Xiaohongshu sues four false grass planting platforms
Xiaohongshu sues four false grass planting platforms. Nowadays, searching for "grass planting posts" before consumption has become an important way for modern young people to know about their products in advance, which also leads some merchants to regard "grass planting posts" as a marketing strategy, and Xiaohongshu sues four false grass planting platforms. Xiaohongshu sued four false grass planting platforms. 1
"Amateur recruitment", "no fee replacement" and "recruiting thousands of powder KOC to explore the store" ... Open a third-party notice platform, and pay for promotion and recruitment.
on January 19th, Xiaohongshu formally filed a lawsuit against four notification platforms, including Micro Media Notification, Chengbao, Nanjing Mussel and MCN. Xiaohongshu said that these institutions are engaged in the business of "writing and distributing" false grass notes, helping merchants and bloggers to carry out false promotion, which has caused great harm to the platform content ecology and platform reputation, and seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of users. To this end, Xiaohongshu asked the above-mentioned institutions to immediately stop the false promotion transactions against Xiaohongshu, and compensate Xiaohongshu for economic losses of 1 million yuan. The compensation will be used for the management of false grass planting on the platform.
Bridge of False Grass Planting
"Many notes in Little Red Book are difficult to tell the truth from the falsehood. I am often placed an order with passion after planting grass, only to find that it is completely different from what I said when I received the goods, and I feel cheated." Consumer Li Bing (pseudonym) told Tianmu journalist that the false advertisement of Xiaohongshu was confusing and made her "step on thunder" frequently.
where do these false advertisements come from? The reporter found that on platforms such as Red Notice, Micro-media Notice and Tomato Notice, brands or third-party intermediaries that undertake the needs of brands recruit a large number of amateurs to produce content in Xiaohongshu, Tik Tok, Weibo and bilibili with physical goods/services or cash ranging from to 1 yuan as remuneration.
In the recruitment information of the platform, the publisher will indicate the requirements such as the type of blogger and the number of fans, and the promotion contents include skin care products, cosmetics, clothing, milk powder, stationery, offline stores, etc. The manuscript fee ranges from several yuan to several hundred yuan. The organizations that recruit amateurs on the notice platform are generally brand parties or MCN organizations represented by Chengbao and Nanjing Mussel, which represent the marketing needs of brands.
Through the third-party platform, brand parties and MCN organizations link amateur bloggers, and falsely planting grass has developed into a complete gray industrial chain.
according to the official data of xiaohongshu, since the special treatment of "false grass planting" was launched on December 16, 221, xiaohongshu has banned 81 brands and offline merchants, handled 172,6 false grass planting notes and 53,6 illegal accounts.
However, this time, the false grass planting management of Xiaohongshu extended the client to third-party intermediaries. In this regard, the special person in charge of the "false marketing" governance of Xiaohongshu said: "Only the false content and account numbers in the platform are managed, and the symptoms are not cured. Therefore, it is necessary to cut off the demand of upstream brands for writing and sending, so as to fundamentally attack this gray production chain."
The governance of illegal marketing will become a long-term behavior
According to the reporter in Xiaohongshu's Community Norms, Xiaohongshu does not encourage the release of marketing or diversion information, including false propaganda, false transactions, etc., nor does it encourage the products and contents to be shared to be irrelevant, have no real experience, have not restored their true feelings, refer too much to business guidance or use too many official propaganda statements. The Community Convention also specifically mentions: "If you are sponsored or facilitated by merchants in the process of sharing and creation, please declare your interests."
Recently, at the seminar on "Network Ecological Governance", Xue Jun, a professor of law in Peking University and director of Peking University E-commerce Law Research Center, pointed out that there are three main links in the industrial chain of network black ash production: first, the demand side hopes to realize traffic fraud by using black ash production; The second is the third-party operating agency that undertakes the demand, such as the brush company; The third is to receive a large number of scattered participants who are similar to the tasks of "brushing" and "brushing praise".
The reporter found that some platforms, such as the tomato announcement, have gone offline, but some announcement platforms are still active. On the "Crab Notice" applet, there is still a steady stream of promotion and recruitment information. In addition to Xiaohongshu, it also involves the promotion of platforms such as Tik Tok, Weibo, bilibili, Aauto Quicker and Taobao.
Lawyer Wen Yang Zhan, a senior partner of Beijing Zhongdun Law Firm, told Tianmu journalists that from a legal point of view, publishing the information of "false planting grass" belongs to the category of false propaganda and unfair competition. Xiaohongshu's handling and prosecution of institutions and accounts related to "false grass planting" is mainly based on the agreement formed by Xiaohongshu's registration agreement and other contents, which sets the rights and obligations for Xiaohongshu and its users. If an individual or subject who uses Xiaohongshu's account violates the rules in the process of using the account, Xiaohongshu can ban his account accordingly. If the improper and illegal behavior in using the account causes economic loss or reputation loss to Xiaohongshu, it can be investigated for its corresponding liability for compensation.
