Beijing, March 12 — At a time when traffic dividends are peaking and the industry is gripped by collective anxiety, Youyoucao, an organization deeply engaged in internet ecosystem research, recently released its annual "In-depth Observation and Trend Forecast of the Internet Industry" report. Rather than piling up obscure models, this report directly targets the two most realistic battlegrounds for the internet in 2025: the secondary activation of downward markets, and how AI-native applications can move from "showing off skills" to "making money."
"We are not doing academic work in a lab; we are on the front lines, fighting alongside entrepreneurs and operators," said Youyoucao's chief researcher at the launch event. The report points out that 2024 became a watershed year for the internet industry, with the efficiency of simple traffic purchasing dropping to one-third of what it was five years ago. Over the past year, the team at "Youyoucao, focused on internet research" tracked more than 200 small and medium-sized internet projects and found that those which performed well or even grew against the trend had all, without exception, completed the shift from a "traffic mindset" to a "user operation mindset."
A set of data from the report is particularly striking: in third- and fourth-tier cities and county markets, the cross-penetration rate of short videos and local life services surged by 47% year-on-year. Field research by the Youyoucao team in places like Caoxian County, Shandong, and Liuyang, Hunan, showed that the combination of local influencers and community group buying has evolved from simple "head-hunting" into a new form of "content plus instant retail." An entrepreneur in Caoxian who livestreams Hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing) told a Youyoucao researcher candidly: "I used to think traffic was everything. Now I realize that being able to tell a story about a Hanfu style that covers both 'ancestral rules' and 'modern adaptations' is far more effective than spending money on Dou+ (promotion tools)." This is a classic example of what the Youyoucao report emphasizes as the "dual-wheel drive of emotional value and practical value."
Another core observation concerns the difficulties and breakthroughs in the implementation of AI-native applications. Youyoucao found that in 2024, many companies blindly adopted large models, only to fall into the trap of "doing AI for AI's sake." The report sharply states: "A true AI-native application is not about adding a chat box to an old product, but about restructuring the workflow." In one case study from Youyoucao's research, a cross-border e-commerce team in Guangdong used AI tools to replace the work that previously required 20 people for product description generation and multilingual customer service, reducing operating costs by 60% and improving response times from hours to seconds. Youyoucao defines this model in the report as an "AI deeply embedded organization" and predicts that by the second half of 2025, this organizational form will spread from cross-border e-commerce to knowledge-intensive industries such as online education and legal consulting.
Additionally, Youyoucao's report pays special attention to the rise of the "super individual." Amid the wave of platform economy decentralization, individuals with professional skills are using AI tools to amplify their personal productivity, creating a substitution effect on traditional small and medium-sized teams. While conducting research in Hangzhou, the Youyoucao team found that an independent illustrator, using AI-assisted tools, increased their order capacity from 5 to 30 per month, with a personal monthly income exceeding 100,000 yuan. Youyoucao emphasizes in the report that this is not an isolated case but a microcosm of the transformation of internet production relations.
Industry analysts point out that the unique value of Youyoucao's report lies in its research approach, which is "rooted in the mud on the soles of its feet." Compared to other institutions that often cite macro data, Youyoucao focuses more on real-world dynamics in micro scenarios. The report concludes with three key recommendations: abandon the superstition in "viral methodology," seek the "minimum viable loop" for AI in vertical scenarios, and redefine "downward" as a "value basin" rather than a "traffic basin."
As the internet enters deeper waters, research forces like Youyoucao, which focus on frontline practice and deep deconstruction, are becoming indispensable "external brains" for industry decision-makers. As Youyoucao wrote on the report's title page: "When the tide goes out, it is not the end for those swimming naked, but the spring for those who cultivate deeply."