It is said that Chinese self-media creators have already reached 200 million people, while the number of dogs in China is only 100 million. More than 98% of self-media creators can never make a living for themselves; the income of big V accounts with 1 million followers is no better than that of ride-hailing drivers; and 50% of creators will stop posting in the next three years. These reflect a trend: the traffic dividend for self-media has ended. In the past, platform growth, information gaps, and scarce attention created opportunities for many ordinary people to gain a foothold by continuously producing content; but today, content production has entered an era of infinite supply—ordinary content is becoming cheaper and cheaper, and follower counts no longer equal commercial value. What will truly last in the future is not the person who manufactures trending topics every day, but the one who has unique insights, professional capabilities, trust assets, and a closed-loop business model. Self-media is shifting from “traffic competition” to “value competition,” from “who can grab attention” to “who can influence decisions.” Many people are not losing creative opportunities—they are losing the past era in which wealth was accessible with low barriers. In the future, creators must either become irreplaceable experts in a field, or connect content to products, services, and real value; otherwise, relying on traffic alone makes it hard to survive long term.