The "薅羊毛党" operation activity is coming, and you can't afford to offend it. What should you do?

For operations , they work hard to plan and launch an event, but unexpectedly attract a large number of non- target users , or the target users who have been educated for a long time just refuse to follow the normal rules and routines and want to "wool" the platform or product. The results are multiple tragedies such as loss of profits, decreased user effectiveness, damaged user retention rate , and inability to protect the rights and interests of normal users. Faced with these rampant " wool-pulling parties ", it really gives operations a headache. Today, let’s talk about how to fight these “wool-pulling parties”:

Definition of “薅羊毛党”

To pull out the wool means to pluck out the wool. The derived meaning of this word is generally believed to have originated from Zhao Benshan's Spring Festival Gala sketch "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". In the sketch, Bai Yun used her job to pluck wool and knit yarn in order to knit a sweater for her boss. Her behavior was said to be "plucking the wool of socialism and digging into the corners of socialism." To put it simply, it means: taking advantage of the country and the people.

Baidu Encyclopedia divides this word into two words for explanation, one is "薅羊毛" (薅羊毛 gang) and the other is "羊毛党" (羊毛党). The explanations are actually similar, that is, there is a group of people who take advantage of loopholes in some promotional activities on the Internet platform and then take advantage of them. Such people are most common in the financial field. In fact, I think the appearance of the "bargain takers" is not just due to promotional activities, but in the world of the Internet, wherever there are bargains to be had, there will be the "bargain takers".

Why do some people love and some hate the “薅羊毛党”?

Although they are always busy taking advantage, the "wool-pulling party" is not a rat crossing the street that everyone shouts and beats. On the contrary, the reason why the current "wool-pulling party" can develop into a team work, and even has special wool-pulling WeChat groups , wool-pulling websites, wool-pulling apps and other products, in addition to the large number of wool-pulling party teams, is that some of the "sheep" they pull hate them, but some do not hate them and even acquiesce and like their existence:

When a platform is first built, it likes to take advantage of the disadvantages : there were only a few people originally, but now at least they have some popularity and can spread their influence. It is always cheaper and less labor-intensive to let the disadvantaged parties take advantage of them than to spend millions on advertising on TV or outdoors.

As the second-party, I like to take advantage of the freeloaders: I have promised the customers to complete a certain number of KPIs. Instead of looking for suppliers to increase the number of mechanical fans or fake data, it is better to help the freeloaders to have fun. After all, it is a group of real people playing, and it is easier to explain to the customers.

Financing platforms like to take advantage of the people who are trying to get the most out of their users: in order to make the data look good, to show it to investors , and to inject some stimulants into the market, they don’t care whether you are taking advantage of investors or not. They even have to actively influence more people who are trying to get the most out of their users to join in the fun, because only in this way can the user activity data be higher.

Small brands and small products like to take advantage of the free stuff: they are willing to use free strategies and subsidized strategies, just wanting more attention and influence, and they don’t care whether you are a Tom, Dick or Harry.

However, it is estimated that most product operators are still troubled by the "wool-pulling party", mainly because the existence of the wool-pulling party is likely to lead to the following "six losses":

1. The operating costs were out of control: We had originally planned to have 1,000 people participate at a cost of 20 yuan per person, or about 20,000 yuan. But as a result, groups of people came one after another to take advantage of the opportunity, and from 10,000 people the cost became 200,000 yuan, doubling the operating costs in a matter of minutes.
2. Data sample distortion: I gave 2 yuan red packets to users who were doing the survey, and those who wanted to get the freebies rushed in and filled in the answers at random, purely for the red packets. The authenticity of the data obtained from the survey was difficult to verify.
3. Abnormal data validity: The platform originally had its own precise user types. For example, users who operated the reference platform hoped to be bosses, and the platform had always relied on content to control users within a precise range. However, it was suddenly attacked by the wool-pulling party, and the platform users suddenly became a mixed bag, making it difficult to judge the valid users.
4. Breach of operational fairness: The original intention was to provide a fair and just activity for fans of the platform, but who knew that the wool-pulling party formed a group to place orders, and the top rankings were all wool-pulling people, leaving other users who participated according to the rules to be secretly sad.
5. Failure of platform servers: When the platform is carrying out activities, the large influx of freeloaders will increase the burden on the server, which may eventually cause the platform's service functions to fail and affect the normal operation of the platform.
6. The platform development is unbalanced: everyone rushes in, all for profit; everyone rushes out, all for profit. The "wool-grabbing" group has no stickiness to the platform, let alone loyalty. They will chase after profits on other platforms. As a result, the platform sometimes has peaks and sometimes troughs, the user retention rate is difficult to guarantee, and the overall development of the platform is unbalanced.

