Cloud feeding". Three-camera eating and broadcasting, the protagonist of eating and broadcasting is cute and cute, and the "rewarding" audience is endless. In the heated discussion, an app with live broadcast attributes became popular, but the protagonist of the live broadcast changed from a human to a stray cat.
Shell financial reporters found that an app called "Street Cat" has received a lot of attention since it was launched. On January 9, the Shell financial reporter saw on the software homepage that a stray cat was eating freeze-dried and cat food with relish, and many viewers left messages in the comment area to interact, and also "cloud fed" a lot of cat food.
In addition to live streaming and "cloud feeding" stray cats, users can also apply for a cat house or catch cat neutering in their own city to help solve the survival and management problems of stray cats.
However, the explosion of "street cats" has also caused a lot of controversy, such as the accumulation of cat food and health and safety issues after "cloud feeding", which further highlights the protection of stray animal rights and management issues. Experts said that improving the regulatory mechanism and strengthening the supervision and management of cat houses are the key to solving these problems.
Users recharge love coins to buy cat food is the main fund of the street cat app**.
Spend money to "raise cats in the cloud".
According to public information, Street Cat will be launched in April 2023, focusing on issues such as survival, neutering, and adoption of stray cats. By launching a smart cat house and connecting it to the APP, users can "cook" stray cats online anytime and anywhere. At present, Street Cat has landed in 13 cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Changsha, and as of October last year, there have been more than 130,000 smart cat houses were launched.
According to Street Cat, the smart cat house is equipped with multiple high-definition cameras, with three major functions: online cloud feeding, multi-view cloud cat sucking and intelligent monitoring. From the point of view of the page function, the audience can view the process of stray cats eating from three perspectives, and feed cat food and freeze-dried cat food to stray cats by purchasing love coins, such as 199 yuan can buy 32 love coins, 10 love coins can be fed with 10 grams of cat food, and freeze-drying requires 20 love coins. In addition, users can check the situation of the cat house, including battery capacity, cat food and freeze-dried stock, feeding amount, etc.
The street cat app's "live broadcast + cloud feeding" of stray cats has attracted the attention of many cat lovers. Ms. Zhao from Jiangsu told the Shell Finance reporter that she uses software to feed almost every day, "Generally, when you see an empty bowl of cat house, you will feed cat food, which is possible from hundreds of grams to more than 1,000 grams a day." Ms. Zhao said, ** stray cats "dry rice" has brought great emotional value to them, "stray cats live in a very poor environment in the wild, I am very moved to see that they have a place to eat and rest, and there are many people who participate in feeding and rescue through live broadcasts." β
Some netizens said that watching stray cats eat and broadcast is "very **", "I am very satisfied to see them eating a full meal", "Because I don't have a cat, I am very happy to be able to 'cloud cats'." β
In the street cat app, users can also share the stray cat dynamics they are concerned about through various "slices"**, and on this basis, a number of "Internet celebrity" stray cats have also been born. Ms. Zhao told the Shell financial reporter that she uploaded a number of stray cats edited by herself on social platforms, and in the process of communicating with other users, she also gained a certain sense of identity and achievement.
2023-2024 China Pet Industry Consumption Report)" pointed out that China has become the world's second largest pet market, and in 2023, the urban pet (dog and cat) consumption market will be 279.3 billion yuan, an increase of 32%γIn this context, the street cat through the "live broadcast + cloud feeding" method, not only to meet the needs of users "cloud cats", but also to make stray cat feeding a "business", public information shows that four months after the street cat was launched, the number of users has exceeded one million.
Street cats are "cutting leeks"?
While gaining widespread attention, street cats have also been questioned about "cutting leeks". One of the controversies is whether it makes money by feeding the audience "** cat food." Previously, some netizens had converted the love coins and found that the street cat cat food** could reach 50 yuan, and said that the ** could buy better cat food on the market.
Shell financial reporters use 199 yuan 32 love coins, 10 love coins can be fed 10 grams of cat food after the number of calculations, it is found that a pound of street cat cat food ** is about 31 yuan, if you buy more love coins, cat food per catty ** will be lower.
At present, users recharge love coins to buy cat food is the main fund of the street cat app**. In response to the problem of cat food, Street Cat once responded that the unit price of app feeding includes the cost of cat house production and transportation, software and hardware research and development, procurement, operation and maintenance, etc.
The reporter combed and found that the street cat and a number of pet brands such as Bi Ruiji, Lingcui, Meow Cai, Pidan, etc., have cooperated, launched cat food charity sales, the issuance of sterilization subsidy coupons and other activities, of which the income from the cat food charity sale can be invested in the street cat TNR (capture, sterilization, release).
