Brands focus on products, anchors focus on content, and live broadcast pitchers think about how to spend 800 yuan to achieve the effect of 1,000 yuan in exchange for more traffic.

According to the official definition of Douyin, the live broadcast pitcher is the person responsible for purchasing traffic in the live broadcast room. In the traffic empire of Douyin, live broadcasters are always at the forefront, trying to buy the most accurate traffic for their live broadcast rooms at the lowest cost and highest efficiency.

Tik Tok’s job description for pitchers. Image source: Douyin E-commerce University

Taking Li Weinan, the founder of Weiquan, as an example, many people in the industry believe that Li Weinan may be one of the most expensive live broadcast pitchers in the industry. Weiquan is also considered to be the largest live broadcast service provider in the industry, with total guided transactions exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2021.

"Zhu Zixiao" and "Mr. Dong Jewelry" mentioned in the live broadcast that Weiquan has served almost all the top anchors (on Douyin)

But at the same time, there are constant controversies regarding live pitchers.

Some people think that live broadcast pitchers only spend money and have no technical content; some people complain that the salaries of live broadcast pitchers are inflated and they are just cutting leeks; some people think that live broadcast pitchers only have temporary dividends, and the demand for investment will become less and less in the future; some people firmly believe that investment is just a supporting service, and full-case services are valuable.

The image of the live pitcher appears torn and confused.

What can a live pitcher do? “When the TikTok algorithm changes, I will be the first to know”

A relationship chart of the live broadcast room was once circulated in the industry. Although it was a joke, it also showed the subtle relationship between the various types of work in the live broadcast room. What people usually discuss more are the anchors, operations and even products, while the live broadcast pitcher is more considered as a traffic buyer.

In the opinion of veteran live pitcher Boss Yan, the core job of a live pitcher is to not waste money on clients and to make 800 yuan have the effect of 1,000 yuan. "The cost of the delivery service we provide is usually between 20,000 and 100,000 yuan," said Boss Yan.

Normally, an ordinary live broadcast pitcher needs to ensure that the ROI of the client's live broadcast room remains stable and slightly improved. A senior live broadcast pitcher can make optimization suggestions for the live broadcast room based on data feedback, improve the operational level of the live broadcast room, and make collaboration among various positions smoother. A live broadcast pitcher who understands operations can already take on the role of a live broadcast operator.

Likewise, in Li Weinan’s opinion, a live pitcher should do more than just throw the ball.

New List: What value do you think live pitchers can provide?

Li Weinan: On Douyin, the only constant is change . Every year there are new changes, new opportunities, and new anchors, so there is only a phased methodology on Douyin. This is also the value of Douyin live pitchers. We must help customers adapt to changes in Douyin’s algorithms and interests at any time.

I believe that many people will feel insecure on TikTok because it changes too quickly and its algorithm changes roughly every three months. But I dare say that when the TikTok algorithm changes, I will be the first to know . Because Weiquan has accumulated more macro and balanced data in the process of serving hundreds of live broadcast rooms every day.

Data source: Xindou

With the live broadcast service of Weiquan, "Big Wolf Dog Zheng Jianpeng & Yan Zhen Couple" once again completed a live broadcast with over 300 million views.

Therefore, what we need to do is not only to help customers spend money, but also to use a large amount of data and delivery experience to help customers plan traffic operations and provide professional suggestions on the product composition, operation and other gameplay of the live broadcast room. Especially for novices, we can help them quickly narrow the information gap. This is something that a simple investment company cannot do.

New List: Many service providers believe that Douyin will be more difficult to make money in 2021. What is the reason?

Li Weinan: Let me explain to you the several stages of Douyin's e-commerce traffic iteration starting from 2020.

In fact, Douyin’s live broadcast traffic pool mainly relies on the release of the video traffic pool.

At the beginning of 2020, Douyin released the first wave of traffic, and a group of anchors such as Zhu Guagua completed the mental education of users through brand-specific gameplay . Because they are all high-quality brand products with extremely high cost-effectiveness, this wave of users has a strong consumer mentality.

Therefore, with the support of Douyin, store live broadcasts began to increase in volume, and right after Double 11, a bunch of people started to do DP. At that time, not only China Gold, Bestore and other stores made money, but DP also made money.

In 2021, Douyin adjusted its algorithm to encourage new users. As a result, a large number of live broadcast rooms started activities such as 1 yuan flash sales and car draws . The number of online users in many live broadcast rooms once reached an exaggerated 500,000+ or ​​1 million+.

