During the e-commerce mid-year promotion from May 20th to June 18th, the top-selling position on the Douyin platform was mainly held by Guangdong couples, Yuhui Tongxing, Jia Nailiang, and Mr. Dong in turn. The 618 promotion data showed that a total of 153 anchors from Foshan Yowant Technology participated in the promotion, and there were frequent appearances of breaking 100 million viewerships in each live broadcast room, with more than a dozen broadcasts breaking 10 million viewerships.
Caixin News | On June 18, New Consumer Daily (researcher Liang Youyun). The mid-year e-commerce promotion of 618 has finally come to an end. Although the industry development growth rate and promotion attention have declined, the industry competition is still fierce.
Especially for top anchors, the trend of "metabolism" is more obvious. Some people take the initiative to reduce exposure and walk out of the camera, while others are "fire full power" to become the new "leading commentator". Recent media reports show that star Jia Nailiang ranked first in the May Douyin sales list, leading the second-ranked Yuhui in the first half of the 618 promotion.
New Consumer Daily's comprehensive analysis of multiple third-party data platforms found that from May 20 to June 18 during the mid-year e-commerce promotion, the top-selling seat on the Douyin platform was basically held by Guangdong couple, Yuhuitongxing, Jia Nailiang, and Mr. Dong.
Jia Nailiang's sales performance has reached the top, as he has transformed into a full-time e-commerce anchor, and it has also made many people notice his MCN Yowant Technology behind him.
However, Yowant Technology has recently encountered regulatory inquiries into multiple operational details. After several delays, it finally issued a statement to prove that its performance is improving.
As the absolute top anchors such as Xiaoyangge, Simba, Dong Yuhui, and Li Jiaqi gradually fade out of the market, it's time for the waist-level anchors to rise. Now that the top anchors are struggling to achieve sales, can other anchors and MCNs which are still pursuing rankings and sales find new growth points?
Jia Nailiang, the new "leading commentator" in Douyin: The GMV exceeded RMB 425 million in a single event
For many consumers, rational consumption thinking prevailed during this year's 618 promotion. But in the stock consumer demand, many performing outstanding merchants and platforms have difficulty holding back the mood to share their sales performance battle reports.
On May 21, Jia Nailiang started his first live broadcast with the theme of 618 promotion. Yowant Technology's statistical data showed that Jia Nailiang's turnover exceeded RMB 100 million in three hours after the live broadcast started, and the daily sales exceeded twice the sales volume of last year's 618 promotion. It became the first in the total sales ranking and also broke several historical live broadcast records of international beauty brands. The final live broadcast data showed that Jia Nailiang's GMV exceeded RMB 425 million on May 21.
During the nearly one-month 618 mid-year promotion period, Jia Nailiang maintained a frequency of broadcasting every 1-2 days. According to the statistics of the third-party data platform, Daduo Duo, Jia Nailiang's average live broadcast turnover was mostly stable at RMB 10 million to RMB 25 million, and the turnover of some brand-exclusive sales sessions can be close to RMB 100 million.
Compared with the historical sales performance, this year's 618 promotion performance is not the peak of Jia Nailiang's turnover. During the Double 11 promotion period in 2023, according to Yowant Technology, Jia Nailiang set a record of sales of more than RMB 500 million in a single live broadcast and achieved a cumulative turnover of RMB 1.36 billion during the entire Double 11 promotion period.
Looking back on the growth history of Jia Nailiang's sales, unlike other celebrity anchors who cannot adapt, hard work, diligence, and wholeheartedness are the keys by which Jia Nailiang gradually transformed from a star to a full-time anchor.
In August 2021, Jia Nailiang followed the trend of celebrity sales and entered Douyin to start live broadcasting. With the personal influence accumulated in his performing career, he attracted a first batch of consumers and merchants. In this process, Jia Nailiang gradually accumulated a batch of brand resources and attracted consumers through joint recommendations and bargaining.
Like many other sales anchors and celebrity sales people, Jia Nailiang has also had many controversial events in his sales career in the past three years. Jia Nailiang was once questioned for promoting a certain beauty device and a certain premium-down jacket.
Although Jia Nailiang responded positively to the negative controversies mentioned above, stating that he has confidence in the promotional mechanisms he designed. Later, the brand side also stated that the low-priced commodities on other online sales channels may not be genuine products and will report them for counterfeiting. This gradually calmed the negative waves.
With more than 60 sales celebrities in their hands, they are struggling with the transformation crisis
Behind almost all the top anchors stands the MCN team with mature e-commerce operation models and experience. For Yowant Technology, Jia Nailiang is one of its important signed anchors, he is also the "Sales Champion" with the best and most stable performance.
At the end of 2022, after proposing a comprehensive transformation, Yowant Technology adjusted and integrated its operating resources in the direction of live broadcast e-commerce business, supply chain, intelligent management, and IP commercialization, and continuously increased its investment in overseas live broadcasts, short dramas, and new consumer businesses. In 2024, the company will further explore cultural and tourism consumption, variety shows, short dramas, co-branding and other fields.
At present, Yowant Technology has become a domestic head MCN operation organization that layout Douyin, Kuaishou, and Taobao, with more than 60 signed artists and hundreds of signed anchors.
