How Dropping Commercial Clutter Boosted User Satisfaction and Revenue for 58 Yellow Pages

Background

In 2023 the internet industry faced unprecedented challenges, and traditional services such as 58 Yellow Pages experienced a slowdown in traffic growth. Designers needed a new breakthrough to generate platform growth.

Approach

The team applied first‑principles thinking and returned to user experience by conducting deep user research to uncover needs and pain points, aiming to provide more precise and valuable services.

Identifying Problems in the C‑end Core Flow

Many entry points on the traffic distribution page were labeled to stimulate clicks, reflecting a commercial mindset that dominated the user journey. List pages displayed homogeneous merchant information, making it impossible for users to differentiate quality services, leading to dissatisfaction.

Design Strategy: Abandon Commercial Noise

Using a user behavior model, the team created a design strategy that reduced commercial clutter, improved page quality, and enhanced users' perception of trust. By prioritizing high‑quality merchants, the design alleviated user concerns and evoked empathy.

Key Redesign Actions

Replaced commercial product highlights on category pages with popular category information, helping users quickly find desired services.

Redrew icons for over 500 categories to strengthen visual quality and improve user comprehension.

On list pages, displayed merchant information through three dimensions—platform certification, user reviews, and merchant credit—to aid users in selecting reliable services.

In detail pages, removed lengthy text descriptions, encouraging merchants to complete service item information and deepen user perception.

Strengthened platform guarantee information throughout the entire user journey to raise awareness and trust.

Non‑Core Flow Enhancements

To break the single purchase path for B‑end merchants, the team introduced commercial products into the C‑end core flow based on merchant accounts, created local service rankings and strong merchant lists, and added commercial product exposure in non‑core sections.

Product Purchase Page Revamp

The old purchase page was simple and crude. The new version includes product introductions, clear purchase processes, and merchant feedback, helping merchants understand commercial products better.

Digital Human Live Streaming

A digital human customer service was deployed to further assist merchants in learning about products.

Merchant Engagement Initiatives

A “Quality Life Festival” was launched, requiring merchants to complete service and discount information to participate, thereby encouraging broader merchant involvement in platform building.

Results

After removing commercial distractions and focusing on user experience, the C‑end experience improved significantly, leading to higher user satisfaction. On the B‑end, revenue grew despite market headwinds, and more merchants were willing to pay for results.