GuShiio.com
Wen| Tech Planet, author | Chen Qiaohui
Tech Planet has exclusively learned that Meituan has recently launched a personal photographer recruitment plan. The first batch of cities open for free include Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Xi’an. At present, it recruits portrait photographers, and the service types include marriage and love, banquet and scenic follow-up photography. After paying a deposit of 2000 yuan to the platform, photographers can enter the Meituan App and Dianping App as stores without a business license, and put up their own group purchase packages. The photographers will provide door-to-door services.
Illustration: Propaganda poster for Meituan’s personal photographer recruitment plan.
In recent years, user demand for location follow-up and travel photography has increased significantly, and sales of related photography equipment have soared. According to Zhang Hongtu, senior general manager of Neng (China) Co., Ltd., from January to August 2024, shipments in the China camera market increased by 20.8% year-on-year, while sales increased by 25.3% year-on-year.
In addition, some personalized services are mostly undertaken by personal photographers. For example, in the second half of last year, due to the liberalization of domestic visa-free services, many foreign tourists and bloggers chose follow-up services when visiting domestic attractions.
Meituan’s launch of the personal photographer settlement plan is aimed at this rapidly growing market demand. Tech Planet learned from people familiar with the matter that in order to better meet users ‘new consumer needs, make it easier for users to find the photographers they need, and give full play to the standardization advantages of group buying and other products, Meituan has further determined the professionalism of services in the photography industry. Level, ensuring user photography service experience such as follow-up and travel photography.
By integrating platform resources, Meituan will provide photographers with exposure opportunities and order sources, bringing users multiple photography service choices. While enriching the ecology of Meituan’s local life services, it also brings more business possibilities to personal photographers.
The first batch of Meituan photographers began to eat crabs
With the launch of Meituan’s personal photographer recruitment plan, the photographer profession has officially entered the era of platform-based operations.
Tech Planet learned that the recruitment plan for Meituan’s personal photographers started in January this year, and the first batch of cities that open free occupancy are Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Xi’an. These five cities are all well-known historical and cultural cities in the country and are rich in tourist attraction resources, which is conducive to Meituan’s rapid launch of new business. Subsequently, Meituan will further expand the scope of the pilot.
On Little Red Book, there are many personal photographers who want to apply to join. They jokingly call themselves photographers, hoping to use the platform’s brand endorsement to increase user trust, obtain stable order sources, and achieve revenue growth through the platform’s group buying and promotion activities.
Picture note: Screenshot is from Xiaohongshu.
A college student who successfully joined the Meituan photographer told Tech Planet that he had put on three group buying packages, namely, the campus photo package: 1 hour shooting, providing 10 refined photos, priced at 159 yuan; graduation photo package: 3 hours shooting, providing 30 refined photos, priced at 499 yuan; attraction follow-up package: 3 hours shooting, providing 20 refined photos, priced at 399 yuan. Someone came over one after another to inquire, and so far they have successfully received several orders, which is far better than on other platforms before.
Xiao Li is a freelance portrait photographer in Shanghai who mainly provides wedding, banquets and scenic spot follow-up services. He told Tech Planet that before settling in Meituan, he mainly received orders through social media and acquaintances. The order volume was unstable and his monthly income was around 8000 yuan. After settling in Meituan, Xiao Li has put on multiple group buying packages, including wedding follow-up photos, tourist attractions, etc. Currently, sales have increased significantly, and it is expected that his revenue in February will exceed 10,000.
Xiao Li also said that the platform’s commission ratio for group purchases is 5%. If users do not cancel purchases, the platform will not withdraw commissions and transfer funds.
In addition, Tech Planet also learned from Xiao Li that after personal photographers settle in Meituan, there will be no traffic conflict with the original studios in Meituan. Meituan distinguishes traffic. When consumers search for follow-up terms, they will display door-to-door personal photography stores. For example, consumers search for regular photography words such as personal photos and family portraits before displaying them to store merchants/studios.
In the search list, personal photographers and stores/photography studios enjoy the same priority exposure. Of course, if a personal photographer store wants to rank higher and receive more orders, it needs to consider its cumulative group purchase sales within one year, revenue, number of reviews, historical traffic, CPC (Cost Per Click) bid amount and other factors.
