"Growing grass consumption" needs to be alert to "weeds"
Friends gather for dinner, go to Dianping to search for recommendations nearby; buy cosmetics, look through other people’s notes in Xiaohongshu; start with electronic products, open Zhihu to see professional suggestions... Nowadays, "planting grass" is affecting more and more people's consumption As a habit, major e-commerce platforms have also joined in, and "grass planting and consumption" has become a common practice.
However, some “notes” and “assessments” of ghostwriting and fictitious consumption experiences have appeared quietly since when, inducing or even misleading people’s shopping decisions, harming consumers’ legitimate rights and interests, and being questioned by the public.
The experts interviewed said that "false grass planting" in the name of sharing is actually marketing in disguise, overdrawing the trust foundation of "grass planting", destroying the network ecology and market order, and urgently need to be regulated.
"Growing grass" becomes a way of socializing
"Every time I see some practical products recommended by bloggers, I am very moved and want to buy and try!" Xiao Wang, who works in Shunyi, Beijing, is a "post-90s". Xiaohongshu, Douyin.
Before placing an order, Xiao Wang will specifically browse other people's comments on the use of the product. "Listening to the advice of people who have come before" is very necessary for her, because it is difficult for her to have a comprehensive understanding of all similar products.
"Others can plant me, and if my consumption experience is good, I can also plant others. This is a mutual process." Xiao Wang said.
What Xiao Wang said about "planting grass" is a catchphrase on the Internet, which generally refers to the act of recommending something to others and making others like it.
The term "planting grass" originated from various beauty forums and communities. With the wide application of new media, "grass planting and consumption" has a larger and broader platform.
Not only products are shared and recommended, but netizens ridicule from time to time: In the era of mobile Internet, everything can be "planted".
As a new consumption format, there are many reasons for the prevalence of "grass planting consumption".
"For consumers, they want to buy the best products, but also want to save time and effort when buying. But in most cases, people have to 'shop around' and struggle to buy good things." The Chinese people Ding Ying, an associate professor at the University's School of Business, pointed out that "planting grass" captures the psychology of consumers and provides convenience in improving their decision-making efficiency and accuracy.
"Today's consumers have changed from passive recipients to active participants, hoping to participate in and even dominate the consumption experience. This is most evident among young people." Ding Ying said.
In May last year, a research report by CITIC Securities showed that 64.3% of Gen Z (the generation born between 1995 and 2009) were influenced by the recommendation of "planting grass" when shopping.
iResearch, in the previously released "Growing Generation: Post-95 Fashion Consumption Report", referred to the "post-95s" as the "Growing Generation", claiming that it has strong brand communication and "grass-growing" capabilities.
The younger generation who grew up with the Internet has a natural intimacy for social networking.
Xiao Wang told reporters that "planting grass" with each other is a way of socializing.
Even if they don't know each other, by sharing "planting notes", understanding product reputation, and discussing consumption experience, everyone can find groups with similar interests and gain a sense of identity and belonging.
If the recommended product is purchased and recognized by others, I will be very happy.
Internet celebrity bloggers, talents and other groups have played a great role in "grass planting and consumption".
"When consumers make decisions, they will be influenced to a large extent by the reference group." Ding Ying said that unlike endorsement stars, Internet celebrities and other groups are closer to everyone's daily life, like friends around them.
If they have self-identification with their personalities, consumers may become their "fans", and even if there is no special demand, they will have the desire to buy after seeing the recommendation.
"I hope that in the new year, I will become more temperamental." At the beginning of the new year, Xiao Chen, who had just started working in Shanghai, set a goal.
"For this reason, I have followed some interested bloggers and experts, some recommend some books, and some teach how to dress. I want to be as wise and fashionable as them!" Xiao Chen believes that the process of "planting grass" is also The process of reinventing yourself.
"False grass planting" suspected of false propaganda
While everyone is enjoying the convenience brought by "planting grass", some "weeds" also grow savagely.
