Editor’s Note: This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account’s "Entertainment Capital" (ID: Yulezibenlun), written by Hong Fu and Cao Lexi, edited by Wu Lixiang; 36Kr is authorized to publish.
"I’m okay, the fashion is still there, see you on monday, and there are still materials."
This time, in the face of the betrayal of the popular photographer team, Zhuo Wei, a poet who was delayed by gossip and "the first paparazzi in China", did not choose to write poems to ridicule.
On the afternoon of May 3rd, Weibo, an ID of @ Xinfengxing Studio, suddenly sent a graphic saying that all the photographers of the original Fengxing Studio collectively resigned from the boss Zhuo Wei because of the conflict of work ideas.
For the paparazzi team, photography and filming are undoubtedly the core. "Popular with Zhuo Wei for ten years, never recruiting people, all recommended by relatives and friends." An industry insider close to Zhuo Wei told Entertainment Capital that Zhuo Wei has a father-son relationship with Fashion.
The theory of entertainment capital has been verified in many ways. Some popular photographers claim that the news of "collective resignation" is only partially true. At present, many photographers are still working normally. "I am still popular, not so exaggerated." It has also been said that this departure is inseparable from Zhuo Wei’s partner Feng Ke.
However, a senior executive in charge of planning said that the photography team that ran away was an "old man", which was not in line with the current entertainment industry, and it was "time for a new generation" for both entertainment stars and paparazzi reporters, which was quite a bit like going out of inverse acts and cleaning up the portal. There are also investors and entertainment capital discussions. "Zhao Wuer has a valuation of hundreds of millions, and the popular team with an order of magnitude is at least 800 million in the valuation circle."
All in all, the popular studio closely tied to Zhuo Wei, whether it is the partner Feng Ke or the "old team that has been staying for 10 years", has indeed experienced great personnel turmoil. However, it doesn’t seem to affect the daily life of the gossip industry at all. On the morning of the 3rd, Popular also routinely released a new gossip on the National Talent Search APP, only the news of "members of the Jiang Jinfu Secret Society Women’s Group", the volume of which was not as fierce as the turmoil of the paparazzi industry itself.
Zhuo Wei is in trouble, but Xiaoyu wants to know more, will this paparazzi war end with the team falling apart and a new reshuffle of the gossip industry? Next, who will stand on the forefront and lead the industry?
Fengxing Studio has been established for 11 years. "Being a dignified paparazzi" is the initial intention of Zhuo Wei and his partner Feng Ke.
"I have news ideals, that is, in the field of entertainment news, I try my best to debunk the illusion and expose the truth." These are Zhuo Wei’s exact words.
This is consistent with the goal mentioned by the photographers in the resignation letter that "the popular studio has always taken the’ truth’ as the industry criterion and strived to present the most authentic entertainment industry to everyone".
After the articles "see you on monday" incident, Angel in Wang Dazhi, Zhang Zixuan in Michael Chen, etc., the reputation of the popular studio was finally established, and Zhuo Wei became the "first paparazzi in China" as he wished.
However, in the collective resignation letter of popular photographers, "because of the conflict of work ideas" has become a major reason for the collective resignation. "Gossip is not groundless speculation, and it needs a lot of seeking truth from facts", "Disclosure is not a stage for one person, and the whole team needs to work together", and the writer also accused Zhuo Wei of "the recent solo show on various platforms has been full of people".
Legend: The entrance page of the All-Star Exploration app opens with the main column of "Zhuo sir said" to strengthen the leadership effect.
On the surface, it seems that grabbing the limelight of the team and striving to become a star online celebrity, giving up news facts and fabricating materials to gain eyeballs have become the reasons why Zhuo Wei was "abandoned" by the popular team.
"Popular Studio" is a whole, while "Zhuo Wei" is a famous and well-known name, which sounds easier to spread than the team. A sharp contrast is: @ China’s first paparazzi Zhuo Wei has 6.99 million fans, which is already a KOL；; And @ Fengxing Studio official micro, the number of fans is only 340,000, less than a fraction of Zhuo Wei.
However, it is very interesting that Zhuo Wei, a popular studio company, is not the largest shareholder, and his share ratio is lower than that of his partner Feng Ke, ranking second.
