The whole story of the Xiaohongshu filter attraction incident

The whole incident of Xiaohongshu’s filter attractions.

The whole incident of Xiaohongshu’s filter attractions. It is not just the “fake” in the attractions that arouses users’ resentment. Xiaohongshu’s filter attractions incident In the fields of clothing, food, beauty, etc., there is commercialized content that is overly beautified or even falsely promoted. The whole story of the Xiaohongshu filter attraction incident. The story of the Xiaohongshu filter attraction incident 1

An apology statement titled "Insist on sincere sharing and believe that ordinary people help ordinary people" was published on the official Xinxin account. This is also Xiaohongshu’s first positive response to recent questions about “filter attractions”.

Since the National Day holiday, the "filters" of complaining about Little Red Book attractions have become the traffic password of various social platforms. Many netizens have discovered that the Little Red Book with the slogan "Mark My Life" is now full of soft-text advertisements, and there are countless "grass-planting" contents that are overturned.

From the Xiaohongshu "filter" attractions compiled by netizens, we can see that the so-called beautiful blue house located in Qingshui Bay, Sanya, Hainan is actually a dilapidated and peeling paint house. A small house; the dreamy pink beach on Little Red Book is actually just a pile of brick-red rocks and soil mixed with sparse weeds, and the lake is turbid. In addition, users can find countless "Little Switzerland", "Little Kamakura", "Little Nara", "Little Kyoto" and other scenic spots on Little Red Book. According to some netizens, most of these scenic spots are actually small lakes or small parks near their homes, and they are completely unaware that the areas around their homes have transformed into "famous" scenic spots.

It’s not just the “fake” information on scenic spots that offends users. Xiaohongshu also contains commercialized content that is overly beautified or even falsely promoted in the fields of clothing, food, beauty, etc. Xiao Zhang, who lives in Beijing, noticed an article about a massage parlor in Xiaohongshu some time ago. This massage parlor is known as "The King of Cost-Effective Massage in Beijing" and "A Must-Go Massage Holy Land in Beijing". As a "worker", Xiao Zhang immediately made an appointment with his friends to experience it, but found that the content on Xiaohongshu was too exaggerated, and it was far different from the same type of massage parlors he had experienced in other cities before.

Xiaohongshu has been established for 8 years. According to data from Analysys Qianfan, Xiaohongshu has about 148 million monthly active users. Although it is not as good as short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, it has It is already comparable to Station B. In terms of user composition, women account for 67%, users under the age of 24 account for 44.99%, and the total proportion of middle-class consumers and middle-to-high-end consumers is as high as 75.62%.

When Xiaohongshu was first founded, the users were mainly women. They first made overseas shopping guides, and then turned to the community. "Exquisiteness" is the unique characteristic of Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu blogger Xiaoqin told Caishi Media, “The audience of Xiaohongshu is mostly female, and the psychological anchor for people is that Xiaohongshu is full of beautiful pictures and beauties, because this is the sharing habit of the user group. . ”

In fact, the proliferation of “copycat” and soft advertising notes is not only found on the Xiaohongshu platform. Today, Dianping and Meituan are full of various soft writing notes. This kind of content is often full of pictures and texts, and conveys real feelings, and consumers can easily fall into the trap.

Xiaoqin also said that it is understandable for everyone to appropriately "decorate" their content, but it is also necessary to elaborate on the issues that need attention after "modification". In fact, the earliest travel platforms already had the problem of "filters" for scenic spots. Even in the later Douyin, there will be a certain gap between what is shown in the video and reality.

With over 100 million monthly active users, unique grass-growing attributes, and a large female user base, Xiaohongshu has attracted capital attention over the years. Founded in 2013, Xiaohongshu received millions of yuan in angel round financing from ZhenFund. Tianyancha APP shows that so far, Xiaohongshu has received a total of hundreds of millions of dollars in financing, and investors include Alibaba, Tencent, Origin Capital and many other well-known institutions. However, Xiaohongshu’s last publicly disclosed financing was in 2018, and news of its listing has been reported frequently in the past two years.

It seems that Xiaohongshu is still unable to find a balance between "real content" and commercialization. How to monetize content while maintaining a community atmosphere has become an urgent problem for Xiaohongshu. Daisy, an in-depth user of Xiaohongshu, told Caishi Media that Xiaohongshu has actually changed a lot in the past few years. There are now many short videos that did not exist before, and as the overall content has increased, there has also been more marketing and promotion. The result of this "more but not refined" approach is that users will easily regard Xiaohongshu as a search engine. User Aqi said that she now only opens Xiaohongshu when she needs strategies and information.

