In three seconds to Absurdistan

She earned $14 million. Well, that’s a lot, but it’s not completely extraordinary. What’s more extraordinary is how she did it.

The young woman showed products on her Douyin channel (the Chinese version of TikTok) via livestream. In order to be shown and advertised by Zheng Xiang, the manufacturing companies paid money. So far, so ordinary. This form of advertising is standard in all social media channels and has become a lucrative business for many influencers. How much companies pay depends on the number of followers. If you have up to 10,000 people following you, you can earn a good 1,000 euros a month. There are no upper limits, provided you market yourself and your private life accordingly.

But back to Zheng Xiang. She has a whopping 500 million followers. And in the live stream she showed them various products, from sweatpants to brooms, as an infomercial – for three seconds each. The concept was very successful for a week, then the authorities put an end to the whole thing. It is now forbidden in China to sell products in live streams with no or very little information.

Aitana Lopez has 270,000 followers. On Instagram she shows her everyday life, which mainly consists of posing scantily dressed for the camera, going to the gym and praising nutritional supplements. Monthly earnings: 3,000 to 10,000 euros. However, this money does not go to Aitana Lopez, but to an advertising agency in Barcelona. Because Aitana doesn’t exist; she was generated using artificial intelligence. This is in the lady’s profile, but it is doubtful whether all fans are aware that Aitana is not real. In any case, the comments on the postings do not differ from those that “real” influencers receive.

These examples are extreme variants of influencer marketing, a form of advertising that has gone from a niche topic to a megatrend in recent years. Companies like to advertise through people with a wide reach and a loyal following. It seems more honest, more authentic, closer to the target group. But this also comes with numerous problems. It is often not made sufficiently transparent that it is advertising and the boundaries are blurred. The two examples mentioned show that the limits are exceeded when it comes to absurdities that completely question the concept.

Oh yes, in case you’ve been wondering since the beginning of the column how much Amazon founder Jeff Bezos earns: twelve million dollars. Not in a week, but in an hour.