Xiaohongshu has been removed from shelves for rectification, and UGC is difficult to control!

• Introduction•

The straw that broke the camel's back was never the media.

l The Little Red Book of Crossing the Tribulation

On the evening of July 29, many netizens discovered that Xiaohongshu could not be downloaded from the Android App Store. Currently, in addition to the IOS system of Xiaomi Mall, Hammer App Mall and App Store, Huawei, OPPO, Meizu,

Mobile phones from brands including OnePlus are unable to download the Xiaohongshu app.

Relevant sources revealed that the App Store under the iOS system will also remove Xiaohongshu in the near future. "The earliest possible time may be tomorrow", Xiaohongshu is going through a tribulation.

The reason displayed is: Xiaohongshu service is adjusted and download is temporarily unavailable.

Xiaohongshu has been seriously questioned by users due to the ghostwriting of "grass-planting" notes, the rampant order-padding, data falsification, and rampant rumors.

As soon as the news of Xiaohongshu’s removal and rectification came out, netizens said that it was very gratifying. "Everyday is 20 years old, everyone has a Ferrari" has become the label of Xiaohongshu. The "treasure trove of grass-planting" cannot escape the tragedy of showing off wealth and fake goods, and it is even called the "ancestor of fakes" by angry netizens.

Why has Xiaohongshu, the “treasure trove of grass-growing materials”, come to this? At its peak, Xiaohongshu, which was once extremely popular, had 250 million users and 85 million monthly active users, with 15 million daily active users.

As the most well-known "grass-planting" APP in China, Xiaohongshu community produces 3 billion pictures, texts and short video content every day, of which 70% of the exposure comes from UGC (user-generated content).

140 million notes shared have been compiled into China's largest consumer word-of-mouth database. There are now 13,500 brands on Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu’s GMV (gross merchandise volume) in 2017 reached 10 billion, and its 5% store conversion rate is much higher than other platforms.

There are not only a large number of internet celebrities on Xiaohongshu, but the operation strategy of introducing star-level KOLs can be described as a game between traffic and wisdom.

In this era of information explosion, celebrities are undoubtedly the well-deserved top traffic. Let’s look back at the “Double Micro War” seven years ago - the war between Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo.

Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo both introduced celebrities, but their overall strategies were slightly different. The celebrities invited by Sina Weibo helped Sina Weibo become active every day, but Tencent Weibo's celebrity strategy was only used during competitions. In comparison, Tencent Weibo seemed a little deserted, and ultimately it was forced to shut down.

"Mark my life" is the slogan of Xiaohongshu. Fan Bingbing, a top star invited to join the blog, jokingly calls herself a "beauty blogger". Whether it is the "coconut oil shampooing method" she recommends or the facial masks that appear casually, they will all be "prominently" mentioned by Xiaohongshu. People have tried them one after another and have been enthusiastic about the things that Fan Bingbing has used. I hope that after using it, I can become as beautiful as Fan Bingbing, or as white as Fan Bingbing.

In addition to celebrities and internet celebrities, Xiaomi President Lei Jun also recently opened a personal account on Xiaohongshu to become a product blogger and wrote notes himself to warm up for Xiaomi CC9.

l Xiaohongshu’s social e-commerce marketing illusion: stealing the “self” of female consumers

Xiaohongshu initially grew up with the UGC (user-generated content) model, and its fresh "grass planting" model attracted a large number of users.

What makes people addicted is not just the "planting grass", but the fact that the shopping desire of female consumers is "out of control", uncontrollable and unable to stop "shopping".

Studies have shown that the reasons why women spend money on shopping are less controlled by their own subjective consciousness.

It was not only Socrates who was killed by the voice of the majority, but also the consumers who were caught up in their desires. Capital has turned us all into a “mob”.

In the voice of the crowd, reason is drowned, the self is swallowed up, and only endlessly spreading desire remains. A person browsing Taobao can think independently, but Xiaohongshu, the leader in social e-commerce, is best at creating social illusions, which is to bring individual consumers together. When a group of people get together, it is easy to create a "mob".

Following the trend and recommending products, the "pig girls" have to admit that even though they know the recommendation notes are a scam, they are still willing to jump in. They have obviously collected the most popular lipstick colors today, but when they see the beautiful lipstick notes, they still can't suppress their "lipstick desire."

Every day women worry about a whole closet of clothes, not knowing what to wear and always feeling that they are missing a lipstick.

Xiaohongshu takes advantage of the female consumers' mentality of "there is always one less piece of clothing and one less lipstick", and then uses the social advantages of social e-commerce to steal the "self" of female consumers.

“The individual who gathers together does not merely differ greatly from himself in his conduct; even before he loses all independence, a change is brought about in his thoughts and feelings, so great that it can turn a spendthrift into a miser, a skeptic into a believer, an honest man into a sinner, and a coward into a hero.”

In his book on mass psychology, The Crowd, Gustave Le Bon explained three characteristics of a crowd: intellectual differences are leveled out, emotions are easily contagious, and people are easily susceptible to suggestion.

When most girls see internet celebrities and beautiful girls on social platforms all own the same thing, it is difficult for them to control their desire to consume in order to become more beautiful, even though they know that this may be a soft article. But when the purchasing chain is within reach, it is hard for everyone to resist the convenience. Often this is the best time to place an order "impulsively".

It is difficult for people to have the desire to consume when they are thinking rationally. However, when they are swept up in the desires of the group, they can easily lose the ability to remain calm.

l Xiaohongshu's gray and black industry chain exposed

Xiaohongshu’s success is due to UGC, its failure is also due to UGC, and its criticism also comes from UGC.

