The conflict between Li Ziqi and Wei Nian finally came to a seemingly satisfactory end recently. It doesn’t matter who is who. Returning to the essence of the incident, the dispute between the two actually reflects many problems between personal brands and MCN organizations to a certain extent. This incident also directly pointed out that there were some "contradictions" between upstream and downstream players in the live broadcast ecosystem.
Picture source: Internet
It can be seen that the two parties were indeed mutually beneficial at the beginning. Just like many other MCN organizations, Weinian provided a channel for Li Ziqi's personal brand communication, allowing his personal brand to have huge energy to spread rapidly across the country and even the world, thus helping Li Ziqi quickly establish his personal brand and output content in a very short period of time. On the other hand, the rapid establishment of personal brands has also brought huge traffic and commercial value to the organization.
But the game between the two parties has gradually begun with the rapid growth of one party. When the influence of a personal brand reaches a certain level, the agency's assistance and control over the personal brand is obviously not as great as it was initially. At this point, if new common goals are not established, huge differences will inevitably arise between the two parties, and the fragile alliance between the personal brand and the institution will quickly collapse. At this time, personal brands and institutions have actually taken completely opposite paths.
For organizations, after having a successful personal brand, they definitely hope to create more profits for their company by replicating more similar personal brands. This is correct from a company's perspective. However, personal brands have gone their own way and established their own personalities. Some hope to control more interests themselves, while others hope to output more content to expand the influence of their personal brands. Inconsistencies in direction, or even differences in decisions, inevitably lead to huge contradictions and conflicts between the two.
The original mutually beneficial relationship has gradually turned into a game of interests and rights. As far as the current industry is concerned, there will be more or less disputes between most MCN organizations and Internet celebrity anchors. In the final analysis, they are conflicts of interest between organizations and personal brands. But this conflict of interests is not irreconcilable, but requires both parties to work together to find a balance of interests.
Picture source: Photo Network
Just like Li Ziqi and Wei Nian, the majority of fans and netizens need an image like Li Ziqi with Chinese characteristics and national pride to convey some voices. At this time, organizations may need to sacrifice some interests or transfer some rights. However, this kind of compromise cannot simply be regarded as the institution or personal brand winning the game, but for both parties to return to the right track of mutual benefit. From the perspective of long-term development, this benign cooperation model can allow both parties to go further and obtain greater benefits.
