TIC | 株式会社東京コンサルティング研究所

The Economics of Web Celebrity

The unfamiliar Japanese word “web celebrity” is simply “Internet celebrity” and “Internet celebrity”. Overseas is also called KOL(Key Opinion Leader). China’s “web celebrity” use China’s SNS (microblog, clipper, tremolo, etc.) as the main platform/media to publish live broadcast, articles, photos and other content. There is no very clear definition of “web celebrity.” In general, if the number of followers exceeds 500,000, this person can be considered “web celebrity”. A rough count of “web celebrity” with over 500,000 fans currently are over 1 million in China. The content that the web celebrities share includes a wide range of genre, like game live, food report, recipes, cosmetics, makeup methods, and many other types. According to the 2016 China e-commerce /KOL big data report, the production of KOL in 2016 was about 58 billion RMB. Web celebrity value chain is composed of the following parts: small-scale professional SNS platform, or comprehensive SNS platform represented by WeChat/microblog, KOL company, and enterprises that use KOL to promote commodities. Web celebrity’s are chasing trends around the world, and consumer demand these information. Therefore, reasonable use of web celebrity promotion, which can flexible and rapid response to consumer demand in the supply chain is very important. Products that have not been entered into the Chinese market may become popular through web celebrity recommendation. In the development of the Chinese market, the use of web celebrity to promote goods and services is becoming one of the important ways to promote goods.