizi, which had not been absent from the top ten since 2019, fell out of the first echelon for the first time. It was not until the official launch that Hua Xizi returned to the first echelon of beauty brands.
Li Jiaqi’s influence is gradually fading, but Huaxizi’s new city wall is still weak.
Hua Mantian, the founder of Huaxizi, made it clear in an interview with the media that he did not like to be labeled as an "Internet celebrity", while another co-founder Feiman expressed his disapproval of the once domestic beauty products expressed dissatisfaction with the low-price trend: "Why can Chinese brands only sell at cheap prices? We have to break the price ceiling."
The goals of these two companies inevitably mean that they have to make a cut with Li Jiaqi. In fact, in order to get rid of the shackles of Li Jiaqi, Huaxizi once announced that it would spend 1 billion on basic research and development. In 2022, Huaxizi invited Li Huiliang, who had served as a R&D engineer in Shanghai Jahwa, Bloomage Biotechnology and other companies, to lead the establishment of an "Oriental Beauty R&D System."
The key to the problem is that Huaxizi has faced the biggest public opinion crisis this year before it has even stepped out of its comfort zone. What kind of chain reaction it will bring to the brand in the future may not be answered until Double Eleven.
Double Eleven, will Li Jiaqi retreat behind the scenes?
It takes time to eliminate negative public opinion. The most serious problem caused by the public opinion crisis between Li Jiaqi and Hua Xizi is that the seeds of doubt have been planted - This includes not only consumers, but also the brands that have been deeply bound to Li Jiaqi.
In fact, when Li Jiaqi went off the air last year, brands represented by Winona suffered a general blow. More and more brands are realizing the necessity of untying themselves from live broadcast rooms.
At the 2023 China Cosmetics Conference not long ago, Dr. Ai'er and Gao Chunming, general manager of Yilian's parent company Frida Biotech, asked, "Platform thinking will only make product prices lower and lower. Now Taobao's The dividends are disappearing. How long can the dividends of Douyin last? How many brand owners are really making money from doing Douyin? "
Accelerating the escape from Li Jiaqi has become a new topic in the beauty industry in 2023. This has also caused Li Jiaqi’s influence to gradually diminish.
According to media statistics, the total sales of live broadcast e-commerce this year were 18.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.6%, while the GMV of Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room increased by 21.4% year-on-year. In other words, live broadcast consumers have more choices, and there are fewer users who only stay in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room.
Obviously, compared to the past, Li Jiaqi is no longer the only choice for all girls, and Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room is also changing.
Since this year, the number of Li Jiaqi’s live broadcasts has gradually declined, leaving more time for the anchor team. In 2020, when Li Jiaqi is the most popular, this is an almost impossible thing. In an exclusive interview with "People", Li Jiaqi mentioned that he did not dare to stop broadcasting easily. While having a fever, he kept talking to the camera of his mobile phone, "Because as long as he stops for one day, the fans will burst out in an uproar."
But nowadays, Li Jiaqi is increasingly showing his disgust for the job that requires him to face the camera.
"Really, I have a headache every day until I die, and I sit here every day. My only last thought sitting here is that there are so many people in the company, and there are so many colleagues who need to be cultivated. And then there are you , saying that I am very happy to hear our voices when I sit in the live broadcast room every day. You all said that it’s OK if we don’t buy it, but Li Jiaqi must broadcast it.” After the incident became fermented, Li Jiaqi’s past remarks were re-examined. In the camera, Li Jiaqi looks tired, has a hoarse voice, and speaks fiercely, "I think you are very selfish, but I understand you, and I hope we can always be with you. This is the biggest meaning for me to sit here."
From this, more speculations have been put on the table - does Li Jiaqi not want to live broadcast for a long time? This speculation is not without prediction. According to the statistics of the Top 100 Annual Net Income List of China (Mainland Region) Internet Anchors in 2021, at that time, Li Jiaqi ranked first in the list with an annual income of 1.8553 billion. From a simple conversion point of view, Li Jiaqi's daily income is around 5.08 million, even far exceeding the 2.08 million of "Yishuang". By 2023, I believe this number will only increase rather than decrease.
Funds gradually increased, and Li Jiaqi gradually began to lay out his own business territory. In July this year, Li Jiaqi and her mother jointly established Shanghai Qikun Management Consulting Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Qirui New Media Technology Co., Ltd. According to Qichacha, its business scope covers many fields such as corporate management consulting, literary and artistic creation, organizing cultural and artistic exchange activities, cultural and entertainment brokerage services, and daily necessities sales. In addition, Li Jiaqi also has actual control over 12 companies, 6 of which hold 100% shares.
Various signs seem to indicate his strong desire to retreat behind the scenes, and this public opinion crisis may be just another straw.
This also leaves new questions for this year’s Double Eleven: Will there be Li Jiaqi on Double Eleven?
Now it’s just over a month before Double Eleven. As early as a week ago, Taobao and Tmall held three conferences for Double 11 and released a number of Double 11 support measures, covering the apparel industry, fresh food industry, as well as the quality brand and urban operation track of Tmall Supermarket. This means that this year’s Double 11 will usher in “epic-level” investment.
According to normal circumstances, Li Jiaqi must still be an indispensable and key part of Taobao Live Broadcast.
According to media statistics, on the day of this year’s 618 pre-sale, Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room launched a total of 338 single products, with GMV reaching 4.977 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%. Among the GMV of 8.59 billion yuan in Tmall 618 beauty pre-sales in 2023, Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room probably contributed about half.
Now, Taobao has to deal with this sudden crisis. Li Jiaqi's fate may be the most watched issue in the e-commerce industry in the next two months, and it is also the key to whether Taobao can win the Double Eleven war this year.
But regardless of whether he leaves or not, the fact that cannot be changed is that Li Jiaqi is really no longer the same.
Li Jiaqi had a proud time of "Thirty Years in Hedong", but one day he crossed the river of fame and fortune and had to accept the loneliness of being in Hexi.
What he has to face now is the falling ending that he has witnessed countless times. This year’s Double Eleven may be the most deserted Double Eleven in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room.