Now, how hot is the shop? "To find food, drink and play, I have to search station B and Xiaohong book first, and then make a decision whether to go or not after referring to the evaluation of the blogger of the store." Paying attention to local search bloggers is one of Cai Cai's favorite things to do on social platforms after 00. "Whether it's a dirty stall, a star restaurant, a bar or a trendy shop, you can explore any store."
Cai Cai told burning finance that he recently paid attention to a food exploration blogger with ID "little nervous bug" at station B. "This blogger has 2.99 million fans in station B, and the videos related to exploring the store are played more than one million minutes."
When clocking in a restaurant recommended by the blogger, Cai Cai found that the boss had already skillfully prepared the same dish of the blogger. "The boss said that young people were attracted by the video, and most of them were girls. Now they are too busy."
In addition to Cai Cai's addicted food store bloggers, there are many kinds of store bloggers on social platforms such as xiaohongshu, Tiktok and Weibo, including store restaurants and trendy stores. "In order to create freshness, many bloggers will go to dirty stalls, shops, and even photo studios to explore shops. Only you can't think of it, and there is no blogger 'can't find it'."
Fang Fang, a practitioner of MCN organization who specializes in exploring the store business, told burning finance that exploring the store is actually a relatively "ancient" phenomenon, but the form has been constantly enriched. From graphics to video to live broadcast, with the changes of technology and communication ecology, the public attention of the store is also higher and higher.
In addition to the diversification of forms, the layout of local life on major Internet platforms is another reason for the explosion of probe stores. On the one hand, the Avatar "walking grass planter" of the store blogger meets the needs of the "cloud experience" of the young group, whether it is the pictures emphasizing "film production", or the distinctive short videos and live broadcasts. Many young people have long been used to searching for relevant store sharing before consumption.
On the other hand, the probe blogger has already become the merchant's traffic password. "3000 small red book stores KOL + 1000 local Tiktok celebrities + public comments and fixed investment = a hot new online store." Fang Fang said that to a certain extent, the search blogger has become an important help for businesses to spread abroad, and has also brought considerable online traffic to businesses.
However, with the popularity of probe stores and the successive admission of MCN institutions, this group, which should have been objective, is in chaos. Bloggers blackmail businesses with bad comments, false shops and malicious shops from time to time. Countless businesses are blackmailed, occupied, coerced by traffic and abandoned by bloggers.
"Individual businesses are the weak side in the face of probe bloggers." The merchant Yangzi said. Yang Lu, who is also a businessman, also said, "sharing is OK, but refused to explore the store."
The flow oriented probe bloggers seem to be quietly changing from the "good prescription" drained by merchants to the "poison" shouted by everyone.
01
Probe stores are everywhere. "Everyone is a probe blogger and everyone is exploring stores." Fang Fang told burning finance that nowadays, "everything" can become the target of bloggers' shop exploration.
"Every time I brush the little red book, it will be planted with grass and all kinds of delicious food." Cai Cai told burning finance that the last time she was planted grass was at more than 10 p.m. when she saw the barbecue shop recommended by a blogger, Cai Cai and her friends could no longer help but choose to place an order immediately.
Fang Wei, who was born after 1995, said that although he would not be easily tempted by various delicacies on social platforms, he would always open short video platforms such as Tiktok and Kwai before the weekend to search for various outdoor exhibitions and online popular campsites. "Although it is difficult to distinguish whether the blogger is charging for promotion, but punch in one by one. When you encounter 'photo fraud', you will also find treasure."
Like Cai Cai and Fang Wei, more and more consumers are used to searching on social platforms first, then planting grass and then pulling grass.
Search "explore shop" in xiaohongshu, and more than 14.56 million notes are related to it. Only in the category of food explore shop, it includes bread and dessert, milk tea and coffee, specialty restaurant, afternoon tea and other sub categories. For example, the little red book blogger "Mian Bing" of "overlord Xueji milk tea" in the exploration store has a praise amount of 14000 in a single post, and the comment area is full of replies of "looking good to drink" and "wanting to eat".
