"Cloud Feeding".
is a three-camera show where you can enjoy the food show. The main character is cute and naive, and there is an endless stream of viewers "tipping" the show. Amid the heated discussion, an app with live streaming attributes became popular, but the protagonist of the live broadcast changed from a human to a stray cat.
Shell Finance reporter discovered that an app called “Street Cat” has received a lot of attention since its launch. On January 9, a reporter from Shell Finance saw a stray cat eating freeze-dried and cat food on the homepage of the software. Many viewers left messages and interacted in the comment area, and many cats were also "cloud fed". grain. In addition to watching live broadcasts and "cloud feeding" stray cats,
users can also apply for cat houses or capture and sterilize cats in their own cities to help solve the survival and management problems of stray cats.
However, the popularity of "street cats" has also caused a lot of controversy, such as the accumulation of cat food and health and safety issues after "cloud feeding", which has further highlighted the protection and supervision of stray animals' rights and interests. Experts said that improving the supervision mechanism and strengthening the supervision and management of cat houses are the keys to solving these problems.
Users recharging love coins to buy cat food are the main source of funds for the Street Cat app.
Spend money to “raise cats in the cloud”
Public information shows that Street Cat will be launched in April 2023, focusing on issues such as the survival, sterilization, and adoption of stray cats. Street Cat puts out a smart cat house and connects it to the app. Users can watch stray cats "doing food" online anytime and anywhere. Currently, Street Cat has been launched in 13 cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Changsha. As of October last year, more than 13,000 smart cat houses had been launched.
According to Street Mao, the smart cat house is equipped with multiple high-definition cameras and has three major functions: online cloud feeding, multi-view cloud cat sucking and intelligent monitoring. Judging from the function of the page, viewers can watch the eating process of stray cats from three perspectives, and feed cat food and freeze-drying to stray cats by purchasing love coins. For example, 1.99 yuan can purchase 32 love coins, and 10 love coins can Feeding 10 grams of cat food and freeze-drying requires 20 love coins. In addition, users can check the status of the cat house, including battery capacity, cat food and freeze-dried stock, feeding amount, etc.
Street Cat app's "live broadcast + cloud feeding" method of stray cats has attracted the attention of many cat lovers. Ms. Zhao from Jiangsu told a reporter from Shell Finance that she uses software to feed cats almost every day. “Generally, when I see an empty bowl in a cat house, I feed cat food, which can range from a few hundred grams to more than a thousand grams a day.” Zhao The woman said that watching stray cats "cook" brought great emotional value to her. "The living environment of stray cats in the wild is very poor. I saw that they have a place to eat and rest, and there are many people participating in feeding and rescue through live broadcasts." , I'm very touched."
Some netizens said that watching stray cats eat and broadcast "is very therapeutic" and "seeing them eat well is very satisfying" and "because I don't have a cat, I am very happy to be able to 'raise a cat in the cloud'."
In the Street Cat app, users can also share their concerns about stray cats through various "slice" videos. On this basis, many "Internet celebrity" stray cats have also been born. Ms. Zhao told the Shell Finance reporter that she uploaded a number of stray cat videos she edited on social platforms. In the process of communicating with other users, she also gained a certain sense of recognition and accomplishment.
"China Pet Industry White Paper 2023-2024 (Consumption Report)" points out that China has become the second largest pet market in the world. In 2023, the urban pet (dog and cat) consumer market will be 279.3 billion yuan, an increase of 3.2% from 2022. . In this context, Street Cat not only meets users’ needs for “cloud cat raising” through “live broadcast + cloud feeding”, but also turns stray cat feeding into a “business”. According to public information, Street Cat Four months after Mao went online, it had over one million users.
Street cat is "cutting leeks"? While
has received widespread attention, street cats have also been questioned for "cutting leeks". One of the controversies is whether it makes money by selling cat food to viewers at "high prices". Previously, some netizens had converted love coins and found that the price of cat food for street cats could reach 50 yuan/jin, saying that at this price, they could buy better cat food on the market.
Shell Finance reporter used 1.99 yuan for 32 love coins and the amount of 10 grams of cat food that can be fed by 10 love coins to calculate and found that the price of one pound of street cat food is about 31 yuan. If you buy more love coins, The price per pound of cat food will be lower.
Currently, users recharging love coins to buy cat food is the main source of funds for the Street Cat app. In response to the price issue of cat food, Street Cat once responded that the unit price of app feeding includes the costs of cat house production and transportation, software and hardware research and development, procurement, operation and maintenance, etc. Reporters from
discovered that Street Cat has cooperated with multiple pet brands such as Birugi, Lingcui, Miaocai, and pidan, and launched charity sales of cat food and the distribution of sterilization subsidy coupons. The income from the charity sale of cat food can be invested in Street cat tnr (catch-neuter-release). In addition to spending money for feeding,
users can also apply for or contribute to cat houses. According to the data, the establishment of a cat house requires raising 90 days of food rations for three cats. In addition to street cats contributing 45 days of cat food, users need to "collect public donations". To make up for the remaining days, for example, buying cat food for one day costs 12 yuan, and one month costs 360 yuan. After purchase, the platform will return a certain amount of love coins to the user.
