Li Ziqi, who has been dormant for two years, is rumored to be making a comeback again. On October 7, in the "Wonderful and Wonderful Night" promotional video officially released by Douyin, Li Ziqi appeared on the short video platform after an absence of two years. Although Li Ziqi's scene appeared for less than 5 seconds, this was her first appearance after the court settlement with her former agency Hangzhou Weinian on December 27, 2022.


Douyin "Wonderful and Wonderful Night"

Before Douyin invited Li Ziqi to participate in the filming of the official promotional video, Douyin announced last month that it would rename its Bilibili app "Qingtao" to "Douyin Selection" to officially focus on the mid-to-long video track.

On one side is Li Ziqi, the biggest leader in mid- to long-form videos, and on the other is Douyin, which is entering the mid-to-long-form video track. The combination of the two seems to add credibility to the rumors of "Li Ziqi's comeback."

01.Douyin’s strength in medium and long videos

Putting aside external factors and returning to the essence, Li Ziqi’s biggest reliance is on video creators.

But starting from 2023, the market environment will be full of twists and turns for original video creators, especially medium and long video creators.

In April this year, the largest medium- and long-term video platform Bilibili broke out in a "stop trend". A large number of UP owners with millions of fans announced that they would stop updating. The reasons included company operational problems, inability to make ends meet while making videos, temporary suspension of updates during personal vacations, etc.

The biggest reason behind this is that the cash incentives at Station B have been reduced in recent years. Incentive programs and advertising are the main sources of income for many UP owners. Brands’ willingness to advertise medium- and long-form videos on Bilibili has gradually declined, and most UP owners have difficulty monetizing their videos.

But just last month, the mid-to-long video track took a turn for the better. Douyin began to focus on mid-to-long video, targeting Station B in the mid-to-long video track.

In early September, Douyin officially renamed its medium- and long-term video APP "Qingtao" to "Douyin Selection", and all interactive data were fully integrated with Douyin itself. At the same time, Douyin held a creator conference and announced that it would strengthen incentives for graphic content and medium- and long-term videos, continue to expand content categories and forms beyond the short video track, and even "do not rule out continuing to change the current product form."

In the past year, the playback volume of Douyin's graphic works with more than 100 characters increased by 400%, and the average daily playback volume of videos longer than 5 minutes increased by 80% year-on-year. Such data may be the reason for the showdown between Douyin and Bilibili.

At the same time, Kuaishou, Douyin’s old rival, also launched an App called “Puji”, which is also suspected to be a mid-to-long video platform product.


Douyin Featured

The number one player in medium and long videos has always been Bilibili. CEO Chen Rui revealed that as of the end of the first quarter of this year, Bilibili’s PUGC medium and long videos accounted for approximately 70% of the overall play volume, and the year-on-year growth rate remained above 26%.

If Douyin chooses to focus on medium and long videos, it will undoubtedly redistribute the cake in the track market. With its advantages in resources and size, Douyin will have a huge impact every time it enters a specific track.

As the most famous creator of medium- and long-form videos, Li Ziqi is undoubtedly the best addition to Douyin’s entry into the medium- and long-form video track.

Li Ziqi's appearance in the official promotional video of "Wonderful and Wonderful Night" released by Douyin seems to be an annotation to this speculation.

But whether Douyin will really join forces with Li Ziqi to jointly attack the medium and long-term video field, we still have to wait for Li Ziqi to make a real comeback before the boots can hit the ground.

02.The strongest king of YouTube

It is undeniable that Li Ziqi, as a cultural symbol, has always been the top leader in the field of rural-related videos. But as a "cultural fast-moving product" short video market, two years is enough to lose a large number of loyal fans. Even Li Jiaqi once said, "I don't dare to rest. Once I stop, my fans will be sucked away by others."

In the two years since the account was discontinued, Li Ziqi suffered heavy losses.

Today, Li Ziqi has about 25.92 million Weibo fans, about 48.97 million Douyin fans, about 9.54 million Kuaishou fans, about 7.6 million Bilibili fans, and a total of more than 8 million followers across all platforms. But it is worth mentioning that on YouTube, the number of Li Ziqi’s fans has increased instead of decreasing, from 15 million to 17.7 million, an increase of about 2.7 million fans.

In the two years since Wang Che changed his position, too many snoops wanted to occupy the empty traffic pool left by Li Ziqi, and a large number of ambitious players began to join the rural-themed pastoral short videos.

For example, Zhang once became famous overnight and quickly attracted more than 16 million fans in two months; Li Yapeng, a veteran star with the theme of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms"; there are also male versions of Li Ziqi, Vietnamese Li Ziqi, Nordic Li Ziqi, etc. They are all copying Li Ziqi's pastoral video route.

This traffic comes and goes quickly, and countless imitators gradually lose their popularity and quickly disappear from the short video world.