Yang Wenzhan also said that as a platform, we should strengthen the verification measures for the contents published by relevant accounts, and deal with illegal contents and users in a timely and proactive manner or according to user complaints and reports. The platform should also pay attention to guiding relevant accounts to publish true and healthy contents.
On January 5th, the National Network Information Office publicly solicited opinions from the public on the newly revised Regulations on the Management of Information Services of Mobile Internet Applications, clearly stating that application providers should standardize their business management behaviors, and should not induce users to download through false propaganda, bundling downloads, or using illegal and bad information, and should not create false traffic by machine or manual means.
"We will persist in the management of illegal marketing for a long time. It is a protracted war, and there are many governance difficulties that cannot be completely overcome through a single platform. " Shen Lian, editor-in-chief of Xiaohongshu, said that, for example, such third-party order-taking intermediary platforms as micro-media announcement and red announcement have not found particularly good ways to crack down on them, but Xiaohongshu will continue to try and find ways. Xiaohongshu sues four false grass planting platforms 2
Nowadays, searching for "grass planting posts" before consumption has become an important way for modern young people to know their products in advance, which has also led some businesses to regard "grass planting posts" as a marketing strategy, and the generation industry has emerged.
on January 19th, Xiaohongshu announced that it had formally filed a lawsuit against four notification platforms, including Micro Media Notification, Chengbao and Nanjing Mussel, and MCN organization, claiming that it should "stop the false promotion and trading behavior against Xiaohongshu" and claim 1 million yuan.
according to the investigation of Red Star journalists, the gray industrial chain of grass planting posts is reached by the cooperation of the brand, MCN company, notice platform and advertisement post publishers. With the help of the notice platform that provides amateur recruitment service, or in cooperation with MCN company that provides false grass planting service, brands employ amateurs or online celebrity bloggers to publish grass planting posts by way of product replacement or product replacement with low remuneration. Some even require employees to place their own orders on the e-commerce platform, and then refund them after publishing the grass planting posts, so as to achieve the purpose of brushing the list. Some brands will make clear requirements on the content of the grass planting posts, resulting in customized "grass planting posts".
The sued company has cooperated with more than 1 experts
"Generally, the service fee is less than 1%"
It is understood that in the past month, Xiaohongshu has implemented three rounds of false grass planting control actions, which have banned 81 brands and offline institutions, handled 172,6 false grass planting notes and 53,6 illegal accounts. The scope of governance covers the whole "writing for generation" ash production chain, from the demand side with false grass planting to the external MCN institutional platform providing false grass planting services.
data map. Young people's consumption sharing platform Xiaohongshu headquarters office building.
tianyancha shows that Nanjing mussel media technology co., ltd., a notification platform sued this time, is a small and micro enterprise established less than three years ago with a registered capital of 1, yuan, and its business scope includes media technology research and development. Internet information service; Web design; Design, produce, represent and publish all kinds of domestic advertisements; Photography service; Art design; Computer graphic design and production; Corporate image planning; Video production, etc.
On January 2th, Wang Ming, the person in charge of the above-mentioned company, told the Red Star journalist that it should be a common marketing method for talents in the advertising industry to plant grass at present. The marketing business model of the company is mainly entrusted by the brand, and then docked with the cooperative Little Red Book Talent (online celebrity blogger) to send products, and finally the Little Red Book Talent posted grass planting posts.
Screenshot of platform recruitment
At present, there are more than 1 Little Red Scholars who have cooperated with Nanjing mussels, all of whom have a certain fan base. As for how to ensure the authenticity of the grass-planting posts, Wang Ming said that the company only plays an intermediate transmission role. After the goods are delivered, Daren writes his own experience notes. Daren's content creation is completely based on Daren's own ideas and tonality. Most of them are shared in daily life, and they will not affect Daren's own creative content, while the brand will send a simple product introduction, "generally, it will not intervene (grass-planting posts)".
Screenshot of platform recruitment
Wang Ming told the Red Star journalist that the company "generally charges less than 1% of the service fee for the remuneration of such businesses, and this service fee is caused by the manpower cost of our colleagues and talents."
Regarding this lawsuit, Wang Ming said that he didn't know the situation for the time being. "We also don't want to bring false things to users, which goes against the initial intention of our industry."
Take products or products plus fees as rewards
Some brands customize "grass planting posts"
In addition, the notification platform APP, applets and various notification groups are also important ways to spread the recruitment information of grass planting posts. The audience of these platforms is more inclined to ordinary people without a large fan base, that is, "amateurs". The introductions of these platforms include "online celebrity Media Task Announcement Platform", "Gathering Many Brands /pr/kol/koc/ Amateur", "Finding the Products You Want to Launch", "Planting Grass by Talents/Evaluating/Bringing Goods" and so on.
