A buck can buy tens of thousands of views
Some live broadcast rooms seem to be booming but false traffic
At present, live streaming is gaining momentum, and the turnover of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions is astounding. At the same time surprised, some people also doubt that these data are true?
Recently, after being reported by the media, the suspected fraud of the live broadcast data of Xiaoyiyi, the anchor of the fast player, has caused widespread concern. According to statistics from third-party data agencies, the live broadcast sales should be 8.67 million yuan, a certain gap from the 105 million yuan given by Kuaishou officials. Afterwards, the quick hands came forward to clarify that the data display was inconsistent because the data interface debugging was not in place.
Regardless of whether the live broadcast data is true or not, reporters from Science and Technology Daily learned from many insiders that the current live broadcast market data is indeed very deep. The prosperity of the live broadcast room is largely supported by false traffic.
Low-cost counterfeiting methods are not clever
According to data from the China Internet Network Information Center, as of March 2020, my country's online live broadcast users reached 560 million, accounting for 62% of the total netizens, of which the e-commerce live broadcast users reached 262 million.
Various "myths" of bringing goods attract wave after wave of celebrities and celebrities into the live broadcast room. At the same time, the live broadcasts that have been blown up are becoming huge hotbeds for false traffic.
Open an e-commerce platform, you can see all kinds of live broadcast platforms such as rising fans, brushing online people, brushing broadcast volume, brushing live broadcast likes, brushing various gifts and other services, and even some merchants promised that they can directly use the platform after paying The live broadcast is on the hot list of the day. The reporter found that the price of such services is very low, and even one yuan can buy 10,000 or 20,000 views of data. Such a favorable price obviously reduces the threshold of data traffic fraud.
As early as 2015, when a certain anchor was broadcasting the game, the system showed that the number of viewers exceeded 1.3 billion. "As a persistent illness in the business format, live data fraud has long become an open secret." Yan Huaizhi, director of the Institute of Computer Network Security Countermeasure Technology of Beijing Institute of Technology, said in an interview with the Science and Technology Daily that since the evolution, domestic data fraud has formed a complete and The huge black industry chain, from various e-commerce platforms, life service platforms, to various social media platforms, data fraud methods are numerous and ubiquitous, and the popular live broadcast platform is naturally no exception.
According to Yan Huaizhi, the principle of live data fraud is not complicated. Common counterfeiting methods include manual swiping of bills, and the use of software platforms and "software robot" accounts to swipe data. Either way, it is inseparable from the black or gray tissue. Some of these organizations employ “sweeping trade unions”, and each “union” can control hundreds or even tens of thousands of members, and counterfeit them by manually brushing bills; and by selling brushing software, as long as the account and content are imported on the software in advance , You can automatically appear comments and comments during the live broadcast, and even the frequency can be adjusted; another one is to directly use the guise of "platform business development" and use plug-in technology to grab the account of the registered user of the platform to like, comment, etc. Operation, can directly write the amount of data for the live broadcast platform, many netizens find themselves "buy praise" "buy comment", in fact, the account is stolen for data fraud.
The reporter previously learned that there is a cloud control system on the market that is said to be "80% of short video marketers are using". In the promotion, it said that it can "start the 400 vibrato with one click, like comments in batches, and quickly upload Popular fans attracted attention, "One person can manage hundreds of cloud mobile phones."
"To a certain extent, the development of modern information technology has obviously played a role in boosting data fraud, making the threshold and cost of fraud extremely low." Yan Huaizhi said.
Technology blessing fake traffic is traceable
"Everyone is buying data, and you can't beat others if you don't." An industry insider said.
Driven by various interests, the live broadcast volume is developing in batches and at scale. Driven by commercial interests, many live broadcast platforms not only do not combat such fraud and fraud, but also participate in it themselves.
When 1 person watches the live broadcast, the live broadcast platform will increase the number of online live broadcasts to 10 times in the background; when 10 people watch the live broadcast, the number of live broadcasts will increase by 20 times; and when 100 people watch the live broadcast, the live broadcast platform is very The number of people may have been set to tens or even hundreds of times the actual number of people currently.