Overall, in the process of Douyin's traffic shifting from the video pool to the live broadcast pool, Dabo is responsible for attracting new users and user mental education, while store broadcasts and vertical live broadcasts are responsible for traffic consumption and sedimentation . When Dabo used junk products such as 1 yuan paper towels and 6 yuan toothbrushes to give users a very poor consumer experience, users are no longer willing to consume and repurchase on Douyin, and naturally there is no traffic to take over for store broadcasts and vertical live broadcasts.

Image source: TikTok

Low-price gameplay such as one-yuan flash sales has now become a fixed gameplay in live broadcast rooms, but its "glory" is gone.

In the end, Douyin had to shut down the traffic port. Douyin is no longer releasing traffic, and the consumers of the traffic that has been released have extremely poor consumption mentality and are unwilling to consume. This is the reason why the industry is wailing in 2021 and is caught in the internal circulation of traffic.

New List: From your perspective, why did Douyin have such an algorithm change?

Li Weinan: In essence, Douyin's traffic is a process from general traffic to precise traffic. Douyin's algorithm must be decentralized, so having all-category anchors is a false proposition. Vertical live broadcast rooms and store broadcasts are the right way for Douyin.

The logic of Douyin's algorithm is: under the premise of growth and quality assurance, Douyin's video traffic pool will periodically release water to the live broadcast traffic pool. Douyin will adjust the algorithm weights based on user consumption experience, repurchase and other data feedback, and use traffic distribution to achieve macro-control of the live broadcast e-commerce business.

The traffic code of Douyin is like a chemical formula. When new users are needed, the weight of data related to new users will be increased. When GMV is needed, the weight of data related to GMV will be increased. If what Douyin needs within a period of time is conversion rate, then as long as the live broadcast room uses a large number of low-priced products to make transactions, it may get more traffic rewards.

You will find that this year Douyin began to vigorously develop official flagship stores, hoping to control users' consumption experience through products. This is why Douyin is vigorously developing investment promotion group leaders. There are not enough good products on Douyin. The sales of merchants on Taobao can reach tens of millions, but the sales of merchants on Douyin are only in the millions.

New List: How to grasp the traffic changes of Douyin? Can you give an example?

Li Weinan: Generally speaking, in a live broadcast, the proportion of traffic from Dabo is 20%, and the proportion of traffic from store broadcast is 80%-90%. Especially for beauty store broadcasts, 70%-80% of the traffic depends on delivery. Dianbo is more like an exchange game, while Dabo is a leverage game.

In addition, during live broadcasts, there will be a lot of experience that can only be gained through practical operation on the front line. For example, Douyin’s live broadcast room basically uses half an hour as a settlement node. Douyin will score based on the GMV, retention, conversion, new user acquisition and other data in the first half hour of the live broadcast room to determine the next stage of traffic distribution. Many people mistakenly believe that they need to stop broadcasting at a high level, but in fact, Douyin values ​​the total views and single-hour views of the previous live broadcast.

Li Weinan commented on an industry insider’s understanding of Douyin live streaming: “Content is the foundation of Douyin, whether it is video content or live streaming content.”

The core job of a live broadcast pitcher is to keenly grasp the changes in Douyin's traffic, while correcting the fan portrait of the existing traffic in the live broadcast room, so as to leverage more traffic rewards at the lowest cost.

What is so controversial about live pitching? “There are too many people cutting leeks in the industry”

Checking the BOSS Direct Job Fair, you’ll find that, just like last year’s anchors, on-air pitchers are becoming one of the most in-demand positions. A monthly salary of 15,000 yuan is the minimum, and 40,000 or 60,000 yuan is not uncommon.

Image source: BOSS Direct

But behind the shortage of jobs, there is also chaos. There are constant complaints about live pitchers asking high prices, being difficult to recruit, being incompetent, and being ripped off. From time to time, there are exaggerated rumors in the industry that live pitchers can earn 100,000 or even 1 million yuan a month.

In our communication with industry insiders, we found that behind the high salaries, there is both an urgency to “have experienced hands who can withstand pressure and be responsible for results”, as well as the helplessness and confusion of “large institutions poaching small institutions, and platforms poaching large institutions”.

The advertising industry is caught in a vicious circle that makes all parties dissatisfied.

On the one hand, the job of a live broadcast pitcher is not easy. Not only does it require watching the live broadcast data for several hours in a row, it is also extremely boring. Because many clients will broadcast live in the early morning, the live broadcast pitcher also has a very hard time coordinating the time. It is understood that many brand customers will also adopt a horse racing mechanism and eliminate players regularly, which will undoubtedly increase the pressure on live pitchers.