Can too many imitators and a large number of highly similar videos weaken Li Ziqi's expectations in the hearts of users? Everything is unknown.

But one advantage Li Ziqi has over other “competing products” is YouTube.


Li Ziqi YouTube account

YouTube's advertising share has always been known for its generosity. At the same time, the share ratios of broadcast sources in different regions vary greatly. For example, channels whose audiences mainly come from North America, and channels whose audiences mainly come from Southeast Asia, the former's advertising revenue is significantly ahead of the latter.

YouTube's high share of revenue drives creators to invest more in the supply of high-quality content. As the most prominent Chinese creator, Li Ziqi still holds the Guinness World Record for "most subscriptions to YouTube's Chinese channel" to this day.

At present, Li Ziqi's YouTube channel has 17.4 million subscriptions, and the total playback volume of 128 videos exceeds 2.92 billion times, with an average playback volume of more than 29 million. The marketing platform Noinfluencer estimates that Li Ziqi's YouTube playback volume will bring about US$500,000 in advertising alliance revenue every month. Even if updates are stopped, the monthly advertising revenue of its videos is still between US$101,700 and US$123,800.

If Li Ziqi comes back, he will be able to earn a lot of money from YouTube by relying solely on video content instead of live streaming and commercial advertising.

03From confrontation in court to common development

In the two years since Li Ziqi disappeared, the conflict between her and her agency Wei Nian has been mentioned repeatedly.

Because of the uneven distribution of the "Li Ziqi brand", Wei Nian and Li Ziqi turned against each other. In October and November 2021, Ziqi Culture, owned by Li Ziqi, sued Weinian and chairman Liu Tongming twice. Weinian was not to be outdone. In January and March 2022, Weinian sued Ziqi Culture twice on the grounds of "disputes over shareholders' right to know."

Finally, on December 27, 2022, Weinian announced that it had reached a settlement with Li Ziqi. At the same time, Li Ziqi's Sichuan Ziqi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. also continued to undergo industrial and commercial changes.

According to Tianyancha, Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. has a registered capital of 1 million. Previously, Li Jiajia (Li Ziqi) invested 490,000 yuan and Weinian invested 510,000 yuan. After the court settlement, Weinian Chairman Liu Tongming withdrew from the company, and the equity was changed to "Li Jiajia invested 990,000 yuan; Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd. invested 10,000 yuan."

Although Sichuan Ziqi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. has become completely owned by Li Ziqi, the interests behind the "Li Ziqi brand" are more complicated.


Li Ziqi Tmall flagship store

It is understood that "Li Ziqi Brand" is a product matrix covering multiple categories. Currently, there are dozens of SKUs. It mainly sells snail noodles, hot and sour noodles, lotus root noodles, pastries, hot pot bases, etc. According to the "Dolphin Society. New Mao Top 100 List" report, Weinian relies on the "Li Ziqi Brand" to achieve revenue of 1.8 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 20%.

After winning back the company, the "Li Ziqi brand" has not changed significantly, and sales have still maintained a slight increase. Currently, the highest-selling "Li Ziqi snail noodles" on Tmall have monthly sales of more than 300,000.

According to China Entrepreneur Magazine, Li Ziqi and Weinian did not break up due to the lawsuit. Instead, they reached a consensus that the two parties would continue to cooperate in the future.

When Zinc Finance checked the industrial and commercial license of Li Ziqi’s Tmall flagship store, it was found that the industrial and commercial registration entity behind Li Ziqi’s Tmall flagship store is still Weinian.


Source: Tmall

At the same time, Weinian has also been responsible for the operation of the "Li Ziqi brand".

At the end of May this year, Weinian’s official Weibo issued a solemn statement: Resolutely crack down on counterfeit and shoddy products of Li Ziqi and Liuzhou snail noodles... Law enforcement authorities in many places have launched in-depth investigations and have seized and detained counterfeit packaging materials and counterfeit goods on sale in some stores.

In other words, Li Ziqi and Weinian reached an agreement: Li Ziqi took back her brand and trademark, and the "Li Ziqi brand" was handed over to Weinian for a long-term exclusive license in a specific category, and relevant licensing fees were paid to Ziqi Culture. But the exact amount is not yet known.

Generally speaking, Li Ziqi has come to an end with her "predecessor" Wei Nian, and no new conflicts have broken out between the two parties regarding the new cooperation model.

Now that her account has returned to her own and the brand is operating normally, Li Ziqi, who has nothing to do, has been called by more and more fans to return since the beginning of the year. And this opportunity for Douyin to focus on medium and long videos may be the best opportunity.

If the two can really join forces, with the support of Douyin's huge traffic and exposure, Li Ziqi, who once had hundreds of millions of fans, will once again stage the return of the king drama.

But whether it will be as predicted in the end remains to be seen when the boots hit the ground.