The popularity of the boring economy is really boring.
Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “New Culture Business” (ID: Ent-Biz) .
Author | Qianshui
Edit | Amy Wang
Don’t break out of boredom, just die in boredom.
In 2002, Focus Media Jiang Nanchun noticed that the short time people spent on the elevator was extremely boring. Because of boredom, people accept advertising very efficiently, and advertising means money. Subsequently, Jiang Nanchun created Focus Media, an elevator advertising oligarch, and handed it to Nasdaq to ring the bell, with a market value approaching 100 billion.
At that time, it was extremely fashionable to talk about Jiang Nanchun’s boring economics. However, in recent years, with the popularization of smartphones, more than 90% of young people have become low-ranking people. After long and complicated entertainment products such as long videos, short videos, games, and live broadcasts cut user time and then cut it, the “boring economy” Was sentenced to death. The survival trajectory of most entertainment products is basically: sudden birth-rapid popularity-rapid death.
For example, in the spring festival of 2019, the live answer products suddenly burst from popularity to the public but disappeared in just a few months. Just now, the originator of the live answer HQ Trivia HQ said it will stop operations and fired 25 people. Full-time employees of the company.
Social public opinion has also begun to languish the “boring economy.” The reason is that rising house prices have increased the pressure for survival and reduced leisure time, but the options available for entertainment have increased exponentially. The economic benefits of boredom time seem to be squeezed. How boring people make money by staring at boredom.
But in fact, two months after the outbreak of Wuhan New Crown Virus pneumonia, and optimistic estimates that it will take another two months to get back on track, people in China who are idle at home have a deep understanding of “boringness.” The meaning of this word.
The MBA think tank has an entry for “boring economy.” The so-called boring economy refers to making money by selling “boring” and converting boring time into valuable advertising economic benefits. The business opportunities and business models generated by using boring time can be called “boring economy”. According to research, when people are bored, they have the weakest mentality and are most vulnerable to temptation. If advertising bombing is used during this period, the effect is the best.
Let’s look at the boring economic form that Wuhan pneumonia has erupted during this time. It’s far from the simple way of advertising.
Online economy: boredom is a great driving force
“What was the experience of 540,000 viewers watching me sleeping last night?”
A live broadcast of 17.57 million people watched, and a reward of 76 thousand yuan. The vibrato blogger “Who’s Round Three” has increased more than 800,000 fans by sleeping in the past few days, and lie down every day to make 40,000 or 50,000. 540,000 people watched him sleeping live is the data of the first night, the number of people watching him sleeping the second night reached 18.57 million, a total of 76 thousand rewards. The boring economy has been fully confirmed on the live broadcast platform.
Interestingly, after a few days of sleep, the anchor made it clear that he did not want to go to bed live again. I hope everyone pays attention to the interesting video clips he edited, but it is ushered in by fans who scolded and stripped.
Why are these viewers watching him sleeping and spending money in the middle of the night not willing to watch interesting short video content, watching TV movie variety shows, not playing fun games, or even unwilling to sleep, but want to Watch a very ordinary boy sleep? The author consulted a psychiatrist and a doctor of economics, and everyone said they could not understand. Presumably, it may be because they are boring with boring consumption, and they are a little bit thrilled with poison.
I have to say that “boring live broadcast” became popular as early as 2016, when house prices were becoming the biggest source of anxiety for the new middle class. Just broadcast a little content on the live broadcast platform, and everyone will watch it, including eating, sleeping, walking the dog, cooking, and so on. Even a less-known female anchor broadcast live to sleep, and unexpectedly received a reward of 70,000 yuan from local fans. “Live Broadcast + E-commerce”, “Live Broadcast + Net Red” and “Live Broadcast + Stars” have made some people make a lot of money.
There are always some strange shops on Taobao: selling dreams, selling poems, selling surprise bags, and even selling chats …
Watch people sleep, watch cats sleep, watch dogs eat, dig soil for the excavator and call online … except for these extreme cases