On Xiaohongshu, content related to “North Drift”, such as “snail house”, “side job”, “rat man”, etc., is becoming a phenomenal traffic password. These contents have aroused widespread resonance by showing the real living conditions of the Beipiao group, and there are many ways to monetize them behind them. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon.
When home bloggers harvest traffic with a neat, spacious, and exquisite “big house”, another diametrically opposite “small room” narrative is also quietly breaking the circle.
Cass observed that recently, on Xiaohongshu, some rooms that are too small to be imagined have become the “fertile ground” for the creation of many bloggers. These spaces may be only one meter wide and three meters long, and are the corner areas of traditional houses that are regarded as kitchens and toilets, and after being transformed into bedrooms, they outline the “survival illustrated book” of some migrant workers in first-tier cities with an extreme sense of cramping.
For example, @徐女頭’s Beijing Life used the camera to record the 3-square-meter space she worked hard in Beijing to live alone: the bed only allowed one person to lie down, and it was even difficult to turn over; The small table next to the bed is both an office desk and a dining table; the storage rack on the wall is full of daily debris; The only open space in the corner where people can stand also assumes the function of the kitchen.
Although life is not easy, in this square inch, she not only found her own little luck, but also attracted 14W fans on Xiaohongshu by recording her daily life, and the data of each note was also maintained between thousands and tens of thousands of likes, which is already a good waist blogger on Xiaohongshu.
@徐丫头的北京生活 Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
It is worth noting that in Xiaohongshu’s Beipiao content ecology, the theme of popularity is far more than “snail house”. Labels such as “entrepreneurship”, “side hustle” and “rat man” are gradually building a new traffic field.With the portrayal and amplification of the living conditions of the Beipiao group, it has aroused the resonance and thinking of many netizens about life in first-tier cities, and the content extended from this has become the hottest traffic password of Xiaohongshu at present.
In addition to part-time work, what are the “North Drifters” doing
According to third-party data, as of the end of 2023, Beijing’s permanent population reached 21.858 million, of which 8.240 million were permanent residents, accounting for 37.7% of the permanent population. This means that among the huge population of Beijing, the “Beipiao” people account for a considerable proportion.
In the “North Drift” group, not everyone can have a glamorous high income and an enviable good job. In fact, many migrant workers are still struggling with basic food and clothing issues. Therefore, in addition to their busy lives, many people choose to shoot short videos of their experiences and post them on the Internet, in order to attract traffic and bring some additional benefits to themselves.
To achieve these three challenges, product managers will only continue to appreciate
Good product managers are very scarce, and product managers who understand users, business, and data are still in demand when they go out of the Internet. On the contrary, if you only do simple communication, inefficient execution, and shallow thinking, I am afraid that you will not be able to go through the torrent of the next 3-5 years.
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According to Cass’s observation, there are currently several types of content themes about the Beipiao group on Xiaohongshu, the most eye-catching of which is “snail house”.
The aforementioned @徐girl’s Beijing life is a typical representative of this kind of content. Browsing its account shows that since the end of 2023, bloggers have begun to share their daily lives in this three-square-meter cabin. A cat, a bed, and a few cabinets are her “all family property”.
At first, many people were shocked by the too small living space, and even clicked into the video with the mentality of wanting to see her jokes. However, with the update of the blogger, the image of a migrant worker who is still working hard and optimistic in a difficult environment has gradually become clear.
Even though the room is small, she insists on cooking every day instead of ordering takeout; Despite the limited conditions, she did not give up her love and pursuit of life, and was willing to take out a week’s salary to refresh the paint and add furniture to the shabby small house day and night, and improve the living environment little by little with her hands.
Fans watched her take care of the small house in an orderly manner and live an ordinary life better and better from the blogger’s video recording her life, not only gaining the pleasure of “cultivating the system”, but also learning a lot of practical storage skills from it.
@徐丫头的北京生活 Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
In addition to the living status, in the Beipiao group, “making money” and “hard work” are also topics that have attracted much attention, and the content related to entrepreneurship and side hustles has made many “migrant workers” concerned. On Xiaohongshu, many bloggers will summarize and share their experiences of doing this, teach netizens their money-making skills and practical experience, and gain fans and traffic with these contents.
@花不丸 (money version) is a rather professional “sideline blogger”. Looking at her Xiaohongshu homepage, you can see the labels she “pasted” on herself: unemployment in 97 years and three jobs, female growth, money skills, and money saving skills. Obviously, the purpose of setting these tags is to attract a more precise audience.
Browsing the content of her account, you will find that her sharing and self-introduction are highly consistent – each note is a straightforward statement that she wants to teach everyone how to make money and how to achieve life changes. In her story, in order to increase her income, she has tried a variety of side hustles: setting up street stalls, doing editing, and being a planner…… Now it is mainly engaged in self-media and knowledge payment.
In a recent note, she detailed her process of making money by making PPTs for clients. At first, her offer was not high, but through continuous exploration, she summarized how to use tools to improve efficiency, so as to increase total income. In the video, she explained in detail to the audience the difference between her order taking method and different platforms, and also involved the use of some AI software, making her content more grounded than other similar notes, so she gained a group of loyal fans.
On the whole, sideline bloggers often attract the attention of more netizens by rendering their personal income, and on this basis, they monetize their professional content such as workplace and entrepreneurship.
@花不丸 (money version) Xiaohongshu screenshot
It is worth noting that in addition to positive and positive content, some “lying flat records” that look a little bad have also attracted the attention of many netizens.
