Analysis of the Competitive Strategies of UGC Model Platforms

Under the Electronic Commerce Marketing Boom: Taking Dianping

as an Example

Linxi Li

College of Business Administration, Capital University of Economics and Business,

Zhangjia Road, Huaxiang, Fengtai District, China

Keywords: The UGC Model, Competitive Strategy, Dianping Company.

Abstract: With the development of the internet, a large number of marketing platforms have flooded into market. There

are various advertisements that appear on various platforms. Therefore, the consumption experience and

consumers’ reviews are varies greatly and it affects other consumers’ judgement. Nowadays, lots of

consumers search information about true and highly reliable user reviews because they hope convenience,

high quality and inexpensive goods. They need goods which are high performance-price ratio. Based on this,

the subject of this paper is that taking Dianping as an example to analyze the competitive strategies of UGC

model platforms under the electronic commerce marketing boom. First of all, this paper researched the growth

progress of Dianping Company and the service group. Secondly, this paper researched the competitiveness of

Dianping and the competitiveness advantages of Dianping, which adopts the UGC model, compared with its

competitors. Finally, this paper researched the network effect related to UGC of Dianping and the innovative

strategy of Dianping base on AI. The purpose of this paper is to provide better user reviews for consumers

and to promote rational consumption among consumers by promoting the optimization and upgrading of the

UGC model platform.

1 INTRODUCTION

Electronic commerce is becoming one of the most

popular sales methods with the development of the

internet, and it provides richer consumption channels

for consumers. Due to the feature of electronic

commerce that transactions are completed online, lots

of consumers tend to refer to online information such

as user reviews and ratings. As a result, network

information and consumption evaluations provide

important consumption references for consumers.

However, due to the influence of merchants’

advertisements and even merchant competition, there

are more uneven quality of online information and

consumer reviews confusing the public and lead to

consumers’ inability to make rational judgments. This

will affect the experience of the consumers’

consumption and even lead to inability to consumer

rationally. Therefore, the UGC model platforms

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5612-8032

which can provide genuine and highly reliable user

reviews for consumers is born at the right moment.

This paper researches the competitive strategy

analysis on UGC model platforms by taking Dianping

which use UGC model as an example. Dianping offer

lots of user reviews which avoid the negative impact

of business as much as possible by providing a

platform which can post the real consumption and

user evaluation by users (Xu and Liu,2022). At the

same time, The UGC model platform has formed a

strong community atmosphere by accumulating data

and this can help consumers get more real and

credible reviews. Experimental results show that the

evaluations generated by user-generated content

model can motivate consumers to make purchases

and has positive effect. (Gaoetal.,2024).

This paper aims to promote the optimization and

upgrading of the UGC model platform and then

promote rational consumption among consumers by

making a detailed introduction, comparing and

summarizing the advantages of Dianping.

Li, L.

Analysis of the Competitive Strategies of UGC Model Platforms Under the Electronic Commerce Marketing Boom: Taking Dianping as an Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0013848900004719

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics (ICEML 2025), pages 533-537

ISBN: 978-989-758-775-7

533

2 ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT

DEVELOPMENT STATUS OF

DIANPINGN

2.1 The Company Growth Process and

Service Groups of Dianping

2.1.1 The Company Growth Process of

Dianping

Dianping was established in Shanghai in April 2003.

Dianping and Meituan jointly issued a statement,

announcing a strategic cooperation and establishment

of a new company on 8th October 2015.The new

company will become a leading platform in the

online-to-offline field in China. The new company

still remain the originally personnel structure, brand

and independent operation of business. The new

company will conduct the Co-CEO strategy, which

means that the CEO of Meituan Xing Wang and the

CEO of Dianping Tao Zhang will serve as Co-CEO

and Co-chairman at the same time. Major decisions

will be made at the level of Co-CEO and the board of

directors. Moreover, the valuation of the new

company exceeds 15 billion dollars.