However, Foshan Yowant Technology is still exploring transformation. The company's 2023 financial report shows that it achieved a revenue of 4.777 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.48%, but a net loss of 1.057 billion yuan, which was more than three times the loss of the previous year. On the company's financial report, there is also an expenditure of 2.303 billion yuan on information services purchased from Douyin, which has prompted speculation from the outside world. In addition to this, the company's operating cash flow has been around -220 million yuan for two consecutive years, leading to inquiries from regulators about the company's operations, financial report data, and goodwill impairment changes, etc.
On the evening of June 17, Yowant Technology finally responded to this. The announcement showed that Yowant Technology became a first-level agent of Douyin Qianchuan in May 2022, and with more platform rights and professional team advantages, it attracted other second-level agents and companies to cooperate, and the business scale was significantly enlarged. In 2023, through purchases on multiple platforms including Douyin, Yowant Technology's total cost for internet advertising agencies was 2.223 billion yuan for the whole year. Industry insiders estimated that most of the 2.3 billion yuan in purchasing scale was used for internet advertising agency, rather than live streaming. Yowant Technology also emphasized in the announcement that after a year of difficult transformation, the company's performance improved in the first quarter of 2024. The first-quarter revenue was 1.581 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.44%, and operating cash flow had turned from negative to positive.
Represented by live streaming and short videos, the social e-commerce business gross profit margin this year's first quarter has reached 12.34%, which is a significant improvement compared to the gross profit of -0.38% for the whole year of 2023. The main reasons for the growth are the increase in the number of artist live broadcast accounts and scheduling sessions. The number of live broadcast accounts under the company in the first quarter reached more than 750, and the number of live broadcast sessions was about 6,000, a year-on-year increase of 60%, which is conducive to diluting the previous labor and other fixed costs. 618 promotion data shows that Yowant Technology currently has 153 anchor participants, with a total of nearly 40,000 items for sale, with an overall live broadcast time of 8,113 hours. Many live streaming rooms have frequently broken through 100 million views, and there are more than a dozen live streaming sessions exceeding 10 million views.
In addition to Jia Nailiang as the head anchor, the celebrity live broadcast efficiency has improved, and brand and category special sessions are arranged based on the preferences of different celebrities. For example, for food categories, there is Chen Jiajia; for mother and baby categories, there is Wang Zulan; for clothing categories, there is Wu Yating; and for cosmetics categories, there are Huang Yi and Shu Chang, etc.
Yowant Technology predicts, based on the current trend of operations, that the company's gross profit margin will reach 14.4% in 2024, a significant increase compared to the gross profit margin of 2.05% in 2023, and its total revenue for the year will reach 5.588 billion yuan. With the improvement of operating conditions, the expected goodwill impairment has also been adjusted. At the same time, it is worth noting that while Yowant Technology's star IP operations are thriving, its first batch of head anchors are retiring and being replaced. On June 10, the so-called 'Beauty Second Brother' Yuda Gongzi, who was once comparable to Li Jiaqi, announced his departure from Kuaishou live streaming, but did not disclose his future plans. Yuda Gongzi, who has more than 40 million fans, is temporarily silent, but Yowant Technology's liquor category anchor Li Xuanzhuo is rapidly rising on Taobao, frequently setting sales records topping 100 million yuan in a single session, becoming the new 'king' of the subdivided category.
"A broadcast room with an ironclad guarantee for streaming, with a steady stream of hosts". As long as the huge base of domestic consumer demand remains stable, it seems that the windfall of e-commerce cannot be extinguished.
However, Yowant Technology is still exploring transformation. The company's 2023 financial report shows that it achieved a revenue of 4.777 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.48%, but a net loss of 1.057 billion yuan, which was more than three times the loss of the previous year.
On the company's financial report, there is also an expenditure of 2.303 billion yuan on information services purchased from Douyin, which has prompted speculation from the outside world. In addition to this, the company's operating cash flow has been around -220 million yuan for two consecutive years, leading to inquiries from regulators about the company's operations, financial report data, and goodwill impairment changes, etc.
On the evening of June 17, Yowant Technology finally responded to this. The announcement showed that Yowant Technology became a first-level agent of Douyin Qianchuan in May 2022, and with more platform rights and professional team advantages, it attracted other second-level agents and companies to cooperate, and the business scale was significantly enlarged. In 2023, through purchases on multiple platforms including Douyin, Yowant Technology's total cost for internet advertising agencies was 2.223 billion yuan for the whole year. Industry insiders estimated that most of the 2.3 billion yuan in purchasing scale was used for internet advertising agency, rather than live streaming.
Yowant Technology also emphasized in the announcement that after a year of difficult transformation, the company's performance improved in the first quarter of 2024. The first-quarter revenue was 1.581 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.44%, and operating cash flow had turned from negative to positive.
Represented by live streaming and short videos, the social e-commerce business gross profit margin this year's first quarter has reached 12.34%, which is a significant improvement compared to the gross profit of -0.38% for the whole year of 2023. The main reasons for the growth are the increase in the number of artist live broadcast accounts and scheduling sessions. The number of live broadcast accounts under the company in the first quarter reached more than 750, and the number of live broadcast sessions was about 6,000, a year-on-year increase of 60%, which is conducive to diluting the previous labor and other fixed costs. 618 promotion data shows that Yowant Technology currently has 153 anchor participants, with a total of nearly 40,000 items for sale, with an overall live broadcast time of 8,113 hours. Many live streaming rooms have frequently broken through 100 million views, and there are more than a dozen live streaming sessions exceeding 10 million views.