According to Jiemao, the current cost of a cat house is about 4,000 yuan. At present, the 540 yuan income from users’ “crowdfunding” of cat food for 45 days cannot cover the cost of a cat house for the time being. However, once the cat house is launched, users' "cloud feeding" will bring relatively long-term benefits to street cats. In addition to launching "cloud feeding",
also manages the number of stray cats through TNR (capture-neutering-release). By issuing 100 sterilization subsidy coupons worth 100 yuan every month, Street Cat subsidizes users to bring stray cats. Part or all of the cost of cat neutering. The reporter saw in the list of pet hospitals it cooperates with that the price of neutering a male cat in Shanghai is usually 150 yuan to 200 yuan, while the price of a female cat is generally more than 200 yuan. This means that volunteers not only have to catch stray cats themselves, And you still need to pay certain fees after using the subsidy coupon. Jiang Han, a senior researcher at
Pangu Think Tank, told Shell Finance reporters that Street Cat’s business model is an innovative solution to the problem of stray cats. Street Cat uses live broadcast technology to show the living conditions of stray cats to the public in real time, which to a certain extent increases The public is paying more attention to the problem of stray cats. At the same time, "cloud feeding" increases users' sense of participation and can also meet their emotional needs. In addition, this business model can enable public welfare activities to continue to a certain extent and solve the problem of shortage of funds for traditional public welfare activities.
Issues such as the management of Street Cat Houses have caused controversy
Despite this, there are still many problems behind Street Cat's innovative business model. The reporter combed through and found that the disputes mainly focused on cat house management, health and safety, and the completion of sterilization.
In terms of cat house management, Street Cat recruits volunteers to install cat houses in communities, parks and other locations. At the same time, volunteers can also undertake tasks such as cleaning, water changing, and tnr for cat houses. However, reporters observed and interviewed Later, it was discovered that many users reported that many cat houses were dirty, had food stuck, were unmaintained, and were even damaged.
reporters observed on the Street Cat app that many cat houses have problems with cat food accumulation after "cloud feeding". Some users pointed out that such excessive feeding not only easily causes cat food to deteriorate, but also attracts more stray cats. and other wild animals come to gather and feed, causing health and safety issues.
Street Cat Smart Cat House.
At the same time, in terms of TNR, street cats have also received a lot of criticism. “Capturing and neutering are important parts of TNR, but catching and neutering cats is basically done by volunteers. Many people lack catching tools, and sterilization subsidy coupons are not available. The number is limited, and most sterilizations rely on volunteers to 'generate electricity for love'," a netizen told reporters. Data released by
Street Cat shows that in 2023, Street Cat issued a total of 7,506 sterilization coupons, and more than 17,000 stray cats were sterilized. This means that the number of sterilization coupons is far from meeting the demand for sterilization of stray cats. At the same time, volunteers need to pay fees beyond the subsidized price, which also puts a question mark on the sustainability of Street Cat's TNR.
Data from the "2021 China Pet Industry White Paper" show that the number of stray dogs will be as high as 40 million and the number of stray cats will be as high as 53 million in 2021. How to scientifically manage and control the number of stray cats and dogs has become one of the difficult problems in social governance.
Jiang Han said that first of all, improving cat house management is an important part of solving the problem of street cats. Establishing a standardized management system can ensure that the number of cat houses is sufficient and reasonably distributed to meet the basic needs of stray cats; secondly, street cats should strengthen the hygienic management of cat houses and regularly clean and disinfect cat houses to prevent the spread of diseases. At the same time, it provides users with correct feeding methods and health guidance. In addition, strengthening supervision is also one of the important measures to solve the problem of street cats. Relevant departments should establish a sound supervision mechanism to strengthen the supervision and management of cat houses.
Ms. Wang from Jiangsu told Shell Finance reporters that there are three cat houses in the community where she lives, one of which is maintained by herself. “For me, using street cats is not a recreational activity. My relationship with stray cats has gone beyond entertainment stage. I hope that the focus of street cats’ future work can be tilted towards the protection of animal rights, exploring how to fight for the right to survive for stray cats in urban outdoor spaces, and how to legally and reasonably make street cat cat houses safe and inclusive. A loving community operates effectively in the long term."
Beijing News Shell Finance Trainee Reporter Wei Boya Reporter Wang Jinyu
Editor Yue Caizhou
Proofreading Liu Baoqing