In addition to spending money to feed, users can also apply for or help the cat house, the data shows that the landing of a cat house needs to raise 90 days of rations for 3 cats, in addition to the street cat contribution 45 days of cat food, users need to "crowdfund" to make up for the remaining days, such as buying 1 day of food needs to cost 12 yuan, 1 month needs 360 yuan, after the purchase of the platform will return a certain amount of love coins to the user.
According to Street Cat, the current cost of a cat house is about 4,000 yuan, and at present, the 540 yuan income brought by the user's "crowdfunding" 45 days of cat food cannot cover the cost of a cat house for the time being. However, once the cat house is landed, the user's "cloud feeding" will bring more long-term benefits to the street cats.
In addition to the launch of "cloud feeding", Street Cats also manage the number of stray cats through TNR (capture, sterilization and release), and through the issuance of 100 sterilization subsidy coupons worth 100 yuan per month, Street Cats subsidize some or all of the cost of neutering stray cats for users. The reporter saw in the list of pet hospitals that Shanghai neutered a male cat at 150 yuan to 200 yuan, and female cats were generally more than 200 yuan, which means that volunteers not only have to catch stray cats by themselves, but also need to pay a certain fee after using the subsidy coupon.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Shell Finance reporter that the business model of street cats is an innovative solution to the problem of stray cats, and street cats use live broadcast technology to show the living status of stray cats to the public in real time, which increases the public's attention to the problem of stray cats to a certain extent, and at the same time, "cloud feeding" increases the user's sense of participation and can also meet their emotional needs. In addition, this business model can make public welfare activities continue to a certain extent, and solve the problem of shortage of funds for traditional public welfare activities.
Issues such as the management of street cats and cats have caused controversy.
Still, there are a number of problems behind Street Cat's innovative business model. The reporter combed through and found that the controversy mainly focused on the management of the cat house, health safety and the completion of sterilization.
In the management of the cat house, the street cat by calling volunteers, so that the cat house in the community, parks and other locations to install the landing, at the same time, volunteers can also undertake the cat house cleaning, water change, and TNR and other work, but after the reporter observed and interviewed, it was found that many users reported that many cat houses are dirty, stuck, unmaintained or even destroyed.
Some users pointed out that this kind of over-feeding not only easily leads to the deterioration of cat food, but also attracts more stray cats and other wild animals to gather and forage, causing health and safety problems.
Street Cat Smart Cat House.
At the same time, in terms of TNR, street cats have also received a lot of criticism, "Capture and sterilization is an important part of TNR, but catching cats and sterilization are basically done by volunteers, many people lack capture tools, and the number of sterilization subsidy coupons is limited, and most of the sterilization still rely on volunteers to 'generate electricity for love'", a netizen told reporters.
According to data released by Street Cats, a total of 7,506 neutering coupons will be issued for Street Cats in 2023, and more than 170,000, which means that the number of neutering vouchers is far from meeting the demand for stray cats to be neutered. At the same time, volunteers have to pay more than the subsidy**, which also puts a question mark on the sustainability of street cats in terms of TNR.
According to the data of China's pet industry in 2021, the number of stray dogs and stray cats in 2021 will be as high as 40 million, and the number of stray cats will be as high as 53 million.
Jiang Han said that first of all, improving the management of cat houses is an important part of solving the problem of street cats. Establishing a standardized management system can ensure that the number of cat houses is sufficient and reasonably distributed to meet the basic needs of stray cats;Secondly, street cats should strengthen the hygiene management of the cat house, and regularly clean and disinfect the cat house to prevent the spread of diseases. At the same time, users are provided with correct feeding methods and health guidance. In addition, strengthening supervision is also one of the important measures to solve the problem of street cats, and the relevant departments should establish a sound regulatory mechanism to strengthen the supervision and management of cat houses.
Ms. Wang, from Jiangsu, told the Shell Finance reporter that there are three cat houses in the community where she lives, one of which is maintained by herself, "For me, using street cats is not entertainment, and my relationship with stray cats has gone beyond the stage of entertainment." I hope that the focus of street cats' future work can be tilted towards the protection of animal rights and interests, and how to fight for the right to survive for stray cats in the outdoor space of the city, and how to legally and reasonably make street cat houses operate safely and effectively in an inclusive and loving community for a long time. β
Beijing News Shell Finance Intern Reporter Wei Boya Reporter Wang Jinyu.
Edited by Yue Caizhou.
Proofread by Liu Baoqing.