Economic Impact of the Wanghong Phenomenon in China

This thesis investigates the Wanghong economy in China, focusing on the rise of internet celebrities and their economic influence. It defines Wanghong, a term for internet celebrities, and explores its development within the context of globalization and digitalization. The study examines the evolution of Wanghong, the different types of Wanghong, and the factors contributing to their success, including self-management, branding, and fan engagement. The research methodology includes quantitative data analysis of income, subscriber numbers, and video content. The thesis analyzes three case studies from Weibo: @uktimes, YUYU, and Joker, to understand their branding strategies and commercial success. The findings reveal the growth in income of Wanghong celebrities and the importance of the Wanghong economy in China. The conclusion addresses the research aims, offers recommendations, acknowledges limitations, and suggests further research. The study provides a comprehensive overview of this emerging economic sector.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
International Business and Economy
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Abstract
This paper has been framed in order to have an understanding of the concept “Wanghong” and
how this word has developed into a significant economic sector in China. Wanghong is a
trending economy in China that is associated with internet celebrity and sharing of videos and
photos in the internet. The background of the paper has explained the concept of Wanghong and
how it was incorporated in China. This paper has looked to explain the extent of income the
internet celebrities earn and therefore in the same manner the data has been collected and the
results have indicated that there has been a rise in the overall income of the celebrities in the
monthly and the yearly rate and therefore it can be said that Wanghong economy is a key
economic sector in China and this concept is gaining prominence all over the world as well.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................5
1.1 Purpose of the study...............................................................................................................5
1.2 Background of the Study.......................................................................................................7
1.2.1 Research Platform: Sina Weibo......................................................................................8
1.3 Problem Statement...............................................................................................................14
1.4 Research Objectives and Aims............................................................................................15
1.5 Research Questions..............................................................................................................15
1.6 Structure of the thesis..........................................................................................................15
Chapter 2: Literature Review.........................................................................................................17
2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................17
2.2 Wanghong............................................................................................................................17
2.3 Definition, development and types......................................................................................17
2.4 The origin of Wanghong......................................................................................................18
2.5 Research on Wanghong.......................................................................................................19
2.6 The evolution of Wangluo Hongren to Wanghong.............................................................21
2.6.1 from the year 1998 to the year 2004.............................................................................21
2.6.2 Wangluo Hongren in the year 2004 to the year 2012...................................................21
2.6.3 Wanghong from the year 2012 to the year 2016..........................................................22

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2.6.4 Wanghong from the year 2016 to the current time period............................................22
2.7 Different types of Wanghong..............................................................................................23
2.8 The reason for the success of Wanghong............................................................................25
2.9 Internal Factors: Self-management of Wanghong...............................................................25
2.10 The establishment of self-branding...................................................................................26
2.11 Authenticity in the core of self-branding...........................................................................26
2.12 External factors: Internet users and fans............................................................................28
2.13 The power of the fans........................................................................................................28
2.14 Summary of the literature..................................................................................................29
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................30
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................30
3.2 Outline of the method..........................................................................................................30
3.3 Research Approach..............................................................................................................30
3.4 Research Hypotheses...........................................................................................................31
3.5 Research Design..................................................................................................................32
3.6 Process of Data Collection...................................................................................................33
3.7 Quantitative data..................................................................................................................34
3.8 Secondary Data....................................................................................................................34
3.9 Sampling and sample size....................................................................................................34
3.10 Data Analysis Plan.............................................................................................................35

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3.11 Ethical Consideration.........................................................................................................35
3.12 Summary............................................................................................................................36
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion................................................................................................37
4.1 Result Analysis....................................................................................................................37
4.1.1 Relation between income of Wanghong’s celebrities and number of subscribers, video
count and type of uploaded videos........................................................................................37
4.1.2 Income evaluation of Wanghong celebrities overtime.................................................44
4.1.3 History of web celebrities in China..............................................................................47
4.2 Discussion............................................................................................................................51
Chapter 5: Conclusion, Recommendation, Limitation and Future Work......................................54
5.1 Conclusion (Addressing the research aims and objectives)................................................54
5.2 Recommendation.................................................................................................................57
5.3 Limitations of the Research.................................................................................................58
5.4 Further Research and Future Work......................................................................................59
Reference List and Bibliography...................................................................................................60

