Column "Little People from Self-Media I Follow" (1) - Mai Xiaodou drives to Africa

? The sudden rise of self-media has become an alternative mainstream in society, and it has also brought huge dividends. It has greatly impacted the self-centered entertainment industry. In a short period of time, people’s attention has shifted to various unique media figures or Internet celebrities. Stars with empty bodies are empty, ignorant, and without nutrition in comparison. The chaos is like all kinds of self-media, but I still choose a few media people who suit my taste and keep following them to satisfy my thirst for knowledge and curiosity.

Next, I will also make a special topic to talk about the self-media people I have followed or am following in the past few years. There is still a big difference between Internet celebrities and self-media people. My understanding is that media people tend to be more professional, while Internet celebrities focus more on attracting attention and sensationalizing. Of course, their common goal is traffic.

"Mai Xiaodu drives to Africa"

I came into contact with Mai Xiaodu from Toutiao. Mai Xiaodu is called Lin Mengsheng, born in the 90s, from Ningbo. , and his girlfriend Qian Bei, drove to Africa to shoot a travel documentary. I have been following them for three years since 2017. They were lovers on campus. After graduation, they worked on Taobao for more than a year, mainly selling tea bags. Their annual income is said to be more than 1 million. The income was good but very hard. At the same time, he also saw the bottleneck of Taobao and decisively disposed of the inventory and cashed in profits. This was basically his first pot of gold, and he started traveling around. During the trip, I just posted short videos to friends or outdoor groups at first, and attracted some loyal viewers. At everyone's suggestion, I started making documentaries and posting them on Weibo. Just as the Internet celebrity economy began to develop, Mai Xiaodou also seized this opportunity and planned a personal self-driving trip to Africa, thus attracting a large number of fans. I am one of them, and I basically need it every day. As a result, he achieved a leading position in this field. His travel program is different from other professional outdoor travel teams such as 270. It is easier to implement and more popular, which is a very important reason why it has attracted a large number of fans. At the same time, they are a couple, and Qian Bei plays a key role as a participant. They both have relatively good personalities and get along very harmoniously. They respect each other, love each other, and help each other. No one is forcing the other, and there is no pretense in front of the camera. They are ideal examples of partners. Qian Bei, a southern beauty, is sweet and cute, unpretentious, hard-working, very real, and comfortable on camera, so she has gained a large number of followers. Selling small pockets reflects the wisdom of the Southern Fujian people, their hard work and unpretentious love for money. These are the keys to attracting attention.

With 2 million fans, a short video of a few minutes can reach up to 500,000 views. Of course, the income is also objective. In the best year, their self-employment The income should be more than 1 million, but travel anchors are relatively expensive. After excluding travel expenses, the remaining profit for a year should be 3 to 50 million, but this is only the best year. If he doesn't do it, he won't benefit and won't be able to achieve financial freedom.

Mai Xiaodou is a relatively professional travel team (actually, they are just the two of them, and they do all the hair and photo shoots by themselves). They have relatively few side businesses (such as carrying goods). In the past few years, they have traveled by car to places such as Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang at home, and Thailand, Africa, Europe, and Russia abroad. In order to realize their plan to travel to the Arctic and cross the American continent in 2019, they also began to bring goods, some by-products related to self-driving travel: neck pillows, mobile phone holders, and water bottles. The neck pillow was the first product to be launched, and it was promoted well in the early stage. Once launched, the monthly sales were 300,000 yuan, and the profits were very good. The performance of subsequent products was mediocre, and long-term fans will indeed support it, but the product is too ordinary and it is difficult to support it for a long time.

Mai Xiaodou’s business in recent years has made good profits both financially and in terms of fame and fortune. He is also considered outstanding among self-driving travel media people and has been featured on various platforms several times. He ranks among the best in the arena and has been featured in documentaries broadcast on local TV stations many times.

At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, the planned self-driving tour of Oymyakon, Russia, was shelved due to the epidemic. The subsequent home content was also a less attractive eating and broadcasting scene. I I haven’t paid attention to it for a long time, and I also feel that their travel videos are basically in the category of eating and drinking experiences, with less introduction to humanistic aspects. At the same time, the popularity of self-media is far inferior to that of the previous two years. I don’t know if Mai Xiaodou will still be there in the future. Keep the powder as you did two years ago.

As for whether I can continue to pay attention, it is still unknown. The possibility is still relatively high. After all, they are short videos and do not waste time. After all, I have a wandering but lazy mind.