bingoplus| College students, trapped in the live broadcast?

China Newsweek

Can college students do a live broadcast? The answer is yes.

NowBingoplusMore and more college students choose to join the live broadcast and explore more development directions in the future.

However, when some college students do live broadcasts in classrooms or dormitories at all times, outsiders use the name of "students" to conduct live drains and bring goods, and some students even fall into the scam of brokerage companies and training companies to broadcast vulgar content in order to gain traffic, they may need to explore a new problem.

Where is the boundary of live broadcast by college students?

"roommates broadcast live late at night, and we had conflicts."

During the graduation season, Fan Fan, a senior in a university in Guangzhou, is very ambivalent. She told China Newsweek that as fresh graduates, if they can create personal accounts on social media in advance and gain traffic and attention through live streaming, they may have one more development path in the future.

Fan's major is the broadcast host, during the university has participated in many platform host events, has a certain image "output" experience. However, she does not do much live streaming on her personal account, and the total number of fans on all platforms is less than 50,000.

"our professional teachers always encourage people to get in touch with and embrace new things. New media teachers will ask students to open live accounts and give credits on the basis of fans. I know that continuous live broadcasting is very important, but the pressure of schoolwork and internship activities are already very frequent. I really don't have enough energy and I am too tired. "

Fan Fan said that it is not surprising that students majoring in broadcasting do live broadcast because of their studies, internships, and so on. "but in other colleges, it seems to have become commonplace."

"students from some other colleges often do live broadcasts, visits, and other live broadcasts, but now they have made their heads into large accounts. When I go back to the dormitory, when I pass some half-closed dormitories upstairs and downstairs, I often see makeup lights on my desk. I feel that everyone buys cosmetics very frequently. "

In the campus, the "popularity" of live broadcast has brought all kinds of problems. In Fan's view, there is no problem in terms of disciplinary requirements that the school does not allow live broadcast in the dormitory. However, with the high requirements of the live broadcast for the scene environment, the dormitory is obviously not a suitable place for live broadcasting. Since the school encourages students to come into contact with new things, can they provide some special occasions for students to try live broadcasting?

Her classmate Li Yan deeply agrees with Fan Fan's point of view. She told China Newsweek that she had conflicts with her roommate because of the live broadcast.

"when I do a live broadcast in the dormitory, at least I will communicate with my classmates in the dormitory in advance about the time and other issues, so as not to be too late. I will tell my roommates to pack up their beds, personal belongings, etc., so that they do not enter the camera. "

Li Yan's helplessness is that one of her roommates is "casual".

"she mainly plays the guitar in the live broadcast, singing many times late into the night. All the roommates in the dorm had had a heated argument with her, but she was unimpressed. " Li Yan said. "the main reason is that she broadcasts so late that we dare not walk around in our pajamas, and we feel very noisy even if we lie in bed and read."

Li Yan told China Newsweek that although many quarrels were inconclusive, the roommate finally stopped and apologized to everyone. In Li Yan's view, it was because "she wasted a lot of time doing live broadcast, and finally didn't make any money, so she gave up because she didn't feel cost-effective."

Trapped in the algorithm.

Li Yan said that from her observation, the live broadcast of college students is generally "seduced" by MCN, the abbreviation of online celebrity incubator.

"now, MCN does not go to the school to hand out flyers, but can see the location and information of many college students directly through the city page card of the short video platform. They will send private messages, with a basic salary of 6000 yuan and a monthly income of 20000 yuan. They don't have to take a shift to tempt you, and some even give you a 'signing fee' of thousands of yuan directly. "

"basic salary of 6000 yuan, monthly income of 20000 yuan" has been regarded as a salary that office workers in first-tier cities may not be able to get. It is already "not cheap" for college students. How can MCN offer such a price to the broad masses of students?

A number of MCN companies have been contacted by China Newsweek. Guo Jun, head of MCN, a leading online celebrity, saidBingoplusNow it is not so easy to incubate online celebrities. At present, MCN actually prefers to talk about cooperation with online celebrities who have a certain fan base. And newcomers with zero foundation, especially college students who want to 'taste fresh', are generally recruited by small and medium-sized and less formal MCN companies, and the business logic can only be 'free-range'. "

The so-called "free breeding" means recruiting a large number of anchors to broadcast live for a long time every day to see who can "run out" after a period of time.

"from the live broadcast of that roommate, it doesn't feel like fighting for strength and talent, but for a long time." Li Yan recalls.

Chen Lei, a strategic product manager who has worked for several mainstream short video platforms, told China Newsweek: "at present, the push strategies of the major short video platforms are basically the same, whether it is live streaming or short drama, if you want to get exposure and traffic, you have to spend money on traffic. To put it simply, all major short video platforms basically have so-called recharge tokens, as long as you recharge, your studio will be exposed in front of more mobile phone screens, and the traffic will be more considerable. "

Chen Lei said that the "plain people" groups represented by college students generally do not have a sufficient budget, so it is difficult to spend a lot of money, so they can only spell the length of time according to the logic of the algorithm. "the recommendation strategies of online celebrity live streaming are graded. The platform will judge the quality level of VJs according to the live broadcast time, interaction rate, violation and other dimensions, and then the system will give different exposure weights according to these levels and dimensions."

