It took nearly two months from the official announcement to the start of the show, and Jay’s fans finally got to wait for the milk tea princess’ first appearance on Chinese social media.

Since the creation of the certified account of "Mr. Zhou" on May 29, Jay fans across the Internet have started to spread the news and launched a Kuaishou gathering in various ways.

With fancy cheering and earthy slogans, middle-aged and elderly fans are collectively excited, and their efforts to promote the game are comparable to those in the battle for the top spot on Weibo back then. Obviously, for a generation of Jay fans, this belated team-building event was like a shot in the arm, transforming countless aging fans into "outstanding young people."

On July 26, Zhou’s first live broadcast came as scheduled.

Just as the outside world predicted, the post flooded the WeChat Moments, dominated the hot searches, and almost brought down the Kuaishou server.

The mysterious power of "My Youth Is Back" can always easily ignite the calm Chinese Internet.

1. Hello, Mr. Zhou

Magic Cool Guy's show time.

Just as announced the day before, Zhou’s first live show was indeed just performing a magic trick and chatting with everyone.

The orange countdown lit up, and Zhou, wearing a light blue denim suit, appeared in the camera. Holding an iPad in his hand, he first read the fans' comments in a mumbling manner, and then performed the familiar coin magic.

On the black velvet table, a few coins moved and changed positions along with the cards. After several flashbacks, the coins in Zhou's hands first formed a heart, and then froze into a "J".

Fans were joking around in the barrage of comments: on one hand, they were commenting “My youth is back”, on the other hand, they were showing their support and praising the little princess for her “great rhythm in performing magic tricks, and she was on time with the music”. For a moment, the atmosphere in the live broadcast room was filled with a sense of old-fashioned peace.

Different from the current trend of selling products through live streaming: Jay Chou’s first live streaming show did not involve him shouting at the top of his lungs to promote the products, nor did he continuously post links; Jay Chou in the camera was youthful, just like his recent lazy, nostalgic and leisurely music, interacting with fans lightly and calmly, with a little shyness and a little pride.

Just chatting with old friends, performing a little magic, and talking about body management will have a huge effect.

Long before the live broadcast began, Zhihu asked the question: What do you think of Jay Chou’s announcement that he will start a live broadcast when his fans on Kuaishou exceed 10 million? What are your expectations?

Among the highly praised answers, one reads:

My expectations are simple, and there is actually no need to sing.

Allen can just sit down and chat with us fans about daily life, such as the changes in his mentality in recent years and some small things in life worth sharing. He has already given us enough works.

So, I just expected him to sit down and chat with us like old friends.

Kuaishou did not disappoint fans' expectations. The first appearance of the Cloud Piercing Arrow and the Dream Castle together maintained the scarcity of Magic Cool Guy as always. It neither fell into the rut of short video platforms that frequently promote products, nor ruined youth.

As early as half an hour before the live broadcast started, millions of Jiajie fans were waiting in the live broadcast room. From concerts with tens of thousands of people to classic MVs, familiar melodies are played on loop, bringing Jay fans back to the past.

At the same time, fans of various celebrities also dropped into the live broadcast room - artists such as Jordan Chan, Lang Lang, Hua Shao, Wong Cho Lam, and Rosamund Kwan all started posting Cloud Piercing Arrows.

Ten minutes after the live broadcast began, the total number of online viewers in Zhou's live broadcast room reached 42.6 million, the maximum number of simultaneous online users reached 6.08 million, and the total number of interactions in the live broadcast room exceeded 100 million.

It has to be said that the return of the king was very impressive - whether from the data performance or the interactive atmosphere in the live broadcast room, Jay Chou's Kuaishou debut showed that the top streamer with hard power bonus will maintain his appeal no matter when he returns.

It only took Zhou 5 days to go from having zero followers to having over 10 million followers. After the live broadcast ended on July 26, the number was close to 30 million.

2. The Second Rise of Sunset Red Fans

There is no need to explain how rare Jay Chou is on Chinese social media.

Before joining Kuaishou, Jay Chou’s fans’ daily communication with him relied on: first, climbing over the firewall; second, moving content; and third, relying on the company’s official WeChat account.

Specifically: either build a ladder to get on INS, or wait for various marketing accounts to carry the information, or get information from JVR Music’s official Weibo.

From this, you can understand the importance of "the only one on the entire network, only on Kuaishou"

Before this, a series of fan-exclusive actions such as urging for new songs and new albums could only be cast into the air. So when the news of Jay Chou's exclusive entry into Kuaishou came out - fans were not only overjoyed, but also took turns to recommend him, vowing to support Jay Chou's first live broadcast.

The sentimentalist even said frankly: "He doesn't owe me anything, but the songs I listened to in the early days were pirated. When I think about it carefully, I feel like I owe him something."

The pitch came so fast like a tornado.

Jay's fans took action as soon as the news was officially announced. They flocked to Kuaishou to create accounts and websites, and at the same time produced materials for promotion and distribution, directing traffic to their idol's live broadcast in all directions.

