How out of control is the hot search of ownerless As long as we have worked, we will be dirty ?

Visual China.

Text |Stinging Institute, author |Rain Valley.

Different from the online hot searches caused by the news reported by the **account, this kind of "unowned topic" has no topic host, and the quality of the content of the post is also very worrying. For example, "Most people don't have love", which ranked 23rd on the hot search list on January 22, is on the list 71 hour, harvest 71570,000 views. The relevant Weibo content is almost all "emotional quotations", just like "the scene of the online love saint audition".

If we say that this unexplained "mass emo phenomenon" vividly interprets what it means to "not know what to do". Then on January 23, it rushed to the 10th place in the hot search and gained 1625The 50,000 views of "as long as we go to work we are dirty" can better reflect the collective spillover of negative emotions of Weibo users.

However, what is more curious than the topic is why there are so many threads around "unowned topics" in less than a day? Is the inexplicable hot search really an accidental group resonance? Other nonsensical hot search topics such as "de-parenting" and "now young ** line breaking off relatives" are all the same.

There have been too many criticisms about the lack of guidance on Weibo's entertainment and hot searches. Weibo itself has also sacrificed a "warm news" killer in order to "** overly entertaining hot searches, but it still can't recover the ** atmosphere full of anger. Weibo, which sits at the top of Chinese social networks, has been "entertaining" for so long that it has forgotten the meaning and value of social networks.

When Weibo was born in 2009, I probably never thought that I would become a 5A social platform with 500 million monthly active users. After all, just during the Beijing Olympics, the portals that became the focus of the whole network ** were the kings of traffic in that era, and the c position of the early Chinese social network belonged to the god-level users in well-known forums such as Tianya, Maopu, and Xicihu.

However, speaking up and expressing oneself in the online world has never been the privilege of a few. Therefore, when "microblogging" provides a platform for people to record and share their lives anytime and anywhere, people's desire to express themselves has been greatly released in the efficient social mode built by the Internet, which is also the embodiment of the value of early Weibo users.

It was also during this period that public figures represented by entertainment stars were "brave enough to be themselves" on the Weibo platform. Guan Xiaotong, who has not taken off her childishness, posted a "Death Barbie Powder" outfit without any traces of PS, and sincerely asked everyone, "Am I Barbie?" "Na Yingyi" is the most annoying person who pretends to be X! Weibo, after 12 years, is still turned out by netizens and interpreted into a hot Internet meme in a new way.

The ever-enriching Weibo content ecology has made more and more people use Weibo as an important channel to obtain information and express their opinions.

In January 2012, the 29th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) mentioned that by the end of December 2011, the number of Internet users in China had reached 51.3 billion, while the number of Weibo users reached 2500 million, an increase of 296 from the end of the previous year0%, and the usage rate of netizens is 487%。In just one year, Weibo has quickly grown into a social platform used by nearly half of China's Internet users.

When the platform's traffic grew rapidly along with the rapid growth of the user scale, Weibo also quickly saw the hope of commercial realization. The natural attribute of entertainment gossip with traffic makes it a "Pandora's box" in the hands of Weibo. During this period, not only did users become more and more fond of "eating melons", but Weibo also launched product functions such as star zones and topic lists to meet the needs of users for "chasing stars".

However, as a result of excessive entertainment, some hype behaviors for the purpose of "hot searches" are not uncommon, and Weibo hot searches have become a stage for gossip marketing accounts.

Under regulatory pressure, and also out of consideration for its own platform, Weibo has dealt with illegal accounts on the platform, including Zhuo Wei, Changchun International Trade and other accounts that specialize in publishing entertainment gossip news. However, the reduction in gossip hype has not changed the platform's desire for celebrity traffic and advertising revenue.

Hot searches are almost occupied by entertainment news, non-"domestic entertainment users" can't swipe the information they want to see, and the poor content experience has led to the loss of some users, but the power of gossip has further expanded the overall user scale of Weibo. In May 2020, Weibo released its financial report for the first quarter of 2020: as of the end of March of that year, Weibo's monthly active users reached 5500 million, with 2 daily active users4.1 billion, an increase of 85 million and 38 million respectively over the same period of the previous year.

In contrast to the growth of Weibo data, ordinary users will log in to their Weibo accounts from time to time, but people rarely post any new content related to their lives on Weibo, and Weibo accounts are just an arbitrary door for people to go directly to the melon-eating scene. Ordinary users fell into a "spiral of silence" and gave up the stage of social ** to the entertainment industry.

Relevant data shows that from December 1 to 8, 2023, there were as many as 135 marketing hot searches for the GQ Festival, and 126 were gained500 million views. Just like the just-concluded 2023 Weibo Night, just one event received more than 25.7 billion views within 24 hours, attracting 12300 million people**, and a total of 67.7 billion total views with 220 hot searches. Weibo only brought a carnival to the internal entertainment and fan circles, and the excitement of this night has nothing to do with other ordinary people.

