"My grandpa was deceived when he sold his house ten years ago and borrowed loan sharks. Whether he could open the door or have authority, the old guys just took one and unboxed it for evaluation!" Recently, a series of "Cheating Old Man Money Contest - Unboxing Videos" released by a short video blogger attracted the attention of many netizens. Various "selected coin collections from fifty-eight countries in the world" and "twelve zodiac stamps, coins, and paper-cut collections" appearing in the video instantly brought netizens back to the era of exaggerated sales of "collectibles" on TV shopping.

Although the huge profits from TV shopping are gradually dying out with the decline of traditional media, similar routines are being "carried forward" in live broadcast rooms. Not only that, in the past, the routine of selling health care products to the elderly through "listening to lectures and giving eggs" offline has now also derived a new model with the help of online live broadcasts.

When parents are addicted to the rich content and convenient life brought by the Internet and become "Internet-addicted seniors", they have also become the harvest targets in the eyes of some businesses.

1Internet addicted elderly, "addicted" to the live broadcast room

No more square dancing, no more playing mahjong. In addition to eating every day, I just lie on the sofa and check my mobile phone... When the elderly experience the fun of surfing the Internet, "Internet addiction" is no longer an exclusive term for young people. As more and more "Internet-addicted seniors" are immersed in rich Internet content, their attention to content is gradually being transformed into purchasing power in the e-commerce field.


According to data from the "2024 Silver-haired People Insight Report" released by the third-party platform QuestMobile, as of the third quarter of 2024, the average monthly online usage time of the elderly group has reached 129 hours. Among them, short videos accounted for 35.1% to top the list of usage time, while the comprehensive e-commerce field ranked fourth with 6.7%, showing that the potential of the silver-haired group in online shopping is gradually released.

Different from the experienced and prudent young people, many elderly people who are new to online shopping do not look at the product details page, but only look at pictures and videos. This has led to "wild consumption" and "tireless trapping" appearing in the elderly online shopping group at the same time.

A "Survey Report on Online Live Consumption of Middle-aged and Elderly People in Wuxi" recently released by the Wuxi Consumer Rights Protection Committee shows that nearly 80% of the elderly consume at least once every three months, and the maximum single consumption is concentrated between 1,000 yuan and 3,000 yuan. However, 52.1% of the respondents have encountered problems with incorrect goods and false advertising.


Image source: Wuxi Consumer Protection Committee official account

When Wuxi Daily reported on this survey report, it was also mentioned that 63.1% of the elderly choose to consume because they like the interactive atmosphere of the live broadcast room. In particular, some platforms have tags such as "watch videos and live broadcasts to receive red envelopes." Users can receive cash red envelopes or gold coins in return for daily check-in, watching short videos and live broadcasts, provided that bank cards, Alipay, WeChat, etc. are bound. This also opens up the payment prerequisites for the elderly's subsequent online shopping behavior.

Haha from Guangdong told Jingzhe Research Institute that her father has been addicted to live broadcast shopping in recent years, ranging from domestic watches claimed to be worth hundreds of thousands to antique coins, as well as agarwood that is closely tied to traditional culture and literati.

"Before, my dad was excited to show off to me the antiques he had snapped up, thinking that buying them would increase their value, and he couldn't listen to what others said. Because he really couldn't stand my nagging, he only kept the watches he wore with price tags of hundreds or thousands, and returned all the rest, including some antiques and agarwood. Roughly estimated, the value of the remaining goods is more than 10,000 yuan. But now I find that he is still buying them, and I feel very powerless."


Screenshot of the chat between Haha and his father (provided by the interviewee)

Xiaoyue from Hubei also shared on social platforms her mother's more magical "experience of being cheated" while watching the live broadcast.

According to Xiaoyue's description, her mother bought the "Japanese Surrender Letter" in the live broadcast room that claimed to be able to treat heart disease, gold medals resold by the Paris Olympic champions that could be used as extra points for children's exams, and gold bars stolen from the homes of "corrupt officials". In addition, there are many ancient coins, commemorative ornaments and commemorative stamp albums with prices ranging from 399 yuan to 999 yuan.Although these products are outrageous enough for young people, under the storyline interpretation of the anchor, the elderly are convinced of their value.


