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Positive Reviews: RED’s “Pain Island” Reflects the Strategic First Move and Ecological Value of Expanding the Interest Community
The “Pain Island” – RED LAND event created by RED on Shanghai’s Fuxing Island is not only an offline carnival for game and anime enthusiasts but also a crucial move in its strategic transformation from a “lifestyle community” to a “life interest community.” The success of this event verifies RED’s precise insight into the interest needs of young users and demonstrates its profound value in promoting the evolution of the community ecosystem through the expansion of interest circles.
First of all, the launch of “Pain Island” marks RED’s deep – operation ability in vertical interest circles. Anime and games were once regarded as “niche cultures,” but in the RED community, the volume of content published in these two categories has jumped to the third and fourth among vertical categories (from 2023 – 2025, anime content grew from zero to the third – largest vertical category, and the monthly active users (MAU) of game users exceeded 110 million). Behind this data lies a qualitative change from users’ “spectating” to “participating.” RED uses the concept of “2.5D” (the integration of anime and real life), deconstructing the frying pan in games into lifestyle expressions such as “bullet – proof pan” and “life – saving pan,” and integrating anime elements into scenarios like graduation gowns and birthday celebrations at Haidilao, successfully breaking the limitations of the traditional anime’s “self – contained circle.” The RED LAND event further extends this “life + interest” connection from the online to the offline world: the collision between industrial relics and anime scenes, the immersive mission design, and the cross – IP collaboration (the participation of scarce IPs such as “Genshin Impact” and “Pokémon”) essentially create an emotional resonance field for users where “the real and the virtual break through the wall.” This closed – loop from “content to experience” not only strengthens users’ sense of belonging to the community but also focus scattered individuals in interest circles into a “group with shared memories,” laying the foundation for the long – term retention and activity of the community.
Secondly, “Pain Island” is a concrete verification of RED’s “interest community” strategy. In July 2025, RED upgraded its slogan from “Your Lifestyle Guide” to “Your Life Interest Community,” with the core shifting from “usefulness” to “emotional connection.” On traditional content platforms, user – generated content often needs to be “useful” (such as guides and reviews) or “interesting” (such as entertainment), but interest – based content emphasizes “authentic expression” – it can be aimless sharing, personalized creation, or even niche emotional resonance. In the RED LAND event, users are deeply involved in the construction of the “island” through designs such as “independent identity settings,” “interaction tasks,” and “archive trees.” This “co – creation” model is the core logic of an interest community. Data shows that RED already has over 2,500 interest – label circles, and the volume of interest – related content (such as “Pain Gold” and “Cos Team – building”) has increased by hundreds or even thousands of percentage points year – on – year, indicating that users’ demand for “interest expression” is far from being satisfied. RED provides ordinary users with equal opportunities to voice their opinions through a decentralized distribution mechanism (50% of traffic is allocated to users with less than 1,000 followers), truly realizing “interest as connection.” This strategic transformation can not only attract more users with “long – tail interests” (such as independent game producers and niche anime enthusiasts) but also enhance the “human touch” of the community through the diversity of interests – that is, sincere communication among users based on common hobbies, which is the key to combating platform homogenization and enhancing user stickiness.
Finally, “Pain Island” provides a new paradigm for the cooperation between brands and interest circles. The participation of over 50 game and anime IPs (including top – tier ones like “Honor of Kings” and “One Piece”) in the event essentially reflects brands’ recognition of RED’s “interest ecosystem.” Traditional offline exhibitions (such as ChinaJoy) focus more on product displays, while RED LAND enables brands to transform from “exhibit providers” to “scene co – builders” through “world – view construction,” “immersive interaction,” and “emotional resonance.” For example, in the “Peacekeeper Elite” exhibition area, the use of “pink frying pans” instead of regular weapons is based on the user – generated second – creation content about “pans” in the RED community (such as the lifestyle interpretation of “reflecting light and exposing positions”). This kind of linkage from “community insight to offline implementation” not only strengthens the emotional connection between brands and users but also provides brands with a low – cost, high – conversion marketing scenario. For RED, this IP cooperation can not only attract more brand resources but also feed back the community’s content ecosystem through brand traffic, forming a positive cycle of “users – content – brands.”
Negative Reviews: Potential Challenges and Concerns Behind the Expansion of the “Interest Community”
Although the “Pain Island” event demonstrates RED’s innovation in interest community operation, from a long – term strategic perspective, its expansion of interest circles still faces multiple challenges, and the balance between “scale expansion” and “ecosystem quality” needs to be carefully considered.
Firstly, there is uncertainty in high – cost investment and commercial returns. The cost of creating “Pain Island” is not negligible: renting Fuxing Island, the only inland island in the central urban area of Shanghai, transforming industrial relics and natural landscapes, inviting over 50 IPs and international singers (such as Lia), and designing a complex immersive interaction system (such as independent identities and NPC tasks) all require huge amounts of capital and resources. Although topics such as “EVA Unit – 01” and “Feather Rain of the Bird’s Poem” made it onto the RED hot list during the event, and short – term traffic and popularity were significant, it remains to be seen how to convert the offline event’s popularity into long – term user retention and commercial value (such as advertising and e – commerce conversion). For example, the payment habits of anime and game users are more inclined to virtual consumption (such as in – game purchases and merchandise). If RED wants to commercialize through the interest community, it needs to find a more effective connection point between “content recommendation” and the “transaction closed – loop.” Otherwise, it may face the risk of “high investment and difficult monetization.”
