New Viral Phrase You Need to Know: Qifen Zu (气氛组)

Recently, a phrase went viral on Chinese social media. The word is Qifen Zu, meaning a group of people who stay at a place to create an atmosphere. The phrase originated from a netizen’s question, “Why is there always a group of people using their laptops at Starbucks?” There is an answer from his friend saying, “because they are Starbuck’s Qifen Zu or ‘atmosphere group’.”

All of a sudden, this joke went viral and Starbucks reacted very quickly with it. The brand posted on Weibo inviting people to join its Qifen Zu. All they needed to do was post on their WeChat moments saying “I want to join Qifen Zu”, take a screenshot of it and post it on Weibo, and tag Starbucks. If they were selected by Starbucks, they would be given coupons and other bonuses.

Many Offline Businesses in China Leverage Qifen Zu 

While Starbucks’ Qifen Zu is organic, and unpaid, many businesses in China actually pay for people to make their stores and restaurants look busy.

For example, pubs. They hire people to run to the floor first when the music comes on and dance crazily. These people, the “Qifen Zu” are there to create the atmosphere that everyone is joining and don’t be shy and hesitant. Most of them are post-00s, because they are young and energetic, and they’d love to have a drink as well. 

Bubble tea stores also love using this tactic to create the image that people are desperate to buy their drinks. A store called Chazhilan (茶芝兰) in Shanghai hired more than 30 people to pretend to be its consumers and line up in front of the store on its first opening day. Every 15 minutes, there were two people called to line up to make sure that there were always people waiting in line.

The real estate industry uses Qifen Zu as well. On the day when a company launches new apartments, it will hire a bunch of people who are dressed nicely to visit the property and pretend to be interested in the apartments. It is faking the image that everyone wants to buy an apartment here, and giving people a sense of scarcity and urgency.

Online Qifen Zu 

This tactic is also often used online, the most common Qifen Zu that we see every day is the comment section of a Xiaohongshu advertisement or Taobao or Tmall listing. Many brands hire people to pretend to be customers and leave nice comments to guide real customers’ purchasing decisions. There are even companies that run this Qifen business. If the owner of the store wants a positive comment, it requires 100 RMB. 

Not only for brands, Qifen Zu also applies for celebrities or KOLs. They hire fake fans sometimes, to increase their popularity.

Conclusion:

While some may feel that this tactic is fake or misleading, in China it is a very common practice often used to jumpstart the popularity of an offline store or to grow an account or drive traffic to a product online. But brands need to pay attention to its limits. Don’t overuse this tactic.

Read more: 四周都是“气氛组”，只有你是傻白甜