At the same time, live streaming is a multi-skilled job. Without the support of anchors, operations, and goods, it is difficult for live streaming pitchers to achieve anything, which also increases the difficulty of service delivery for live streaming pitchers.

But on the other hand, the investment industry is extremely lacking in standards, and there is no so-called professional certificate. "Anyone who has participated in the delivery of a big anchor can package himself as a live broadcast pitcher and start taking jobs. It's too hasty," Boss Yan complained. "The key is that some people still believe it. The result is that 9 out of 10 fail. Many live broadcast pitchers are just using customers' money to practice and gain experience ."

“There are very few people who can treat investment as a long-term job, and most of them do it for the money,” said Boss Yan.

In this regard, Li Weinan analyzed, "Some people always think that if they hire an operator for 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and then find a few anchors and pitchers to get together, the live broadcast room will definitely make money. This is wrong."

New List: What do you think of the high salaries of live pitchers circulating in the industry?

Li Weinan: The salary of live broadcast pitchers is actually not that exaggerated. For example, in our micro circle, the highest salary is around 100,000 yuan, the newcomers are around 10,000 yuan, and the average salary is around 15,000 to 20,000 yuan. Hangzhou is too impetuous. If my live pitcher is not placed in Guangzhou but in Hangzhou, he will be poached.

I personally think that some of the live pitchers are far from worth the price. Some people can get this salary just because they have invested in a certain anchor’s live broadcast room.

Of course, any industry will have such a bubble period. For example, anchors are not as valuable as before because more and more people are working as anchors. What is lacking now is a good supply chain.

New List: In your opinion, why is there such a salary bubble?

Li Weinan: I think there are two main reasons:

First, live pitchers in this industry are scarce, professional live pitchers are even scarcer, and pitchers who can practice pitching at a high frequency every day are even scarcer. "Pitcher privatization" itself is a false proposition.

Live pitchers need to consume live broadcast output to practice, but many institutions only have one live pitcher, who may only pitch one account every three or four days, and the cost of trial and error is very high; live pitchers must have a global perspective, but most live pitchers cannot see the internal data of the account, and cannot learn from their peers like anchors and operators, so their global vision is very narrow.

Image source: Li Weinan’s circle of friends

The live broadcast pitchers under Weiquan have plenty of opportunities to conduct practical operations on the front line.

Second, it is difficult to determine the salary of a live pitcher, because many live pitchers can only pitch in their own live studio and have no reference standard. In addition, with so many people entering the market and great market demand, the salaries for live streaming positions have been driven up.

New List: Does “privatization of pitchers” restrict the development of pitchers?

Li Weinan: Douyin changes too fast, and the gameplay is always changing. Live pitchers must follow up quickly, but many DP pitchers and brand pitchers cannot do this.

Unlike anchors, live broadcast pitchers can learn the words, personality and other gameplay routines of the best anchors on the entire network at any time. DP and brand live broadcast pitchers usually only have access to a few of their own live broadcast rooms. They cannot see the delivery logic and operational ideas behind the excellent live broadcast rooms at all, and have very low perception of platform changes.

In addition, training a live pitcher requires 5-6 people to accompany his growth, and the silent cost, trial and error cost, and manpower cost are very high.

In comparison, Weiquan has 70-80 live broadcasters, who can broadcast more than 500 live broadcasts a day, with a minimum daily expenditure of 3 million yuan. These live broadcasters can communicate, learn and exchange data frequently in a company, and will grow very quickly. We can also calculate commissions based on customer satisfaction, achievement rate, and consumption, and the salary of the live pitcher will be relatively normal.

New List: What is the competitive situation in the advertising industry?

Li Weinan: There are mainly three groups of people in the investment industry, namely information flow pitchers, DP pitchers, and institutional pitchers.

Because live streaming requires follow-up and attention to factors such as goods, it is more complicated, and the experience of information flow pitchers is not well matched, so a group of people were eliminated.

Because DP pitchers and institutional pitchers only serve a few brands and anchors, and are trapped in the "privatization of pitchers", their perspectives, data, and experience are very limited, so another group of people were eliminated.

Weiquan is one of the few survivors in these three rounds of fighting. As for other delivery service providers, many of them have transformed into full-case service providers, combining pitchers, operations, and anchors together, and their services are becoming more and more important.

New List: Some people in the industry don’t quite recognize the value of live pitchers. What do you think is the reason?

Li Weinan: Many people like to compare Douyin’s live broadcast pitchers to Taobao’s through train drivers, but in fact, the underlying logic of the two is not the same. Taobao is a search-based e-commerce platform, while Douyin is an interest-based e-commerce platform.