2.1.2 The Service Groups of Dianping

Dianping mainly serves consumers and merchants.

The majority of consumers are aged between 18-45,

with students and white-collar workers being the

majority. The consumers are those who pursue

convenience and good price, they not only care about

the practical value of commodities but also pay

attention to the superiority and self-satisfaction

brought by the added value of commodities.

2.2 The Competitiveness and

Competitive Advantages of

Dianping

2.2.1 The Competitiveness of Dianping

Dianping has a unique business mode because its

product services are comprehensive, detailed and

integrated, it has made multiple uses for one platform.

According to different cities and different keywords,

it provides different information, reflecting its precise

market positioning. According to the data which is

published on TOP10 monthly active APPs for living

and leisure in China in 2022 by iiMedia Ranking

shows that the number of monthly users of Dianping

reached 165.312 million in 2022. Higher popularity

and usage have injected vitality into it. At the same

time, Dianping takes incentive mechanism to

encourage users to post reviews and share

consumption experience through points, rewards and

membership levels, which is conducive to the

sustainable development of UGC model platform.

2.2.2 The Competitive Advantage of

Dianping Compared with Its

Competitors (in Terms of UGC)

Compared to Meituan, as a technology retail

company, Meituan not only provides group buying

and takeout services, but also includes hotel

reservations, travel and so on. Although it merged

with Dianping in 2015, the two companies still

compete with each other. In comparison, the

competitive advantage of Dianping is mainly

reflected in rich and real user reviews (Wang

etal.,2025). As the world’s first third-party consumer

review website, Dianping has accumulated a large

number of real consumer reviews and feedback. The

“2024 Evaluation Transparency Report” released by

Dianping shows that Dianping added 268 million real

reviews, covering over 8 million merchants across

various scenarios such as dining, entertainment,

travel and so on, in 2024.This helps users choose

merchants from a consumer perspective. Data show

that as a trading platform, Meituan uses comments

only 35% of the time.

Compared to TikTok, TikTok as a short video

platform, it influences consumers’ decisions through

recommendations and provides group buying

services to compete with Dianping in catering and

tourism. In comparison, the competitive advantage of

Dianping is reflected in the depth of user-generated

content. Dianping adopts the UGC model,

accumulates a large number of real user reviews, and

forms a strong community atmosphere, which can

help users to have a deeper understanding of

merchants. However, the TikTok’s UGC is more

entertainment and instant promotion. So, it can only

give a superficial understanding of merchants. The

report published by Hexun shows that Dianping

platform dealt with illegal evaluations beyond 20

million resolutely and punished more than 60,000

illegal merchants. Moreover, it ontercepted 156

instances of negative review harassment by reviewing

one by one in 2024.In order to protect the authenticity

of user reviews.

ICEML 2025 - International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics

534

3 THE NETWORK EFFECT OF

DIANPING (UGC RELATED)

3.1 The Underlying Logic of Network

Effects

Dianping adopts the UGC model. It formed a strong

community atmosphere and increased user

engagement. It is good for enhance network. effects

(Pengetal.,2020). Dianping has both bilateral network

and multilateral network effect. First of all, about

cross-border network effects. Dianping connected

consumers and business, forming a typical cross-side

network effect. When consumers post comments and

share them consumption experience, it can help

merchants increase exposure, attract more consumers

to the store, earn profits for merchants, and thus

attract more merchants to enter. Therefore, when the

scale of C-end users expands, it will promote the

enrichment of B-end merchant resources. When the

number of merchants in Dianping increases, it will

provide consumers with more consumption choices,

thus promoting healthy competition among

merchants, improving service level, providing better

services for users, and ultimately attracting more

consumers to consume. Therefore, when the

resources of B-end merchants are enriched, the scale

of C-end users expands. Second, regarding the

network effect of the same side, Dianping adopts the

user-generated content model, accumulates a large

number of real user reviews, and forms a strong

community atmosphere (Formosa et al., 2024).

