In 2020, I posted one of my vlog videos on the Chinese social media platform “Xiaohongshu”, which received over 300,000 views and 2.6 million likes. I started my career as an influencer from then on. To date, I have gained more than 200,000 followers across the internet, generating a profit of over a million RMB and transitioning from free digital labour to total revenue.
Initially, I did not receive any sponsorships to collaborate on my content. As Duffy, B. E. puts it: in theory about the ‘digital labour debate‘, participants produce content with economic value while presenting their practice as positive. Essentially, this is unpaid online activity: for example, creative expression in digital form, where I praise a brand of foundation as good, review a restaurant as sound, etc. in a vlog, is free labour exploited for profit by capitalism. But as my following grew and the platform transitioned to economics, everything changed ……
Xiaohongshu could be called the Chinese version of ins. Still, one of the most apparent differences is that most of Xiaohongshu’s users are women, focused on recommending products and places. Xiaohongshu had attracted 100 million users by late 2018. Crucially, 90% of these users are middle or upper-class women with higher degrees of disposable income. This is an incredibly lucrative market for global fashion and cosmetics brands.
Any company would be wise to target female customers. Four industries where women are most likely to spend more money or upgrade: food, fitness, beauty and clothing.
Harvard Economic Review
I’ve also started to shift the focus of my vlog content to these four. For example, in the morning, I’ll show how I make my healthy breakfast; at lunchtime, I’ll show what I do for cardio fitness; and in the afternoon, it’s make-up and ootd time. Unsurprisingly, the videos on these topics have garnered a lot of likes and attention from female viewers. Within six months, my account had reached a maximum of 98% female followers! As we all know, in the “female economy” market, female followers are the most valuable audience on the internet.
This profile has attracted the attention of many famous brands (Estee Lauder, Maserati, max mara), who have offered me sponsorship for their videos.
An account persona is like a building. A beautiful building needs to be built brick by brick, and each piece of content from the creator is one of these bricks. The better the video content, the more people like the video, the more traffic the platform will give the creator, and the more people will see the video. When more people follow the channel, it naturally attracts sponsors because they need their audience’s attention.
So, what is the value of internet content? It is valuable when people want to take the time to read what you share. The audience’s time is money. The brand will need to pay up to 36,000 RMB (about £4,500) for one of my branded ad videos. But is this figure worth what I paid?
Take the example of my vlog for the Maserati MC20 limited edition sports car:
- firstly, I needed to pay my team (photographer, assistant and editor) for a gorgeous video;
- secondly, we were filmed in a fancy resort and at a fancy caviar culture site, which is very costly;
- thirdly, the commercial-laden video turned off some of my viewers, leading to the loss of those followers.
This hurt the subsequent value of my channel. With these, especially the third point, it’s hard to tell how much revenue commercially sponsored videos bring in for me. But there is no doubt that the sponsors’ fees make it worth my digital labour
When a creator gains the time and attention of more viewers than the average person, they have shifted from free digital labour to being paid to work, which is a sure way to go.