Before every trip, Ms. Liu, a travel enthusiast, will search for delicious and interesting places in the destination, based on the "grass notes" on the Internet.
"In most cases, the recommended content is good, but there are many notes 'a lot of moisture'." Ms. Liu said frankly, for example, the highly recommended restaurants actually have average dishes, high prices, and poor service. , the real landscape is seriously inconsistent with the picture.
Many netizens have similar experiences to Ms. Liu.
During last year's National Day, a note about "pink beach" attracted countless netizens to check in, but the "romantic beauty" was actually a drab land with rough gravel, which was surprising.
Some netizens also shared their own experiences: being "planted" by a certain cosmetic product, the face was itchy after use, and after inquiries, they found out that it was a "three-no product".
A recent survey conducted by China Youth Daily showed that 78.2% of the respondents had the experience of being trapped by the Internet "planting grass", and 61.7% of the respondents believed that skin care products and cosmetics are products that are easy to step on the Internet "planting grass" .
In the development process of new things, once they are profitable and the supervision is not in place, they will often deviate from the original intention and cause chaos.
An industry insider said that some "net reds" do not have enough product identification capabilities, and some brag about the products without trying them out for petty profits.
What's more, behind the various "grass notes", there are a large number of ghostwriting and posting teams, forming a gray industry chain: the task of writers is to write detailed and provocative "copywriting" according to the needs of businesses. ".
Subsequently, the "copywriting" will be transferred to the pre-selected bloggers and celebrities with a large number of fans, and will be launched and promoted on major platforms under the name of "pro-tested and effective".
Some merchants also invite ordinary users to cooperate by sending private messages: users do not need to use the experience products, just copy and paste the graphic materials provided by the merchants and publish them under their own accounts, they can get a few yuan to dozens of yuan. .
"This is not only a deception to consumers, but also a disruption to the market order." Ding Ying said that if more and more businesses only focus on "copywriting" and hire "Internet celebrities", they ignore the improvement of product quality and service level , in the long run, it is not conducive to the healthy and orderly development of the market and the industry, and with the increase in the number of consumers being deceived, it will also lead to a decline in the overall level of trust in society.
The Internet is not a place outside the law.
In response to the current situation of fictitious "planting notes", my country's laws and regulations have clear provisions.
Xue Jun, deputy dean of Peking University Law School and director of the e-commerce law research center, said that the act of making up "grass notes" for profit, knowing or should have known that the content is not the real experience of the publisher, is suspected of false propaganda.
"According to the provisions of the Advertising Law, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the E-commerce Law, etc., who use false propaganda to deceive and mislead consumers, the relevant personnel will bear corresponding legal responsibilities."
Promote holistic, comprehensive and systematic governance
Not long ago, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China deployed a nationwide special campaign of "Crackdown on Traffic Fraud, Black Public Relations, and Cyber Army". Among them, "focus on rectifying the employment of professional writers and network forces to make up 'grass notes'". 'Influencer Review'".
The major platforms have also actively cooperated, and the results are beginning to show.
Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, since the launch of the "false grass planting" special governance in December 2021, Xiaohongshu has banned 81 brands and offline merchants, and dealt with 172,600 related false "grass planting notes" and 5.36 illegal accounts. Thousands.
In order to deal with "false grass planting", netizens also racked their brains and summed up a number of "anti-grass planting" experiences: search for keywords such as "avoidance" on social platforms before checking in on the Internet celebrity attractions; If you recommend the same product during the time, you must be vigilant; the comment area is full of highly similar praise, you must pay attention to the authenticity...
Whether it is to carry out special actions or summarize the experience of "anti-planting grass", it is not a solution to the root cause.
How to "plant grass" in a fundamentally healthy way?
The interviewed experts said that it is necessary to strengthen supervision in multiple links and the whole chain, and promote overall, comprehensive and systematic governance.
The first is to seize the "bull's nose" of the platform.
Users trust the platform because of its credit endorsement, and the platform also obtains traffic dividends from users' favor.