"according to the formula of fan volume = traffic * conversion rate, traffic = unit time * exposure time, theoretically, the platform will automatically weight push according to the user's stay time. The longer the user stays in the room, the more support the platform will give. Regardless of fans' viewing history, interest preference, anchor charm and other factors, if the live broadcast content remains the same, the longer the time, the traffic and the number of fans are likely to be 'positively related' to rise. "

"the basic part of the basic salary of 6000 yuan is calculated by MCN according to the push rules of each major platform." Guo Jun revealed, "only by meeting the ultra-long period of time can an account get enough traffic to share the fee, but it is difficult to say whether it can reach 20000. It not only depends on the length of the live broadcast, but also depends on whether there is a big reward that can be met but not sought. In order to complete the traffic KPI, many newcomers may use some flirtatious language in disguise, or even do some edge 'action'. "

"in addition, for incubating online celebrities, some MCN companies may invest some of the cost of shooting, editing and pushing, and will not let the newcomers pay first. When the newcomers generate income in the future, MCN will first deduct this part of the cost from the income, and then share it. The proportion depends on how the two parties agree. However, as the newcomers do not have much fame and bargaining capital, the proportion will be very low, which can only be regarded as a 'cheap coolie' in the field of live broadcasting. "

At the root, the logical strategy of short videos and live streaming platforms determines that students can only make money through endless live broadcasts in their dormitories, at the cost of losing a roomful of classmates and the returns are not stable.

The students want to broadcast live, the teacher said.

For the live broadcast of college students, how should colleges and universities standardize and guide?

China Newsweek consulted a number of universities in Beijing, Wuhan and other places, and all said that at present, only media colleges and universities are "more enlightened" for live broadcast of students, but no one has heard of any university that explicitly forbids personal live broadcast of students. what's more, there are no written norms for the places and behaviors of students' personal live broadcasts in colleges and universities.

The head of the propaganda department of a university in Wuhan told China Newsweek that at present, more than 90% of the double-first-class universities have official accounts on the mainstream short video platform, and some universities will also set up live rooms on campuses. But it mainly serves live programs such as enrollment, campus recruitment, lectures and open courses for the society.

"the official broadcast rooms of the school all have special sets for this kind of special work, and in principle they will not be used for daily live broadcast by students. Some majors, such as broadcasting and hosting, film and television, and e-commerce, can apply for approval if they have practical needs, but the school has no relevant plans to open up a large area of professional live broadcast venues for all students in the school. "

The head of the publicity department also said that the professional setting of each university is different, and the proportion of students keen on live broadcasting is unknown, and it is difficult to generalize the specific situation. "however, the current media reports will remind colleges and universities to pay more attention to this kind of situation, and perhaps the school will conduct a comprehensive study in accordance with the requirements of the competent authorities to decide whether to incorporate live broadcasting into the optimization of university management in the future. to initiate relevant 'motions' in terms of rules and regulations."

Another law university teacher told China Newsweek that some students need to pay attention to the disputes caused by the signing and termination of contracts with MCN institutions. "whether the group of college students is for the purpose of showing talent, or for the purpose of being famous and making money, if they want to develop on the road of online celebrities, as long as they grasp it properly, there is nothing wrong with it, but although the group of college students are adults, they are generally not deeply involved in the world. at the legal level, it is a little immature, and it is easy to fall into the 'trap' of unethical institutions."

The law teacher said: "Colleges and universities should invite more relevant experts in the Internet and legal fields to preach the industry to students so as to enhance their awareness of self-protection."

"the so-called 'high salary' offered by MCN for new students may not be as easy as advertised." "MCN may set a 'trap' in the contract to take advantage of college students' eagerness to make money," Ding Tao, director of the Recreation and Sports legal Research Center of Guangdong Zhuojian Law firm, told China Newsweek based on a number of cases handled.

Ding Tao introduced several typical "pits" in MCN contracts. Generally speaking, MCN will encourage students to sign long-term contracts for many years and agree on a lot of exclusivity, competition and very stringent conditions for termination. For a simple example, the contract may stipulate that there can be no other public appearance activities except on the prescribed platform, and no live broadcast on other platforms after termination of the contract, otherwise it will be regarded as a breach of contract and high liquidated damages will be paid. "

"there may also be verbal ambiguity in the way of remuneration. Generally speaking, it is necessary to meet a certain length of live broadcast if you get a responsible basic salary, and the industry has different standards for the length of live broadcast and effective live broadcasting. Often, an online celebrity live broadcast has reached a contractual duration, but MCN organizations will refuse to pay the basic salary on the grounds that the effective live broadcast time is not enough. "

Ding Tao said that since the legal relationship between MCN and online celebrities is generally difficult to be recognized by judicial organs as labor relations, but a comprehensive ordinary civil relationship characterized by cooperation and brokerage, from the perspective of judicial practice, unless online celebrities can prove that MCN has clear and conclusive violations and violated the contract, it is not easy for online celebrities to terminate the contract unilaterally. In this kind of dispute, the court and the arbitration committee have a large number of cases in which the MCN institution wins the case.

"students have also occupied a certain order of magnitude in the current 'online celebrity economy'." From the perspective of further standardizing the industry, Ding Tao believes that cultural departments, market regulatory departments, judicial organs, and relevant industry associations should consider studying and organizing the release of relevant normative documents and standard contract texts, and give guiding opinions on contract types, intellectual property ownership, breach of contract clauses, and personal rights protection of online celebrities and artists, so as to standardize the orderly development of the market and publicize widely. "students with relevant ideas should indeed have a deeper understanding of the issue of industry compliance."

(at the request of the interviewees, Fan Fan, Li Yan, Chen Lei and Guo Jun are aliases in the article.)