As a Taobao driver, users' search needs are relatively fixed, and you only need to have sufficient understanding of the category keywords. Because Taobao's methodology is relatively fixed, Taobao drivers are more easily replaceable.

If the way Taobao plays changes every 3-4 years, then Douyin changes every 2-3 months . The reason why people who work on TikTok feel insecure is that they cannot come up with a long-term fixed methodology. Therefore, Douyin live broadcast pitchers must explore, learn, and apply the methodology of each stage at a high frequency, and the experience and technical thresholds are very high.

New List: What is the biggest dilemma facing the advertising industry right now?

Li Weinan: There are no standards in the investment industry itself, and it is difficult to judge whether a live broadcast pitcher is good or bad , because live broadcasting involves too many production factors and variables. Even a top service provider will find it difficult to replicate its own success.

In addition, as I said above, TikTok changes too fast and there is no fixed methodology, so it is very likely that a live broadcaster may invest in a food live broadcast and sell 1 million, but invest in another clothing live broadcast and fail to sell anything.

This is also the reason why people often complain that "there are too many people cutting leeks in the industry."

How is the advertising industry developing? “The essence of a service provider is to have dedicated people for specific tasks”

"One wants too much, and the other can't give it all." This is almost the biggest pain point in the service provider market.

So, what is the biggest dilemma for live pitchers?

From the platform's perspective, on the one hand, the platform hopes to use first-line "spenders" such as live pitchers to help educate platform users and create more traffic revenue for the platform, but on the other hand, the platform must control the excessive erosion of commercial traffic on content traffic in order to maintain the health of the platform ecology. Traffic can be sold, but not all of it . There is a very delicate balance in between.

Taking anchor customers as an example, because live broadcasting has both content attributes and e-commerce attributes, anchors are actually divided into two groups:

One type of anchor is a pure businessman . Whether investing in traffic or creating content, they are just means of selling goods through live streaming. As long as the investment-output ratio is high enough, this type of anchor is very willing to invest in traffic.

But another type of anchor is content people . They firmly believe in the power of content and think that good content can bring more traffic. Losing traffic is a manifestation of lack of confidence in the content. In our communication with many anchors, we also found that anchors are more willing to talk about their efforts on content. Over-emphasizing traffic may offend the delicate self-esteem of content creators.

The platform must also encourage such anchors to persist in the content.

Image source: TikTok

Many industry insiders have mentioned that vertical anchors like "Luo Wangyu" who can produce high-quality content and have outstanding personalities will be one of the future directions of Douyin e-commerce.

Therefore, the better the content of the anchor, the less demand there may be for streaming, and live streamers need to spend higher persuasion costs and provide more powerful professional services.

As for brand clients, what they want is never a single delivery service, but the ability to solve specific problems: for example, being able to sell products and give a good ROI; being able to teach methodology and help the brand build its own broadcasting team; being able to do a good job of product promotion and make the brand's "face" more glamorous.

How to meet customer needs while striving for the profits you deserve is a problem facing all service providers, including Weiquan.

New List: How long do you think the live streaming business can last?

Li Weinan: As long as new brands and institutions continue to come in, there will be new demand for investment.

In fact, the scale of Douyin e-commerce is not large at present, and there will be growth in the future. By 2023, the GMV of Douyin e-commerce will reach nearly 10 trillion, corresponding to a demand for 50-100 billion, so there are still many opportunities. (Douyin e-commerce president Kang Zeyu once said that according to third-party estimates, the GMV of interest e-commerce will probably exceed 9.5 trillion by 2023.)

New List: Top anchors like "Luo Yonghao" and "Big Wolf Dog Zheng Jianpeng & Yan Zhen Couple" already have a lot of fans, so why do they still need to advertise?

Li Weinan: There are two points here.

First, video fans and live broadcast fans are completely different things. Many anchors only seem to have a lot of fans , but most of the fans they have accumulated are video fans. If they want to sell goods through live broadcast, they still need to rely on investment to accelerate the acquisition of new live broadcast public domain traffic and cultivate fans' live broadcast consumption habits. Therefore, the situation of "a blogger with millions of fans starts a live broadcast to sell goods, but there are only a few thousand people online" is very common.

Why can making a friend hatch several vertical accounts? Because they have accumulated a large number of live e-commerce fans.

Image source: TikTok

Huang He, the founder of Jiao Ge Pengyou, once told us that the high concentration of fans in live streaming e-commerce is one of the secrets to the success of Jiao Ge Pengyou.

Second, compared with the advertising business, Douyin e-commerce is just a little baby with a very small volume . Whether it is Dabo or store broadcast, there is a lot of room for growth and it is far from a bottleneck.