Some orders and amounts compiled by Xiaoyue (provided by the interviewee)

Haha and Xiaoyue's experience is not unique. At the beginning of this year, China Central Radio and Television Station China Voice exposed cases of elderly people being deceived by buying "fake antiques" in live broadcast rooms. The report mentioned that some live broadcast rooms first use low-priced daily necessities to attract the elderly to click and watch, and then use words to slowly guide them to buy fake antiques and other goods. The anchors' inducing words are not the most outrageous, only more outrageous.

For example, the anchor will introduce that the source of "antiques" is "someone's tomb" and that they are "treasures passed down from generation to generation". If you buy them at a low price now, they are expected to increase in value thousands of times in the future.Under the influence of layers of routines and inducement techniques, some elderly people have no doubts about the content and products in the live broadcast room. Even if relatives later ask experts to issue appraisal reports, telling the elderly that the antiques they bought are modern imitations, some elderly people remain unmoved and even think that their relatives want to "cut off their wealth."

2Health care products are “hidden” in private live broadcast rooms

In addition to their desire to "get rich overnight", the elderly's emphasis on health also gives unscrupulous businesses the opportunity to make profits through live broadcasts.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on February 24, there is already a "live broadcast health bureau" that specializes in educating the elderly: first, it uses short videos on health science to attract the elderly to jump to WeChat and join the group; then, the "teachers" in the group continue to strengthen their understanding of the product by conducting live public welfare classes and setting up prize-winning quizzes; half a month later, the group begins to promote products, and there are "sitters" who cooperate in acting to induce the elderly to follow suit and buy.

On the Black Cat Complaints Platform, we can see that there have been nearly a thousand complaints related to “Live Broadcasting for the Elderly”. Among the many complaints, the "private live broadcast room" attracted the attention of Jingzhe Research Institute because it is more concealed.


Screenshot of Black Cat Complaint Platform

China Consumer News reported on its front page on March 4 a typical case of "private health live broadcast rooms" using promotional information or promotional activities to attract elderly audiences, and then using scripts to sell bear bile powder. The report mentioned that some live broadcast rooms have attracted the elderly to add customer service staff's corporate WeChat accounts by publishing promotional content such as "Try new products for free with no tricks and free shipping to your home" and "Bring home a blood pressure monitor for 9 yuan and 9."

In addition, a reporter from China Consumer News found that the recorded videos in the live broadcast room have time limits and can only be viewed on that day. The contacts of corporate WeChat accounts change frequently, and sometimes the live broadcast group is disbanded before half of the required viewing days are reached. Therefore, it is difficult for elderly consumers to realize their desire to experience free experiences and receive gifts at low prices after completing their studies.

In addition to the free gifts, the content of the live broadcast is also full of drama: at the beginning, the pharmaceutical company and products are introduced, and the product functions and the limited quantity of the products are explained; then the pharmaceutical company owner and the anchor stage a live negotiation and the negotiation collapses; in the end, the pharmaceutical company owner still chooses to sell bear bile powder at a reduced price in the live broadcast room, and gives special discounts. The original price is 2,800 yuan/box of the King of Medicine Purple Gold Bear Bile Powder. After the live broadcast and a 90% subsidy, the final price is 198 yuan/box. If you buy 10 boxes, you will get 3 boxes for free, and an additional box of Angong Niuhuang Pills.


Report published by China Consumer News

In order to emphasize the function of the product, during the live broadcast, the speaker also contacted multiple patients through hotline. No matter what kind of disease the patients had, the speaker said that it was very suitable to take bear bile powder. After investigation, China Consumer News found that the pharmaceutical factory owner who appeared in the live broadcast claimed to be surnamed Zhao, but the product manufacturing company did not have a shareholder or general manager named Zhao, so the identity of the so-called "pharmaceutical factory owner" who appeared in the live broadcast room was questionable.