In fact, the key problem faced by Weibo is the ecological imbalance caused by entertainment content. Although this phenomenon is not the result of Weibo's own active choice, the reliance on entertainment stars and their fan groups has indeed gradually handed over the discourse power of the Weibo platform to entertainment content.

On February 3, 2018, the hot search on Weibo was relaunched after a brief disappearance for a week. The "big overhaul" of this hot search list stems from Weibo's interview with the Cyberspace Administration of China a week ago because it "failed to fulfill its review obligations for users to publish illegal and illegal information, and continued to spread hype and misdirection, vulgar pornography and other serious problems of illegal and harmful information", and was then required to self-examine and self-correct, and comprehensively and thoroughly rectify.

How outrageous was the hot search at that time? ** and the "Ziguangge" magazine in charge of the State Organ Working Committee, because of the criticism of the hip-hop singer "PG ONE", was mistaken by fans for a "Chinese restaurant", and then in order to protect the idol, fans proposed to boycott the "Ziguangge Hotel" with methods such as "no one will eat in the future" and "complain about health problems", and some people even put forward the idea of "using gutter oil to bring it down".

If it's just a few verbal complaints from fans, or the so-called boycott method just stays at the idea stage, there is nothing worth paying attention to. However, what makes people feel magical is that the topic of "Ziguangge gutter oil" really appeared on Weibo's hot search list, which inevitably makes people feel that the platform is out of position to guide the hot search content.

From January to November 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China instructed the Beijing Municipal Cyberspace Administration to impose 44 penalties on Sina Weibo, with a maximum fine of 500,000 yuan on several occasions, with a total fine of 14.3 million yuan. In the face of successive fines and rectification requirements, Weibo itself is constantly trying to save itself. For example, in the first half of 2023, the "Warm News" function will be launched on Weibo's hot search.

According to the relevant person in charge of Weibo: "Warm News" mechanism will increase the recommendation of the positive energy "warm news" released by the first release, and increase the traffic tilt of positive energy content such as mortal kindness, selfless dedication, and mutual help, and the "warm" mark will appear after the topic word after being listed.

To put it simply, the "warm news" mechanism is to directly insert the "positive energy hot search" into the real-time hot search list, so as to achieve the purpose of spreading positive energy content and harmonizing the proportion of different content on the hot search list. However, the research institute found that Weibo's "positive energy" hot search may not have achieved its intended purpose.

Since the ** account "New Media Technology Review" has updated the "Weibo Hot Search This Week" column since November last year, aiming to "focus on the success or failure of Weibo hot search in the previous week's traffic, public opinion and platform responsibility". The content of the column updated on December 4 mentioned that the "warm news hot search" accounted for 10% of the total number of hot searches in the previous two weeks, but it fell to 3% last week (November 25 to December 1).

The data shows that since the launch of "Warm News" for more than half a year, the proportion of the total number of hot searches has been maintained at about 10%. But since November 2023, this proportion has begun to decline, and even plummeted to 3% at one point. Some industry insiders commented that the reduction in the proportion of "warm news" may be because it has not achieved the goal of reflecting the responsibility and positive energy orientation of the Weibo platform, so it has been compressed. Perhaps the comments of industry insiders have been noticed by the platform, and from December 2023, the proportion of "warm news" has rebounded significantly.

Among all the hot searches from January 7th to 12th, entertainment hot searches accounted for 311%, the lowest in two months, and the highest week was as high as 46%. In contrast, the share of "warm news" climbed to a two-month high of 12%, compared to the lowest week of just 3%.

There is also something suspicious about the sudden increase in "warm news" data. According to statistics, among the 50 "warm news" hot searches launched on January 8, 22 were on the list for no more than 2 minutes, and the time on the list was concentrated between early morning and seven or eight o'clock in the morning.

In addition, from January 7th to 12th, the "warm news" that "flashed" on the hot search list for only one minute in the early morning hours accounted for about 1 4 of the hot searches in this category. Although the "flash" does not affect the data results of Weibo's official statistics of "warm news", the "warm news" that has been on the list for one minute in the middle of the night may not be an effective way for Weibo to solve the ecological imbalance.

It's not just the double shrinkage of "warm news" in terms of quantity and quality, which casts a layer of dust on the original intention of "spreading positive energy". After being interviewed many times, Weibo has not been able to solve the problem of spreading rumors.

On December 18 last year, the topic of "Sleeping with Wet Hair Causes Cancer" hosted by Sina's Weibo account "Headline News" once rushed to the second place on the hot search list. Less than two weeks later, Pear** hosted the topic "Sleeping with Wet Hair Often Causes Cancer", and specifically mentioned in the body of the topic that "recent rumors of wet hair causing cancer on social platforms" to refute the rumors. But this rumor-debunking topic not only failed to attract traffic that matched the rumor topic, but Sina's accounts such as "Headline News" did not show up to help refute the rumor.

In fact, in the face of some topics that are obviously easy to misunderstand and oppose, Weibo habitually shows a flickering and ambiguous attitude in order to achieve the purpose of stirring up hot topics and creating hot searches.