If the platform is full of false propaganda, it will naturally affect its reputation and development.
Xue Jun believes that the platform should give full play to the advantages of Internet technology, use big data and other technologies to strengthen and improve the content screening mechanism, and actively "fill in the hole" for users.
It is difficult to distinguish the sharing and marketing in the "Grass Planting Notes", which is an important reason why many consumers accidentally "step on the thunder" and "enter the pit".
In theory, if you publish your personal consumption experience without charging any fees, it cannot be defined as an advertisement; if you sign an agreement with a merchant and charge a fee for its promotion, it should be an advertisement.
"But in reality, unlike the common endorsement advertisements, consumers have no way of knowing whether the 'grass growers' have charges." Xue Jun said that in order to protect consumers' right to know, the platform should include "grass planting" with commercial Contents of a marketing nature are marked with the word "advertising" to serve as a reminder, which is also reflected in the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising (Draft for Public Comments).
In addition to existing laws and regulations, "regulatory departments and industry associations can formulate corresponding rules and standards to strengthen industry supervision and self-discipline." said Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics at Beijing Technology and Business University.
He suggested that institutions and accounts suspected of false propaganda should be banned in a timely manner, and relevant institutions and personnel such as merchants, counterfeiters, and scammers should be included in the industry blacklist to form a deterrent effect.
"The reason for the formation of the gray industry chain is that it is difficult to achieve individual sporadic scoring and control evaluation behaviors, and the agency operator has played a key role in it." Xue Jun said that relevant third-party order-taking intermediaries should be focused on governance.
When necessary, the information of these proxy operators can be collected and shared between platforms, law enforcement and regulatory authorities.
Ding Ying said that "planting grass" is a kind of word-of-mouth marketing. When there is a lack of trust between the seed and the seed, people's psychological foundation will be broken.
"A good atmosphere for planting grass should be maintained by everyone." Ding Ying said that for groups such as Internet celebrities and celebrities, the recommended things must be authentic and reliable, so as to gain long-term trust and support.
As a consumer, we must rationally "plant grass", and at the same time actively participate in supervision, and take the initiative to complain and report when we find clues, so that "false grass planting" has nowhere to hide.
Some legal provisions related to false advertising (link)
■ "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 4 Advertisements shall not contain false or misleading content, and shall not deceive or mislead consumers.
Advertisers should be responsible for the authenticity of advertising content.
Article 5 Advertisers, advertising operators and advertising publishers engaging in advertising activities shall abide by laws and regulations, be honest and trustworthy, and compete fairly.
Article 28 Where an advertisement deceives or misleads consumers with false or misleading content, it constitutes a false advertisement.
Article 56 Whoever, in violation of the provisions of this Law, publishes false advertisements, deceives or misleads consumers, and causes damage to the legitimate rights and interests of consumers who purchase goods or receive services, shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law.
Where advertising operators and advertising publishers cannot provide the real name, address and valid contact information of the advertisers, consumers may request the advertising operators and advertising publishers to compensate in advance.
Where false advertisements of goods or services related to the life and health of consumers cause damage to consumers, the advertising operators, advertising publishers, and advertising spokespersons shall be jointly and severally liable with the advertisers.
Where false advertisements of goods or services other than those specified in the preceding paragraph cause damage to consumers, the advertisement operators, advertisement publishers, or advertisement spokespersons still design, produce, represent, publish or recommend or prove that they know or should know that the advertisement is false. , shall be jointly and severally liable with the advertiser.
■ "Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 8, Paragraph 1, operators shall not make false or misleading commercial propaganda about the performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation, and honors of their products, and deceive or mislead consumers.
Article 20, Paragraph 1, where an operator violates the provisions of Article 8 of this Law by making false or misleading commercial propaganda for its commodities, or helping other business operators to carry out false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions or other means If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 1 million yuan but not more than 2 million yuan will be imposed, and the business license may be revoked.
Shi Zhipeng