Some time ago, the concept of “rat man” suddenly became popular on the Internet, used to describe those young people who live in a sluggish state, low desire, low energy consumption, often procrastinate and have irregular work and rest.
It looks like an adjective that is not beautiful, but it has resonated with many young people, and everyone is vying to “show” a day as a rat man on the Internet.
The cattle and horses who have been in the company for a week need to do some “self-repair” on weekends: at 12:00 noon, the first thing is not to get up and wash, but to open the mobile phone to brush short videos until they are about to starve, and then click on the takeaway software to make a choice; never dared to open WeChat steps, because it only took ten steps from the bed to the toilet, and was afraid that my parents would call to ask if there was an accident; If you are not interested in the world outside the door, two sets of pajamas can satisfy a year’s OOTD……
Even during work, rat people can find a rhythm that suits them. @沉默的螺旋桨 recorded a day in his internship life: he needed to clock in at 10:30, and he was still pupating in bed at 9:40; Although the shift time is not short, the fishing time is also very long; The happiest time every day is “paid toilet” and “dry time”.
These contents are in stark contrast to the previous “high-energy day” of uncles and aunts, but they make netizens feel more real and life-like.
@沉默的螺旋桨 Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
Is being a “North Drift” creator a good business?
At present, the number of views on #side hustle related topics on Xiaohongshu has exceeded 5 billion, the number of discussions has exceeded 50 million, the number of views of #北漂-related topics has also exceeded 2 billion, and even the newly born #Rat Man related topics have quickly exceeded 100 million.
These data undoubtedly show the super high popularity of this content on the platform. The reason for this phenomenon is not difficult to understand, Xiaohongshu’s latest user data shows that at present, the platform’s monthly active users have exceeded 300 million, and the number of note exposures generated every day reaches billions. Specifically, these users are mainly concentrated in young people aged 18 to 35, of which the post-95s and post-00s account for 85%. In terms of gender distribution, female users have a significant advantage, accounting for about 70%. In addition, from a geographical point of view, Xiaohongshu’s users are mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Chengdu.
In fact, this group of users happens to be the group of people who pay the most attention to and empathize with topics such as #side hustle and #北漂. They pay attention to these topics, but in fact, they are seeking an emotional resonance and comfort, and hope to meet their urgent needs in life, the workplace, etc.
In addition to strong demand, the willingness of the supply side is also amazing. According to Cass’s observation, although judging from the content shared by this type of blogger, their current life is a little embarrassing, but if you continue to pay attention to the monetization of your account, you will find that this track is actually a good business.
Similar to most bloggers, their monetization methods on Xiaohongshu can be roughly classified into two categories.
One is advertising, that is, cooperation with brands. One fact that may come as a surprise is that these bloggers have access to a wide range of brands, such as beauty, home furnishing, and wellness, which are in high demand and have a lot of money, and may become their partners.
@徐丫头的北京生活 Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
The reason for this is that most of the content taken by bloggers revolves around their own lives, so any product that can be used in life can be naturally and smoothly implanted into their content, thanks to this, many bloggers have received a considerable number of business orders.
However, from an objective point of view, due to factors such as the setting of such bloggers and the number of fans, most of the brands they cooperate with are small and medium-sized brands or white labels, so there may be slight shortcomings in terms of cooperation prices and the bonus for the future development of the account.
The second is knowledge payment, covering the sale of courses such as self-media teaching and sideline skills teaching. As we all know, self-media has long become the most popular side hustle choice for young people, especially migrant workers in first-tier cities, who are more enthusiastic and receptive to learning self-media-related skills.
And these bloggers can rely on their successful experience in making accounts to naturally convert this highly accurate fan base into their own customers, and teach fans how to start and monetize through online classes, accompanying runs, etc.
Product page of some sideline bloggers Source: Xiaohongshu
It is worth noting that according to Cass’s observation, many creators initially embarked on the road of sharing, perhaps sincerely wanting to open up an emotional outlet for themselves, and have a place where they can freely talk and record their daily lives. However, with the continuous increase in the attention of netizens, the topic of “North Drift” has become an attractive monetization channel, and the group composition participating in it has gradually become complex and diverse, and the authenticity of the content has also been greatly reduced.
Among them, the first problem is posing. In order to attract attention, many bloggers deliberately amplify the “suffering”, just to create more visually impactful content, Cass once saw the audience complain in the comment area of a blogger that the same house has been repeatedly transformed and remade by several bloggers, and everyone’s video changes frequently, which is obviously beyond the scope of ordinary recorders of life, and it is an assembly line work from MCN at a glance.
Screenshot of some bloggers’ comment area Source: Xiaohongshu
In addition, engaging in self-media and taking life photography as a job itself already requires a high amount of energy and resource investment, which seems to be separated from the “ordinary North Drift” character claimed by many bloggers.
What’s more, the professionalism of the services provided by bloggers for monetization is also questionable. Cass tried to obtain materials sold by several bloggers and found that many of them were common basic science popularization on the market, which was very different from their claims of “handwriting” and “painstakingly” and other slogans.
The reason why the content related to Beipiao can become popular is essentially because contemporary young people live under too much pressure, hoping to get some inspiration or comfort from observing the lives of people in similar situations to themselves. However, when these contents become cookie-cut, superficial, and lack sincerity and depth, they will gradually lose their power to touch people’s hearts. If you want to get a piece of the pie on the “North Drift” track, truth may always be the first priority.
