Marketing account

营销号, ying xiao hao, yxh, marketing accounts. The term refers to online accounts that create or disseminate content with the primary purpose of profit or traffic. Some marketing accounts disguise themselves as legitimate media, but operate outside of journalistic ethics and usually without journalism training. In order to generate maximum profit via online traffic, these accounts often engage in spreading rumors, slander, and other tabloid-like content.

Marketing account often add onto current events and hot topics their own content, including but not limited to: opinions, fabrication, plagiarism, advertisements, photo and video edits, etc. These accounts exert significant influence on the Internet and can often guide the direction of public opinion. For this reason, many are employed by water army companies, MCNs, talent management, and other corporations that seek to create misinformation and manipulate public opinion.