Therefore, it has a strong network effect on the same

side. When users release real comments, ratings and

other consumption experiences, they will attract more

consumers to use Dianping for consumption

reference, which will bring good reputation to

Dianping. As a result, the brand effect enables

Dianping to attract more users to join, achieving the

same side network effect of attracting C-end users to

C-end users (Wang, 2023). At the same time, through

the user does not Breaking the sharing consumption

experience and conducting interactive activities such

as asking questions and answering questions can

enhance the stickiness between users and promote the

sustainability of network effect Continuous

development. It can be seen that the network effect of

Dianping is essentially synergy of two-sided market

and the self-consistency of content ecology It's a dual

driver. For the mutual benefit and protection of

Authors and Publishers, it is necessary that Authors

provide formal written Consent to Publish and

Transfer of Copyright before publication of the Book.

The signed Consent ensures that the publisher has the

Author’s authorization to publish the Contribution.

3.2 The Network Effect Amplification

Mechanism of the UGC Model

Platform

The amplification mechanism of the UGC mode

platform is mainly reflected in the increase of

information density, social media fission, long tail

demand activates three aspects. First, about

information density improvement. The model of user-

generated content provides good convenience for the

release of a large amount of information. In the

consumer review and experience published by users

in Dianping, other consumers can provide clear self-

views. This concise expression directly cuts to the

theme and is conducive to other consumers making

decisions quickly.

At the same time, in the consumption evaluation

and experience published by users, users will use

vivid and colloquial expressions to make the

evaluation content clear and easy to understand. In

addition, the consumption evaluation and experience

published by users contain the true feelings after user

experience, which are true opinions proved by

practice and have relatively fair and objective

credibility and persuasiveness. To sum up, the user-

generated content model is conducive to improving

information density, making information

transmission more accurate and better quality, so as

to enhance the network effect of C-end users. Second,

about social communication fission. As a reference

platform for consumers before consumption,

Dianping adopts the mode of user-generated content,

which greatly promotes social communication fission.

By sharing their consumption experience on

Dianping, users will attract consumers with the same

hobbies together, forming a strong community

atmosphere.

Through forwarding and liking, the content will

quickly spread, forming social communication

fission, enhancing the interactivity and dependence

among users, thus promoting the amplification of

network effect among C-end users. Third, about the

activation of long tail demand. Due to the user-

generated content model, Dianping can pay full

attention to various demands and provide

personalized service recommendations for more

niche users. According to the data of China Business

News, In 2024, the evaluation volume of Dianping's

spare rib and rice cake increased by+468.1%, while

the evaluation volume of Gansu spicy hot pot surged

by +441 times; in 2024, the evaluation volume related

to Jiangxi cuisine increased by+212%, Guizhou

cuisine by +136%, and Northwest folk cuisine

by+121%; in 2024, the number of notes related to

Analysis of the Competitive Strategies of UGC Model Platforms Under the Electronic Commerce Marketing Boom: Taking Dianping as an

Example

535

"local flavors" increased by +215%, and the number

of notes related to "food travel guides" increased by

+209%, indicating a trend towards "exploring local

flavors." In 2024, the number of notes related to "fly-

in restaurants" and "street stalls" increased by+132%;

the evaluation of snack and fast-food categories grew

by+56%; and the evaluation volume for supermarkets

and convenience stores rose by+45.3%. This suggests

a trend towards "returning to the warmth of daily

life." Combining these two trends, we can summarize

that there is a preference for small eateries and a

desire to explore local culinary flavors. It reflects that

Dianping uses big data and AI technology to

understand users' preferences based on their past

consumption and provides personalized

recommendation services to effectively improve user

experience. It promotes the activation of long-tail

demand and effectively enhances network effect.