Han Bingjiang was originally named, but later changed his pen name to Zhuo Wei for reporting disputes.
That is to say, Zhuo Wei, as the nominal second shareholder of the company (not counting the shares of employee-owned platform [Chongzhi Technology]), has always been the belief center and output window of the whole company. In this case, it’s okay for other partners to settle their minds and be willing to hide behind the scenes. If they are eager for fame, isn’t it a proper meaning to split up?
If it’s not for fame, then another possibility is for profit.
As the core of the team, popular photographers often need to hide in the grass, hotels and garages for more than ten hours, doing very tolerable work and earning not much more than ordinary white-collar workers. According to Zhuo Wei himself, "Our frontline brothers earn an average of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a month. They have no extra income, just relying on manuscript fees and bonuses."
However, unlike the speculation that Zhuo Wei earned a lot of money and his team was exhausted to death, Zhuo Wei himself seems to value fame more than profit. In addition to the fact that he is a second shareholder, according to his personal confirmation, he has not bought a house in Beijing until now, and his office is also set up in Tongzhou, where the rent is cheap.
As for the money power public relations of netizens’ psychosexuality, Zhuo Wei has always firmly denied, "I didn’t want the article to give me money! I really hate insider trading. " From this point of view, although Zhuo Wei has a huge volume of traffic and sound, it is not very keen to exchange it for commercial benefits, at least ostensibly.
So how do you make money? The popularity has expanded from a small group of five people to more than 70 people at present, and the scale of the all-star exploration team exceeds 100 people, which can afford the labor cost of this order of magnitude, and the company’s profitability can not be underestimated.
One reason is that Zhuo Wei’s team has long been favored by capital, and many investment institutions are chasing him, "I can’t wait to make money in three days". Xiaoyu was informed that in 2016, the investment institution Lianchuang Yongxuan and its Wuji Venture Capital helped it complete the institutional angel round financing, and the financing scale reached the order of 10 million.
In recent years, with the strong demand for entertainment in internet plus, gossip has really become a hot business. An investor revealed to Xiaoyu that Zhao Wuer, a detective who is also a paparazzi breaking news team and a "rising star", is rumored to have a valuation of over 100 million in the circle. According to this standard, the popular valuation with a larger volume and earlier fame should be around 800 million.
No matter how easy money is, the company can’t always be in a small workshop-style 1.0 working state. It is reported that the Zhuo Wei team has always wanted to be a platform for breaking news like Guanba, and it can develop from the original PGC model to the UGC community, so that it can have more room for profit imagination.
In September 2015, the new product All-Star was launched, with app, Guanwei and WeChat official account all available. Popular, all-star detective and later all-star live broadcast are three systems. Although popular is the core, it is only responsible for shooting and belongs to the content provider. All-star detective and all-star live broadcast become the platform for external communication and the channel for attracting powder.
After changing its name from "National Star Scout" to "All-Star Scout", Zhuo Wei’s team has changed from simply revealing the secrets of stars to some entertainment media that cooperate with stars, report the trend information of stars and master the dynamics of idolize. The development of this part of the business is obviously to be able to do marketing for stars through their own traffic, gather fan communities and expand profit channels.
But what used to be "the discipline inspection commission of entertainment circle" has now become "the white gloves of stars", and Zhuo Wei is getting farther and farther away from his initial heart.
At present, all platforms of All-Star Detective are operated by special teams, and the popular teams are not in contact with this business. Nearly two years have passed, and Guanwei has 2.17 million fans, and the app has already been on the track. However, it broke the news that this project has cost a lot of money, and the team has always been controversial about the direction of product development, and the backbone responsible for the app project has also resigned.
Zhuo Wei’s identity has become complicated, and his reputation and word-of-mouth in the gossip world seems to have begun to decline obviously, from shooting only celebrity gossip at the earliest to constantly introducing new products and blooming in an all-round way.
Especially since 2016, Zhuo Wei failed to capture many major gossip events, and secretly photographed Huo Ru’s wedding, and the drone was shot down in embarrassment … Until the high expectation of "12-year-old material" was exchanged for "Bai Baihe’s derailment", which was constantly spoiled, and "China’s first paparazzi" eventually became "China’s first Monday morning quarterback" joked by many people.
