Entrepreneurs who are over half a hundred years old and have entered the “second half of the internet” have also begun the second half of their lives.

Some people are busy getting divorced and stealing official seals, some have started AIGC businesses, and there are also quite a few people who are trying to keep up with the new era by embracing the era of influencers.

Some time ago, Zhou Hongyi and Wang Shi had a dispute with Cheng Qian at Feng Lunfeng Ma Niu's year-end show. But at the same time, entrepreneurs, led by Zhou Hongyi, Feng Lun, and Liu Yonghao, went to Oriental Selection and became Dong Yuhui's “students.”

The difference in the attitude of these CEOs is not only due to Cheng Qian and Dong Yuhui personally, but also because these internet veterans have already made their own choices about the future.

01

Cheng Qian has been highly respected in recent years and has gained quite a few fans through commercial interviews.

However, at Feng Lunfeng and Ma Niu's year-end show, Cheng Qian lost in a debate with Zhou Hongyi and Wang Shi.

Since then, things have gone bad over and over again. Cheng Qian publicly apologized on her personal account, and Zhou Hongyi also used this to start her own live class.

At the same time that happened, another intriguing thing also happened.

On the day Cheng Qian's apology was announced, CEOs including Zhou Hongyi, Feng Lun, and Liu Yonghao organized a group to go to Oriental Selection to learn from Dong Yuhui's experience.

The schedule for this “course” was quite hasty. Even Dong Yuhui said that he was unprepared; he only knew what he wanted to talk about, but he didn't know the details at all.

Dong Yuhui didn't talk much during the course, but the boss was quite enthusiastic. They took a group photo with Dong Yuhui one after another. In the final group photo, Dong Yuhui was still in “C position.”

After completing the “course,” Zhou Hongyi also posted a microblog about this, saying that old friends are studying the influencer economy in groups, trying to understand traffic passwords, and keep up with the times.

Also post-90s, and even hometown in the same place, Cheng Qian and Dong Yuhui have gone in two directions as popular influencers for the past two years.

Of course, there are quite a few human factors in this.

The conceited Cheng Qian found it difficult to accept the instructions of his elders, and was also unbearable to be ignored and wanted to be the focus of the public. However, Dong Yuhui was the opposite of him; he was true, straightforward, and clumsy.

However, Zhou Hongli did not have such a passionate attitude towards Dong Yuhui from the beginning.

When Dong Yuhui first became popular, Zhou Hongyi said during a chat when visiting the Oriental Selection Live Channel that if New Oriental can train one Luo Yonghao, it can train more Dong Yuhui.

In a sense, there are still not a few people who hold this view; otherwise, a “small essay storm” would not have broken out in the Oriental selection some time ago. It is precisely because quite a few people think that Dong Yuhui is not irreplaceable that this IP was blatantly destroyed.

However, judging from the outcome, Dong Yuhui continued to rise after the “Little Essay” storm came to an end, proving that Oriental Selection relied on Dong Yuhui. And the success of Dong Yuhui's solo live broadcast room also proved the appeal of this IP.

On the first day of the launch of Dong Yuhui's new channel, “Walking with Hui,” the number of viewers reached 54.314 million, sold over 1 million units, and GMV exceeded 100 million yuan. At the same time, it also topped Douyin's delivery list, popularity list, hour list, fan list, and likes rankings.

Within a few days, the Youhui Companion account had gained more than 10 million followers, and the popularity surpassed that of the Oriental Selection main account. It even had to be suspended for a short time because there were no products to sell.

Facing a super IP like Dong Yuhui, Zhou Hongli's active response to this kind of popularity actually shows the attitude of these business bosses towards the influencer economy and the traffic era, which is to embrace traffic.

Compared to disputes or studies with young people, what we should pay more attention to is actually the “second half of the internet.” What kind of choices do these bosses make.

02

In 2017, there was a popular article called “People Miss Zhou Hongyi”.

Instead of missing Zhou Hongyi in the article, more places, in fact, when the 3Q war was still in full bloom, the Internet is even more interesting when the giants haven't settled down.

At the time, the golden age of rapid Internet growth had passed, and the “second half of the Internet” was looming.

The author of the article advised Zhou Hongyi:

Don't live stream with a bunch of influencers all day long. First, you don't have Robin as a handsome guy, and secondly, your fans don't watch the live stream. They love to listen to you talk about products and innovation, even if you don't want to talk about speakers. Everyone knows you're a veteran. Also, don't spend the whole day hanging out with those bosses and leaders. If you want to get into the masses and users, you are born with a 2C personality, not a 2B personality.

At the time, this statement seemed quite correct. After all, live streaming at the time was regarded as a favorite in the sinking market, and equated with “low” and “low quality.” However, after a lapse of many years, Zhou Hongli once again became the main character of the news, only because of the live broadcast.

After all, in the past 7 years, the Internet industry has changed quite a bit. Looking at this statement now, the perception is probably quite different.