A user who has consumed said that on the Meituan platform, the price ranges of various photography services are clear at a glance. Different grades of packages provided by different photographers are clearly priced. Consumers can clearly see the service content contained in each package, details such as shooting duration, and number of refined photos.
Take photo shooting as an example. In the past, in some offline photography studios, an ordinary photo set could cost seven to eight hundred or even thousands of yuan. There might also be various hidden consumptions, such as additional photos and changing clothing. There is also a need to increase the price. Nowadays, on Meituan, some photo packages of the same specifications can be obtained for only two to three hundred yuan, and all services are clearly marked in the packages.
Meituan enters the game to take personal photography, will it disrupt or break the game?
With the popularity of Short Video and graphic platforms such as Douyin, Quick Hand, and Xiaohongshu, the demand for photography by domestic netizens is growing day by day. In the era of social media, people hope to share photos and videos to show their lives, express their individuality, interact with friends, family and fans, and gain attention and recognition. Photography has become an important part of social interaction.
As a result, users ‘demand for personalized photography services such as follow-up and travel photography has increased significantly. In particular, services such as scenic spots and wedding photography have become a hot need for many consumers.
At the same time, many people choose to pick up cameras to record their lives. According to data reported by the World Wide Web on February 3 quoted by the Nikkei Asia Review, the total global digital camera shipments will reach 8.49 million units in 2024. The increase in demand in the China market has largely promoted this recovery. In 2024, shipments of digital cameras in the China market will increase by 25% to 1.9 million units.
However, the personal photography market is currently in a chaotic stage, with huge price differences. For example, Disney quotes for 2-3 hours of follow-up, some are at 300 yuan and some are at 600 yuan. It is difficult for consumers to judge the service quality and professional level behind the price difference. Moreover, the traditional photography market has problems such as asymmetric information and uneven service quality, and there is an urgent need for a platform to integrate resources and improve service experience.
Based on this, Meituan has built a display platform for individual photographers to promote the standardized development of the photography industry through price transparency, evaluation systems, price comparison mechanisms and other methods.
With Meituan’s entry, personal photographers can gain more exposure and attract potential customers through the platform’s recommendation mechanism and search functions. Brand endorsement of the platform can also enhance user trust and help photographers build a good reputation.
For users, Meituan provides a more transparent and convenient choice channel. Users can select the photographers that best meet their expectations based on the photographer’s work style, past reviews, price packages and other information. In the past, you might have to inquire around and compare repeatedly to find a photographer. Now, all processes can be completed on Meituan, which greatly saves time and energy. At the same time, the platform’s supervision mechanism also ensures service quality and allows users to consume with confidence.
For Meituan itself, Meituan’s core business is local life services. The introduction of photography services has further enriched the platform’s service categories and enhanced user stickiness. In addition, the size of the domestic photography market is not small. According to an analysis report by the third-party data platform Yanjing Bizhi, the size of the photo studio market in China has reached 50 billion yuan in 2020. The standardized photography market will help Meituan seek new growth points.
Although Meituan has launched a personal photographer recruitment plan, which provides new opportunities for many photographers, users and itself, some personal photographers are also taking a wait-and-see attitude towards this.
They believe that the group purchase and package models on the platform may lead to price wars, because the platform has made it clear that it will not impose unified pricing on group purchases put on the shelves by personal photographers, and only provides guidance and reference. Whether to adopt them is another matter. In theory, a group purchase package can cost as little as 1 cent, and photographers may have to lower the price in order to attract customers, further reducing profit margins.
In addition, in addition to Meituan, similar businesses are also carried out on other platforms. Different platforms have different rules, user groups and operating methods. To take into account multiple platforms at the same time, time and energy need to be invested in content updates, customer maintenance and other work. It can easily lead to distraction, and it is difficult for every platform to achieve the ultimate. These are all issues and challenges that Meituan and personal photographers need to solve next.
But overall, the launch of Meituan’s personal photographer recruitment plan means that photography services have officially entered the era of platform-based operations. Through the platform’s traffic support, brand endorsement and operation tools, photographers can get more exposure and orders, while users can also enjoy more convenient and diversified photography services. Although there are challenges, it has also injected new vitality into the photography industry.