The number of short videos related to Tiktok and "exploring the store" has exceeded 43.4 billion. In addition to the common food exploring stores, there are also indoor amusement park exploring stores, hippocampus photo studio exploring stores and so on. For example, the Tiktok blogger "pangtoutuo ate Shenyang" in the tan Dian indoor amusement park released 349000 short video likes.
"So," either in the shop or on the way to the shop "seems to have become the daily life of shop bloggers. According to the observation of burning finance, the number of fans of "special wulala" who is the top shopper of Tiktok has reached 13million. A short shopper video released on April 27 has received more than 980000 praise points and 65000 comments. The comment area is also full of comments of "crying" and "I want to eat".
Figure / related topics of Tiktok's shop exploration (left) and xiaohongshu's shop exploration post (right) source / screenshot of burning finance and Economics
Behind the popularity of probe stores, in addition to the pursuit of consumers, it is also inseparable from the support of social platforms.
According to incomplete statistics of fuel finance and economics, in the second half of 2020, Tiktok launched the "search shop talent group" to actively support search shop bloggers in terms of traffic, goods and commission distribution. In the same year, meituan launched the "big V shop search short video" and tmall launched the "super shop search live broadcast project" linked with the top 100 brands. In April this year, xiaohongshu launched the theme activity of "online cloud exploration store", which directly covers various fields such as handicrafts, antiques, food, buyer's shop, art life and so on.
Subsequently, plain people online celebrities smelling "business opportunities" began to create shop exploration accounts one after another, and the institutions of shop exploration MCN entered, which built a perfect shop exploration industry chain for these plain people bloggers to integrate KOL resources and connect with merchants.
Burning finance and economics learned that the shop bloggers who rely on the shop circle powder can not only "receive the merchant notice" for free, but also bring goods and get points and commission in addition to the advertising fee. "As long as a mobile phone can speak and shoot, MCN institutions can make a Tiktok store number with a monthly income of 100000 yuan from 0 to 1 in just two months, so as to realize the freedom of wealth." Fang Fang disclosed that a Tiktok blogger with thousands of fans can get a commission of tens of thousands of yuan for a group purchase package with a single short video.
02
Businesses suffer from "exploring stores". However, as exploring stores has gradually become a business, while "exploring store bloggers everywhere", problems such as poor evaluation extortion, occupation of the market and the heat of Bo's eyeballs also follow. Businesses that originally relied on exploring store drainage seem to suffer more and more in this way.
On April 17 this year, # the topic of the female shopkeeper in Dalian claiming to be asked for bread # by taodian.com was posted on the microblog. Its content shows that the owner complained that the blogger asked for free bread after a simple shooting, and said he would give a bad comment to the store after being rejected. Many netizens said, "the online Red probe shop should stop, and the online red and online Red shops are not credible".
In fact, this is just a drop in the ocean of many disputes among bloggers.
Just a few days before the above incident, Xi'an netizens exposed that the blogger of the probe store wasted food and "left without eating a few mouthfuls after shooting, seriously wasting food", which attracted netizens' opposition. Some netizens said bluntly, "I hope that the owner of the probe store blog recommends it because it's delicious. Even if it's promotion, don't waste it."
Previously, in December 2021, a shopper who claimed to have 6 million fans asked for free after consumption, and was angrily rejected by the waiter, "can't we not check out the short video shopper?"
Whether eating overlord meals or wasting food, the frequent chaos in the probe store not only plunged the probe store bloggers into a crisis of trust, but also made many businesses "have words of suffering".
"It's also powerful to blackmail the shop." Zhang Lu, who has accumulated a stable source of customers and a good reputation for many years since he opened the store, has always been "cold" to the bloggers of the probe store, and has never thought of cooperating with the bloggers of the probe store. But last year, a search blogger with more than 100000 fans on the Tiktok platform came to the door with a search video, in which the blogger demoted his store to nothing.