It is worth noting that the conversion path of conventional live broadcasts to bring goods is usually to attract enough users with content, and then use the anchor's words to complete the sales of goods. Private live broadcasting, on the other hand, actively narrows the traffic entrance into the live broadcast room, allowing only some users who meet the "conditions" to access the products, which not only enables accurate harvesting, but also makes it harder to be "detected".

3"XX Preferred", specializes in trapping Internet-addicted elderly people?

According to the observation of Jingzhe Research Institute, not only health products are abundant in private live broadcast rooms, but various daily necessities such as rice, flour, grains and oils are also "labeled" with health and wellness through private live broadcasts, and the prices are higher than market standards to harvest elderly consumers.

According to netizens' descriptions, this type of private live broadcast room, usually named "XX Selection", adopts a similar operating routine to "Bear Bile Fans". It first uses small benefits such as "free eggs" to attract elderly consumers to join the group to listen to classes, and then requires them to check in, take notes, and answer questions every day.However, compared with "private health live broadcast rooms" that operate purely online and mainly sell various "magic" health products, these private live broadcast companies also open offline stores, selling not only health products, but also ordinary food.


Product promotion posts on social media platforms

Based on the information provided by netizens, Jingzhe Research Institute found one of the companies called "X Ke Youxuan". Official website information shows that the company is positioned as a community new retail supply chain company and currently has more than 5,000 retail-type physical cooperative stores. Jingzhe Research Institute used the Map APP to search the company name and found that the company has 72 stores in Beijing, 70 stores in Shanghai, and 47 stores in Wuhan. However, the store size is generally only the size of an ordinary convenience store. Subsequently, Jingzhe Research Institute went to a nearby store for an on-site visit.

Jingzhe Research Institute saw in the offline stores of "X Ke Selection" that there were not many products in the store, but the types were mixed, including soy sauce, vinegar and other condiments, rice, goat milk powder and other foods, as well as iron rod yam peptide powder, Ganoderma lucidum spore powder and other products that sounded like health care products, giving people the feeling of being both a lifestyle supermarket and a health care products store.

Jingzhe Research Institute also noticed that most of the products in the store, whether food or health care products, are priced at more than 100 yuan each. The cheapest product in the store is a 340 ml capacity, price of 29.8 yuan/bottle, and "pure raw soy sauce" with a product standard of GB/T18186.


"Pure raw soy sauce" sold in offline stores (photographed by Jingzhe Research Institute)

In order to compare product prices, Jingzhe Research Institute searched for this soy sauce product in offline supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, but did not find the same product. It only found another "pure raw soy sauce" in the official e-commerce flagship store of the entrusted manufacturer that also adopted the GB/T18186 product standard and had a capacity of 340 ml. However, the price of this product was 10.75 yuan/bottle.

At the same time, Jingzhe Research Institute also found in offline supermarkets that most of the other brands of soy sauce products that are also marked with GB/T18186 product standards are packaged in 500ml packaging with a larger capacity, but the most expensive ones are only 17.9 yuan/bottle, and the cheapest ones are only 6.99 yuan/bottle. A soy sauce that is only sold through specific offline channels is priced far higher than other well-known brands on the market. This unique sales method has attracted the attention of Jingzhe Research Institute.


Soy sauce sold in supermarkets also meets the GB/T18186 product standard (photo taken by Jingzhe Research Institute)

During the communication with the store clerk, the other party informed that although the retail price of this "pure soy sauce" is 29.8 yuan/bottle, if you participate in a group purchase, you can enjoy the group purchase price of 29.9 yuan for 4 bottles. In addition, the company's products do not have online sales channels and can only be purchased offline. Therefore, you must first join the membership to purchase products. However, members must be over 55 years old and watch the live broadcast on time every day.

Jingzhe Research Institute used the excuse of the inconvenience of the elderly at home and asked the staff to share the live broadcast link for watching the live broadcast, but the clerk refused.Later, when searching for relevant information, Jingzhe Research Institute found that the company usually uses a third-party live broadcast platform to conduct live broadcasts. Before each live broadcast, the live broadcast link and password will be shared to the member WeChat group, so there is no fixed content account and fixed live broadcast room link.

