Young Chinese are quitting their jobs to become social media influencers amid economic slowdown
Sep 23, 2023
One morning recently, Rainbow Li woke up and checked her phone to see how a social media post she had published the night before was going.
It had already received 10,000 likes.
"There were maybe a hundred likes every minute," the 25-year-old said.
"My first thought was, 'I can raise my price'."
Ms Li, who lives in Chengdu, is a full-time social media influencer primarily working on Red, a Chinese Instagram-like platform.
Every day she produces content targeting young people, including about how stressed out she felt in her old job and tips on how to become a social media influencer.
She makes money by charging companies to mention their products — like vitamin supplements, stationery, and skincare creams — in her short videos or the captions on her photos.
The post that went viral recently was about teaching people how to use social media platforms to attract advertisers.
"For every 10 young people around me, about three are trying to be [influencers]," she told the ABC.
China now has a large number of agencies that mentor young people to become social media influencers. (Reuters: Aly Song)
That may understate the trend.
According to a survey of 10,000 young people conducted by Chinese social media platform Weibo in July, more than 60 per cent were interested in becoming a social media influencer.
Ms Li said she charged advertisers the "industry-standard price" for an advertisement — about 10 yuan ($2.12) for every 1,000 followers.
This means that one advertisement can earn Ms Li, who has more than 100,000 followers, about 10,000 yuan ($2,129).
As businesses gear up for
China's biggest shopping festival Singles Day in November, Ms Li's monthly earnings have surpassed 100,000 yuan ($21,000) for the first time — many times more than the average income of a corporate worker in China's big cities.
She has also been providing individual mentoring to wannabe influencers for a fee of 599 yuan ($129) per hour.
While Ms Li is a freelancer, some young people sign contracts with influencer agencies, known in China as Multiple-Channel Networks (MCN), that guide them in producing content.
Since 2020, the number of China's influencer agencies has grown to more than 47,000, according to Chinese data analytics firm iiMedia Research.
Experts say being a social media influencer is now considered a legitimate career path in China.(Reuters: Aly Song)
For older Chinese, being a social media celebrity is generally still not considered a long-term career path.
It's often referred as "eating youth rice".
However, more and more young people were seeing it as a legitimate option, said Elaine Jing Zhao, a senior lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales.
"People see the real potential in making money out of live streaming, via advertising deals or m-commerce [mobile phone commerce] or viewer tipping," Dr Zhao said.
"On a cultural level, people perceive this as an option which offers them the space to make their own decisions.
"The economic slowdown may [also] force some people to look for other options."
'Chosen by fortune'
Rainbow Li said her previous job left her feeling burnt out. (Supplied: Rainbow Li)
Ms Li was an operations manager at a Chinese gaming company before she quit in April.
Although she had been running her current social media account since 2022, she had never thought of quitting her full-time job for fear of losing a steady income.
However, when China's economy failed to bounce back after COVID-19 restrictions were eased, Ms Li's company began laying off employees.
China's
youth unemployment exceeded a historic 21 per cent, before the government decided to stop publishing the data last month.
Ms Li was being asked to work 8am to midnight almost every day, which led to severe burnout.
"I couldn't maintain stable emotions even with my family and friends," she said.
"I was in a very unhealthy state."
Despite still needing to work six hours a day to plan and produce her social media content, and spend more time to monitor her audience data, Ms Li said her life was relaxed compared to her previous job.
She said she was glad to have made the switch.
Rainbow Li monitors her audience data continuously.(Supplied: Rainbow Li)
"I think social media influencers are situated in an emerging market," she said.
"We're the ones who have been chosen by fortune."
Despite China's recent economic troubles, social media advertising is still growing.
Meanwhile, a report from PwC in July estimated that China's growing influencer industry and social media platforms would drive the country's internet advertising sector to an annual growth rate of 13.13 per cent this year, compared to the global average of 7.96 per cent.
'My time has no value'
Charles Xu has found the path to becoming a successful live streamer more difficult than he thought. (Supplied: Charles Xu)
Not everyone fares so well trying to make it as an influencer.
In October last year, Charles Xu started an account on Douyin, the name for TikTok in China, to sell socks during live streams.
During the live streams, viewers can chat with and buy products from influencers, making it a more engaging and fun way to shop.
Mr Xu said that for a while he was earning about 200 to 250 yuan ($42.6 to $53) during each two-hour live streaming session.
Charles Xu found that as the economy continued to struggle people were not buying as many socks as last year. (Supplied: Charles Xu)
Based on that rate, Mr Xu was confident he could earn about 10,000 yuan ($2,130) a month by doing two live streams a day, enough to cover basic expenses and allow him not to be stuck in the office every day.
But after he quit his job to be a full-time influencer this year, his daily income dropped to about 60 yuan ($12).
"People weren't as enthusiastic about shopping as they were last year," he said.
"I would tell them [viewers] that your deal comes from my time because my time has no value.
"For me, there's no way this business is going to work for me full-time anymore."
Mr Xu blamed the economy but also the intense competition among influencers on Douyin.
Data from China's market consulting firm iResearch found there were 1.23 million influencers in China's live stream industry.
University of Sydney lecturer Su Chunmeizi, the author of Douyin, TikTok, and China's Online Screen Industry, said there was a "sustainability problem" within the influencer sector.
"If we look at influencers on the internet, you'll see that almost all of them have their crisis moments," Dr Su said.
"You may accidentally make a harsh comment or speak on something you shouldn't, and then your entire career is in jeopardy.
"You need to spend endless nights and put in endless efforts to build up your popular public persona and then ensure that it stays that way."
He was beloved by young shoppers and Chinese Communist Party. But when he tried to sell an ice cream cake to millions of his followers, everything went wrong.
Dr Su said how long China's social media influencers would remain profitable was unclear.
Social media influencers started in China as an affordable channel for businesses to advertise compared to TV and magazines, she said.
But in recent years, the prices of such channels have dramatically increased.
Dr Su said that once a more cost-effective advertising channel became available, companies would likely abandon influencers.
The trend of young people quitting their jobs to become online celebrities was "disturbing", she added.
"It's a question of whether we should promote this kind of career expectation as a society and what is the future of this if we continue down this path?" she said.
As China's economy remains in the doldrums, more and more young people see social media influencer as a legitimate career option, but experts question the industry's sustainability.
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