背景介绍：
随着社交媒体的普及和影响力的不断扩大，越来越多的年轻人梦想成为网红，希望通过在社交媒体上发布内容来获得关注和收入。然而，随着网红数量的激增，行业竞争日益激烈，同时也引发了一系列问题。本文将探讨网红行业的现状、发展趋势以及面临的挑战，分析网红如何保持影响力并实现可持续发展，同时关注消费者对此行业的态度和反应。
Too many
people want to be social-media influencers
太多的人想成为网红
That is good
for companies but bad for “creators”
这对公司有利，但对“内容创造者”不利
Ask a young person what they would like to do with
their life and increasingly often the answer will be to find fame and fortune
online. Fully 57% of
Gen Zs in America
would like to be a social-media influencer, according to Morning
Consult, a pollster; 53% describe it as a “reputable career choice”.
问一个年轻人想从事什么职业，如今越来越多的回答是想成为网红。根据民意调查机构 Morning Consult 的数据，美国有高达57%的Z世代人希望踏入网红这一行列；其中53%的人甚至将其描述为“信誉良好的职业选择”。
Those dreams may be understandable: examples abound of social-media superstars, from fashionistas and comedians to gamers, making tens of thousands of dollars for a post promoting the wares of some brand. As consumers spend more of their lives on social media, the amount of money companies are paying influencers is rocketing.
这些梦想或许是情有可原的：社交媒体上超级明星的例子俯拾即是，从时尚达人、喜剧演员到游戏玩家，他们通过在社交媒体上带货，轻松赚取数万美元。随着消费者在社交媒体上投入的时间日益增长，公司向网红支付的报酬也在急剧飙升。
Yet as the industry has grown, it has also changed.
Spoiled for choice, companies have shifted their attention towards influencers
creating content for narrower audiences, such as fashion tips for the over 60s
or gardening advice for inner-city dwellers, to better target those consumers.
然而，随着该行业的蓬勃发展，它也悄然发生了变化。出于策略考量，公司已将目光投向那些为更小众受众创作内容的网红，例如专为60岁以上人群提供的时尚贴士或针对市中心居民的园艺建议，以便更精准地触达这些消费者。
Cultivating a small fan base in a niche area may earn hobbyists some extra cash, but it will rarely be enough for them to quit their day job. Those who fantasise about making a living as a social-media star may thus be heading for disappointment.
在小众市场培养一小撮忠实粉丝群或许能为爱好者带来一些额外收入，但这往往不足以支撑他们放弃正式工作。因此，那些怀揣着以社交媒体明星身份谋生的幻想之人，可能会因此步入失望的境地。
Companies have been increasing the share of their
marketing budgets they hand over to influencers. Over the past five years,
American firms have roughly tripled their spending on influencer marketing, to
$7bn, according to eMarketer, a research firm.
公司一直在加大他们在网红营销上的预算份额。据研究公司 eMarketer 称，过去五年里，美国公司在网红营销上的支出大约增长了两倍，达到70亿美元。
In a survey by the Influencer Marketing Hub, another research group, 86% of brands globally said they plan to spend on influencer marketing this year, up from 37% in 2017, when the survey was first conducted. Nearly a quarter intend to spend over 40% of their marketing budget on influencer campaigns.
另一家研究机构 Influencer Marketing Hub 的一项调查显示，全球86%的品牌表示，他们计划在今年投入资金于网红营销，这一比例远高于2017年首次进行该调查时的37%。近四分之一的品牌打算将超过40%的营销预算用于网红活动。
Companies realise that influencers—or “creators”, as
many prefer to be called—have become
integral
to how consumers shop. According
to research by Northwestern University and LTK, a platform that connects
influencers with brands, nearly three-quarters of Gen Zs in America have relied
on influencers to help them choose products to buy. More surprisingly, so have
a third of consumers who are boomers or older.
公司逐渐意识到，网红——或者许多人更倾向于称之为“内容创造者”——已成为消费者购物方式中不可或缺的一环。根据西北大学和 LTK（一个连接网红与品牌的平台）的研究，美国近四分之三的Z世代依赖网红来辅助他们的购买决策。更令人诧异的是，三分之一的婴儿潮一代或更年长的消费者亦是如此。
Influencers are part of every big campaign nowadays,
says Mark Read, the boss of WPP, which owns advertising agencies such as Ogilvy
and Mindshare.
Walmart
, a giant American retailer, has
worked with
TikTok
stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio.
BOSS, a fancy clothing brand, has collaborated with Khaby Lame, a comedian with
more followers than anyone else on TikTok. Louis Vuitton, a luxury
stalwart
,
has run campaigns with Emma Chamberlain, a YouTuber.
WPP 老板马克·里德指出，网红已成为当今每一场大型活动的重要组成部分。WPP 旗下拥有奥美和传立媒体等广告公司。美国大型零售商沃尔玛已与 TikTok 明星 Charli 和 Dixie
D’Amelio 携手合作。时尚服装品牌 Boss 则与喜剧演员 Khaby
Lame 联袂，后者是 TikTok 上粉丝量最多的喜剧演员。奢侈品的忠实拥趸路易威登亦与油管博主艾玛·张伯伦共同开展了活动。
For the past few years influencers have even starred in Super Bowl ads alongside Hollywood royalty and chart-topping pop stars. The biggest influencers now hire
legions
of staff to help them create eye-catching posts, while agencies and other middlemen help them land and manage brand deals.
