That day, in an unnoticed corner, a topic quietly climbed onto the Hot Search list—
[The Potential Purchasing Power of Xiao He's Fans]
Many people thought they were seeing things at first glance when they saw this topic.
Xiao He's fans? Does Xiao He even have many fans?
Purchasing power? Isn't Xiao He an actor? Does he have enough traffic to support purchasing power?
What's going on here?
Fortunately, Xiao He already had a few notable works under his belt now, otherwise netizens' first reaction would probably have been "Who are you?"
But precisely because Xiao He currently had decent name recognition, curious netizens gradually started clicking in to check it out.
It all started when the official account of CKOOL Magazine posted some celebratory news—
[CKOOL Magazine-Official: Thank you for the love and support from our readers and fans! The latest issue of CKOOL Magazine has achieved outstanding results! This issue's sales exceeded five million, with related topic readership data surpassing 130 million... Special thanks to our interview guest @Actor-XiaoHe, whose in-depth interview content and photos sparked enthusiastic responses and were deeply loved by fan readers. We will continue to reward your expectations with quality content, so please keep following the future possibilities of "CKOOL"!]
Actually, this post didn't attract much attention at first. Only Xiao He posted a formal thank you on his Weibo feed, organizing a giveaway for fans that included autographed copies of "CKOOL" Magazine and other relatively valuable items.
Those participating in these discussions were basically Xiao He's own fans. Xiao He also personally joined the comments section for several hours of friendly interaction with fans, even generously sharing from his photo collection when fans requested recent selfies, posting pictures in the comments to engage with everyone.
On the surface, it just looked like friendly interaction between an actor and his fans—many celebrities in the industry do this, so there didn't seem to be anything particularly special about it.
Only a passing fashion blogger took a closer look at the data and got quite a shock.
At first glance, many people might not grasp the significance of these numbers. If a single copy of "CKOOL" costs around 40 yuan, then the magazine's sales for this issue should be around 120,000 copies. Normal sales for previous issues ranged from 20,000 to 30,000 copies, meaning there was an additional increase of about 90,000 to 100,000 copies. Based on the official thank you message, it wasn't hard to guess that Xiao He's fans were the main driving force behind this growth.
—Looking at it this way, it still seems pretty ordinary, right? After all, nowadays every celebrity's fan count exceeds 100,000; many have follower counts in the tens of millions on Weibo alone. A mere 100,000 copies is like a drop in the bucket, completely insufficient to meet demand.
But actually, magazines of this type are non-essential, non-mandatory purchases—they're primarily targeted at core fans. What matters isn't the total number of fans, but the purchasing power of the core fanbase. Normally, growth numbers for such items can't compare to fast-moving consumer goods.
If you check the data for true top-tier fashion circle celebrities in the domestic entertainment industry, you'll find that Xiao He's fan data this time doesn't even reach half of what those genuine top idols achieve.
But those are top idols—they have massive, organized, systematically planned fan groups!
Normal actors typically maintain "CKOOL"'s previous sales figures without significant changes. Even actors who are quite recognizable with some traffic support don't reach such high numbers—60,000 to 70,000 copies is already the historical record for certain magazines.
Moreover, Xiao He wasn't even the cover star this time—he was merely an interview guest, probably accounting for less than ten percent of the entire magazine's content. Yet Xiao He's core fans, what people commonly call the "spending fans," contributed approximately 100,000 copies—about four million yuan—just for that less-than-ten-percent content. This data is undeniably fierce.
The blogger specifically checked Xiao He's official account and studio, discovering that Xiao He's team hadn't treated this magazine promotion as an important marketing point—meaning there was no official organization or pre-hype from Xiao He's side. He simply did what other participating actors do: basic reposting and promotion.
This data was entirely built up by the fans themselves.
This was completely unexpected.
Driven by curiosity, the blogger delved deeper into the current state of Xiao He's fanbase and became even more surprised.
