A city, once basking in the halo of live streaming, suddenly finds itself at the whirlwind of web traffic, becoming a hot topic for everyone to relish. However, this craze appears to be short-lived as Heze in Shandong decides to forge a different path amidst the current live streaming frenzy.

Stories of trendy cities unfold every year, and this year seems particularly abundant. Harbin's charm still lingers, Tianshui's traces are not far gone, many cities are waiting for Kaifeng to hit the jackpot, yet Heze caught the spotlight due to an accidental live broadcast. Heze South Station has become a new hotspot that netizens enjoy discussing, where local live streamer Guo Youcai rose to fame, turning this defunct train station into a bustling "traffic hub." Not just the streamers, but onlookers also started to actively participate, offering various speculations and comments.

However, just as this surge of popularity soared, with everything seeming to trend towards even greater excitement, the situation suddenly shifted. After the buzz had continued for just over a week, Heze South Station announced that, considering factors like the college and high school entrance exams, it would no longer host various cultural and entertainment activities. This meant that live streaming activities were abruptly halted, and simultaneously, several streamers who had broadcast from Heze South Station were banned on short video platforms.

The widespread attention on Heze is partly due to the personal story of the streamer Guo Youcai. Guo started his career as a singing streamer in 2022, doing day broadcasts at Heze South Station and running a barbecue stall at night. In May 2022, his rendition of the old song "Promise" went viral, and his story began to spread widely, with the algorithms of short video platforms and the enthusiastic response of other streamers, creating a phenomenal hotspot.

Data shows that Guo Youcai has mastered the "secret recipe" for attracting traffic. From a certain day on, the number of online viewers in his broadcast room began to skyrocket, reaching hundreds of thousands and even millions, and the Baidu search index also showed explosive growth. Consequently, not only did more and more people start to emulate singing "Promise" at the train station, but many streamers also flocked to Heze, hoping to share in the local traffic.

The outside world showed great interest and concern over this phenomenon, and how Heze would handle this sudden influx of traffic and attention became an issue. Following this, Heze quickly took action and made the South Station a live broadcast base. City authorities coordinated with operators to optimize signals, installed network base stations on-site to improve the live broadcasting experience, renovated the station grounds, and designated specific areas for live broadcasting.

In terms of promoting cultural tourism, local departments were not left behind, establishing volunteer service teams, providing necessary infrastructure support such as free drinking water and mobile charging services, and overseeing environmental sanitation, all while promoting Heze's specialty peonies.

But obviously, relying solely on online popularity is not enough. To transform this craze into tangible benefits for tourism and culture, Heze authorities went further and established a work team composed of multiple departments, managing and utilizing this unexpected flow of traffic in a more professional and orderly manner.

The promotion of cultural tourism in Heze City is becoming more steady and strong with the noticeable addition of Guo Youcai as an advocate. The term "Heze" also appears more frequently in his live broadcast programs. Staff from the Heze City Tourism Promotion Center stated that the whole city is committed to this work, aiming to turn Guo Youcai's popularity and influence into an increase in the city's renown.

Nevertheless, Heze seems to have shown signs of change, with live broadcast management becoming stricter. On May 15, the cultural law enforcement brigade of the Peony District's Cultural Tourism Bureau intervened in a live broadcast incident involving vulgar content and received complete supervision from the judicial bureau. Just a day later, the South Station issued a notice to suspend all cultural and entertainment activities, with Guo Youcai and other broadcasters moving to the National Flower Expo Park for their live broadcasts.

Media reports pointed out that, in addition to the officially stated reasons, the large gatherings of broadcasters and audiences were affecting the local residents' lives, leading to complaints, which also played a significant role in the official halt of the live broadcasts. The live broadcast accounts of Heze's South Station were banned, while law enforcement was dispatched to the scene to disperse the broadcasting activities. The phenomenon of cross-dressing broadcasters was also criticized as "a pandemonium" by the outside world.

In light of these issues, Guo Youcai informed his fans during a live broadcast that he would stop broadcasting for two to three days, though he resumed the next day but disabled the tipping function. Despite this, the live broadcast room's real-time online viewership still reached the level of 100,000.

So why was Heze unable to maintain its traffic trend? According to the analysis by Sui Qian, Executive Director of Tsinghua University's National Image Communication Center's Branding Division, whether it's Zibo's barbecue or Tianshui's spicy hot pot, their popularity was raised through specific products. In contrast, Heze's situation is different, as its key to fame is “human-centered”, with humanity itself being complex and changeable, representing values behind it, and potentially leading to more social impacts than the traffic itself.