Common "薅羊毛党" categories

The Internet platform is full of active "wool-pulling" parties, and even various "wool-pulling" industries have been developed. In summary, the current "wool-pulling" parties can be roughly divided into the following categories:

1. The order-brushing group: They use software for brushing orders or numbers, or collect a lot of user information, to brush orders, brush tickets, and brush volumes on a certain platform or event, so as to gain opportunities to win benefits from the platform. Common examples include: voting fraud; using multiple mobile phones to submit false information to increase the number of votes, etc.
2. Task family: Complete the designated tasks released by the platform to obtain corresponding benefits. These tasks may be information-acquisition tasks such as registration, completing questionnaires, and binding ID cards/bank cards, or they may be entertainment tasks such as playing games , clicking on ads, and watching videos. No matter who the target users of the platform are or what goals are to be achieved, the wool-pulling party only regards these tasks as a channel to gain benefits.
3. Scalpers: Scalpers are also a member of the wool-pulling tribe, and they pluck the wool from the sheep. Scalpers take advantage of the timeliness of information acquisition, the leading edge of equipment and the power of group cooperation, and usually monopolize some products that are obviously popular, and then resell them at high prices to make a profit.
4. Hackers: Hackers usually take advantage of platform security loopholes to directly overcome the protection mechanisms of products or platforms, and then reap huge profits or even fleece all the victims. For example, points malls are often attacked by hackers, who redeem all of the direct-charge products, take the profits and then leave. There are also hackers who target data and sell data as a way to make a profit.
5. Leakage researchers: They specialize in studying the loopholes in the promotional activities released by various Internet platforms, and then use cracking methods to obtain corresponding benefits. For example, VR red envelopes from Alipay can be cracked by searching for pictures online. For example, there are special solutions on the Internet on how to crack shared bicycle red envelopes without leaving home. The wool-grabbing people can also benefit greatly from these cracking methods.

It is said that some of the current "wool-grabbing" groups have dozens of mobile phones and hundreds of accounts on various platforms, with monthly income ranging from a few hundred yuan to even tens of thousands of yuan. It is no wonder that today's platform managers and operators sometimes change their colors when talking about "wool".

How to deal with the "wool-pulling party"

Our platform has also been attacked by the "wool-pulling party" several times. We have experienced almost all of the "six failures" mentioned above. We have learned painful lessons and summarized some experience in dealing with the "wool-pulling party" from these lessons. Maybe they are not mature, but I share them with you, hoping to bring some inspiration to friends who have the same troubles!

Rule-making period: Preventing “wool-pulling party”

The emergence of the "wool-grabbing party" is always closely related to certain interest rules set by the platform. Therefore, during the rule-making period, we must be aware of the risks and fully consider how things will develop if there are wool-pulling parties:

1. Set an upper limit for profit acquisition: For example, for some cash back and rebate activities, it is necessary to consider the maximum amount that a normal person can complete and set an upper limit to avoid huge losses caused by false orders. For example, if you recommend users to get red envelopes, we may think that a normal person will not recommend more than 100 new friends a day, so the upper limit should be set at 100, instead of having no upper limit.
2. Set up risk prevention warnings: For example, for activities such as raffles and voting, it should be stated during the regulation period that if someone violates the rules by swiping orders or voting, the platform has the right to cancel their participation qualification or corresponding rewards. This is to avoid discovering later that fake orders and invoices have been faked and then having to do nothing about it.
3. Raise the threshold for participation: For example, for survey voting gift activities, there should be appropriate questions to screen the target users before the users participate. Only those who meet the requirements can further participate, rather than treating all users equally and filling out the form at will.
4. Avoid direct benefits: Generally speaking, benefits that users can directly obtain and take away, such as red envelopes and phone bills, are the favorites of the wool-grabbing party. As for coupons or physical rewards, the former involves shopping use, and the latter usually requires filling in personal delivery information as well as statistical analysis time during operations. The wool-grabbing party will be relatively less likely to appear.
5. Strengthen technical risk control mechanisms: On the one hand, consider the server's carrying capacity when encountering a large number of freeloaders, and expand its capacity; on the other hand, strengthen hacker prevention technology to prevent the platform from being attacked by hackers due to vulnerabilities.

During the rule operation period: timely detection of "wool-pulling party"

When the interest rules formulated by the platform officially enter the action stage, that is, the stage when the wool-pulling party begins to appear, for the operators, discovering their existence a moment earlier may be able to avoid subsequent greater losses.

1. Closely track data: Why operators should be extremely sensitive to data? This is because an operator who is sensitive to data can spot anomalies in the data development trend at the first time, such as a sudden surge in the number of users, or a sudden increase in the number of participants, etc. When being surprised by the effectiveness, it is also necessary to discern and distinguish its normality.

For example, our platform once made a mobile phone recharge API interface for the points mall, and recharged the operating expenses to the designated platform. Our members can go directly to the direct recharge platform to complete the phone recharge after redeeming the order in the points mall. One day, our operations staff suddenly discovered that the daily fee consumption was significantly higher than usual. They quickly checked and found that a certain account had been repeatedly recharging. After conducting an in-depth analysis of this account, they finally discovered that the other party had exploited a loophole in our points acquisition function and had been constantly brushing points and exchanging them for phone bills. Later we found out that JD.com had a similar experience, and the rumor resulted in a loss of 200 million yuan. In comparison, our timely discovery avoided greater losses.

2. Pay attention to online public opinion: Before the platform's rules are noticed and exploited by the wool-pulling party, there will usually be some corresponding news on the Internet. Timely attention can also avoid further losses.

For example, once when we were refreshing the keywords of an activity on our platform, we found a message on the Internet: "Follow XX platform, enter XX information, and it will arrive in seconds." After checking ourselves immediately, we found that this was another case of the merchant information in a certain process being accidentally cracked by the wool-pulling party.

3. Routine supervision and spot checks: In addition to passively waiting for the wool-pulling party to appear and then taking action, another way to avoid the wool-pulling party is to provide operational guidance and supervision to some key users during the process. For example, some of our merchants also like to use multiple mobile phones to swipe orders or violate regulations to make profits for their friends. At this time, the guidance and supervision of the visiting staff can serve as reminders and warnings. In addition, during the operation process, random return visits and spot checks will also bring some deterrence to the wool-pulling party, and then choose a more relaxed platform to obtain benefits.

Dealing with the "wool-pulling party": guiding them if it's minor, and punishing them if it's serious

However, even if we take precautions, the sad thing is that where there is profit, there will be people who take advantage of the situation. We can never predict at what moment our momentary negligence will lead to a carnival for the "people who take advantage of the situation".

So what should we do when the "wool-pulling party" appears? In addition to fixing loopholes in a timely manner, my suggestion is that for those small-scale beneficiaries, we might as well treat them as fan users brought by normal promotion , and use good functions, interactions and platform value to try to attract them to stay on the platform and eventually convert them into real platform users. As for those freeloaders who exploit platform loopholes and bring great negative effects or impacts to the platform, their eligibility to participate in the rewards should be revoked immediately; if they need to be tracked and investigated, the police should be notified immediately and the public security organs should be investigated and dealt with.

Finally, I still have to say something about those operators who regard "薅羊毛党" as a weapon to "increase platform popularity". Temporary traffic may bring about a long-term vicious cycle. Don't be obsessed with the false prosperity brought by "薅羊毛党". It is more important to practice internal skills than to take shortcuts!

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

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