In addition to the requirements that the retail prices of the products are relatively expensive and they are only for people over 55 years old, the Jingzhe Research Institute also noticed that the products in the store that sounded like health care products were actually food. For example, a product called "GK Small Molecule Pure Peptide" does not have the exclusive "Little Blue Hat" logo for health products on the outer packaging. It is clearly marked as "Sports Nutritional Food" in the "Product Type" column. The product standard code and production license are also food numbers.

Giving food a name similar to that of a health product may cause some consumers to misunderstand the efficacy of the product. However, it is difficult to determine whether this behavior is subjective and intentional. However, the Jingzhe Research Institute found some "clues" when searching for relevant information.

On August 11, 2024, a report on the Shanghai TV News Comprehensive Channel titled "Candy Transformed into a "Health Product" Exaggerated Efficacy to "Harvest" the Elderly" mentioned that an elderly consumer spent nearly 3,000 yuan to buy a product sold in offline stores of "X Ke You" Health products, and they are so convinced of the product's advertised effects on lowering blood pressure and blood lipids that they even want to replace the medicines that their family members have been taking for a long time with this health product. The product that appears in the news is also a "sports nutrition food" without the "little blue hat" logo of a health product.


Screenshot of Shanghai TV Station News Channel report

Compared with conventional live broadcast rooms that rely on acting skills to sell goods, "private live broadcast rooms" are characterized by their closeness and strong concealment. Not only is it difficult for regulatory authorities to monitor live broadcast content in real time, because it is difficult to leave traces in a temporary live broadcast room by "shooting and changing places", it is also more difficult for consumers to provide evidence when defending their rights afterwards.

In addition, some elderly consumers have "misunderstood" the efficacy of the product and have continued to buy in large quantities. However, the "private live broadcast room" sells products that are not "three noes", so it is also difficult to put an end to this sales method from a legal perspective and prevent more consumers from being harmed by unscrupulous merchants.

Due to the lack of effective regulatory measures, "XX Selections" rely on private domain live broadcast operations and offline store franchises, and their business scale continues to expand. Individual posts sharing private domain live broadcast experience mentioned that "X Ke Youxuan", as a leading company, has annual sales of more than 10 billion, and there are many companies with annual sales of more than 2 billion.

In fact, the current management of private live broadcast rooms relies heavily on platform supervision.

On March 7, the WeChat Security Center issued an announcement saying that it had recently received complaints from users that some WeChat groups under the banners of "health preservation", "science popularization" and "public welfare" had been inducing users to jump to external live broadcast rooms by publishing H5 links. These live broadcast rooms teach health knowledge, take advantage of the elderly's desire for health, exaggerate the efficacy of related products, and induce the elderly to purchase "health" over-the-counter drugs or health products at high prices.


For the above-mentioned behavior, WeChat stated that it will deal with it in accordance with the law. If the live broadcast content in the external link involves illegal release of medical, pharmaceutical, health food and other information, WeChat will restrict access to the link, and the platform will increase the penalties for such illegal accounts based on user complaint evidence.

What needs to be reminded is that for the majority of elderly consumers and their children, platform intervention is just a way to make up for the situation. Whether it is a "story live broadcast room" or a private live broadcast room, the reason why the elderly become addicted to it is ultimately because social relationships are broken and social distance becomes longer after retirement. It is easy to be at a loss and choose to find psychological sustenance in the online world.

To help the elderly "kick off Internet addiction", on the one hand, it is necessary to enrich the elderly's daily activities, maintain and expand new social relationships, on the other hand, it is necessary for their children to increase their companionship with the elderly, provide emotional value in real relationships, and improve the elderly's sense of existence and happiness. If real life is exciting enough, the elderly do not have to be addicted to the Internet.

*Haha and Xiaoyue in the article are pseudonyms.

Author|Yugu