Xiao He's casual fan base was unusually large, including not only female fans who frequently participate in fan circles, but also male fans who don't normally follow celebrities. In terms of core fan composition, the spending fans led by major fans like "Azure Sky Cloud Crane" clearly had strong purchasing power and were well-versed in fan operations. Not only could they spend money, but they could also effectively manage and restrain the fanbase. They usually kept a low profile, didn't engage in online fights, and weren't particularly well-known within the broader fan community, but their actual combat effectiveness was not weak at all—they were mostly seasoned veterans who had migrated from some top idol's fan group.
Later, the blogger investigated Xiao He's recent commercial activities and found that Xiao He himself hadn't taken on many commercial endorsements. It was clear that the team behind Xiao He was quite ambitious—they weren't hastily grabbing all kinds of endorsements for quick profit based on temporary traffic, but were pursuing a quality-focused strategy. Even without massive traffic support or aggressive marketing, the few brands Xiao He had worked with all experienced some degree of sales growth.
Although there wasn't more data for comparison and observation, as a longtime industry insider, this blogger had sharp instincts. He directly organized this data into charts, posted it on his relevant accounts, and naturally attracted more knowledgeable people to observe the situation.
Thus, the topic about "Xiao He's fans' purchasing power" quietly climbed onto the tail end of the Hot Search list that day.
Those who understood this data silently left a like, then went to Xiao He's account to follow him, planning to keep him as a long-term observation target for research.
As for those who didn't understand this data, some were impressed despite not fully grasping it, while others dismissed it entirely.
Uh, this Hot Search purchase is baffling. Xiao He's team should just stick to their old routine and keep marketing his good deeds.
[? Should the person upstairs take some medicine for being stupid?]
[So is this actually impressive? Can someone in the industry explain?]
[Simply put, when other people's commercial value is four stars, it's because the maximum is five stars—they're almost at the limit. When Xiao He's commercial value is four stars, it's because the maximum is ten stars—he has huge potential, OK?]
[Actually, I think Xiao He's current value is already underestimated. Although he hasn't played a lead role yet, his few representative roles are enough to sustain him for quite a while, and this is just his track record from this year. The question is whether he can win a newcomer award next year with his role in Hidden Star Shine. The only pity is that this guy seems to really enjoy playing villains.]
[Is liking to play villains really such a bad thing?]
[I can only say that the path for villain actors is difficult—it's like adding shackles to yourself. You don't get good scripts all the time. Generally speaking, Xiao He's manager Liu Rulan is already considered a famous gold-medal manager. She couldn't possibly not understand this principle. With her capabilities, finding scripts that could lead to Award-Winning Actor or Best Actor awards for Xiao He wouldn't be difficult. Moreover, Xiao He's acting skills are genuinely good—he's not hopeless. But looking at the current situation, I feel like their team is playing a very new game. I wonder if Liu Rulan is attempting some high-difficulty challenge.]
[Haha, whispering here—we in the industry are also speculating, suspecting Liu Rulan might be trying to create a villain Award-Winning Actor.]
[Actually, the reasoning is quite simple. Could it be that Xiao He can only play villains? I've seen some of Xiao He's personal candid shots before—he himself has a rather gloomy type, with a strong aura and very distinctive personal characteristics. He just doesn't look like a good person. If they forced him to play good guys, the audience probably wouldn't buy it.]
[I think the possibility mentioned above is the most likely. Xiao He's acting range might be inherently narrow, and Liu Rulan knows this situation, which is why she's allowing Xiao He to follow the villain actor path.]
[Looking at it this way, is Xiao He's acting skill actually good or bad?]
[Actually, when you ask this question, you're already acknowledging Xiao He's acting skills, especially since he's not professionally trained.]
[Wow, I almost forgot about that—he's a complete newcomer! How does this make other young professionally-trained actors in the industry feel?]
The discussion under the topic gradually started veering off course. Liu Rulan received the news and rushed to the comments section. Looking at those people debating Xiao He's acting skills, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.