A 10-square-meter shop has 14,000 shareholders

Now, "cloud shareholders" on the Internet platform has become a phenomenon, and related topics have even attracted many people on Xiaohongshu. So, what is the reason behind the emergence of this group of "cloud shareholders"? This article tells the story of this group of "cloud shareholders", let's take a look.

Li Jieming, who is in Nanjing, recently acquired a new identity - a "cloud shareholder" of a spicy hot pot restaurant in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu.

Li Jieming has not invested a penny so far, and his way of acquiring shares is very special. "It is mainly to give suggestions to the store owner on Xiaohongshu and serve as an advisor for his business."

The small shop that Li Jieming invested in is called "Zhu Dabao Northeastern Big Bowl Malatang".

The owner was born in 1999 and is an absolute "novice in the catering industry". After starting his business in April this year, he posted on Xiaohongshu to ask for help from netizens. The content ranged from "naming the shop", "the process of finding a shop", "doorway design" to subsequent operations, etc.

Li Jieming has been actively giving suggestions to the owner since the naming stage. Every day, the owner updates the store on Xiaohongshu about the latest developments of the store, including the progress of the renovation, the final opening, and the addition of new dishes. Li Jieming is always actively leaving messages for the owner.

Li Jieming feels that "watching the store grow little by little, I feel like I am playing a business game of nurturing". Because Li Jieming's opinions are mostly pertinent and practical, he was also rated as one of the most senior "cloud shareholders" by the store owner, and was given the "shareholder privilege" of receiving "canned yellow peaches" after the store opened. On Xiaohongshu, there are many "cloud shareholders" like Li Jieming. They participate in the establishment and operation of the store through various suggestions and comments, without asking for anything in return, and simply "generating electricity with love".

Different from previous shareholders who focused on the economy and investment for returns, cloud shareholders are mostly concerned with small shops located in counties, communities or those that are about to go bankrupt.

Most of them sincerely hope that the store owner can "make money" and act like shareholders. They not only pay attention to "financial reports" and "inspections", but also actively ask their friends to "support" them. This issue of Microscope Stories found this group of virtual shareholders to find out why these young people are so concerned about a small store they have never seen.

What exactly supports this group of strangers to keep each other warm on Xiaohongshu by following each other, leaving messages and making suggestions?

Here is the true story of how this generation of young people became “cloud shareholders”:

1. There is a kind of good, called "cloud shareholders hope you are well"

In the movie, the small shops on the street are given a lot of mystery.

For example, in "Harry Potter", if you want to enter Diagon Alley in the magical world, you need to first enter a street bar in London.

For example, in some competitive movies, the shop owner can always get something unexpected to turn the protagonist's predicament around.

In real life, don't underestimate any small shop.

They are located on the street corners of the city, with a business area of ​​only a few dozen square meters, but there may be 14,000 shareholders behind them.

This is what Sister Cat’s shop is like.

Mao Jie's shop is in Chengdu. The shop has 14,000 shareholders scattered all over the country. They take care of Mao Jie's business free of charge by giving advice and promoting it spontaneously on Xiaohongshu.

The fate of Sister Mao and these “cloud shareholders” began with a “complaint note” on Xiaohongshu.

In 2021, Mao Jie opened a noodle shop on a popular street in Chengdu, but the business was dismal. Instead, the braised dishes in the store were very popular. Some customers were even willing to pay an extra 40 yuan in errand fees to buy the noodle shop's braised pork intestines.

"The ingredients in this noodle shop are all top quality, so why is there no business?" Sister Mao couldn't figure it out.

Picture | Sister Mao’s “complaint” at that time

Sister Mao thought of seeking advice from everyone on the Internet, and shared this matter on Xiaohongshu, trying her luck to see if she could find a way out.

Unexpectedly, this self-deprecating post was pushed to thousands of netizens through algorithms, attracting many netizens to offer suggestions.

They made many specific suggestions for Sister Mao's shop, from the door to the floor, from the lights to the tables... Among them, one netizen found the bright spot in Sister Mao's "complaint post" - the braised dishes sold well, and then suggested "why don't the owner switch to selling braised dishes."

Once the "transformation" proposal was put forward, it was like a spark that ignited the enthusiasm of netizens, and everyone began to urge Sister Mao to start the business of mailing pig intestines in various ways.

At first, Mao Jie refused, “How can braised food be delivered by express?” But as more and more netizens commented on Xiaohongshu asking to have them mailed for a taste, Mao Jie bought a vacuum packaging machine and cold chain packaging bags, intending to send a few samples to enthusiastic netizens.

The trial was unstoppable, and the delivery addresses gradually spread from Sichuan, Hubei, and Guangdong to all parts of the country. In this way, Sister Mao simply closed the noodle shop with bleak business and transformed herself into a busy braised food online store owner.

