The low prices online can actually be criticized

Some netizens have discovered that by "scolding" Meituan, Ele.me and other platforms on social platforms, they can get discount coupons or even direct cash back. So, is it really feasible to "scold" the platform in exchange for discounts? How do people "scold"? Can you really get free stuff? Let's take a look!

Can you believe it? Meituan, Ele.me, Pinduoduo, Luckin Coffee and even China Mobile can all be scolded for discount coupons or even direct cash back?

Some netizens found that by "scolding" Meituan, Ele.me and other platforms on social platforms, they could buy memberships at a low price of 15 yuan. As for why "scolding" the platform can reduce the price, some analysts believe that it is because the major platforms have big data monitoring, and whenever they detect bad reviews, they use discounts to retain users.

These netizens naturally became the "original instructors" of this course. Through word of mouth, more and more netizens joined the "wool-grabbing" queue.

Is it really feasible to "scold" the platform in exchange for discounts? Is this a victory of netizens betting against big data algorithms, or a psychological calculation of netizens' self-indulgence?

1. How do you “scold”?

Most netizens participated in this war of words with the mentality of "give it a try, maybe the price of Meituan membership will really drop". The battlefield was mainly concentrated on Xiaohongshu, followed by Douban and Weibo.

Netizens who achieved price cuts posted "success posts" on Xiaohongshu. Some wrote, "Scolding Meituan really works" and "After two days of scolding, it's finally my turn", which attracted a large number of netizens to follow suit.

It can be found that the words used to "criticize" Meituan on various social platforms are the same, and most of them are copied and pasted. In addition, the words used to "criticize" other platforms are also highly similar. The words can be roughly divided into the following categories:

The first type, based on the principle of "others have it, so I should have it too", complains that the platform is unfair. For example:

"Other people on Meituan only charge one cent to get a membership, but I have to spend more than ten yuan. I have grown up and only today found out that others only charge one cent, my roommate only charges 2.99 per month, but I have to pay 15 yuan? ! ! Is it reasonable? Is it reasonable?"

"Ele.me, you are going too far. Others are opening annual passes on October 9th. Are you being fair to us? Why are you treating us differently? I also want an annual pass. If you don't give me a low-priced annual pass, I will never use Ele.me again. You decide for yourself."

Screenshot of Xiaohongshu cursing Meituan and Ele.me

The second type of people “show off” their college student status and expect to receive student benefits, such as: I am a student, college students are here! I am a college student, college students are here!

Screenshot of Xiaohongshu

The third category threatened to continue "scolding" and "warning" Meituan and Pinduoduo not to be ungrateful, such as "Then I will continue to scold MT and not be ungrateful" and "Pinduoduo, I advise you to be sensible and stop sending money to me on WeChat. It's just 50 yuan, you can't afford it, right?"

The fourth category is to directly complain about Meituan’s food delivery service being difficult to use and expensive, and that they can’t get coupons, such as “Meituan’s food delivery service is so difficult to use, Meituan’s food delivery service is so expensive, and I can never get coupons.” Or they complain about Luckin Coffee, “Why is Luckin Coffee so expensive recently? It’s so expensive. If it doesn’t get cheaper, I’ll go to Starbucks.”

Screenshot of Xiaohongshu that “criticizes” Meituan and Luckin Coffee

The fifth category even threatens Meituan and China Mobile to choose between two options: retaining netizens or holding on to a few dollars.

For example, "Ele.me is so useful. I really want to uninstall Meituan. I don't want to use Meituan to order takeout anymore. Ele.me opened an annual membership yesterday. It's so unlucky. Meituan membership is really too bad. It's not as good as Ele.me." "China Mobile Card is too unfriendly to me. I plan to stop using China Mobile Card."

Screenshot of Douban "scolding" Meituan

Screenshot of Xiaohongshu that "criticizes" China Mobile

The text of the "swearing" is available, but how did Meituan hear the "swearing"?

The first is to post on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Douban; the second is to leave a message in the comment area below the relevant post. Sometimes, in a Xiaohongshu post, the number of comments posted by netizens can reach 1,000+; the third is to post the script to Meituan customer service.