Jay fans, who call themselves "sunset fans", are conquering the entire network traffic again with full enthusiasm, just like the black and white AE86 conquered Akina Mountain back then.

Zhou also dotes on his fans very much and flips cards like crazy in the live broadcast room. Four rounds of lucky draws were held during the half-hour live broadcast, ranging from a custom-made "secret piano", a complete set of 28 exquisite vinyl records for the 20th anniversary to a complete set of 14 CDs for Jay Chou's 20th anniversary, and all kinds of fan gifts were given away during the live broadcast.

The first battle was a success, but the fans did not retreat quickly like they did after they took the top spot in the super topic. Jay's fans have come to Kuaishou, and have been continuously contributing their hardcore content, from making an inventory of classic videos over the years to participating in the topic "One song of Jay Chou per person".

The final data proved that Zhou's screen-sweeping power is still as strong as it was back then: during the half-hour Kuaishou live broadcast , the total number of online viewers exceeded 68 million, the total number of interactions in the live broadcast room reached 380 million, and the Kuaishou popularity reached 61.21 million.

3. The war of meaning or the battle of ecology

The first live broadcast ended, and fans were like "My youth is back, it’s perfect." What has Kuaishou gained?

In fact, in addition to traffic, Jay Chou’s joining Kuaishou has brought further expansion of its ecological landscape and enrichment of its user portrait.

For short video platforms, the importance of BGM is self-evident. The golden song generation represented by Jay Chou has become popular again and again in recent years, constantly contributing secondary creation materials to social media.

Kuaishou has previously obtained the short video platform copyright authorization for all of Jay Chou's songs and song MVs under JVR Music. With the exclusive entry of Jay Chou's social media account, the supplement to the platform ecology and the stimulation of users' creative desire will be taken to another level.

Jay Chou’s exclusive entry will inject a fresher user base into Kuaishou.

iMedia data shows that Kuaishou users tend to be younger. As of Q3 2019: Kuaishou users aged 24 and below accounted for the highest proportion, reaching 47.84%; followed by 30.35% of users aged 25-30; in addition, users aged 36-40 accounted for the lowest proportion, only 4.91%.

Jay Chou's fans are concentrated in the 80s and 90s, which is a typical high-net-worth group in the Internet population portrait. The new consumer group represented by Jay fans is the consumer market that Kuaishou and even the entire Internet products want to enter.

Of course, for Jay Chou himself, this is an era in which the Internet market is constantly being handed over to a new generation of young people.

If the glory of veteran singers only appears in the occasional "return of youth" of old fans, then in the near future they will inevitably become a solid front wave. Joining a platform with a younger user base and being a guest in the surfing pool of Generation Z is a better and more long-term choice.

Back to the content platform itself - in fact, for the platform, the entry of celebrities also has two sides of the coin: one side of the coin is as mentioned before - fans will flock to the platform, increase the platform's traffic in a short period of time, and acknowledge the platform's influence; but the other side of the coin: when the means of celebrity entry becomes rampant, it even becomes the golden thread for the platform's survival. Users will doubt the community ecosystem itself, and even affect native users.

Therefore, the selection of iconic celebrities is very important. The previous round of celebrity live streaming sales has obviously felt this cold wave.

In fact, the uniqueness of the platform ecosystem can be managed like customer relationships, but most platforms have failed to stick to their original intentions in the face of once explosive market growth.

Kuaishou has been dormant for many years - first it sponsored Jay Chou's Travels, then it obtained the authorization for JVR's song platform, and by constantly getting closer and closer, it finally invited Jay Chou to make a comeback - this is actually a victory for Kuaishou in insisting on the sustainability of its platform ecology.

Just as netizens joked, in this round of ecological competition, it seems that Douyin may need to sign Faye Wong.

4. Kuaishou’s killing part

At a time when traffic stars are changing at an increasingly rapid pace and data inflation is becoming more and more common, if you want to get a real top-tier star, it not only tests the platform's vision and ambition, but also requires a bit of luck.

Today's Chinese Internet is filled with a sense of confusion. After going through the bonus period of rapid growth, major platforms have successively reached the traffic ceiling, daily active users have declined, overseas markets have been inverted, and the uncertain economic environment has made the players here face unprecedented pressure.

When the days of "making money without doing anything" are gone, entrants must freeze users through the killing part.

Kuaishou is certainly aware of the severity of the market, and its vigorous promotion of content going viral since the Spring Festival Gala K3 campaign is proof of this.

From Uncle Aoli Gei’s “Don’t walk into ordinary people’s lives indifferently” to Jay fans’ journey back to youth, Kuaishou has continuously produced diverse content and enriched the community atmosphere. While retaining old users, attract a new generation of users.

And the facts have also proved that Kuaishou is undoubtedly the Yang Chaoyue of the short video industry - she debuted as a grassroots, was surrounded by halos, and became famous after three battles. Not only did it handle the National Day military parade and the Spring Festival Gala red envelope grabbing event, this time Kuaishou also successfully handled the sunset fan group building.

Author: Wu Duidui

Source: Wu Duidui (esnql520)