4 INNOVATION STRATEGIES OF

DIANPING UNDER AI

DEVELOPMENT

4.1 AI Reconstruction of Content

Production and Distribution

4.1.1 AI Assisted Writing

With the continuous development of technology and

the constant upgrading of AI technology, UGC

creation tools have also been upgraded. When

consumers write post-consumption experiences, they

often share their views in fragmented or colloquial

ways to AI. Through AI-assisted creation, it is hoped

that AI will play the role of an auxiliary assistant to

help refine consumer reviews (Formosa,2024).

Through AI polishing, more accurate and concise

language is used to make the consumption evaluation

more vivid and realistic. At the same time, the

assistance of AI enables Dianping to realize multi-

modal content generation, breaks the limitation of

traditional AIGC (AI-Generated content) technology,

makes consumer evaluation rich in pictures and text,

so as to attract more users to join, and makes the user-

generated content model of Dianping sustainable

development. In addition, the combination of text and

visual images has been realized in the search and

recommendation scenarios of Dianping, realizing

multi-modal content generation.

4.1.2 Precise Content Recommendation

The development of AI can provide users with more

accurate content recommendations. AI provides

personalized merchant recommendations and

preferential information by analyzing users' historical

behaviors, preferences and geographical locations. At

the same time, AI bravely analyzes user comments

and reviews through natural language processing,

extracts key information, enriches interest maps, so as

to meet users' personalized interests.

4.2 Intelligent Transformation of

Merchant Services

Dianping uses AI to optimize its operations and use

AI as an assistant for merchants (Ali et al., 2024).

Artificial intelligence enables Dianping to develop

sustainable enterprises. Dianping has launched a

hybrid mode of "AI assistance + human customer

service", which uses AI to answer simple questions

and reduce the waste of labor resources. At the same

time, Dianping launched virtual scene marketing,

such as AR store exploration and VR panoramic

display. Through the pending improvement of AR

and VR technology means, consumers can help to

experience a more real consumption environment

through multi-sensory experience (Agost et al., 2024).

4.3 Technology-Enabled Ecological

Governance

AI maintains the community environment. Research

has found that content homogeneity and information

authenticity have a significant impact on the

countermeasures of brand marketing information in

social media (Zhang and Wang, 2024). Therefore, it

is necessary to strictly govern the community

environment of Dianping. As mentioned in the

Xinhuanet article, in recent years, the number of

negative feedback related to users who "induce good

reviews" on Dianping has increased. In 2024, in

response to key violations such as "users writing

reviews with the interference of interests", Dianping

will promote multiple governance actions such as AI

identification, undercover visits by black people and

manual visits on the basis of four lines of defense. In

this way, a good community environment can be

guaranteed. However, due to the imperfect laws

related to AI, legal supervision should be

strengthened, ethics and morals should be observed,

and users' data privacy should be paid attention to

when ecological governance is enabled by AI

technology (Chen et al., 2025).

ICEML 2025 - International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics

536

5 CONCLUSION

This paper adopts the method of qualitative analysis

to study the strategies of UGC model platforms with

mass point as an example from multiple perspectives.

The advantages of the UGC model platform are

summarized as follows, Dianping adopts the UGC

business model, accumulates a large number of real

users reviews, forms a strong community atmosphere,

helps users to have a deeper understanding of

merchants, facilitates rational consumption by

consumers, and promotes economic growth. It further

elaborates the innovation strategy of Dianping under

the empowerment of AI, which is embodied in the AI

reconstruction of content production and distribution

and the intelligent transformation of merchant

services and ecological governance enabled by

technology.

In recent years, the booming development of short

videos has caused a great impact on Dianping.

Therefore, Dianping should explore more content

forms to attract young users. Considering its

advantages and challenges, in order to promote the

optimization and upgrading of UGC mode platforms,

UGC mode platforms should strengthen supervision

to ensure the authenticity of user reviews. Strengthen

data management to ensure the information security

of users. Combine with AI to carry out personalized

recommendations, attract users and form a good

community atmosphere.

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