Gaode Tests Negative List Feature, Restaurants and Attractions on Blacklist
On Alibaba's internal social platform Maimai, a verified Alibaba employee posted asking, "I heard Gaode is going to create a blacklist? Last year it was street scanning, this year it's a blacklist, what big move is this?" Another Maimai user confirmed that Gaode Map is indeed testing a negative list feature similar to a "blacklist"; the post received 69 comments, 6 shares, and 168 likes within 16 hours, with a reading volume of 49,000.
From leaked screenshots of the Gaode App interface, the "Gaode Blacklist" uses Beijing as a sample city, with the page marked "⚠️ Gaode Blacklist ⚠️" and a subtitle stating, "Based on real travel data, user feedback, and multi-dimensional analysis, helping you avoid 'pits' on the road"; problem locations are marked directly on the map with exclamation point icons, displaying negative tags such as "long wait times", "traffic congestion", "overpriced", "crowded", and "average hygiene", covering multiple areas including Chaoyang District and Haidian District.
The left side of the list features a comprehensive blacklist (citywide, real-time updates) along with eight subcategories: queue issues, pricing issues, experience issues, hygiene issues, parking issues, travel issues, accommodation issues, and dining issues. The top classification bar allows filtering by categories such as "all issues, dining, attractions, hotels, parking, shopping malls", with the overall product form comparable to "avoidance/recommendation" review lists.
The top entry on the comprehensive blacklist is a "popular internet celebrity restaurant" in Chaoyang District, with an average spending of 268 yuan, marked with tags like "wait over 2 hours", "chaotic waiting area", and "high prices". User reviews state, "I haven't even eaten yet, spent half a day waiting, and the taste is just okay", with 12,000 users having "stepped on" it; the second entry is a "popular scenic spot crowded on weekends" in Haidian District, marked with tags like "huge traffic on weekends", "long wait times", and "average experience", with users complaining, "I thought it was niche, but it was full of people, even taking photos required waiting", with 8,600 users having "stepped on" it; the third entry is a "highly priced parking lot", charging 15 yuan per hour, 60 yuan per day, and 120 yuan per 24 hours.
In the comments section of the post, doubts arose, with Maimai user "GZramcob" responding, "It is indeed a gray test of something similar to a blacklist... I haven't looked closely, but no one wants to be on this list, right?" Another user, "The Big Boss in the Courtyard", joked, "Is it possible to monetize better, with competitors buying the blacklist for you?", directly pointing out the risk of the list being commercially manipulated or even used by competitors to attack rival merchants.
From a product logic perspective, the "blacklist" extends the traffic entry of the map app from "driving recommendations" to "warning avoidance". Gaode uses this to structure and visualize user negative feedback data, enhancing user retention and decision-making stickiness, while also creating new evaluation pressure and exposure filtering mechanisms for local businesses such as restaurants, attractions, hotels, and parking lots; for high-traffic internet celebrity merchants named on the list, this feature may directly impact in-store customer flow, while for competitors like Meituan, it poses a positive comparative pressure in terms of experience dimensions, shifting the competition from "who recommends better" to "who avoids pitfalls more accurately".
As of now, Gaode has not publicly commented on the "blacklist" feature, which remains in a small-scale gray testing phase and has not yet been launched to all users.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Gaode has been transforming from a simple navigation tool to a local life decision-making platform over the past few years—launching the "Gaode Street Scanning List" in 2023, focusing on positive recommendations to help users discover "hidden gems"; this "blacklist" is a move by the same product team to complement the positive list layout with a negative warning list, highly consistent with how platforms like Dianping and Meituan have operated user mindsets through "avoidance posts" and "blacklist lists" for years. The integration of evaluation data between Gaode and other Alibaba entities like Fliggy and Ele.me also lays the historical groundwork for Gaode's capability to construct such lists.
Gaode's core monetization logic has long relied on advertising display positions, merchant commission from entries, and in-store traffic flow. The positive recommendations of the street scanning list have proven to bring real in-store conversions; launching the blacklist essentially recreates user retention time and opening frequency using free negative content, thereby enhancing its bargaining power for local life advertising inventory— the more users rely on Gaode to judge "whether this store is worth visiting", the stronger Gaode's pricing power becomes in local life advertising positions for dining, attractions, hotels, and parking. This is a capital mobilization method that exchanges UGC negative content for control over traffic entry.
This is almost structurally identical to how Dianping established user trust barriers through "negative review lists" and "avoidance posts" in its early years, and similar to how platforms like Xiaohongshu use "pitfall" and "avoidance" tag content to reverse pull conversion rates. Gaode is currently at a stage closer to transitioning from a "tool-based navigation app" to an "evaluation-based decision platform", rather than merely iterating functions, which is also Alibaba's product-level attempt to initiate direct competition with Meituan in the local life sector.
Essentially, this represents a "transfer of pricing power"— in the past, the reputation evaluation rights of local merchants such as restaurants, attractions, and hotels were concentrated in content platforms like Dianping and Xiaohongshu. Gaode, leveraging its massive map opening frequency and real travel data, attempts to shift the "avoidance" decision-making power from content communities to tool entries; at the mechanism level, since Gaode possesses real user behavior data such as in-store visits, wait times, and duration of stay, its negative list is more persuasive with "data evidence" than pure UGC reviews. Once users form the habit of "checking the Gaode blacklist before going out", Gaode can convert tool-based traffic into decision-making traffic, thereby gaining higher bargaining power in local life advertising revenue negotiations.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Whoever controls behavioral data has the right to define "avoidance".
Positive lists drive traffic, negative lists lock decision-making power.
Turning tools into decision-making entries transforms traffic into bargaining power.