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Chapter 1: Introduction
In the modern working environment, there has been development of new and improved
technologies with the help of which global economy has developed. The advent of globalization
has led to various cultures blending with each other and thereby new plans and policies have
been incorporated with the help of which better workplace and operational activities have been
attained (Prince et al. 2016). The digitalisation of the global economy has incorporated various
techniques and an activity that has improved the lifestyle of the individuals and has improved the
entertainment factor of human beings. Wanghong phenomenon is a consequence of the
transformations that have developed prior to digitalisation and globalisation. This paper therefore
looks to understand the key facts that contribute to the Wanghong economy in China.
1.1 Purpose of the study
The explanation on Wanghong, which is the shorter version of Wangluo Hongren is a
prevalent topic of the research in the Chinese community during the past few years. The factor
due to which Wanghong became the matter of concern in the economy and even in the field of
academics is primarily due to the astonishing commercial value, as well as a vital social effect
established by the amount of Wanghong (which is inclusive of the events and people). They
make use of the network which is a strong hold but even has an effect in the conventional media
and typical community with their behaviours, ideas and thoughts (Qi et al. 2016).
In the Western community, the idea which is most alike to Wanghong is Micro celebrity
which has been explained by Marwick (2015) as micro celebrities are the individuals who look at
each other as a civic facade to be disbursed by the others who make use of the tactical familiarity
in order to appeal to their followers and considers their fans and audiences. Conversely, in the
context of China, the idea of Wanghong encompasses a wider aspect, and is even vaguer. It is

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inclusive of not only the micro celebrity explained by Marwick (2015), but even the ordinary
celebrities who are in the highlight of discussions on the internet in the distinct time and time
period. The differentiation in the two concepts can create certain variable sorts of researches
among Micro celebrity and Wanghong among the Western and Chinese researchers respectively
(Wang, Liang and Deng 2017). The Western researches have given more attention to the
examination of how a micro celebrity constructs their self-branding and on the other hand the
Chinese experts concentrate more on the examination of the Wanghong economy and the
management and evaluation of the factors of Wanghong effects. It is seen that Chinese and the
Western scholars assess this concept in a different manner but their end result has been to
discover the income they earn and the prominence this sector has attained.
By relying on the two various perspectives of the research that have been explained
earlier and in order to have an understanding of how Chinese Wanghong manufacture and how
to practice themselves, and therefore paper has selected three Wanghong from Weibo, which is
one of the essential Chinese social platforms as instances and by assessing the Chinese and the
Western researches, the researcher would look to highlight how they have been able to create
their individual brandings and they have been able to attract the followers (Tang et al. 2018).
The three case studies that have been taken consideration are the UKtimes, an English
and Chinese culture writer, YUYU who is a personal makeup artist and a mainland China singer
by the name of Joker. Specifically, all of them have been able to gain popularity in Weibo and
have effectively transformed the fame gained from the internet to the commercial interest(Wang,
Huang and Li 2017). Conversely, the variation in each of them has utilised various strategies in
order to become famous. @uktimes is unspecified and known for her funny narrations of foreign
and the British life. She has chosen certain influencing contents to interpret, retell and edit them

