The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2023
Haidilao makes the viral 'Kemu San' dance a requestable service — 1B+ Douyin views
Haidilao let servers perform the viral 'Kemu San' dance on request and rewarded them — the trend drew 1B+ Douyin views and became a check-in ritual.
Haidilao (海底捞)
What it had to solve
In November 2023, 'Kemu San' — a playful dance from a Guangxi wedding that became a Douyin trend — reached Haidilao stores when customers began requesting it. The hot-pot chain, famous for theatrical service, had to decide whether to let employees perform a viral dance some called vulgar.
How it works
In November 2023, a playful dance dubbed 'Guangxi Kemu San' — the third 'exam' in a joke about Guangxi culture, after singing folk songs and eating rice noodles — went viral on Douyin. Customers began asking Haidilao servers to perform it: a video from a Shandong store drew 280K+ likes, bloggers in staff uniforms pushed it further, and demand spread to stores nationwide within about a week.
Haidilao's answer was to let it happen. Stores from Dalian to Fuzhou to Wuxi had staff learn the dance and perform it on request, and headquarters said it encourages frontline innovation with incentives: after Wuxi employee Xiao Pang's performance went viral, he was publicly commended and rewarded ¥3,000, and several servers gained hundreds of thousands of followers. The company said jobs are paid by piecework — more work, more pay.
The result was a national phenomenon: the Douyin topic #海底捞科目三舞蹈来上分# passed 890M views in under a week and related topics topped 1B, at some stores 70–80% of diners requested the dance, customers called to ask whether it was available, and by December the dance had spread to Haidilao outlets in Singapore, where the chain said it respects every diner's preferences and arranges performances without disturbing others.
Why it lands
- It made a viral internet moment physically orderable: instead of chasing the trend with ads, Haidilao let the trend walk into its stores and perform.
- The incentive system turned employees into willing stars — the ¥3,000 commendation made the dance a frontline opportunity rather than a chore.
- The store floor was the set: every customer's phone camera became a production unit, generating content the brand never had to buy.
- It fit Haidilao's existing persona of theatrical service — birthday songs, noodle dances, face-changing acts — so the move felt consistent rather than desperate.
What it did
The Douyin topic #海底捞科目三舞蹈来上分# passed 890M views in under a week and related topics topped 1B; at some stores 70–80% of diners requested the dance, customers phoned asking whether stores offered it, and the phenomenon spread to Haidilao outlets in Singapore and beyond.
What you can take
A brand doesn't need to start a trend, only to let it happen in its space: making a viral dance a requestable service — and rewarding the staff — turned controversy into free, self-generating content.
Since then
The dance spread beyond restaurants to schools, streets and overseas stores, and Haidilao kept updating its repertoire with dances such as 'wiping glass' and K-pop after Kemu San. The episode became a textbook case of 'service as content' in Chinese marketing, while also fueling public debate about employee workloads — some staff said they struggled to keep up with new dances, and the chain responded that performances are arranged around guests' preferences. By December 2023, Chinese media described restaurant 'stunt service' as an industry-wide trend.
Sources
- 「科目三」突然爆火，有服务员因此月入过万？海底捞回应
- 餐饮业「整活」不断 服务员自发跳「科目三」引顾客打卡
- 帅哥员工齐跳科目三 社会摇成了海底捞的新流量密码
- 新加坡海底捞员工跳起「科目三」引热议，官方回应来了
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