The so-called “second half of the Internet” has already started. Not only is it difficult for small startups to develop anymore, but even Internet giants are beginning to face growth difficulties. Many former internet bosses, and even business bosses, have begun a new direction of entrepreneurship.

One of the most intense tracks is AI entrepreneurship. After the popularity of ChatGPT, many former internet elites started AI ventures.

Wang Huiwen, the former co-founder of Meituan, founded the AI company “Beyond Lightyears”; former Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan announced in his circle of friends that he would enter the battlefield of “China's OpenAI”; Zhou Bowen, the former senior vice president of JD Group, also wrote an article in the circle of friends to recruit partners, etc.

Internet bosses are certainly happy to be able to actively explore new arenas in the second half of the Internet, but the prerequisite for starting an AI business is sufficient capital and extensive resources.

Compared to starting a business with AI, there is another relatively low threshold for many business bosses, and that is live streaming. Compared to the ambition of returning to the battlefield to start a business, most of the live broadcasts on this racetrack were just for survival.

After his business failed, Lo Wing-ho had to go to a live broadcast room to pay off his debts. “Make a Friend” slowly accumulated and became one of Douyin's leading live broadcast rooms, and it remained quite popular even after “leaving Luo”.

However, after the education and training industry experienced a cold winter, New Oriental had to transform and start a new business. “Oriental Selection” was immediately launched through Dong Yuhui, becoming the most successful live broadcast room after “Make a Friend.”

In addition to these typical success stories, founder Li Guoqing, who came into the public eye because of her divorce and stealing the official seal, was also frowned upon during the live broadcast.

Every time a hot Internet incident occurs, Li Guoqing is always on the front line of popularity, from spurring Zhang Lan's popularity, to supporting Li Jiaqi in the midst of the storm, to shouting Yu Minhong during the “Little Essay” storm. Li Guoqing is doing everything and talking about everything. Even himself can be the target of ridicule, showing the seal on his body during the live broadcast.

Relying on exhaustive traffic, on the eve of Double Eleven last year, Li Guoqing's Taobao live broadcast sales surpassed 3 million in just 1 hour. In the end, the entire live broadcast sales exceeded 100 million yuan. The benefits far surpassed Dangdang Network, which is now in decline.

In addition to Li Guoqing, Ctrip Chairman Liang Jianzhang, who has also eaten up traffic, is also bravely advancing in the Internet wave.

As a well-known person, Liang Jianzhang has repeatedly made wild remarks, put forward various suggestions and suggestions, and has been in the headlines over and over again. In the early days of the pandemic, his live livestream garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in sales in a few days. Although he did not contribute much to sales, he also did just the right amount of publicity for Ctrip.

Over the past few years, not a few entrepreneurs have entered the live broadcast room. From online retail to offline restaurants, from Baidu's Li Yanhong to Sogou's Zhang Chaoyang, many corporate CEOs have entered the live broadcast room to cheer for their company.

Similarly, in the case of Feng Lunfeng's controversial live broadcast of Ma Niu's year-end show, inviting Cheng Qian was originally one of the measures to embrace the influencer economy.

Zhou Hongyi and others became famous in the early days of the internet. At that time, traffic was within reach, and Zhou Hongli was one of the most talked about topics. However, the Internet wave is rolling by, and when it comes to the influencer economy, these “old internet people” may also need room to adapt.

For these CEOs entering the live broadcast room, it's not about being able to sell how many things. In this era of traffic, not being left behind by traffic is the most important thing.

Because of this, many people still think that Dong Yuhui is just a “little businessman who brings goods,” and when he doesn't deserve to go to college to give lectures, he has already become a guest of honor for quite a few internet bosses.

These bosses are not so much learning from Dong Yuhui as they are taking experimental steps towards the influencer economy.

03 Conclusion

After “People Miss Zhou Hongyi” was published, Zhou Hongli also responded to this article:

If you compare the development and competition of the Internet industry to a marathon, I don't think it's just one marathon, but many.

...

Seen from another perspective, the giants are more open, stepping on the cusp and planting flags, just because they are worried that they will be disrupted and that their own pattern will be broken. This shows that no one can't be disrupted; everyone has weaknesses.

This coincides with the current argument, that is, the Internet era is about to pass, and a new era is about to come.

A new era may also be here; it may be tomorrow; it may be next year; it may be the AI era; it may also be the age of robots.

But looking closer to the future, the internet has actually changed. The “second half of the internet” is gradually becoming clear; that is, the power of capital is gradually dissipating, and the era of traffic has arrived.

People don't understand why “Talent” and “One Smile” can “defraud” a province's pension. “Normal Boy” gained millions of fans overnight, and middle-aged men were rewarded with a live broadcast of nearly 10 million. The traffic economy has begun to spread quietly due to the collapse of the times.

And Zhou Hongli and others organized a group to learn from Dong Yuhui, which is probably just the beginning of this trend.