"He said he would delete the video for 20000, but I refused." But this is not the first time that Zhang Lu has been "coerced" by bloggers. "Previously, there was a blogger who spent thousands of yuan and asked for free publicity. I also didn't compromise."
Like Zhang Lu, Yangzi faces similar difficulties. "I can't afford to provoke or hide from the shopkeeper." Yangzi said that he opened a themed fine brewing bar in a second tier city two years ago. Yangzi, who loves wine and knows wine, positioned the bar as a medium and high-end group. Therefore, it invested at least 1 million yuan only in the decoration cost.
"Before opening, I knew there would inevitably be bloggers visiting stores, but I didn't expect so many." Yangzi told burning finance that in the first month of opening the store, more than 5 of the 10 tables in the store were occupied by exploratory bloggers.
To this end, Yangzi's bar made a small fire on local social media, but the burning bar did not make Yangzi happy. "Many bloggers are young girls and are not the target group of the bar at all. They come for a drink, take a picture and leave, but there are too many guests to sit down." In this way, the bars in Yangzi began to be criticized by consumers because of "too crowded" and "too long queue". The search bloggers who piled up stopped the users who really came to spend.
In addition to being blackmailed and occupied, many shopkeepers have also been passively involved in the flow vortex brought by store bloggers.
After 95, Hong Jixun opened a Thai restaurant in Beijing in March this year. Although it is located in a remote shopping mall in Sanlitun, it attracted many store bloggers in the first month. For a while, both xiaohongshu and Tiktok were brushed by "Tandian faning Thai food stall".
However, the controversy brought by this screen brushing to Hong Jixun has a large passenger flow. Many people commented that it is "another online popular store and this routine of inviting people to queue up". Although Hong Jixun told Caijing that he did not carry out any paid publicity, the popularity of the blogger still made many consumers misunderstand that he hired the Navy.
"Many customers dislike online Red stores, so they won't spend." Hong Jixun expressed quite wronged. In addition to the impression of "online popular store", catering stores that are difficult to adjust are also very easy to be "supported and killed" by exploration bloggers.
Hong Jixun said that the expression of the store blogger can sometimes be exaggerated to fill the expectations of customers, but high expectations will first bring full staff during the meal period. "If the passenger flow is concentrated, you will have to queue up for one or two hours. My biggest worry is that customers come all the way to queue up, which will lead to higher expectations and bad comments." In addition, in order to rub the popularity of the store, many search bloggers will release very subjective bad comments.
"When the dishes are ready, the blogger mainly takes photos before eating. In this way, when the hot dishes are cooled, they will naturally affect the taste, and the bad comments will follow. However, users will think that the blogger who writes bad comments to the store is telling the truth and praising the store is the Navy." Hong Jixun reluctantly said that this "Schrodinger's delicious" tore the user group, and finally made users stay away from controversial stores.
03
The game between traffic and interests, but it is undeniable that although many businesses refuse to explore stores, the interests behind them are inseparable.
"The popularity of the probe store is inseparable from the needs of businesses. It can be said that businesses have won the blogger." Fang Fang told burning finance that for new stores with limited budget, exploring store bloggers is a very cost-effective way of publicity. Taking xiaohongshu as an example, the cost of the store blogger with tens of thousands of fans is only 1000 yuan, and many thousand fans only need to provide free dishes. In other words, sometimes the store only needs a few thousand yuan to swipe the social platform. "It is the exploration bloggers who have supported one 'entrepreneurial myth' after another of 'popularity burst and return to the capital in January'."
Fang Fang added, "now if the new store does not find a probe store blogger to promote, it is difficult for users to know. Therefore, in order to expose, many stores will be specially decorated to make it easier to take photos."
"In the beginning, the blogger wanted to go to the store to expose photos based on sharing. Now it has become taking money to receive notices." Xiaohongshu blogger "titi's treasure chest" said that when xiaohongshu and other grass planting platforms were just emerging, many businesses did not understand what is the exploration store, and would not pay for the blogger to explore the store. "But now, many shopkeepers especially cooperate with bloggers. They not only set up a special photo area in the store, but also take the initiative to light up the bloggers."
