A touch of the bustling street vibe has emerged from AutoNavi.

Recently, a brand - new traffic entry has quietly emerged among various restaurant businesses.

As a 27 - year veteran Hangzhou drifter, Zhang Yunfeng opened his own restaurant "Zhang Gongguan" in 1999. Over the years of entrepreneurship, he has always adhered to an ironclad rule: the fish head must come from a fish that is at least five years old and weighs over five catties. The live fish is killed on the spot, and then paired with the exclusive secret homemade sauce, Nongfu Spring water, and farmhouse tofu handmade by Fuchun fishermen using ancient methods.

This perseverance has not only enabled him to sell 3 million servings of his earth - cooked fish head but also helped him top the Gaode Street - sweeping List.

"Making it to the top of the Gaode Street - sweeping List is like getting the first place in the class when I was a kid. I couldn't be happier!" To celebrate the listing, Zhang Yunfeng happily put on his chef's uniform and went back to the stove to cook his signature dish, the earth - cooked fish head.

After that, the Gaode Street - sweeping List has also brought new customer flows to Zhang Gongguan. While chatting with customers, Zhang Yunfeng found that many new customers in the store recently came because of the street - sweeping list. "There could be ten or twenty tables at most."

On September 10th, on the occasion of Alibaba's 26th anniversary, Gaode Map, a subsidiary of Alibaba, announced the launch of the world's first list based on user behavior, the "Gaode Street - sweeping List".

Subsequently, its user volume exceeded 40 million in a single day, quickly becoming one of the largest food lists in China.

Just two weeks after its launch, over 2,000 restaurants across the country have actively posted the sign of "Restaurant on the Gaode Street - sweeping List", and the influence of the list is still spreading rapidly.

Why does a mere list have such charm?

01. Bring Marketing Back to "Reality"

Perhaps we can find some clues from more real - life business cases.

Northeast Happy Restaurant is the top - ranked Northeast cuisine restaurant in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. For 20 years, the owner, Kai Xiangrong, and his wife have been toiling away in the store from dawn till dusk. Their success in ranking first is not due to any tricks but their adherence to the principle of "authenticity".

"One - third of the ingredients in the store are transported from the Northeast, and the rest are freshly purchased daily." Because of this "authenticity", local taxi drivers will automatically take passengers to Happy Restaurant as soon as they hear the words "Northeast cuisine".

In recent years, the catering industry's dependence on online platforms has been increasing. Along with this, problems such as false reviews, retouched pictures, and score - brushing to climb the rankings have gradually eroded consumers' trust in businesses.

This is undoubtedly fatal for businesses that are not good at marketing. In today's era where traffic reigns supreme, the old saying "Good wine needs no bush" is long gone. Moreover, traffic is becoming more and more expensive and difficult to obtain. The foundation for Northeast Happy Restaurant to have survived for so long lies in its taste, reputation, and service. Marketing is a double - edged sword for such businesses: used well, it can further increase customer flows; used poorly, it may even ruin the reputation accumulated over the years.

The emergence of the Gaode Street - sweeping List has changed all this. Although it is still a form of marketing for businesses in essence, its core ranking mechanism is generated based on users' real travel and consumption evaluations, which to some extent avoids data falsification and establishes a new credibility mechanism for the catering industry.

This also means that the core of competition among businesses on the list has returned to "real - life reputation" rather than just investment and packaging. Small and medium - sized businesses that don't have enough money for marketing now have more opportunities.

In addition to direct customer diversion, the design of the list itself is quite topical. Different from traditional lists, the "Gaode Street - sweeping List" has set up more dimensional classifications, such as the "Returning Customers List", the "Locals' Favorite List", the "Charming Small Stores List", the "Tire - Wear List", etc. These not only better reflect consumers' real preferences but also come with a built - in discussion nature.

The owner of Northeast Happy Restaurant in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, welcomes the "Gaode Street - sweeping List"

On the day when the restaurant was listed on the Charming Small Stores List of the Gaode Street - sweeping List, the owner, Kai Xiangrong, specially invited a lion dance team to celebrate and personally hung the sign in the most prominent position in the lobby.

Kai Wanquan, the son of the owner and the heir of Happy Restaurant, said that after being listed on the "Gaode Street - sweeping List", the customer flow has increased significantly. According to his estimate, about 30% of the current customers in the store come specifically after navigating through the Gaode Street - sweeping List. "Whenever the phone rings, it's usually a call from someone using Gaode Map. I can tell they're here through Gaode Map navigation."

Moreover, on social media, many young users share their experiences of visiting "Listed Restaurants", driving secondary dissemination. For businesses, this kind of spontaneous spread is more natural and can better enhance the long - term exposure of the store. "Sometimes customers have to wait for one or two hours to get a table, and I'm worried that their experience won't be very good," Kai Wanquan said.

02. Make "Reliability" Visible

Behind its rapid rise to fame, what we should actually focus on is why the "Gaode Street - sweeping List" has won the general recognition of users and businesses?

In the past, a common concern among catering businesses was whether their hard - earned efforts in operation could be fairly noticed by consumers in the digital environment?

The "score - brushing" and "buying traffic" mechanisms of traditional platforms have made it difficult for many small stores, even those with good reputations, to stand out. Gaode's solution is to combine real travel to the store with user evaluations to form a more long - term credit asset.