在过去几年里，网红甚至与好莱坞巨星和流行歌坛冠军一同出演了超级碗广告。最具影响力的网红们现今雇佣了大批员工来助力他们打造引人注目的帖子，而代理机构和其他中间商则协助他们达成和管理品牌交易。
Such stories have lured a growing number of people to
try their hand at being an influencer. Goldman Sachs, a bank, estimates that as
of last year there were more than 50m influencers globally, and reckons their
ranks are swelling by between 10% and 20% annually.
这样的故事吸引着越来越多的人投身于网红事业。高盛银行估算，截至去年，全球网红数量已超过5000万，并认为这一群体每年以10%到20%的速度迅速扩张。
The surging supply of influencers has been a
boon
for
companies that use them to sell their products. Celebrity influencers may be
helpful for building awareness of a brand or altering how it is perceived by
shoppers, but when it comes to persuading people to buy something, marketers
look to the long tail of creators with small but engaged groups of followers.
网红数量的激增对于利用他们推广产品的公司而言，无疑是一个福音。网红名人或许有助于提升品牌知名度或改变购物者对其的看法，但在说服人们购买特定商品方面，营销人员会更加关注那些拥有小规模但积极参与的追随者群体的网红，即所谓的“长尾效应”。
Since 2021 the share of spending on influencer
marketing in America taken by creators with more than 1m followers has fallen
from 15% to 8%; the share taken by those with fewer than 20,000 followers has
surged from 20% to 45% (see chart 2). Marketing agencies help companies manage
contracts with many such influencers, sometimes using artificial intelligence
(AI) to scout out those whose audiences best match their needs.
自2021年以来，拥有超过100万粉丝的网红在美国网红营销支出中所占的份额已从15%下降至8%；而粉丝少于20,000人的网红所占份额则从20%飙升至45%。营销机构协助公司管理与众多此类网红的合同，有时甚至会利用人工智能来寻找那些受众与公司需求最为契合的网红。
For those hoping to make a career out of their
social-media presence, however, the proliferation of social-media influencers
should be a cause for concern. Only 4% of creators earn $100,000 a year or more
from the work, according to Goldman Sachs.
然而，对于那些期望通过社交媒体的存在来发展事业的人来说，网红数量的激增应敲响警钟。根据高盛的数据，仅有4%的网红每年能从其作品中赚取10万美元或以上。
AI could worsen the situation, as “virtual influencers” begin to crowd social-media feeds: Aitana López, a gamer and fitness guru with pink hair and a face so symmetrical it could only have been generated by a computer, has 330,000 followers on Instagram.
随着“虚拟网红”开始充斥社交媒体信息，人工智能可能会进一步加剧这一态势：艾塔纳·洛佩兹，一位拥有粉色头发和对称脸庞的游戏玩家兼健身大师，实则完全由计算机生成，但她在 Instagram 上仍拥有33万名粉丝。
The glut of influencers is also making online fame yet
more
fickle
. Even if a post goes viral, that doesn’t mean an influencer’s
career is set, says Joe Gagliese, co-founder of Viral Nation, a marketing
agency.
“If they’re not careful to make the most of that, there is another creator right behind them,” he says.
网红的过剩也让网络名气变得更加飘忽不定。营销机构Viral Nation的联合创始人乔·加格利斯表示，即使一篇帖子在网络上疯传，也并不意味着网红的职业生涯就此稳固。
他说道：“如果他们未能充分利用这一机遇，那么会有另一位网红紧随其后。”
“This industry is extremely
volatile
,” points out Vanessa Chen, a fashion influencer better known by her Instagram name Vivacious Honey. To diversify her income, she recently launched her own clothing line. Many others have done something similar.
时尚网红凡妮莎·陈指出：“这个行业极其不稳定。”她在 Instagram 上拥有赫赫有名的帐户 Vivacious Honey。为了实现收入多元化，她最近推出了自己的服装系列。其他许多网红也采取了类似举措。
There is another problem with the flood of influencers
online: consumers are growing weary of all those ads dressed up as
entertainment. In a survey last year McKinsey, a consultancy, found that 68% of
fashion consumers globally were unhappy with the amount of sponsored content on
social media.
大量的网红还存在另一个问题：消费者对所有这些打着娱乐旗号的广告日益感到厌倦。咨询公司麦肯锡去年的一项调查发现，全球68%的时尚消费者对社交媒体上的赞助内容数量表示不满。
Influencers first took off because consumers thought of
them as “people they could trust”, says Anita Balchandani of McKinsey. To
remain influential they need to strike a balance between getting paid and
convincing followers they are still “authentic”, one of the industry’s
favourite buzzwords. Being popular, it seems, is harder than ever.
麦肯锡的安妮塔·巴尔昌达尼表示，网红之所以崛起，是因为消费者视他们为“可以信赖的人”。为了保持影响力，他们需要在获取报酬的同时保持“真实性”，这仍是该行业最受欢迎的流行语之一。看来，成名之路比以往任何时候都要艰难。
重难点词汇
：
