Tony Peng, G10, RDF International School

With the creation of 5G communication, our society enters an age when everything can be interconnected. This rapid improvement shortens the distances between people. Just like bamboo shoots after rain, an increasing number of online services come out quickly. Under the impact of COVID-19, Internet celebrities and online live-broadcasting seem to be the most popular industries. ”Online services” refer to a series of business patterns that can monetize Internet traffic, and the people who gain great popularity and have the ability to monetize the traffic are called Internet celebrities. The characteristics of Internet celebrities are obvious: They display a unique personality and relatively outstanding abilities or talents in some ways; they win popularity with the netizens and have enough ability to engage in Internet business. Generally, internet celebrities introduce a product in their live-broadcast instead of in traditional channels like physical or online stores.

It seems that both Internet celebrities and idols enjoy great popularity, but there are still some key differences between them. Becoming an Internet celebrity is low-risk and low-cost. Also, they demonstrate a different sense of distance. For the Internet celebrity, the public has more chances to interact with them, such as in the live-broadcast room, which creates a natural and close affinity.

In this modern age, the most prevailing pattern for the online retailer is the combination of an Internet celebrity, an online retailer (the supplier of products) and an advertising agency. A typical example is Internet celebrity Li Jiaqi. In his live-broadcast room, the number of followers or participants was over 30 million in last year’s Nov. 11 shopping gala. At the same time, the brand merchants offered discounts on the products and the online retailers gave subsidies, which dramatically promoted consumption. That’s the power of the Internet celebrity economy.

The more traffic one celebrity produces, the more products and options the celebrity can choose, and the more subsidies and discounts the retailer and brand merchants are willing to provide. That’s how the Internet celebrity economy dominates the online retailing field.