For example, this year's New Year's explosion in Harbin has made "Southern Little Potato" a hot Internet meme. On Weibo, in just 3 days, "Southern Little Potato" was on 8 hot searches and won 500 million traffic. However, when reviewing the popularity path of "Southern Little Potato", it will be found that behind the seemingly naturally generated network hotspots, there are traces of strong intervention in platform operations.

The first entry in the "Southern Little Potato" series of hot searches was the "Southern Little Potato Stereotype" that appeared on January 3. At that time, some Weibo influencers criticized the nickname of "Little Potato in the South" for being stereotyped, giving outdated aesthetics such as wife literature, weakening women, and making people uncomfortable. Because the topic involves the difference between the north and the south and the gender antagonism, it has sparked heated discussions among users, and the anger of the content of the post is getting heavier and heavier. And in this atmosphere of controversy, the Southern Little Potato Stereotype took just over 20 minutes to rush to No. 4 place.

If a single Weibo is on the hot search because of topic controversy, at most it can only show that Weibo is not strong in guiding negative **. However, the subsequent listing of a series of "Southern Little Potato" topics directly exposed the lack of social responsibility in Weibo hot searches.

On the morning of January 3, the stereotype of small potatoes in the south appeared hot after rushing to the 4th place in the hot search. But soon, the relatively neutral hashtag Southern Little Potato successfully relayed onto the list. In the afternoon of the same day, the content of the "Little Potato" stereotype on Weibo suddenly attracted a lot of attention for the entry "Little Potato Literature", and the voices arguing about the differences between the North and the South and the gender opposition once again filled Weibo.

The next day, is the name of the southern little potato appropriate? It was on the hot search again, and there was a ** to initiate a vote. According to the results of the Weibo poll, only 16% of netizens mind the title. And some netizens also criticized the topic of "Southern Little Potato", which caused confrontation for two consecutive days, and asked why they wanted to engage in this hot search. Although the hashtag Southern little potato stereotype has now been removed, the debate about it has not gone away.

It can be seen from the fact that the "Southern Little Potato" series of topics have been on the list in just two days, and the platform can push a single popular Weibo to the hot search list, and it must also have the ability to monitor topics. But when the topic clearly sparked antagonism and heated debate, Weibo did not intervene in time. On the contrary, after the popularity of the topic declined, other similar series of topics were repeatedly pushed to the high level of traffic, so that users with negative emotions were fiercely connected under the topics set by the platform.

This may be a commonly used operation technique for social platforms, but for a social giant with a large number of users like Weibo, using the opposition between users to create hot searches undoubtedly forgets that they should assume social responsibility.

From the perspective of the development history of Chinese social networks, Weibo has almost witnessed the best era of this industry, and it is still a highly influential social ** platform so far. With the loss of users caused by the deterioration of the content ecology and the emergence of other social **, although the position of Weibo is still unshakeable in the short term, the value of its existence is also shrinking at an accelerated pace.

When rumors and hype continue to be banned, some users who are eager to discover new things are the first to leave. And when the fan circle culture and cyberbullying began to slaughter the hot search list and topic comment area, users who were eager for free expression chose to take the initiative to "close the microphone" and be willing to eat melons.

In recent years, every once in a while, there has been a wave of reminiscences of the ancient Chinese Internet. People lamented how many god posts and masterpieces the former forum gods had contributed, and missed the surprise of being flopped by idols in the celebrity Weibo comment area.

What people really miss is not a certain Internet product, but the relatively simple and clear atmosphere in the early days of the industry. The experience of gathering heroes and speaking freely has allowed Chinese netizens to see the efficiency and equality of the Internet, and has also indirectly given birth to a large number of Internet entrepreneurs. But now, Internet entrepreneurs have also disappeared with the clear atmosphere.

Today's Chinese social networks are relatively fragmented due to the diversification of media forms and social applications. User groups are also divided into different social groups because of their own content preferences and the likes and dislikes of the community atmosphere. College students, fitness experts, employees of large factories, and two-dimensional enthusiasts ......There are more and more tags on user portraits, but it is becoming more and more difficult to communicate sincerely and reach consensus on social networks.

As a result, there is a clear gap between different groups, and conflicts between groups are more likely to arise. "Breaking the circle" has become a challenge for mass communication, but it is also worth reflecting: when did the "circle" come about?

In the Internet era, social platforms often control the first market and enjoy the traffic value it brings. For an Internet social networking application, users cannot directly intervene in the operation and function development of Weibo, but the platform has the obligation to give everyone the right to communicate equally, otherwise people will find their own voice channels again.

On November 9, 2023, Weibo released its third-quarter financial report, which showed that as of the end of the third quarter of that year, Weibo's monthly active users reached 60.5 billion, a net increase of about 21 million year-on-year, and the number of daily active users reached 2600 million, a net increase of about 8 million year-on-year.

Weibo's user base is still growing, but in the minds of users, some "value" is gone.