Put a Celebrity Name in the Title, Get 10x the Traffic

I recently checked my Xiaohongshu (China’s Instagram-like platform) analytics and found an uncomfortable truth:

Posts with celebrity or big company names in the title get roughly 10x the traffic of regular titles.

What does 10x mean? It means you can pour your heart into writing something genuinely useful, and it still won’t outperform a lazy name-drop.

So now you get it — clickbait isn’t about creators having bad taste. It’s the algorithm forcing their hand.

Same Story in News

A friend who runs a news app in the US told me the exact same thing: report honestly, and traffic is abysmal, ad revenue pathetic. Spice up the headline, make the content a bit more inflammatory? Traffic skyrockets, and the money follows.

He said journalists all have an inner compass pointing toward objectivity and fairness.

But on the other end of that compass? KPIs.

The Algorithm’s Original Sin

This is the most disgusting thing about the content industry today: algorithms systematically reward sensationalism and punish honest reporting.

It’s not one platform’s problem — it’s all of them. Xiaohongshu, Douyin, YouTube, news apps, all the same. The fundamental logic of engagement-driven distribution is simple: the stronger the emotion, the wider the spread.

So bad money drives out good. Serious writers stare at their numbers questioning their life choices while clickbait merchants rake it in.

Then the platforms turn around and tell you: make quality content!

Right.

No Solution, Only Choices

You choose: be the algorithm’s lapdog, or do work you actually believe in. Neither path is wrong, but don’t pretend — if you’re riding the clickbait wave, own it. Don’t feast on the engagement while branding yourself a noble creator.

And as a reader, next time you see a title that’s absolutely screaming for your click, pause. Remember that every click tells the algorithm: yes, I love this stuff, give me more.

You’re not clicking on content. You’re casting a vote.