As Mao Jie's business grew bigger and stronger, enthusiastic netizens on Xiaohongshu upgraded themselves to become "cloud shareholders", and continued to support Mao Jie's store by making suggestions and recommending it to people around them.

On Xiaohongshu, there is always a group of shop owners who "listen to advice" and a group of "cloud shareholders" who are willing to offer advice.

These netizens are "capable of dealing with things, and really help when there is something to do." Many netizens care about the small shop second only to the boss. Not only do they supervise it personally, they also always follow up on the progress of the small shop and make timely suggestions.

Sisi, born in 1999, is also a small shop owner with many cloud shareholders.

In March this year, Sisikao failed in her research and decided to return to her hometown of Ziyang to open a children's clothing store. However, she only had a budget of 10,000 yuan for decoration, and encountered many difficulties on the road to opening the store, and once faced bankruptcy.

Since the relatives and friends around her couldn’t give any constructive suggestions, Sisi could only post a request for help on Xiaohongshu.

Unexpectedly, the shareholders not only gave professional advice, but also made plans to address the situation of lack of customers in the shop. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the "think tanks", Sisi's shop beautified the window, changed the facade, and added a small blackboard with prices.

Picture | After the store opened, Sisi often "asked for help" from Yun shareholders and rectified her store

"Without Mr. Yun, we wouldn't have our shop," said Brother Mao, founder of the nail material store "Luminous Cat."

Brother Mao once studied brand planning in Japan, and was determined to return to China to create a "beauty brand of his own", thus starting his bumpy entrepreneurial journey.

As he didn't know much about the female market, Mao Ge decided to do user research first, and thus chose Xiaohongshu as his main platform. In Mao Ge's opinion, new brands have no users and lack channels for user feedback, so they need opportunities to face users directly, and "Xiaohongshu happens to meet both of these points."

He then posted a few help-seeking posts on Xiaohongshu to test the waters. What he didn't expect was that the cloud shareholders not only enthusiastically answered his questions, but also often gave him suggestions, wrote detailed feedback like short essays, collected styles, and provided purchase support...

Some "cloud shareholders" will also lurk in the comment sections of other nail art enthusiasts and recommend Brother Mao and his products when appropriate.

After a while, Sister Mao posted her cash flow, which was over 1 million in half a year. When Brother Mao reviewed his business three years ago, he put the “cloud shareholders” first in his thanks.

There are many such "career-oriented" shareholders. It is precisely because of the selfless help of the cloud shareholders that many small shops have survived the most difficult times.

2. “When something happens, cloud shareholders really come forward”

To some extent, cloud shareholders are somewhat "violating" business perceptions.

Most cloud shareholders live in big cities, and they are also fashion trendsetters in many contexts. Why are these young people in big cities so enthusiastic about "helping others make money"?

Why are they mostly focusing on small community stores in remote areas, or those that are just starting out, or on the verge of bankruptcy? Coco, one of the shareholders of Cloud, can give some answers.

Coco is a packaging designer working in Shanghai and also a shareholder of a small fruit shop in a county town in Shaanxi.

She is a loyal user of Xiaohongshu, and often reads ordinary people's sharing for fun. She also often gives her own suggestions in help posts, "Here, you can express yourself freely without worrying about saying the wrong thing."

Once, when Coco was browsing Xiaohongshu, she found that a shop owner had opened an online store to sell fruits for his grandfather who was a fruit farmer. However, he had limited funds, no operational experience, and no understanding of the packaging of fresh fruits. He was deeply troubled by delivery and after-sales service.

Coco immediately left a suggestion below using her work experience. Unexpectedly, when she checked the store's Xiaohongshu again a few days later, the owner had already changed the packaging and specifications to what she suggested.

Many people also liked Coco's message and came up with many other ideas based on her suggestions.

"I haven't felt this sense of accomplishment from responding in a timely manner at work for a long time." In real life, Coco is involved in large projects with long processes and complex reporting relationships. She does similar work every day, and it is difficult for some suggestions to be passed on to the leadership.

"But on Xiaohongshu, your opinions can be easily seen and responded to in a timely manner, making both the recipients and the helpers happy."

A sense of identity and reliance are also the reasons why many cloud shareholders choose to "invest".

Many online stores are located in "18th-tier" cities, lacking resources and background, but in the eyes of Xiaohongshu netizens, the store owners are a group of people who work hard and show strong vitality.

"I can see myself in their stubbornness. They are doing what we want to do but cannot do for the time being."

Many cloud shareholders have had a dream of opening a small shop, such as opening a cozy coffee shop, a flower shop full of flowers all year round, a bookstore full of the fragrance of ink and paper, or some niche hobby shops serving feelings and hobbies, but for various reasons, they have not been realized.

Chen Chen, a cloud shareholder of White Bear Supermarket, feels that "it's like remotely helping a stranger realize his dream."

