Online influencers shape food scene

Cafe culture

A report from dianping.com, China's largest restaurant listing website with 250 million users and 28 million stores around the country, showed that cafes and dessert shops account for more than half of the food business tagged as wanghong on its website. Western cuisines and Cantonese food came second and third. The website said 74 percent of its users are young people aged between 20 and 35 years old.

"Like it or not, we have to admit that it's the power of social media. In an age when everyone can take pictures and post them online with their own opinions, the way a restaurant becomes known has completely changed," said Gao Yan, a Shanghai food writer whose independent WeChat account, foodie at heart, is one of the most influential in the city with 300,000 followers.

She lamented that as diners are increasingly obsessed with taking pictures, many restaurants are focusing on presentation and design.

Generating clicks

Lu, who wrote about food and wine for five years before becoming a businessman, believes it also suggests a decline in the use of the Chinese language and the media.

"Many Chinese food writers today are incapable of producing a decent restaurant review. So when they are deprived of the possibility of using words like 'the best' or 'the most delicious' (because of advertising laws introduced in 2015), saying something is sensational online seems the easiest and most click-inviting solution," Lu said.

Austin Hu, an Americanborn Chinese chef who has been involved in the city's restaurant business for more than one decade, thinks the wanghong frenzy is just a reflection of growing social media usage and its increasing effect on consumption habits.

"Ultimately, quality speaks for itself. If a store is wanghong but no good, you quickly see them lose steam after a month or two," said Hu, who now runs two restaurants, Madison Kitchen and Diner, in Shanghai.

Changing tastes

Ms Zhao Needs No Reservation, one of the city's earliest wanghong restaurants, which was opened in 2013 by a local celebrity couple, closed in October.

Offering fusion food and marketed as a wedding anniversary gift from Na Duo, a science fiction writer, to his wife, Zhao Ruohong, a TV host, the restaurant had six outlets at its peak and was an offline meeting place for the couple's millions of followers on Sina Weibo.

In a Sina Weibo post in December, Zhao said the business closure simply reflected a shift in their lives, as she is preoccupied with a new shoemaking venture while her husband wants to focus on writing.

"I don't get it. Since when is losing money the only reason to terminate a business?" she said in her post.

According to a report released by Meituan, China's top group deal site, in 2017, first tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing saw 10 percent of their restaurants close every month.

"I think the trend of wanghong is dying. Consumers are gradually becoming immune to the word. For 2018, both the media and the restaurant industry need a new term or trend to get consumers excited," Lu said.

Lu is planning to open a pop-up store of his ice cream parlor in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and a new soup dumpling (xiaolongbao) brand that he thinks will appeal to young people - which means a traditional snack served in a trendy atmosphere with slightly higher pricing.