Further looking at the development of "Internet celebrity cities," if the rise in fame of cities like Zibo, Harbin, and Tianshui can be seen as the "fourth generation Internet celebrity city" model of small city counterattacks, then Heze marks the emergence of an even more complex model of Internet celebrity cities. Just like Kaifeng's "Wang Po" and Nanjing's "10-Yuan Handmade Coffee Auntie," they all gained popularity due to some special behavior.

With the advent of the "grassroots IP" era, these IPs have become the new focal points of urban traffic with their grounded appeal and authentic life influence. However, behind this affinity, there is often the audience's curiosity for novelty and the mentality of Internet celebrities to capitalize on hot topics, together creating scenes of traffic "festivals." This is a collective participation, and once a problem arises, it can quickly affect the reputation of the entire IP; and since many of them are grassroots, they often find themselves at a loss when faced with controversy and challenges.

Heze's case is not isolated, as Kaifeng's "Wang Po" had previously encountered a similar situation. Under the craze for traffic, the original matchmaking scene saw bizarre incidents, such as "married men" participating in matchmaking or throwing money around... Many of these dramatic stories were eventually revealed to be performances by Internet celebrities.

Recently, as Wang Po took a month's leave for health reasons, the online popularity has seen a decline. Heze city actively participated in internet pop culture, but this intrusion increased the uncertainty of grassroot fame. Indeed, with the completion of the renovations at Heze South Station, many influencers hoping to ride the wave of popularity flocked to the scene, leading to chaos: noise and hazardous antics were rampant, with some performances gradually degenerating into vulgarity and even illegal actions. The train station, once a symbol of the city's image, unfortunately turned into a chaotic performance stage, and the frequently seen "Heze South Station" sign in live broadcasts was particularly glaring.

Faced with uncontrollable changes brought by a single flow of IP traffic, the city's only course of action is to make timely strategic adjustments. From a macro perspective, a city needs to reassess how to deal with this traffic at this critical moment. In the past, the city's desire for traffic often appeared as a conditioned reflex, but under the new internet environment, the negative effects of traffic sometimes outweigh the positive ones, making the "traffic trap" a major concern for urban development.

Looking at Heze's handling strategy this time, some media believe that Heze's response is a competent solution. To anticipate potential public opinion crises, Heze chose to change the location of the live broadcasts. This not only ensured the daily order of Heze South Station but also showed the city's respect for the quality of life of ordinary citizens. At the same time, it was able to continue supporting and regulating the healthy development of live broadcasting activities, reflecting respect for people's aspirations to pursue their dreams. However, this measure is also a kind of "remedy," and it is difficult to completely eliminate the adverse effects that have already occurred.

The discussion around traffic still has fundamental questions: Should Heze really go all out in chasing this "traffic"? Sui Qian suggests that the city's attitude towards traffic should depend on the situation. In the case of traffic caused by "people," the excessive intervention by officials could lead to new problems. A more prudent approach is a limited intervention strategy, such as improving transportation facilities and environmental conditions. Moreover, different cities should tailor their traffic strategies to local conditions, even facing similar traffic events, and respond according to their own capabilities. Behind the traffic, we might also discover the figures of various platforms and commercial enterprises.

In this "game" of traffic, the city's intervention might only lead to a temporary frenzy for a few, ultimately being swayed by the traffic. To date, the concept of "one person igniting a city" has yet to be effectively validated, and strategies for turning traffic into long-term benefits remain at the theoretical stage. More importantly, having the city step back and letting the traffic return to the market, bringing the influencer narrative back to the individual level, might be the key to sustaining the vitality of influencer cities.

Regarding the city of Heze itself, the pursuit of online traffic is far more significant than it seems on the surface. Heze is a city with "internet celebrity potential," having produced phenomenal traffic years ago with the countryside singer "Big Coat Brother"; and Heze's Cao County went viral online with the meme of being the "center of the universe." All of this suggests that for such a city, it is crucial to manage the relationship between online traffic and fame correctly.

During a field inspection in 2022, reporters were fortunate to witness two large-scale events in Cao County — the Heze Internet Shopping Festival and the Lotus Festival·E-commerce Festival. These events not only highlighted the rapid development of the live-streaming e-commerce industry in the Heze region but also aimed to showcase its tourism appeal with themes centered around peonies and lotuses.

Behind these two events is a vision of Heze as a city extremely sensitive to online traffic and adept at traffic marketing. As local media stated, the arrival of out-of-town live streamers has brought new business opportunities to local merchants in Heze. At the same time, people are beginning to realize the multiple values of live-streaming activities. It is awaited with great anticipation whether this will spark another wave of growth for the live-streaming industry in Heze.

In this context, the article aims to discuss the relationship between internet influencers and city image-building, and the conditions a city must meet to become an "internet celebrity city." Therefore, we invite you to share your unique insights in the comments section.

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