On the other hand, small shops are also being wiped out by the high rents in cities and the increasingly "homogeneous" urban planning, which has become a regret in the hearts of shareholders. Therefore, when shareholders see these small shops, they are particularly cordial and sincerely hope that these small shops will be good.

Therefore, when those small shops with dreams but still struggling are recommended to cloud shareholders by algorithms, cloud shareholders will choose to unite and help the small shops.

The Ladder Bookstore in Zhengzhou encountered difficulties in its bookstore operation. The owner, Wu Xiaojun, had to announce on Xiaohongshu that he would be closing half of the bookstore and launched a blind box of books called "Farewell" to say goodbye to his readers.

Unexpectedly, the notes attracted the attention of cloud shareholders as soon as they were released. Ladder Bookstore sold tens of thousands of blind boxes and temporarily overcame the difficulties.

The small shops are the "edges" of the cloud shareholders and their way of resisting life. In the process of helping the small shops, the cloud shareholders are finding themselves.

As Xiao Qian, a shareholder of Yun, said, "When paying attention to a small store, the mentality is like a 'mom fan'. Watching a small store grow from obscurity to prosperity is also witnessing my own transformation."

3. A two-way journey across time and space

But real life is not a happy drama.

Even with the enthusiastic help of cloud shareholders, the real difficulties faced by many small shops are still difficult to solve.

For example, the Ladder Bookstore, which was temporarily "rescued" by Yun shareholders, is still struggling on the edge of food and clothing amid the trend of bookstore closures around the world.

Photo | Notes from a bookstore owner

Photo | Sisi's clothing store was not crowded with customers.

Many more small shops were forced to close due to many irresistible reasons.

Figure | The coffee shop that once attracted the attention of many cloud shareholders by asking for help eventually closed down

Just like the small shop that Coco invested in, it eventually could not escape the fate of closing down.

After running the store for a while, the owner found that although the cloud store owners could tolerate his lack of experience, "a small store operated by everyone's philanthropic mentality cannot expand in scale." In the end, the owner decided to close the store and move to a big city to settle down for a few years before considering starting a business.

"This is life, most things don't go as planned," Coco felt a little disappointed, but she didn't regret it. Now she still hangs around in the help-seeking comment section of the store, enthusiastically serving as a cloud shareholder.

In her opinion, the significance of cloud shareholders is not just to help a specific small shop.

As a spontaneously initiated non-commercial investment, with no clear economic returns, the cloud shareholder team is still growing, and its significance goes far beyond the scope of business understanding.

Figure | Cloud shareholders have become a phenomenon and are on the hot list of Xiaohongshu

If you open Xiaohongshu and search for "cloud shareholder", you will get more than 10,000 pieces of content posted by small shop owners, but you will find that the most mentioned element is "emotion".

"We are friends who support each other," Mao Ge summarized in one sentence why he chose Xiaohongshu as the platform for his store and why everyone stayed.

In his opinion, the atmosphere of the Xiaohongshu community is warm and not hostile, and users can communicate with each other sincerely and equally, which is exactly what small shop owners need.

There are currently 70 core shareholders of the Glowing Cat Shop, all of whom have been with him since the beginning of his business. For this reason, Brother Mao also thoughtfully created a group for the core shareholders and equipped each core shareholder with an exclusive "number".

He would report the business situation to shareholders on time, and shareholders would report the latest developments to him regularly, and they would encourage each other when they encountered difficulties.

Brother Mao once met a shareholder from Northeast China. He was diagnosed with cancer and could no longer do manicures, so he came to say goodbye to Brother Mao, but at the same time told Brother Mao that he would not leave and would continue to pay attention to his shop.

In the eyes of store owners and cloud shareholders, "cloud investment" is not a commercial matter, but an encounter that originates from fate. What everyone invests is not money, but time and emotions that are more valuable than money.

In any era, things that can be quantified are not luxury goods, but trust is. The sense of trust between ordinary people is precisely the insurmountable moat of Xiaohongshu as a community, and it has also become a deep link between cloud shareholders and small shops.

It is precisely with the support of these emotions that the small shop owners would write the same thank you after going through so much, saying that it is because of everyone's company and help that no matter what the future holds, they will feel powerful as long as they carry on with this company and encouragement.

As Coco, a shareholder of Cloud, said, "Life is not always perfect, but at this moment when we meet and walk together online, I sincerely hope that everything goes well for you."

To some extent, the emergence of cloud shareholders is actually a confrontation between warmth and cold business - life is as vast as the ocean, and everyone in the isolated island is eager to connect with each other, and the Internet gives everyone the opportunity to meet each other, so that no matter where we are, no matter what kind of difficulties we are in, we have the opportunity to be seen and cared for.

And this is the original meaning of the Internet.

Author: Snow; Editor: Peake

Source: WeChat official account: Microscopic Story (ID: xianweigushi)