Behind the staged "V8 free meal" is the traffic anxiety of the catering industry.

"To be frank with you, I'm a V8 customer. What are you going to offer me?" Recently, on social platforms, a series of accounts have concentratedly released short videos with the above plot, triggering public controversy: some consumers claiming to be Lv8 users of Dianping threaten merchants to give them free orders with bad reviews.

On November 6, Meituan responded to Jiemian News that the customer service team of Dianping also tried to contact the aforementioned merchants on social media, but received no reply at all. After investigation based on the information revealed in these videos, no illegal extortion behavior of any Dianping user was found.

According to the report of Tide News on November 5, after verifying with relevant merchants, it was found that the plots of such videos are highly similar, all of which are staged shooting, and even the bosses themselves played the role of customers in some videos.

Meituan further stated that Dianping will resolutely crack down on all malicious bad review behaviors, especially those suspected of extortion, which are the absolute red line of the platform.

01

Although the "V8 free meal" incident has been confirmed as staged shooting, such incidents are not just simple short video marketing to ride on the trend. The reason why it can arouse widespread heated discussion lies in that it exposes an unresolved trust problem in the local life ecosystem: what role do high-level "big V" users actually play in the review mechanism? How should small and medium-sized catering merchants view the rating and ranking system of the platform, and how to ensure the authenticity and effectiveness of reviews while safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of both consumers and merchants?

Jiemian News learned that Lv8 of Dianping is the highest level in its platform user growth system, which cannot be obtained by payment, but by continuously producing original reviews to accumulate contribution points. Lv8 users account for a very small proportion of all Dianping review authors, at a magnitude of about one in a thousand.

"I have been writing reviews on Dianping since 2021, and it took me 5-6 years of continuous updates to upgrade to the Lv8 level." Chen Yu, who lives in Shenzhen, told Jiemian News. At first, it was relatively easy to upgrade, but the difficulty increased as the level rose. "It is particularly difficult to upgrade from Lv7 to Lv8", which requires continuous, high-frequency and high-quality output, and continuous updates to maintain the level. Chen Yu told Jiemian News that his total number of reviews on Dianping has exceeded 700, and the total number of views has reached 932,000.

According to the public rules of Dianping, Lv8 users do not have the "free order privilege", and they do not even have an advantage in the weight of reviews.

Meituan also responded to Jiemian News this time that the review rules of Dianping have always been treated equally. Whether it is a newly registered user or an old Lv8 user, the basic traffic and weight of the reviews they publish are exactly the same. The only factor that affects whether a review can be seen by more people is the authenticity and richness of the content, and whether it has helped enough users make decisions.

Image source: Jiemian Image Library

However, in addition to the Lv contribution point level, Dianping also has "Orange V" users, who have an orange logo on their avatars and obtain the qualification by actively writing reviews. The number of Orange V users is far larger than that of Lv8 users. For Orange V users, there is an official "Exclusive Free Trial" activity organized by the platform, which is an experience swap where merchants sign up voluntarily and the platform draws lots for participants.

According to the page shown by Chen Yu to Jiemian News, the Orange V free meal activities he can sign up for include many restaurant packages worth 300 to 400 yuan, which can only be experienced after being selected by lottery. He also told Jiemian News that in addition to the platform's activities, he once joined a WeChat group organized by food exploration bloggers themselves. The group owner would negotiate cooperation with merchants to post good reviews after eating, and in addition to free orders, he could also receive red envelopes of about 50 to 100 yuan.

02

In fact, over the years, the commercial rules of food exploration swap have been distorted under the influence of traffic, which is the key reason why the "V8 free meal" incident quickly sparked public opinion among small and medium-sized merchants.

Because over the years, cases of food exploration swap, review brushing, and bad review extortion did exist. Coupled with the fact that some operation agencies and local service providers have long been selling anxiety to small and medium-sized catering businesses, a "V8 myth" has gradually been hatched: a bad review from a high-level account is enough to quickly pull down the store's rating and destroy the precious online traffic of new stores.

"Indeed, some consumers will directly tell us after arriving at the store that they are food exploration bloggers or big Vs, and ask for free orders in exchange for good reviews." He Lin, who runs several independent coffee shops in Beijing, told Jiemian News. At that time, he thought the amount was not high, so he agreed to the other party's request to avoid disputes.

Li Hui, who runs a Western restaurant in Beijing, also told Jiemian News a similar experience: "In addition to big Vs who want to exchange good reviews for free orders, there are also 'professional fraudsters' who deliberately put hair in the dishes and demand 1,000 yuan in compensation." In order to calm things down, stores often solve the problem with free orders or even compensation.

In the current era of "grass-planting" on social media, small and medium-sized catering stores are highly dependent on the traffic of social platforms. Ratings, star levels, and note recommendations are the core leverage for online to offline conversion. For many ordinary small catering stores, the decline in passenger flow brought by a high-exposure bad review or "avoidance post" is a perceptible loss. For large chain catering businesses or listed companies, it may also cause greater negative public opinion.

When catering merchants pay more and more attention to every review and maintain their rating levels, it naturally provides living space for all kinds of "paid good reviews".

The distorted review system not only consumes merchants, but also harms the interests of consumers.

Because the review system that was originally used to refer to word of mouth has become a tool for bargaining, coercion and monetization. The staged story of the "V8 free meal" can become a hit, which exactly condenses consumers' dissatisfaction with inflated reviews and distorted food exploration into a concrete symbol.

It is worth noting that the act of threatening merchants for free orders with bad reviews is actually on the edge of breaking the law.

Wu Meng, director of Beijing Jinshi Law Firm, said in an interview with Jiemian News that if someone coerces merchants to obtain free orders or compensation by publishing negative reviews, and reaches the legal prosecution standard of "relatively large amount" (the current standard is 2000 yuan, which varies in different regions), they may be suspected of the crime of "extortion". At the same time, if someone publishes negative information first and then seeks benefits on the grounds of "deleting negative information", they will also be involved in the crime of "illegal business operation".

He further told Jiemian News that if the negative review itself is fictional, it will also infringe on the merchant's goodwill, be suspected of unfair competition that disrupts the market order, and the merchant has the right to demand civil compensation from the publisher.

While merchants consciously resist unreasonable demands and honestly maintain their word of mouth, the platform side also needs to make efforts to maintain the entire review system and mechanism.

Meituan said that in response to behaviors such as "bad review extortion" encountered by some merchants, Dianping launched a "malicious behavior reporting function" for merchants last year. When merchants encounter customers threatening free orders with bad reviews, they can retain evidence such as private message records, screenshots and videos, and submit materials through the entrance. After verification, the platform will dispose of the verified illegal user accounts in accordance with regulations.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jiemian News", written by Ma Yue, edited by Xu Yue, and authorized for release by 36Kr.