New List: Some service providers have complained that cooperation with brands is usually one-time, because after successfully “stealing” knowledge, the brand will most likely choose to do it on its own. In addition, the contract period between brands and service providers is very short, sometimes even one month. Why does this phenomenon occur?

Li Weinan: Methodology needs to be established in every link. If the service provider’s service is not strong enough, the brand cannot be blamed.

Many service providers simply make themselves more responsible and want to do everything themselves, but they do not make themselves professional.

New List: Many service providers will add diversified businesses such as private brands, and "broadening" may be one of the ways for them to increase their ability to survive.

Li Weinan: Others may be pitchers, anchors, and operators all together, but Weiquan’s business logic is to do subtraction. We continuously increase services and reduce costs in this segment, and then charge service fees.

Many people think that investing in traffic is a basic job that costs money, but in fact, live broadcasters need to constantly learn the latest live broadcast operation methodology. Lack of experience may even drag down the entire live broadcast. Especially after Douyin cancelled the rebate for service providers, the profit has become increasingly slim, and many colleagues have given up halfway.

But I firmly believe that if we focus again and do things to the extreme, once we accumulate data models, professional barriers will be established, so we have served almost all of Douyin's live broadcasts with over 100 million views.

Weiquan’s service process. Source: Interviewee

New List: What are the benefits of this business model that focuses on live streaming?

Li Weinan: Compared with hiring a live broadcast pitcher separately, we have advantages in terms of delivery efficiency, personnel costs, and the grasp of traffic gameplay and platform information. Compared with the industry average, the ROI of Weiquan’s Dabo can be 30%-40% higher, and the ROI of store broadcast can be about 20% higher.

The reason why GuaGua Media (the MCN agency founded by Zhu GuaGua) handed over the entire delivery business to Weiquan is that the other party does not believe that the methodology summarized by a random live broadcast pitcher after 1-2 months of investment can be better than the methodology summarized by Weiquan after investing in 500 live broadcast rooms every day. What this does is create an effect of scale.

New List: Do clients such as brands and anchors prefer service providers like Weiquan that focus on a single service, or full-service providers?

Li Weinan: Wealthy international brands prefer to save time and effort, so they prefer overall package services. New and emerging brands like to pursue perfection and want to take control of every link in order to achieve the highest efficiency at the lowest cost.

Taking Weiquan’s DP customers as an example, in the entire business chain, international brands will package the services as a whole to DP, and we rely on scale costs to undertake DP’s single delivery needs.

New List: In my communication with many brands, I found that brands prefer to screen out more professional, efficient and lower-cost service providers through a horse racing mechanism. Does this feel stressful?

Li Weinan: The essence of a service provider is to assign specific people to specific tasks and help clients save on intermediary costs. Brand clients value fan accumulation and brand exposure, while anchor clients value the profits from the live broadcast. Therefore, service providers need to use overwhelming professional capabilities to help clients meet their needs.

Live streaming e-commerce is both full of vitality and full of chaos. Image source: Internet

There are people who die and people who complain, but there are also people who live a very fulfilling life.

New List: What are the characteristics of profitable service providers?

Li Weinan: We have a wave of good brands on hand. The service providers have three core capabilities: technical capabilities, business capabilities, and cost control capabilities . In the end, service providers are a labor-intensive business.

In fact, any business, from the blue ocean to the red ocean, must eventually improve professionalism, increase efficiency and reduce fees.

New List: In future planning, should the microcircle continue to deepen or expand?

Li Weinan: I am willing to do more and expand, but I would rather make Weiquan a company with barriers rather than a company that does everything.

Advertising allows me to connect to the resources of many talents, organizations, and brands. When I become the central gathering point for all resources, everyone comes to me, and I become a company with core competitiveness. For example, if I want to build a brand, I can reach the top influencers, top institutions, and mid-level influencers on the entire network in the shortest time.

Conclusion

In just a few years, the traffic empire of Douyin has created many wealth stories. From brands competing for products, anchors competing for fans, to professional live broadcasters, everyone is trying to follow the trajectory of traffic and find their own position.

Overall, the era of easy money making in live e-commerce has ended, and more intense competition, more sophisticated operational needs, and more professional service supply have almost become inevitable.

For live broadcast pitchers, how to continuously increase their own value and cope with more and more challenges, how to accurately grasp the changes in algorithms and bring more traffic returns to customers, how to continuously raise the professional threshold and establish their own business barriers also determine the upper limit of their business.

“A live pitcher must make himself irreplaceable,” Li Weinan stressed.