Xiao Hong, a netizen who participated in the "swearing" war, told the IQ Tax Research Center: You can also copy the words to the search box on the Meituan takeaway interface, copy and search several times, and repeat it for a few days.

It is not difficult to find that the way netizens "scold" Meituan and their rhetoric are unorganized, that is, there are no specific rhetoric and designated channels. It can be considered that this is a spontaneous behavior of netizens.

2. Is it possible to get the freebies?

The IQ Tax Research Center tried for several days, copying the same words as everyone else to the comment section of Xiaohongshu, Meituan customer service, or posting on Weibo and Xiaohongshu, but found that the membership price did not change at all.

Therefore, the IQ Tax Research Center "learned from" the netizens who had successfully "scolded".

Netizen momo told the IQ Tax Research Center that she had been "scolding" Meituan since April 11. "I didn't curse it deliberately, I can only say that I cursed it dozens of times."

Finally, on April 20, she succeeded in her "scolding" - she was able to get a membership of Meituan for only 3.9 yuan, with a RMB 11.1 discount from the membership surprise red envelope (hereinafter referred to as the "discount red envelope"). At the same time, she excitedly posted on Xiaohongshu: "I love you Meituan."

Momo shared her "successful" experience: "I often see posts related to Meituan, and the comments below are all cursing. Just follow the cursing. Cursing online will be captured by big data, and the price may drop. Look at my comment section, just copy and paste it."

Netizen Xiaotu also obtained a red envelope deduction by "swearing". She told the IQ Tax Research Center, "Just curse in different posts on Xiaohongshu." As for why she didn't "swear" on the Meituan platform but on Xiaohongshu, Xiaotu said, "There is big data monitoring."

Netizen Liu Liu posted a "successful" post saying, "Yesterday I was given 3.9 yuan to become a member. Be patient and wait until today it's 2.9 yuan." Liu Liu gave his own speculation on the same question, "It may be due to big data. I have also criticized it on Xiaohongshu before."

Some netizens also posted to share the words of "scolding" Meituan, Ele.me, and Pinduoduo, inviting netizens to copy them. In addition, the netizen also said that the basis for "scolding" the platform is to be able to kill big data, and "scolding more will give you a lot of no-threshold coupons."

It seems that big data monitoring is really a good helper to help Meituan achieve efficient public relations?

Netizen Keke received a red envelope with a discount, and only needed 4.9 yuan to buy a membership. After buying a Meituan membership for a month, he tried to reduce the price by "swearing" in the second month, but found that the discount was not strong enough and he needed 9.9 yuan to buy a membership.

There are also netizens who have been "scolding" Meituan since March 14. Until now, it still costs 15 yuan to purchase a Meituan membership, although they have received a "member surprise discount red envelope of 1.2 yuan" during this period.

Whether or not you can get Meituan membership discounts is really a mystery. Some netizens successfully "criticized" the price reduction, some netizens' "criticism" was not very effective, and some netizens' "criticism" had no effect at all.

The IQ Tax Research Center also found that netizens not only "scolded" Meituan, but also Ele.me, Luckin Coffee, Pinduoduo, China Mobile and other platforms have already been implicated.

Since August last year, netizens have begun to change target positions, adjust trajectories, aiming at the platform group, trying to squeeze all the benefits out of the platform.

• "Scold" Ele.me in order to get red envelopes, or receive coupons to buy super foodie cards at low prices;
• "Scolding" Luckin is to get drink coupons, exclusive coupons, discount money, etc.;
• "Scolding" Pinduoduo is to get no-threshold coupons or other coupons;
• "Scolding" China Mobile is to get China Mobile to give away free traffic.

Multiple platforms were criticized

It can be seen from this that netizens "scold" Meituan mostly in order to get discounts, and the way to get discounts is often to distribute red envelopes or coupons through the platform, or other value-added services.

It is worth noting that the "swearing" is so loud, could someone take the opportunity to deliberately provoke a fight?

The IQ Tax Research Center used "Meituan Takeaway Scolding" as the keyword and after roughly browsing the posts, it did not find anyone deliberately provoking a fight. Most of them were just "scolding" Meituan in exchange for discounts.