Xiaohongshu’s current profit model is mainly “advertising + e-commerce”, of which advertising business accounts for up to 80%. According to "Financial Wuji", in 2020, Xiaohongshu's advertising value will grow by 85%, second only to Douyin. This means that Xiaohongshu has become one of the best traffic portals for advertisers. However, this “attraction filter” incident also revealed that Xiaohongshu’s exploration of commercialization is far from complete.

A platform that has long been filled with marketing promotions and homogeneous content will inevitably have its credibility continue to decline, and users will inevitably vote with their feet. I believe this is not a situation Xiaohongshu wants to see. In this regard, Caishi Media tried to contact relevant personnel of Xiaohongshu but failed.

In its apology statement, Xiaohongshu also said, "Xiaohongshu is a community where ordinary people help ordinary people. I hope everyone can come to Xiaohongshu and feel it, There are expectations in life, and there are wonderful things everywhere. "The story of Xiaohongshu's filter attractions incident 2

Recently, Xiaohongshu has been pushed to the forefront due to the continuous fermentation of the "filter attractions" incident. On October 17, in response to some netizens complaining about the "filter attractions" notes posted by Xiaohongshu bloggers and the large disparity among viewers after on-site visits, Xiaohongshu apologized to users through its official public account and reflected on its treatment of users. The diverse information provided in the decision-making process was not sufficient, and it acknowledged that some users over-beautified their notes, and stated that it would try to launch products such as the "Tracking List".

“Internet celebrity attractions” are very sophisticated, so don’t take them too seriously. Some "Internet celebrity attractions" were unknown at first, but after adding various filters, they seemed to have the aura of being "raised in a boudoir and unknown to others". Most "Internet celebrity attractions" are intentionally created by businesses in scenic spots. They either create false packaging on their own, or find bloggers to post "photo-spoofing" promotions, use filters to excessively beautify the scenic spots, or use social platforms to exaggerate the publicity to quickly increase the popularity of the scenic spots and attract tourists, seeking high returns in the short term. Last year, an Internet celebrity in Hunan, the "Sky Mirror" scenic spot, was exposed to fake filming incidents and was fined 120,000 yuan for false publicity.

The deceptive "Internet celebrity" attractions have been repeatedly exposed and punished, but there are still imitators, and there are even more and more imitators. This is the "traffic only" mentality at work. Traffic is profit. Not only businesses flock to it, but some ordinary tourists are also unintentionally adding fuel to the fire. It can be said that the false prosperity of some "Internet celebrity attractions" is inseparable from tourists' "check-in" travel mode and cookie-cutter filters. When tourists’ eyes are attracted by the beautiful pictures of “Internet celebrity attractions” on the Internet, most people’s expectations for offline real attractions mainly focus on the visual “good-looking”, and they go to “Internet celebrity attractions” Check in, copy and imitate similar photos, and then share them on social platforms, and you're done. Sometimes people even realize that they have been deceived, but with the mentality of "it's all here", they don't hesitate to use software to modify a beautiful picture to deceive themselves and others.

When the check-in tourism promoted by "Internet celebrity attractions" becomes popular, and whether you can take a good-looking photo becomes the starting point and foothold of tourism, the deeper nature, history, culture, etc. of tourist attractions The value of aspects will be covered up, and superficial and false “Internet celebrity attractions” will become popular. At this moment, we should reflect, is the original intention of our travel just a photo with a filter?

The stable development of the tourism industry ultimately depends on products and services. Just like the Tang Dynasty Evernight City in Xi'an, although it is also an "Internet celebrity" place, it relies on Xi'an's rich cultural heritage to have a steady stream of vitality, which is definitely not something that filters can bring. The "Internet celebrity attractions" packaged with filters are a short-sighted behavior of "one-shot deal" and are destined not to go far. More importantly, blindly chasing such false prosperity may cause immeasurable damage to the local tourism environment, making those excellent tourist attractions that are operated honestly become victims. Therefore, for "Internet celebrities" who do not live up to their name, the "soft constraints" of social platforms are far from enough. Relevant functional departments need to actively intervene and take the initiative to deal with false packaging, exaggerated propaganda, etc. in response to new phenomena and new problems. Violations of laws and regulations will be punished.