For Double 11, Taobao's in-house mini game once again wrecked people's nerves -...

For Double 11, Taobao's in-house mini game once again wrecked people's nerves

For Double 11, Taobao's in-house mini game once again wrecked people's nerves

Zijing Fu

posted on November 15, 2021 1:49 pmEditor : Wang Boyuan

This year's Double 11 shopping festival officially ended, leaving Taobao with a tarnished reputation and 540.3 billion GMV, as well as the end of yet another mini game of sweat and tears

In this year's Double 11 shopping festival — the most anticipated online sale for Chinese consumers, China's biggest online shopping platform Taobao has brought the infamous involution to the event, cunningly disguised as a fun game.

Usually, mini games are Alibaba's seasonal trick to arouse people's holiday awareness and of course get them involved. For example, the yearly Finding Five Blessings for the Spring Festival and Raising Cat for last year's Double 11. 

However, this year's Meow-Candy game had leveled up the intensity and competition between gamers like never before. For many users, the game was a reflection of the Squid Game - all the gamers/buyers have to team up and fight each other, and there will be only one winner to get more discount than others.

Starting October 20, Taobao launched its "Meow-Candy" play-for-coupons game, headlining with the slogan —2 billion yuan worth of coupons will be distributed among players. 

Photo credit: Weibo user 啵啵啵rio

So, where's the catch?

Meow-Candy's game mechanism is not based on meritocracy but luck, repetitive labor, grinding hours of gameplay, and even sneaky psychological tricks.

As explained in the Meow-Candy tutorial, players team up to occupy as much territory as possible in a 5x7 grid. The more territory players have, the more money they get.

Players throw the meow-dice to win meow-candies. Up to six meow-candies can be won in a single throw. Players then place their meow-candies on the grids, claiming ownership, or set their meow-candies on their opponents' grids. By outnumbering their opponents' meow-candies, players can expand their territory.

During 12 pm-13 pm, and 8 pm-9 pm, the meow-dice rewards players with up to 12 meow candies. Naturally, most players would try to throw the dice as many times as possible during then, but they also have to watch out for their opponents — as they can wait till the end and sneak attack, taking all grids at once.

Users share their game tactics on Xiaohongshu, China's instagram

Sounds confusing? I know. But that's not all.

The game is not free to play, per se. First, once the player signs up, the game automatically charges an "entrance fee" for every round, even if the player did not participate in all rounds. Player's also can't choose to quit while they are ahead -- once a team is formed, there's no option to drop out of the race.

Second, players earn their throws by inviting their friends to sign up, browsing products recommended by Taobao, purchasing Taobao's 88VIP membership for 88 yuan/year, or in Ant Forest, a mini-program inside Alipay that converts users' carbon footprint to virtual "green energy".

And what do all the grids and meow-candies get you?

Vouchers, worthing up to 49999 yuan (approx. 7825USD). But just like the dice throws, vouchers depend on luck. The big prize — a 49999 yuan voucher — can only be won by one out of millions that participated. Theoretically, you could get next to nothing even if you've played for hours and hours.

Here's a chart compiled from several Meow-Candy players' experiences, so you can get a grasp of how players' input translates to vouchers earned.

The game mechanism is so confusing that I, who never played a single round, won 0.5 yuan, while another PingWest writer played for two days yet only got 0.44 yuan. According to player @我是绿色的YY, even though she received 582 yuan, her friends who played at least an hour per day, only got less than a hundred yuan on average.

Meow-Candy backfires

Consumers aren't rolling with the punches of this manipulative promotional stunt.

Miss Li, who won 63 yuan for her total 21 hours of gameplay, said the game was extremely exhausting since players have to constantly be on alert, watching their opponents' next moves and adjust tactics accordingly.

"I played devotedly, yet I still got so little. It makes me feel like I've wasted my time for nothing," said Miss Li.

When asked about her game experience, Miss Li angrily replied with three long voice messages.

In Weibo user @风灯白鸟's furious post on 10.27, she denounced Taobao's stunt, condemned the game's lack of clarity and gamble-like addictive nature and urges people to join her in filing a report of Taobao to China's State Bureau for Market Regulation. Her post received over 47000 likes, over 5800 reposts, and over 4700 comments.

"Players spend time and energy, bringing traffic to Taobao. Shop owners on Taobao pays Taobao for the traffic and advertising. Taobao simply sit back and reap the rewards," said @风灯白鸟.

Yunmiao, Taobao's product manager of the meow-candy project, got his comment section swamped by dissatisfied players. From logical recounts to outright cursing, players are voicing their content and anger at Taobao's greedy behavior.

However, neither Yunmiao nor Taobao responded to the outrage. Taobao's Double 11 shopping festival officially ended yesterday, leaving Taobao with a tarnished reputation and 540.3 billion GMV(Gross Merchandise Volume).