“Come and go" — Phrase of the Week
Influencers are having a tough time in this year’s 618 shopping festival
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Our phrase of the week is: “come and go" (此消彼长 cǐ xiāo bǐ zhǎng).
Context
The 618 Shopping Festival is China’s second largest online shopping event.
It’s held in June every year, concluding on the 18th. Ecommerce platforms, influencers, and brands offer deep discounts to consumers during the weeks-long festival.
Sales have suffered over the last two years, with JD.com and Alibaba, the two main e-commerce platforms in China, not publishing their sales figures, or “GMV” (Gross Merchandise Value).
According to announcements early on in this year’s festival, sales are picking up again.
But this year has been tough for livestream ecommerce influencers.
Livestream ecommerce (电商直播 diànshāng zhíbò) is where influencers sell products live to their fans through streaming platforms. It’s an important way in which consumers buy in China.
But some influencers have seen their sales fall by 80% during this year’s 618.
That’s because brands are choosing to move away from influencers, and sell their products through their own livestream ecommerce channels.
Today, the GMV generated by a brand’s own livestream room is already considerable, especially during the promotion periods. This is taking away some of the traffic that would go to influencers who act as retailers.
“It is as natural as the ebb and flow of tides. There is only so much traffic. If more goes to the brand’s own livestream room, then the influencer will get less.”
如今,很多品牌自播间成交金额已经很可观,尤其是在大促期间,这就相当于分走了一部分原本属于主播的流量。“这是个此消彼长的过程,流量只有那么多,流向了自播间,流向主播的自然就会减少。”
Rújīn, hěnduō pǐnpái zìbōjiān chéngjiāo jīn'é yǐjīng hěn kěguān, yóuqí shì zài dàcù qījiān, zhè jiù xiāngdāng yú fēnzǒule yíbùfèn yuánběn shǔyú zhǔbō de liúliàng.“Zhè shìge cǐxiāo bǐzhǎng de guòchéng, liúliàng zhǐyǒu nàme duō, liúxiàngle zìbōjiān, liúxiàng zhǔbō de zìrán jiù huì jiǎnshǎo.
And with that we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
“Ebb and flow” is a four-character Chinese idiom. The meaning can be deciphered with a basic understanding of classical Chinese: the four characters translate directly as: “this” (此 cǐ), “disappear” (消 xiāo), “other” (彼 bǐ), “grow” (长 zhǎng).
It’s an old idiom, credited to Mèngzǐ 孟子, known also and Mencius in English.
Mencius is China’s “second sage”. He was a Confucian scholar who was alive during the Warring States period, a time in Chinese history spanning three centuries (481 BC - 221 BC) when states battled each other for dominance. Ultimately the Qin state was victorious and established the first unified Chinese state in 221 BC.
Mencius is believed to have spent most of his life traveling around these states offering advice to rulers.
The book of his name, The Mencius 孟子, is a collection of the philosopher’s anecdotes, sayings, and speeches.
Covering topics such as moral and political philosophy, it’s presented as a record of conversations between Mencius and rulers of the Warring States period, or with his students, or contemporaries.
Our idiom appears in one of the 14 chapters of The Mencius (it is made of seven chapters, each split into two parts):
Gongsun Chou Part 2 from Mencius: "Different times, different circumstances. In every five hundred years, a king will surely rise, who will be known to the entire world."
《孟子·公孙丑下》:“彼一时,此一时也。五百年必有王者兴,其间必有名世者”。
“Mèngzǐ·gōngsūn chǒu xià”: “Bǐ yìshí, cǐ yìshí yě. Wǔbǎi nián bìyǒu wángzhě xīng, qíjiān bìyǒu míng shì zhě”.
The phrase “different times, different circumstances” (彼一时,此一时) has evolved into our four-character idiom (此消彼长) in modern Chinese.
It's often translated as “ebb and flow”, but we prefer, in this context of the changing flows of web traffic during the 618 Shopping Festival, the translation of “come and go”.
Because web traffic, like many things in life, comes and goes.
Nothing is permanent, especially not for China’s influential but precarious online influencers.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource to help you learn contemporary Chinese in context, and stay on top of the latest language trends in China.
Read more about how this story is being discussed in the Chinese media in this week’s RealTime Mandarin.