Secondly, there is a contradiction between the expansion of interest circles and the maintenance of the community atmosphere. RED’s core advantage lies in “homogeneous communication” – users gather due to similar lifestyles or interests, forming a community atmosphere with a high degree of trust. However, as interest circles expand (from fashion and food to games, anime, and independent handicrafts), the differences in user habits and content styles among different circles may intensify. For example, anime users pay more attention to “emotional resonance” and “freedom of second – creation,” while traditional lifestyle users focus more on “practical value.” If the platform fails to balance the needs of different circles in content distribution and rule – making, it may lead to the loss of core users or the “dilution” of the community atmosphere. In addition, the “long – tail nature” of interests also means that the user base of some niche circles (such as “Bean Puzzles” and “AI Love”) is limited. If operational resources are overly dispersed, it may lead to insufficient activity in some circles, which may eventually become “zombie topics.”
Thirdly, the volatility of interests tests the platform’s continuous operation ability. The essence of interests is users’ personalized emotional needs, which are “diverse and changeable” – the “Pain Culture” that is popular today may be replaced by new interests tomorrow (such as “Chinese – style fashion” and “Metaverse”). If RED wants to maintain the attractiveness of its “interest community,” it needs to have the ability to quickly capture interest trends and iterate its operation strategies. For example, currently, RED has identified the trend of “2.5D” through user – generated content (UGC) and launched the RED LAND event. However, if users’ interests shift to more virtual (such as Metaverse social networking) or more real (such as the combination of outdoor camping and interests) directions in the future, can the platform adjust its content guidance, event planning, and resource investment in a timely manner? In addition, the “emotional attribute” of interests also means that users have higher requirements for the “sincerity” of the community. If the platform is overly commercialized (such as forcing advertising insertions and interfering with UGC content), it may damage users’ perception of the “purity of interests” and weaken community stickiness.
Suggestions for Entrepreneurs: Understanding the Underlying Logic of Interest Community Operation from “Pain Island”
The success and challenges of RED’s “Pain Island” provide multi – dimensional insights for entrepreneurs in the interest field. The core can be summarized into the following three points:
Build an “emotional moat” for the interest community with “user co – creation” as the core
The essence of interests is users’ emotional expression. Entrepreneurs need to break away from the traditional thinking of “content platforms” and shift to “user co – creation platforms.” RED’s model of using the “2.5D” concept (the combination of anime and reality) and “decentralized distribution” (50% of traffic to ordinary users) to make users “producers” rather than “consumers” of content is worth learning from. Entrepreneurs can encourage users to participate in community construction by designing low – threshold co – creation mechanisms (such as theme activities and UGC contests) and providing personalized tools (such as second – creation templates and interest tags), thus forming a healthy ecosystem where “users are the content and users are the operators.” For example, for niche interests (such as independent games and bean puzzles), entrepreneurs can connect users through offline pop – up events (similar to “Pain Island”) and aggregate content through topic tags online to strengthen users’ sense of belonging and participation.Balance “interest expansion” and “ecosystem quality,” and focus on the in – depth operation of vertical circles
The expansion of interest communities should avoid being “overly ambitious and all – encompassing” and instead focus on the “quality” of vertical circles. RED’s choice to start with anime and games is based on the high growth of these two vertical categories in its community (the volume of published content ranks third and fourth, with year – on – year growth of 175% and 168% respectively). Entrepreneurs need to identify “high – potential interests” through data insights (such as user active time and content interaction rate) and build a closed – loop of “content – activities – users” around these interests. For example, if focusing on the interest of “Chinese – style fashion handicrafts,” entrepreneurs can first aggregate users through online topics, then enhance interaction through offline markets and master workshops, and finally introduce brand cooperation (such as handicraft tools and IP co – branding) for commercialization, avoiding resource dispersion due to excessive expansion.Explore sustainable commercialization paths guided by “emotional connection”
The commercialization of interest communities should avoid “forced monetization” and instead design scenarios around users’ emotional needs. In RED’s “Pain Island,” brands participate in the event through “scene co – construction” (such as the “pink frying pan” in “Peacekeeper Elite”) rather than “advertising display,” which not only meets users’ immersive experience but also achieves brand exposure. Entrepreneurs can learn from this idea and convert users’ emotional recognition into consumption behavior through the integration of “interest + consumption” scenarios (such as interest – themed pop – up stores, customized merchandise, and membership benefits). For example, for the emerging interest of “anime + camping,” entrepreneurs can launch “anime – themed camping packages” (including character – co – branded tents and customized figurines) to meet users’ interest expression and achieve profitability through high – margin merchandise.
In conclusion, RED’s “Pain Island” is not only a successful offline event but also a crucial verification of its “interest community” strategy. For entrepreneurs, the opportunity in the interest field lies in the depth of “emotional connection” rather than the breadth of “user scale.” Only by truly understanding users’ interest needs and building a community ecosystem of “co – creation, co – integration, and co – sharing” can they gain a foothold in the blue ocean of the interest economy.
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