It is under this kind of marketing magic that the "grass planting" notes on Xiaohongshu have become increasingly false. Basically, as long as you pay money, no matter whether the product is qualified or not, it can be evaluated on Xiaohongshu and be listed as a "grass planting note."

In March this year, according to a report by China Business Network, Xiaohongshu had the phenomenon of faking and inflating the number of user experience articles called "planting notes", and was also suspected of selling counterfeit goods.

According to reports, a person claiming to be a professional promotion customer service staff of Xiaohongshu said that they can not only help write notes, but also help post them. The price of posting depends on the number of fans. If the person who posts has more than 100,000 fans, the price of a note can be as high as 2,000 yuan.

Xiaohongshu promoters said that the price of ordinary people's notes is 50 yuan, and the price of expert ghostwriting is 120 yuan, and each article is about 500 words.

"As for inflating the number of followers, our current price is 8 yuan for 100 followers, 7 yuan for 100 likes and favorites, and 1 yuan for one artificial comment (trolls), with a minimum of 10 comments."

1. Metaphysics

Oriental whitening magic, rubber band weight loss method, acupuncture point height increase method, pregnancy height increase method... these magical metaphysical techniques are already common on Xiaohongshu.

Just like the seller who shouts the loudest at the exhibition, claiming that his products can beautify the skin, remove freckles, relieve coughs, lower high blood pressure, and lower cholesterol, the only thing he hasn’t mentioned is that they can cure cancer. The same is true for the metaphysics on Xiaohongshu, which says that eggs can whiten skin, cure toothaches, and eliminate accessory breast cancer.

The "rubber band weight loss method" claims to release excess fat from fat depots by stimulating the abundant nerves and acupoints on the fingers through binding and massage.

2. Tobacco

In the chaotic pile of weeds on Xiaohongshu, the most wildly growing weed is "tobacco".

While the country has issued a clear ban on tobacco advertising on the Internet, Xiaohongshu has dared to "plant grass" on the "Taisui" head. In April, Beijing Youth Daily published "95,000 tobacco soft articles appeared on Xiaohongshu App", reporting on the modification of "soft articles" in tobacco online marketing.

Subsequently, Xiaohongshu spoke out: it opposes the spread of tobacco in any form, is verifying all relevant information as soon as possible, and has taken offline all notes that mention tobacco.

3. “Black Medical Beauty” Industry Distribution Center

On the day Xiaohongshu was removed from the shelves, Southern Metropolis Daily exposed the chaos in Xiaohongshu's medical beauty industry, calling Xiaohongshu a distribution center for the "black medical beauty" industry.

According to Southern Metropolis Daily, many sellers on the Xiaohongshu APP are selling banned drugs in the name of "planting grass", claiming that they have a full range of varieties such as "green poison" and "pink poison", and even the "human placenta" that has disappeared from the market for a long time is in stock in the hands of these bloggers.

These unscrupulous bloggers make recommendations in the name of "planting grass", but in reality they divert people to offline unqualified medical institutions and quack doctors for injections. Some even exaggerate by offering training courses that allow one to learn micro-plastic surgery quickly within five days, claiming "two days of theory and three days of practice". At the same time, he also posted notes on Xiaohongshu "recommending" and "selling advertisements".

It is reported that there are many brand manufacturers of medical beauty drugs, but not all brands are allowed to enter China. Currently, no placenta brand products are allowed to enter the country.

The "Pink Poison", "White Poison", "Colorful Poison" and "Green Poison" brands, which have not been allowed to enter the country, have been widely promoted on Xiaohongshu. Some netizens with ulterior motives have even displayed pictures of product packaging, pictures of on-site botulinum toxin injections, and written about their personal medical beauty experiences.

A "grass-planting" note is actually an obscure soft article that contains the names of medical institutions and the contact information of doctors. It not only sells banned drugs, but also promises "one-stop" service.

Investigations and studies have shown that these recommended so-called doctors do not have medical qualifications.

From selling banned drugs to providing services of unqualified doctors, and then to illegally recruiting and training unqualified doctors, Xiaohongshu has formed a complete "black medical beauty" industry chain.

4. Pornographic content

However, the real reason why Xiaohongshu was removed from the shelves seems to be because it contained pornographic and other illegal content. The seemingly glamorous hotel check-in notes actually contain mysteries.

The removal and rectification of Xiaohongshu began when it was "overgrown with weeds". The online underworld is everywhere, and the chaotic Xiaohongshu urgently needs to be rectified.

l The straw that broke the camel's back was never the media.

There are people with ulterior motives who have ruined Xiaohongshu. The fundamental reason why Xiaohongshu was taken off the shelves for rectification is that the rectification was not strong enough.

Xiaohongshu responded that it has "zero tolerance" for inflating the number of views and followers in the community, and has reported such incidents to the public security authorities and is actively cooperating with the police in the investigation and handling of the case. From January to March 2019, Xiaohongshu's anti-cheating technical team handled 1.38 million black market accounts, 380,000 cheating accounts, and 1.21 million cheating notes.

On July 17, Xiaohongshu released the community anti-cheating report for the second quarter of 2019. The report showed that Xiaohongshu's professional staff cleaned up an average of 4,285 fake notes every day, and cleaned up an average of 18.6 fake accounts every 5 minutes.

• Conclusion•

When the pure social e-commerce model is used by those with ulterior motives and becomes a sales tool, the original intention of the sharing community platform becomes difficult to find.

Author: Clockwork Brown

Source: PR Home