A Ring Out Of His Own Half KOL Little Red Book What Do You Want To Do?

The little red book incarnated the tyrant, a ring finger, and killed half of his KOL.

In May 10th, Xiao Hong published a "brand cooperation platform upgrade instructions", which made higher demands for fans and monthly exposure. Some KOL which failed to meet the requirements were qualified for the brand cooperation and could not receive advertisements again.

The new entry conditions are: 1. fans number is more than 5000; 2., the average exposure of the notebook in the past month is more than 10000.

Previously, Xiao Hong's request for KOL was "more than 1000 fans. The average exposure of the notebook in the past month is over 1000."

Obviously, the purpose of the new rule is to clean up the low quality KOL cleanly.

Whether it is the previous "community + business" mode, or the lifestyle platform now, KOL has made great contributions to the prosperity of Xiao Hong's book. Why does this little red book open the big cleaning mode decisively?

Trust crisis caused by false grass planting

In the little red book, users will post articles after experiencing the products and recommend these products to readers. This recommendation is also called "grass growing" by users.

It is precisely that all kinds of "grass" brought huge flow to Xiao Hong book.

But by the end of April this year, there were media reports that many of the "grass planting" notes on the little red book were actually written on behalf of the team.

According to the needs of some businessmen, these writing teams will compile a false "grass" note with personal experience and publish it on the small red book platform.

Instead of writing a false experience note, it cost 15 yuan to 30 yuan, and 3 hours successfully.

The false "grass" notes have been questioned by the good UGC who share the recommended word of mouth for a long time.

Therefore, strengthening the control of KOL is imminent for Xiao Hong's book.

According to official rules, KOL can only receive advertisements on Xiaohong book only after being examined by the little red book platform and become a "brand collaborator".

In addition, the new regulation has also increased the intensity of private placement. The initial score of the partners is 12 points. The private placement will be deducted 12 points directly, and the contract will be terminated at the same time, and it will not become a brand partner again in a year.

Xiao Hong book said that the upgrading of the brand cooperation platform is aimed at improving the quality of the partners, increasing the efficiency of MCN, severely punishing the unprepared advertising notes and data fraud, and creating more valuable content for bloggers.

In fact, the purpose of strengthening the control power of KOL is not only to restore the trust of users, but also to pave the way for their own profit demands.

Commercialization of the arrow

In February 2019, Mao Wenchao and Qu Fang, the founder of Xiaohong book, emphasized in the company's internal letter that "2019 is the key year for the growth and commercialization of Xiao Hong book".

As of March 2019, the number of users of Xiaohong has exceeded 220 million in 6 years, and has also been favored by many capital.

Unfortunately, little red book has not been found clear path of realization, and the exploration of commercialization is also bumpy.

At the end of 2014, Xiao Hong tried to cut the electricity business through content. But in 2016, the policy of cross-border e-commerce was tightened, and Xiaohong Book adjusted accordingly to pform the social business.

Unfortunately, "the content is responsible for the beauty and flowers, and the electricity supplier is responsible for making money to support families" has never been realized.

In the supply chain, channels, logistics and other aspects of the lack of advantages, coupled with fake, poor after-sales and other negative frequency, let little red book is difficult to realize the flow of cash, or even for Tmall, Jingdong, NetEase koala platform and other "made up".

Finally, after the failure of the electricity supplier, Xiao Hong chose another way -- "advertising cash".

In January 3rd, Xiao Hong officially launched the brand cooperation platform, providing a bridge between the brand side, the content Cooperation Agency (MCN) and the KOL three party.

According to official rules, KOL can only receive advertisements on Xiaohong book only after being examined by the little red book platform and become a "brand collaborator".

The on-line platform of the brand cooperation platform means that Xiao Hong can get through the two parties of supply and demand, and the Commission will be drawn from the paction in the future.

The small red book to improve access standards, is a platform for KOL "refining", after all, for the other side of the bridge brand, low exposure KOL is worthless.

While cleaning the low quality KOL, Xiao Hong also strengthened the control of the KOL that meets the requirements.

According to the requirements of the platform, the brand partners who meet the standards need to sign the real name system with the content Cooperation Agency (MCN).

This makes the management of Xiaohong Book easier, as long as the MCN can be controlled well.

The practice of Xiao Hong is very similar to that of micro-blog.

Micro-blog's early KOL also received a lot of brand advertising, but it had nothing to do with micro-blog platform. In order to make profits, micro-blog developed an advertising delivery system on its own. It introduced MCN and MCN agents to many bloggers, one side negotiated with merchants, the other side butted micro-blog, and micro-blog only needed to run MCN agencies well.

Balance between commercialization and user experience

The way of commercialization of micro-blog's engraving, is this little red book finding its way to commercialization? Maybe it's not that simple.

The most direct contradiction is the balance between commercialization and user experience of Xiao Hong's book.

From the "grass writing notes" incident, we can see that when users use Xiaohong book, the demand is "real grass planting content". If the brand side releases a lot of advertisements through KOL, it will destroy the original ecosystem of Xiao Hong book.

In addition, because the new rules of the small red book platform have just come out, many KOL and MCN are still in a wait-and-see state.

Many of the small red books that meet the criteria for entry are hesitant about whether to sign MCN or sign MCN. In their opinion, signing KOL means that they can no longer join in promotion.

The relationship between MCN and platform is also not clear. How will Xiao Hong book manage MCN, how MCN will develop in the future, and how MCN and platform are divided into...

A variety of factors that are not yet clear will affect the choices of MCN.

To sum up, for Xiao Hong's book, though there is "a lesson from the past", the new commercialization of advertising is still facing great challenges.