In Yan Huaizhi's view, the driving force behind the spurious flow of tricks and the stubborn illness is a huge chain of interests. In the counterfeit chain, live broadcasters can attract eyeballs and forge personal commercial value with fake traffic; live broadcast platforms can attract more live broadcasters and audiences, and a large number of advertisers will follow; and live broadcast platform investments Companies can even use this as a gimmick to blow up the capital bubble. All the parties put on the emperor's new clothes and staged a show of mutual humor.
Can false data fool everyone? This is not the case.
"Since it is false data, there is a significant difference between the flow data generated naturally and the real one." Yan Huaizhi said, the brushing platform usually leaves traces of brushing, such as the number of readings and the number of comments obviously do not match. Can be easily seen.
However, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, the means of brushing the platform has also begun to upgrade. By analyzing the habits of netizens and even fitting real data curves, they construct a normal "brush volume model" to control the rhythm of brush volume. What's more, you can also use related technologies to artificially synthesize comment text or even speech.
Of course, identifying fake traffic can also be detected by constructing multi-dimensional models such as user portraits, but this method of detection is expensive and difficult to promote.
So, how does the third-party platform monitor the data?
According to Yan Huaizhi, both its own flow statistics and third-party flow statistics are inseparable from the flow monitoring. Third-party data agencies can use the statistical analysis software to monitor the traffic of the website through the server side of the website, or perform statistical analysis on the traffic link (such as a mobile network service provider).
"Third-party data can guarantee the authenticity of the traffic size to a certain extent." Yan Huaizhi said, but it is difficult for third-party monitoring agencies to make a clear judgment about whether the traffic itself is generated by the billing unless it is an obvious fraud.
Remediation of chaos requires a multi-pronged approach from all parties
The live-broadcasting bubble is getting bigger and bigger, how should these traffic fake gray industries be managed?
In fact, the law already expressly stipulates that the behavior of fictitious video clicks is an act of unfair competition regulated by Article 9 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
You Yunting, a senior partner and lawyer of Shanghai Dabang Law Firm, pointed out that from the perspective of legal liability, in the live broadcast of the goods, the party that buys false traffic first constitutes fraud to its brand and sponsor; secondly to other anchors on the platform The content provider is an act of unfair competition; at the same time, this act destroys the mechanism and ecology of the live broadcast platform and violates the platform regulations.
Some experts suggest that, since live broadcast delivery is different from the traditional online sales model, the involved entities and legal relationships are more complex and diverse, and even cross-identities and overlapping legal relationships exist. It is recommended that various regulatory agencies in the enforcement process, It is necessary to clarify the division of regulatory functions, and establish a collaborative mechanism to jointly weave the regulatory network system and create a safe and secure network consumption environment.
Yan Huaizhi believes that professional counterfeiting agencies usually use "business promotion" and other means to walk in the gray area of supervision. And many counterfeiting agencies use artificial intelligence technology to simulate real traffic, making it difficult for regulators to tell the truth. These false flows have made quick gains, and it seems that they have created a false illusion of prosperity in the short term, but it is the parties involved that will ultimately suffer.
In December 2019, the National Internet Information Office issued the "Regulations on the Ecological Governance of Network Information Contents", stating that users, producers and platforms of network information content services must not carry out traffic fraud. All parties have different responsibilities, especially the supervisory party, which should not only rely on industry self-discipline but to urge industry self-discipline.
"The most important prerequisite for solving traffic fraud is to establish and improve a fair, just, and safe cyberspace environment. This requires the comprehensive management of all spaces, all platforms, and all industry chains to achieve a seamless connection of online and offline supervision. The great crackdown on malicious traffic fraud black industry chain has created a truly healthy ecology and future for cyberspace and cyber economy." Yan Huaizhi emphasized.
Our reporter Fu Lili