This means that businesses can obtain a more objective and sustainable ranking on the list. For example, some small street - side restaurants used to rely only on word - of - mouth to attract new customers and lacked online promotion methods. In the past, it was difficult for them to make it onto the recommendation lists. However, on the "Street - sweeping List", as long as these businesses are continuously patronized by real users, they can gain exposure through the accumulation of reputation.

As Wan Jun, the founder of "He Shi Barbecue" in Chengdu, which is also on the street - sweeping list, said, "This honor is earned by the footsteps of our customers. We don't need anyone to specifically manage it. It's truly a result of customers' real votes, not from waiters brushing positive reviews, asking for reviews, or giving away freebies."

When "He Shi Barbecue" was listed on the top of the Gaode Street - sweeping List, Wan Jun, the founder, rushed back from out of town specifically to witness the listing of the store. She highly approves of the "voting with footsteps" logic of the Gaode Street - sweeping List. She said that for a restaurant to operate in the long run, it's only considered delicious when customers are willing to come and eat. "We'll continue to focus on service and keep passing on the charming street - food atmosphere that customers love."

Wan Jun also found that the model of the Gaode Street - sweeping List, which recommends stores based on customers' on - site visits, can trigger a chain reaction for small stores, attracting more and more food lovers to visit.

This is because Gaode itself is a high - frequency entry point for "travel equals consumption". When users navigate to a certain location, they usually have the need to "dine at the store and stroll around on the way". This scenario naturally promotes the conversion efficiency of catering consumption.

Data shows that Gaode already has over 170 million daily active users, covering more than 7 million catering outlets across the country. There are about 120 million AI searches related to life services every day, and the number of navigation destinations to stores exceeds 13 million. This means that when consumers use Gaode, they usually have a clear consumption intention. For businesses, this kind of "targeted traffic" is more valuable than mere page views.

Secondly, during the process of users searching, navigating, and consuming at the store on Gaode, a complete consumption path can be formed. This means that every exposure of a business may directly convert into customer flow, rather than just remaining at the click - or - browse level.

As an important entry point in the Alibaba ecosystem, Gaode also undertakes traffic and resources from the Alibaba ecosystem. Catering services can not only be exposed within Gaode but also be connected with other businesses such as Ele.me. This ecological synergy provides businesses with more diverse growth paths.

It's not hard to find that Gaode's advantages in list mechanism, inclusiveness, user experience, and ecological linkage together form a solid reason for small and medium - sized businesses to trust it.

03. Activate the Entire Ecosystem

The originality of the Gaode Street - sweeping List has made Wang Wei, the founder of Zizhou Lou, a Shunde cuisine brand with 20 years of experience in the catering industry, feel fresh and excited. "Over the past 20 years, I've won many food - related honors, but the Gaode Street - sweeping List makes me feel very fresh. It's a real honor."

As the "Capital of Chinese Cuisine", Guangzhou has extremely fierce competition among restaurants on the top - ranked list. However, Zizhou Lou has not only taken root in Guangzhou but also expanded to Guiyang, selling 120,000 roasted geese a year.

Wang Wei revealed that the biggest secret to his 20 - year success in Shunde cuisine is his adherence to the principle that "taste is the only standard", which coincides with the Gaode Street - sweeping List. The core logic is simple: real visits, real deliciousness, and customers "voting with their feet".

Gaode's entry into the local - life scene has changed the way users connect with businesses. The combination of navigation and catering enables users to make dining decisions while planning their trips. This characteristic of "built - in conversion rate in the scenario" also provides a more efficient and realistic development direction for the competition in the local - life market. It is reported that on September 23rd, Gaode announced that it would waive the one - year entry fee for all catering businesses across the country and provide a series of digital support services such as traffic subsidies, exclusive customer service, and intelligent cash registers. On September 23rd alone, the number of newly - registered catering businesses on Gaode increased by 631% compared with the previous period, setting a historical record. Three days after the official announcement of the free - store - opening policy, more than 150,000 catering businesses have inquired about registration.

More importantly, the significance of the "Street - sweeping List" lies not only in short - term customer diversion but also in long - term trends. It represents a change in the competition logic of the catering industry: from "traffic - driven" to "credit - driven".

In the past, whether a business could get exposure mainly depended on advertising investment. After the user evaluation system was damaged in terms of trust, it was difficult to form a long - term reference. Gaode's mechanism emphasizes "long - term credit assets", that is, the accumulation of users' real travel and continuous evaluations. This requires businesses to rely on stable reputation accumulation to maintain their competitiveness rather than relying on single - time advertising.

This change may have a profound impact on the industry landscape. Time - honored brands can be rediscovered in the new list system based on the trust they've accumulated over the years; small street - side restaurants can also build their own credit assets through long - term stable quality; and chain restaurants need to continuously optimize the customer experience while ensuring scale to maintain their data and reputation advantages.

In a broader sense, Gaode's data and list mechanism are promoting the establishment of an "industry - level credit framework". Under this framework, a business's competitiveness comes from the real records of long - term operation rather than short - term packaging. This not only helps to improve industry transparency but also guides more businesses to focus on the dishes and services themselves.

Starting from the "Street - sweeping List", Gaode has not only quickly brought its local - life business into the public eye but also brought about more positive changes at the user, business, and industry levels. Behind this is a new local - life logic driven by real data and an inclusive mechanism.