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Grass-Planting Strategies on Content E-Commerce Platforms: A Value Co-Creation Analysis of Douyin

Xuhan Wang, Yuxin Wu
Scientific Journal of Economics and Management Research, (2026), Vol.8, No.8, pp.37-48
Published: July 21, 2026
DOI: 10.54691/3n71zz86
PDF: Download Full Text PDF
Abstract

Grass-planting (zhongcao) marketing has become an important way for content e-commerce platforms to turn everyday media use into commercial activity. Yet the same mechanism is increasingly associated with overstated recommendations, repetitive content, and an erosion of trust, making a one-way promotion perspective inadequate. Guided by value co-creation theory and the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this article examines how grass-planting is organized on Douyin, how value is produced among participating actors, and where the current model remains vulnerable. The analysis combines a literature review, a platform case study, a survey yielding 220 valid responses, and qualitative coding of a cleaned comment corpus of approximately 11,000 Chinese characters. The results portray grass-planting as a multi-actor process involving the platform, brands, creators, and users. Algorithmic recommendation, short video, livestreaming, creator endorsement, and comment interaction together connect exposure, interest, communication, purchase, and post-purchase feedback. Survey results indicate consistently positive evaluations of content production and distribution, although user-side outcomes associated with repeat purchase and word-of-mouth are somewhat weaker. Comment coding shows that users do more than react: they ask purchase-related questions, discuss use details, offer professional judgments, compare alternatives, share content socially, and add missing information. On this basis, the article argues that sustainable grass-planting depends less on maximizing short-term traffic than on improving authenticity, product fulfillment, algorithmic accountability, meaningful interaction, post-purchase participation, and longitudinal evaluation. The study extends value co-creation research to content e-commerce and offers practical guidance for platforms seeking to balance conversion efficiency with durable trust.

Keywords: Content e-commerce, Douyin, grass-planting (zhongcao) marketing, S-O-R framework, value co-creation.
APA Citation: Xuhan Wang, Yuxin Wu (2026). Grass-Planting Strategies on Content E-Commerce Platforms: A Value Co-Creation Analysis of Douyin. Scientific Journal of Economics and Management Research, 8(8), 37-48. https://doi.org/10.54691/3n71zz86

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