Why are big factories obsessed with "planting grass"?

I don't know when the big factory became obsessed with "planting grass".

According to the definition of industry insiders, "planting grass" refers to the act of recommending good goods to others to entice people to buy, or the process of experiencing or having desire for something based on external information.

In recent years, Internet giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance and Meituan are pouring into the "grass planting" track to develop a grass economy. According to incomplete statistics, in the past two years, Internet giants have successively launched nearly 20 free grass products/functions, and even launched similar products overseas. However, most products have failed, and "planting grass" seems to have become a heart disease of large manufacturers.

The "grass economy" is essentially an attention economy, a further extension of the "Internet celebrity economy". According to public reports, the current grass planting economy has reached 100 billion yuan.

A consumer who often visits Xiaohongshu recently found similar graphic and text "planting grass" content on WeChat and Douyin, and she used to look at the purchase experience and experience of other consumers on Xiaohongshu before consumption, and now she found that she can search for some sharing on many platforms. In fact, as long as there are many online celebrity bloggers and celebrities on social media platforms, she is "planted" from time to time to place orders for shopping.

Industry insiders analyzed that the current e-commerce platform is no longer consumers "buy what they want", but "guide consumers to buy what they buy", and planting grass is the closest to guidance. After the total scale of mobile Internet traffic peaked, large manufacturers rushed to "plant grass", which was to cut and compete for existing traffic plates. In addition, with the rise of short videos and live streaming, content marketing has become increasingly important.

The "heart disease" of the big factory?

Discussing the track of planting grass cannot bypass Little Red Book.

According to public data, Xiaohongshu's monthly activity has reached 260 million, and the monthly active creator has reached 20 million. Since its birth in 2013, Xiaohongshu has developed from the initial overseas amoy sharing to the stars and KOLs planting grass in the back, forming a "grass planting" business as a whole.

Pull the time back to 2018, according to third-party data, Xiaohongshu's monthly activity reached 50 million that year. In the same year, it announced that it had received $300 million in financing from Alibaba. Xiaohongshu holds hands with Ali, and its "planting grass" energy is revealed, allowing users on their own platforms to jump to the latter to buy goods. However, in the process of subsequent e-commerce business shutdown, Xiaohongshu cut off the external link and was no longer open.

From the very beginning of investing in Xiaohongshu and cooperating with Xiaohongshu, to now imitating Xiaohongshu and benchmarking with Xiaohongshu, the endless new grass planting products have made the outside world smell the hunting of Xiaohongshu by big factories. Although Xiaohongshu is still in the business of lost business, it is not easy for large manufacturers to recreate "Xiaohongshu".

There are even large factories that have found another way to lay out grass cultivation business overseas.

Recently, according to media reports, ByteDance's grass farming community App Lemon8 was quietly launched in the United States and the United Kingdom, this app allows users to share videos and photos taken, and "tagged" the content, which is regarded as the "overseas version of Xiaohongshu." By the end of March, the app had rushed to the 23rd place in the United States in terms of downloads of free iOS apps. In the eyes of some industry insiders, this is ByteDance's move to follow Xiaohongshu's example overseas and challenge Instagram.

In fact, as early as 2018, ByteDance tried to challenge the problem of "planting grass" in China. At that time, ByteDance launched an APP called "New Grass", similar to Xiaohongshu, with graphic and text grass as the main content, and the product followed the algorithm logic of Toutiao, and was supplied to consumers through a single column of information flow, but the good times did not last long, and this product was stopped in August 2019.

Subsequently, in 2021, Douyin launched the "Douyin Graphic and Text" function, which means that Douyin listed grass planting as an important way to play, and created a closed loop of live broadcast + short video + graphic content through the graphic and text planting mode. In July 2022, ByteDance officially launched its APP "Kesong", but the product was also removed less than three months later. Recently, the product was revealed to be back on the shelves. The "Recommendation" entry at the top of the homepage of the Douyin APP is presented in a double-column viewing mode, which can be brushed up and down with videos or graphics and text, similar to Little Red Book.

Ali, who first began to hold hands with Xiaohongshu, actually repeatedly increased his weight in the matter of "planting grass". As early as 2016, Taobao's "Good Goods" used algorithms to push products in the form of graphics and text for users; Subsequently, the "must-buy list" was launched, which is also in the form of graphics and text for content marketing. In December 2020, Taobao launched shopping as the core entrance to planting grass, with two forms of content: graphic text and short video. In January 2022, Alibaba launched the independent community APP "Youwhat", which has also been offline.

According to the data, 74% of users have purchased the products that have been planted, and more than 80% will complete the order within a week after the grass is planted. According to incomplete statistics, JD.com adjusted the "shopping" channel, Meituan also upgraded the grass channel to "shopping", Tencent tested "Penguin Huibuy", Sina and NetEase and other similar community platforms have launched.

When the traffic dividend gradually disappears

Cui Lili, executive director of the E-commerce Research Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, analyzed that today's e-commerce platforms are no longer consumers "buy what they want", but "guide consumers to buy what they want". After planting, consumer guidance becomes easy, and then it is one step closer to monetization, which has become an important source of commercial value.