3. Random discount mechanism

The IQ Tax Research Center noticed that netizens who received discounts had one thing in common, that is, they received deduction red envelopes or member discount coupons issued by the Meituan platform.

Many netizens received discount red envelopes issued by Meituan, but the amount of money that can be deducted by the red envelopes is inconsistent and random. Some red envelopes can reduce 6.5 yuan, some can reduce 11.5 yuan, some can reduce 11.6 yuan, some can reduce 12.1 yuan, but some can only reduce 1.2 yuan.

Some netizens also enjoy member surprise discount coupons, and these netizens are generally already members. For example, some discount coupons can be used to deduct 10 yuan, and some can be used to deduct 6.4 yuan.

The IQ Tax Research Center found that Meituan’s rules include the rules for using red envelopes for deductions. It points out that the recipients and amounts of red envelopes for deductions are random, and the specific threshold, denomination, validity period, and usage rules are subject to the display on the user page.

In addition, the red envelopes for deduction have a time limit. Once the period of use is reached, Meituan may reissue the red envelopes or suspend the issuance of red envelopes.

The red envelope deduction has a time limit

If a red envelope with a deduction is issued, the degree of the discount will follow the random principle, and the deduction may be large or small.

This can explain the various chaotic and metaphysical operations that occur when netizens are "swearing".

4. Don’t take the blame

More importantly, does it really work to “scold” Meituan online to get discounts?

The IQ Tax Research Center consulted with Meituan staff. In response, the staff said that they had noticed some netizens complaining since last year, but Meituan's coupon issuance had nothing to do with the complaints.

At the same time, they also emphasized that the coupon issuance mechanism will not lead to the problem of "big data killing old customers" and will not affect user privacy.

Meituan’s official statement ruled out the possibility that users could get discounts by “scolding” the platform. If we go back to the source of getting discounts – red envelopes, perhaps we can explain why “scolding” Meituan seems to be able to get discounts.

In the first case, the netizen did not receive the red envelope for discount in advance. While "scolding" Meituan, the netizen happened to receive the red envelope issued by Meituan. He mistakenly believed that the discount was due to his "scolding".

In the second case, the user has already received the red envelope for discount. However, the time the netizen "criticizes" Meituan exceeds the validity period of the red envelope, and Meituan happens to issue the red envelope for discount again, and the discount is greater than the last time, thus creating the illusion that the "criticism" was successful.

In addition, while buying a cup of coffee, the IQ Tax Research Center confirmed with the relevant staff of Luckin Coffee. The staff of Luckin Coffee said that they knew that some netizens had "scolded" Luckin Coffee online.

However, Luckin Coffee staff also said that "scolding" is useless and the coupons are distributed randomly.

The IQ Tax Research Center consulted Ele.me and China Mobile about the same issue. Ele.me said that the specific rules are subject to the event page; China Mobile said that it would only send traffic coupons in the form of text messages when there are events.

In addition, China Mobile customer service also stated that coupons can be issued in Beijing at present, and asked the IQ Tax Center whether there is a mobile card number in the Beijing area, and can give a traffic coupon. Using this coupon, you can get 10G of traffic for 1 yuan.

From this we can see that "swearing" is not the root cause of obtaining discounts, but it just happens that the platform has discount activities.

It turns out that it is not feasible to get discounts from Meituan by "swearing". But all roads lead to Rome, and there are many practical discount methods worth considering.

Netizen momo shared with the IQ Tax Research Center that even with the red envelopes given by Meituan members, a meal still costs more than ten yuan. If you really want to save money, you should use Meituan Tiantian Shen Coupon, Meituan Pinhaofan, Allowance Alliance and other channels.

Momo also added that merchant vouchers can also be used, "Merchants all have a group and issue vouchers every day. Subsidy red envelopes, vouchers, etc. can be superimposed and do not contradict each other."

As the saying goes: This trick, that trick, if they can't bring benefits, they are all empty tricks; this skill, that skill, only when they can bring benefits are they real skills.

Author: Zhao Yue; Editor: Sanhuo

Source public account: IQ Tax Research Center (ID: gh_c55b3561ece1), the world is full of tricks, I will step into the trap for you!