Take the amateur recruitment platform "Crab Notice" as an example. Brand parties, agency companies, personal brands and e-commerce companies can all publish recruitment information as the notice owners on the platform. A customer service staff member of Shenzhen Digital Pool Technology Co., Ltd., the main account of the platform, told Red Star News that the platform will strictly review the background of MCN institutions that publish information, and no commission is charged at present. The basic services of the platform are free and open.
data map.
Red Star journalists have observed that the number of recruits for a single product ranges from dozens to hundreds, and brands often use products or products with low rewards in exchange for amateurs to share product experience on social platforms. For example, a brand of cream planting video needs to recruit 5 bloggers of care and beauty, and ask them to publish the video of planting grass within one week after receiving the samples, and the reward is' cream formal dress' worth 19 yuan.
The final publishing platforms of these grass stickers include Xiaohongshu, Tik Tok, Weibo, bilibili, etc. The product types include care, beauty, food, clothing, daily use, mother and baby, pets, shops and so on. The remuneration for grass planting posts in the form of pictures and texts is usually not more than that in 1 yuan except in kind. Most of the high-priced ones are shop-exploring types, depending on the fan base, with a maximum of nearly 1, yuan.
some brands also require employees to search for product keywords in Taobao, place their own orders, post grass planting posts on platforms such as Xiaohongshu as required after receiving the products, and the brands will refund the posts after they pass the examination. In the notice group of a skin care brand's repair series products, the Red Star journalist saw that the number of people in the group was 164.
according to the survey of Red Star journalists, some brands will make clear requirements for the content of grass planting posts. Taking a skin care product as an example, the reporter asked how to write a grass paste as an amateur. The brand said that it was necessary to emphasize the efficacy of the product, including anti-allergy, the use of sensitive skin, lightening red blood, etc., and mentioned the selling points of the product, such as big-name flat replacement and "cheap big bowl" (cheap and easy to use).
The relevant personnel of Xiaohongshu's public relations department told Red Star News reporter: "Our audit is multi-pronged, mainly in the form of machine interception, manual audit and report response." It is understood that this kind of help merchants and bloggers make false promotion, which has caused great harm to the platform content ecology and platform reputation, and seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of users. If the amount of marketing content is relatively large, reaching dozens or hundreds, there will be a lot of similarities in copywriting and similar time nodes, which will form obvious abnormal data. Xiaohongshu sues four false grass planting platforms 3
Nowadays, more and more consumers are used to referring to online "notes on grass planting" before consumption, expecting "experienced people" to provide valuable information in terms of price quality, experience and matters needing attention. The psychology of consumers shopping around makes the "planting grass economy" become a common practice, and all kinds of "planting grass notes" represented by online celebrity's shop exploration, unpacking evaluation and sharing of good things almost penetrate into every aspect of life.
However, many "notes on planting grass" are marketed in the name of sharing, which not only fails to improve the consumption experience, but takes sharing as a sharp weapon to "cut leeks" and seriously overdraws the trust of consumers. It is every consumer's urgent wish to call "notes on planting grass" back to the truth and not let "fake grass" overdraw their trust.
Truth is the lifeline of "notes on planting grass". Have dinner with friends, turn on your mobile phone and search for nearby food rankings; I've been interested in lipstick of a certain color for a long time, and I'll look through the color test notes of beauty bloggers. To arrange a family outing, first look at the amateur sharing in the popular punching places ... People's favor for "notes on planting grass" largely stems from the authenticity of its spontaneous sharing. Compared with celebrity endorsements and online celebrity bringing goods, the feedback from amateurs is often more neutral and objective because it does not involve interests, which can not only help you find the goods that suit you, but also avoid "stepping on the pit".
The evaluation from the first person has a natural advantage in promoting consumption behavior, and the rise of "planting grass economy" stems from the trust in the first person sharing. For this reason, some merchants have expanded their marketing tentacles from online celebrity Big V to ordinary people, and some even don't need to experience any products, just copy the graphic templates provided by the merchants, and they can publish their notes and get paid.
marketing is understandable, but it cannot be at the expense of consumers' trust. User trust is the traffic password of "planting grass economy", and keeping it true is the bottom line that "planting grass notes" should always adhere to. Interest-driven "planting notes" deviate from the original intention of sharing, and problems such as data flooding, over-publicity, and fraud frequently challenge consumers' ability to identify, and also test the trust space carefully built in the online world. If the quality of the goods is not up to standard, no matter how clever the rhetoric and beautiful the filter are, it will not win the recognition of consumers, and it will also destroy the market order and affect the reputation of businesses.
From the initial "cash back from praise" to a complete chain including brand, intermediary, amateur users, water army and other parties closely linked, "notes on planting grass" has developed into a huge gray industry. If we want to eradicate "false grass" completely, we can't just rely on the consciousness of "planting grass", but also need cooperation from many parties.