She further pointed out that the overall traffic scale of the mobile Internet has peaked today, and in this case, the platform needs to closely follow the preferences and habits of the audience to adjust the direction and form of drainage. Big factories can't put down grass because they have to cut and compete for existing flow plates.

According to the 51st Statistical Report on Internet Development in China released by CNNIC, as of December 2022, the number of Internet users in China reached 1.067 billion, an increase of 35.49 million over the previous year, an increase of 2.6% year-on-year. This rate of growth has slowed markedly. In the fields of online payment, online shopping and online takeaway, the scale of user growth has decreased significantly, and the growth rate is less than 10 million.

Zhang Zhipeng, secretary general of the China Advertising Association, told China Newsweek that large manufacturers have tested the water to "plant grass", based on the changes in the entire marketing environment, and now many brands and customers have gradually abandoned the traditional advertising methods in the past, and turned to the conversion of graphics, short videos and other content, so that on the one hand, brand enhancement can be achieved, on the other hand, it can directly face consumers, remove intermediate channels, and gain more trust from consumers.

"A lot of short content now comes up and adapts to the needs and experiences of users. The accelerated pace of most people's lives leads to fragmentation of time, and access to information naturally becomes fragmented. Sky, founder of Zero Gram Interactive, told China Newsweek.

"Short content will actually lower the threshold for user participation," May Beauty's founder May observed that both social media platforms such as WeChat and e-commerce platforms such as Taobao are now developing short content, which she believes can bring new vitality to the platform to a certain extent.

She analyzed that when the content itself is what users need, or users like, users can stay on the platform more. In terms of business logic, the longer a user stays on the platform, the more transactions can be promoted, thereby achieving the commercial purpose of the platform.

Nowadays, Internet e-commerce has combined "goods to find people" and "people to find goods" to cover users' shopping behaviors and needs in all scenarios. According to a survey data, the number of views of a short video platform increased by 44% year-on-year in one month; Users consume goods through content consumption, and the total merchandise transactions brought by short videos increased by 161% year-on-year.

Cui Lili believes that adding expressions such as graphics and text can meet the needs of more audiences, and it is also more convenient for users to discuss eating, wearing, traveling and various interests based on social circles, and these contents are "innately" more in line with commercial value monetization.

Is grass planted to "mow" or "plant trees"?

A head MCN leader of Xiaohongshu told China Newsweek that it is very normal for Internet giants to want to do grass planting business, and when the traffic and business of various platforms are basically stabilized, they all want to make money from the community. However, the goal of large factories in the grass planting business is often for the purpose of direct transformation such as selling goods or draining traffic, which is not necessarily conducive to creating a community atmosphere. She pointed out that the premise of being able to do well is that it is "better than Little Red Book".

May pointed out that these changes by Internet giants are aimed at increasing user time and keeping users staying, and platforms may initially encourage some institutions and content creators to move content through incentives, but they may not be able to get enough attention from content creators. "Xiaohongshu still has an advantage in growing grass, and when there is more and more content in consumption decisions and enough content reserved, it will go further in terms of user mental occupation."

"Planting grass refers to the ability to combine with commodities and influence people's consumption decisions, and many short content actually has nothing to do with planting grass, so although many products look a lot like Little Red Book, the functions and gameplay are similar, but in fact, the logic of Little Red Book is different." Sky pointed out that even Douyin relies on interest to let more people see the product, to guide others to place orders, promote conversion and consumption. And Xiaohongshu is to solve the last step, that is, which product to buy, is to generate value in comparison.

In recent years, due to the impact of the macro environment, many brands have scaled back their launches, and many bloggers have not had a better time. The above-mentioned MCN person revealed that her company's bloggers are not greatly affected, which is based on the long-tail effect of Xiaohongshu, which can more profoundly affect consumer decision-making.

However, some brands do reduce their investment on Xiaohongshu because they want more certainty results, "and they can sell it immediately after investing money." Sky said that if brands want immediate results, they will recommend reducing this type of grass and replacing it with a live broadcast room.

"The advantage of Xiaohongshu is to plant grass in the early stage and build a brand mentality, and other platforms are often for conversion and transactions," the above-mentioned person in charge pointed out, and brands that want to precipitate users for a long time attach great importance to planting grass.

Zhang Zhipeng pointed out that in the past, it may take ten or twenty years to build a brand, but now there is a different way to form a brand. Nowadays, directly making a popular model can generate good consumption data, and consumers will have a good experience after purchasing and will produce repurchases.

"Now the concept of many brands is to plant grass first, then plant trees, first quickly achieve the brand's cognition in the minds of consumers, and then slowly add branches and leaves to make a brand." He stressed that most platforms want to provide brands with the opportunity to develop and grow in "planting grass", but most of the logic is not clear, some are still competing for price, some only do marketing instead of sharing, and ultimately just to "cut the grass".

Zhang Yi, CEO of iMedia Consulting, told China Newsweek that whether major manufacturers can do the job of planting grass well depends on whether they have delicate care for their products. "Whether it is Xiaohongshu or various platforms, they are actually facing the hidden danger of false grass planting. Consumers often see planting grass as a sincere sharing, but many times it is the brand that intends to guide consumers, and if it is not handled well, there may be a risk of overturning. ”

Author: Meng Qian