Behind the initiative to find the blogger of the probe store is the strong traffic charm of the probe store. Chen Zhen opened his own noodle shop. According to his introduction, since March last year, the store was almost full every day. Later, he learned that these consumers almost all read the posts sent by bloggers on the Internet. "Young people come to eat noodles and then post again. Now the running water in the store has doubled."
As a result, businesses that saw the flow and benefits began to pay for cooperation with bloggers. According to iResearch consulting data, in 2025, the scale of China's local life service market is expected to increase from 19.5 trillion yuan in 2020 to 35.3 trillion yuan, and exploring stores has become a big cake. Under the trend that major social platforms support store content one after another, it has become a general trend that businesses need online traffic.
"We have long-term cooperation with Dalian lock brands such as McDonald's and Xi tea." Fang Fang revealed that many new stores will also choose to cooperate with MCN to find bloggers to promote before opening.
However, with the increasing commercialization of the business of exploring stores, the relationship between bloggers and businesses began to alienate gradually. On the one hand, saturated bloggers are not respected and become business tools with high praise for assembly line output. On the other hand, businesses also have a morbid dependence on the "false prosperity" created by bloggers.
"Too many bloggers and too voluminous." "Titi's treasure chest" said that the threshold of the exploration store itself is very low, so it's OK to take photos. Under the influence of the epidemic, many bloggers who originally did tourism and food turned to the exploration store. In order to flow, many bloggers will even book the evaluation during the decoration of a new store, "competing for the first place, lowering the price and plagiarizing each other have become the norm for bloggers to explore the store."
At the same time, like the evaluation bloggers who are frequently exposed with false evaluation, businesses are the "food and clothing parents" of the exploration bloggers. Many bloggers will make false evaluation for the sake of interests, which also makes more and more comments on the social platform, such as "there are exploration stores everywhere, there are pits everywhere" and "online popular stores must step on thunder". Businesses are also slowly being "backfired", and online Red stores have become synonymous with "good-looking but not delicious", which are gradually abandoned by users.
Figure / xiaohongshu platform rejects the related stickers of online red shop (left) microblog platform about the source / screenshot of related stickers of online red shop (right)
Under the extreme involution, more and more shop explorers can replace and cooperate only with free dishes, and there is even a phenomenon that many bloggers work together to shoot the same table in order to save costs. "In the eyes of merchants, bloggers are daily throwing products that are thrown away as soon as they are used. There is no need to maintain relationships. After all, you don't do it, but some people do it." "Titi's treasure chest" expressed helplessly.
But not only bloggers, but also businesses are involved. Many entrepreneurs see that a store is hot on the social platform. It is difficult to find one. It is easy to have the illusion that it is easy to make money when opening a store. They blindly follow the trend and enter the game. From cat cafe and selfie restaurant to the popular "instant noodle canteen", they can't last for half a year and close down one after another.
Zhang Yu, who opened a niche cafe, told burning finance that driven by the bloggers of the exploration store, his hand flush cafe was "crowded" by consumers at the beginning of its opening, and it can earn 30000 yuan a day at the best time. "But bloggers love to chase hot spots. The same store won't come for the second time. In less than three months, the daily flow of the store will drop sharply. At least, it's only a few hundred yuan a day."
After seeing the explosion of other cafes, Zhang Yu, who is unwilling to be abandoned by the bloggers of the exploration shop, can only improve the exposure by constantly looking for MCN cooperation. "Other stores look at my promotion and will also increase the promotion fee. Once they come and go, they will become invisible competition."
Fang Fang told Caijing that many businesses now have a complex attitude towards bloggers. They are worried that they will come and look forward to them. In fact, under the general trend of exploring stores to master online traffic, no businesses can absolutely avoid exploring stores.
"But the shopkeeper is not omnipotent." Fang Fang stressed that many businesses think that as long as they spend money on promotion, they can maintain revenue, but the attention brought by bloggers is temporary. Only by focusing on online exposure and offline operation can they really retain customers.