Male beauty blogger finds road to wealth on Taobao
男性美妆博主在淘宝上找到致富之路

Chinese male beauty blogger Li Jiaqi, a post-1990 generation online celebrity who livestreams reviews of lipstick on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Taobao, earned more than 10 million yuan ($1.53 million) over the past year.
中国男性美妆博主李佳琦是一位90后的网络达人，他通过在阿里巴巴的电商平台淘宝上直播口红测评，在这一年中赚了超过一千万人民币（折合美元153万）。

Dubbed "Taobao's king of lipstick", Li needs to test more than 300 types of lipstick on his lips every day during a seven-hour live broadcast, taking no breaks except to drink water or go to the bathroom.
被称为“淘宝口红一哥”的李佳琦在每天7个小时的直播过程中需要亲自评测超过300种口红，除了喝水和上厕所之外没有任何休息时间。

"Many people question me, believing men do not have enough expertise to recommend female beauty products," Li said.
“许多人质疑我，认为男人没有足够的专业知识来为女性推荐美容产品。”李佳琦说。

But he believes he has advantages in this field. While many women may find their lips hurt after testing three lipsticks in a row, he can test as many as 380 lipsticks a day. "Testing lipstick can damage the lips, but I do not treat my lips as lips," Li said. Therefore, his fans have given him the nickname "iron-lipped brother".
但他认为自己在这方面有优势。许多女性会在一口气试三支口红之后发现唇部受伤，但他可以一天测试380支之多。“测评口红会伤害唇部，但我已经不把自己的嘴唇当做嘴唇了。”李佳琦说。因此，他的粉丝们为他起了“铁唇哥”的昵称。

In Li's eyes, helping his fans to buy the most suitable products at the lowest cost is the best part of his job. In addition, sometimes he would ask companies to give coupons to his fans.
在李佳琦眼中，这份工作最好的部分在于帮助他的粉丝用最低的价格买到最适合她们的产品。此外，他有时也会让产品公司给他的粉丝们提供优惠。

Arranging a live broadcast of beauty product reviews on Taobao cannot be done by Li alone. He has a team of several assistants working for him. Some are in charge of communicating with Taobao shops, while others assist him on livestreaming.
李佳琦一个人是无法在淘宝上运营美妆产品测评的直播的。他有一个团队，几位助手为他工作。一些负责与淘宝商家沟通，一些帮助他直播。

At the end of last year, Li was hired as the new media practices instructor at Jiangsu Normal University to open a course called Taobao Writing and Communications.
去年底，李佳琦被江苏师范大学聘为新媒体实践指导员，开设了一门叫淘宝写作及传播的课程。

For Li Jiaqi, 27, it took less than a year to increase his bank balance to over 10 million yuan ($1.49 million). And he didn't have to do it by robbing a bank. Rather he made the money by selling lipsticks through livestreaming on video-sharing platforms such as Douyin. He sold 15,000 lipsticks within 15 minutes of livestreaming, beating billionaire Jack Ma who wanted to compete with Li in a two-hour livestreaming session selling lipsticks.
27岁的李佳琦花了不到一年的时间就赚到了超过一千万人民币（折合美元149万），但他并不是通过抢银行做到这一点的。相反，他在诸如抖音等视频共享平台上通过直播销售口红而赚到了这些钱。他曾在直播15分钟内就卖出了15,000支口红，击败了本希望与李佳琦在两小时直播过程中竞争售卖口红亿万富翁马云。

 

The social media influencer wasn't satisfied with the achievement. Li is now the keeper of Guinness World Record for applying lipstick most models in 30 seconds. The video of Li's Guinness World Records challenge is on top of Li's Douyin page, with over 782,000 thumb-ups from the users.
这位在社交媒体红人并不满足于这一成就。李佳琦现在是一位吉尼斯世界纪录保持者，他在30秒内给最多的模特涂上了口红。李佳琦挑战吉尼斯世界纪录的视频置顶在他的抖音帐号，已经获得了超过782000个赞。

Social media influencers like Li are certainly a top choice for makeup brands in making their marketing strategies to endorse their products. A report from marketing data technology company AdMaster, released this Thursday, said cooperation with key opinion leaders, or KOL, has become the most popular marketing way of advertisers in China.
像李佳琦这样的社交媒体红人无疑是化妆品牌在制定营销策略推销他们的产品时的首选。营销数据技术公司精硕科技这周四发布了一份报告，称与意见领袖合作已经成为中国广告商中最流行的营销方式。

Data from AdMaster show that the number of makeup companies that have paid for KOLs in promoting their products surged by 81 percent. The number is even higher for food companies at 92 percent.
精硕科技的数据显示，为了推销产品而雇佣意见领袖的化妆公司数量已经激增到了81%。食品公司数量相比而言甚至更高，达到了92%。

About 40 percent of Chinese consumers have been influenced by KOLs in making purchasing decisions, according to AdMaster's report. Data from PARKLU also show that about 1.5 percent of consumers would make a purchase immediately after KOLs post about products on weibo, one of China's most popular social media platforms. "Every time Li endorsed certain lipsticks that were new to the market, I wanted to buy them," said 29-year-old Beijing-based Huang Xinyi. "He appeared more trustworthy to me, like a friend or classmate, which make his videos really different to other celebrity endorsements," she said.
根据精硕科技的报告，大约40%的中国消费者在购物时受到了意见领袖的影响。PARKLU的数据同样显示，意见领袖在微博（中国最流行的社交媒体平台之一）上晒出产品后，大约1.5%的消费者会立即进行购买。"每次李佳琦推荐市场上新的口红，我就想买，"29岁的北京市民黄心怡说，"对我来说，他更值得信任，就像一个朋友或同学，这使得他的视频与其他名人的代言很不一样。"

The report from AdMaster also show that advertisers now value KOLs who can offer real reviews instead of giving fake praise. Take Xiaohongshu as an example. The app is quite similar to yelp, but instead of people commenting on stores and shops, they share reviews on brands and products.
精硕科技的报告还显示，广告商现在更看重能给出真实反馈的意见领袖，而不是那些只会说虚假的表扬的意见领袖。以小红书为例，这是一个与Yelp很相似的应用程序，但人们并不对商店做出评论，而是分享自己关于品牌和产品的意见。

Xiaohongshu has grown to be one of the most-quoted Chinese apps. The number of times it was mentioned in reviews or articles surged 719 percent from the beginning of 2018 to the year end, according to AdMaster report.
小红书已经成为了中国最受欢迎的应用程序之一。根据精硕科技的报告，从2018年初到2018年底，小红书在评论或文章中被提到的次数激增了719%。