At the same time, there have been a lot of questions about the public relations of money power in the paparazzi industry, but Zhuo Wei is too lazy to explain now.
He is busy in Zhihu and Weibo to answer questions, especially in recent days. He "answered" (or catching shadows? ) The gossip about AB’s affair with a male artist named C, the situation abroad in Hugh, and Lu Han’s having children in hidden marriage also received statements and even lawsuits from the stars.
This is probably the most direct reason why the popular photographer team left.
Imagine that many of the materials that Zhuo Wei casually exploded on social platforms were not really photographed. Popular in the early days of shooting around the clock, but Zhuo Wei is "holding back" in the home front, constantly consuming the credibility of popular, and it may be reasonable for popular photographers to want to untie them.
A staff member who had been with Zhuo Wei revealed to Xiaoyu, "I think Zhuo Wei’s recent answering questions on the Internet has made the popularity of fashion stink, so I don’t want to continue. After all, they worked hard to shoot in order to get evidence. "
However, some employees of the team admitted to Entertainment Capital that Zhuo Wei’s self-expansion was related to his simple and stubborn personality, and "his shrewdness and talent were used in gossip". He lamented that the rumor that public opinion thinks that he is trying to build a personal brand and play with capital operation is actually "he has no mind and brand concept at all, and he doesn’t understand new media too much".
Do you still remember that Qian Songyi’s agent strictly guarded his mobile phone and prevented his social network from "making a fool of himself"? The relationship between Zhuo Wei and the team around him is quite similar. It is reported that the team has always given him advice that these things are not suitable for doing at this stage, and it is necessary to keep a low profile in the outside world.
But Zhuo Wei said in a particularly "ignorant" way, "I just lie in bed and answer these questions."
Some people say that today may be the happiest day for stars, and perhaps many boxes are filled with the sound of brokers clinking glasses at night.
This is just the personnel turmoil in Zhuo Wei and the popular family, but the competition in the paparazzi industry behind it is becoming more and more fierce, and the trend that the industry is facing reshuffle is inevitable.
Zhuo Wei has created the history of paparazzi in mainland China. Ma Jianlong, another partner of Zhuo Wei, once said, "I used to run around and Zhuo Wei talked on the phone every day, so he sent more manuscripts than me, and I was particularly unbalanced. Later, after Zhuo Wei became a paparazzi, I especially admired him. I used to have a sense of making friends with stars during interviews. Later, I understood what a real reporter is, that is, he is always an independent observer, observing the entertainment circle like a shadow, and he never makes friends with these stars. If he makes friends, he can’t do it. Many people feel that they have a few star friends in the entertainment circle, and Zhuo Wei is awesome because he has been in the entertainment circle for eight years without a friend. "
Now, Zhuo Wei doesn’t even have his own friends. Is his initial heart still there?
In short, from the popular studio to the new popular studio, someone joked: "Will the new popular opening gun be the former boss Zhuo Wei’s own material?"
In the words of @ Paparazzi Dasheng, another traitor in Zhuo Wei, the new popular studios are "wearing new shoes and taking the old road". What attitude they should take to face the public and establish industry authority in the shortest time is the most urgent.
Zhao Wuer, an up-and-coming detective, was the "first detective in Chaoyang" as vigorous as Zhuo Wei’s "the first paparazzi in China", and Zhuo Wei also brought out many apprentices, all of whom became characters …
However, stars and brokers really don’t have to laugh in a hurry. With the understanding of the star circle in the theory of entertainment capital, Zhuo Wei can be regarded as a leader with not only methodology but also values in the paparazzi sequence. And history tells us that in 189, the general He Jin was stabbed, that is, the heroes divided the world; In 1916, when Yuan Xiangcheng was absent, it was all the officials of Beiyang. In 1927, Chen Du … Ahem, let’s not talk about it.
Without the "first paparazzi", how to control the Jianghu in the future? Wave after wave of barbaric paparazzi, who will become the spokesperson of stars and the white gloves of interest groups?