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for the Chinese audience. Joker had gone through a fame that was short lived as a musician and
later on used his sense of humour to become an internet based celebrity. YUYU was a general
user who had posted a single video that became viral and who looked to transform her fame to be
more permanent.
The thesis has the intention of having an understanding of the facts and the elements that
have extensive level of contribution for the development of the Wanghong economy in China.
There are several aspects that have been discovered that contributes to the development of this
economy and with the advent of time; the economy has been developing comprehensively. The
purpose of the study has been to create an understanding of how Wanghong economy has been
developing and accordingly how the micro and the internet celebrities have been use of this
economy in order to make a mark of them in the society.
With the help of Micro celebrity, the theory of self-branding and the social media
associated theory; the researcher has looked to assess the images, contents that have been
released and the effect on the three cases that have been discussed above. Therefore it is seen that
the main aim of the thesis has been to understand all these aspects and accordingly evaluate on
the same in order to gain conclusive outcome on this topic and thereby completion of the thesis
in an effective manner.
1.2 Background of the Study
The concept of Wanghong is inclusive of an explanation of the theoretical processes to
Wanghong, an explanation of the developmental phases of the Chinese social media, the history
of Wanghong that is available in China and an explanation of the various kinds of Wanghong
(Tan et al. 2017). Because of the differences among the cultural backgrounds, the researchers

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feel that it is essential to provide certain details about these aspects in order to let the readers
understand quickly and asses the scenarios.
1.2.1 Research Platform: Sina Weibo
1.2.1.1 Introduction of “Sina Weibo”
“Sina Weibo” is a significant communal media platform seen in China in the present
time. The development of certain Wanghong and a set of performance after their fame in a
precise extent will replicate on the platform of Weibo (Huang et al. 2016). In this paper, three
Wanghong scenarios are examined and Sina Weibo has been taken as the primary active
platform and the other social media like the Wechat play which is a supplementary function in
order to maximise increased viewer traffic and to attain the aim of attracting the fans.
The paper will make use of @uktimes as an instance in order to introduce briefly the
interface of Weibo.

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Figure 1: Homepage of @uktimes
When the users of Weibo enter on the homepage of the others, they can observe the
precise data of the bloggers. In the initial interface, the users can observe the Nickname of the
Bloggers and her followers can follow the amount of posts given in the Weibo. The Weibo users
can even follow the other users in a group or hashtag and it is seen that “Follow” explains that
the users, groups and hashtags that is followed by the users.
The figure explains that in the bottom left, there is an orange logo in the name of “V
Weibo Certification” and this logo is a symbol in order to prove that @uktimes has been able to
satisfy the certain scenarios, so Sina Weibo has been able to certify her account as precise and
genuine and have considered it as an significant account; the following sentence that “famous
British and Chinese freelance culture on Sina Weibo is the information certification. The

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explanation is shown in the self-description of the bloggers. In Weibo, every one of the tag
contains a link and when the users click on a certain label, the individuals with similar tags can
be discovered. On the right side is the Timeline, which permits the users to choose an extent of
time and to observe the posts of the bloggers during that time (Wang et al. 2016).
If there is a sign of “See More” under the individual profile of the blogger, one can enter
another interface for their individual information as indicated in the next figure. There are further
information that is available as well like nickname, gender, location, slogan, domain name and
time of registration.
Figure 2: Information on @uktimes
The personal homepage is very much similar to the one seen in Twitter. In the
perspective of Weibo, the users can even disclose the text, Emoji, video, topic with hashtag,
photo and article.

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Figure 3: Weibo text box English Interface
The users can even select who can view the information that has been published that is
inclusive of the friend circle, group only view public and only me.
Figure 4: The audience users can select
Dissimilar to Twitter, Weibo had cancelled the 140 character restriction from January
2016 and the character limit was raised to 2000 words but the section which is more than 140
words will be hidden behind the tag of “See More” link. The users can see the full information
when they press on the link that has been provided.
1.2.1.2 Development of “Sina Weibo”
“Sina Weibo” was incorporated by “Sina Company” in the year 2009 but from a Western
point of view it can be explained as a blend of Facebook and Twitter and is primarily utilised to
look through the present events or to follow the individuals, groups and topics which one is
interested and to disclose the comments and views or the advises on the social platform.