Supervise "Tangya", the platform economy bids farewell to barbaric growth
A take-out delivery person picks up an online take-out order at a hot pot restaurant in Chengdu.
Xinhua News Agency
【Economy Interface】
In the past March, the platform economy intensively entered the public eye.
It's just that they appear more not as the "tools" we use in daily online shopping, ordering, and car-hailing, but as "being so-and-so".
Penalized objects, named objects, complained objects, and monitored objects-in early March, five community group buying companies were issued fines by market supervision departments for improper price behavior; CCTV's 3.15 party named online recruitment platform leaked user information ; The State Administration of Market Supervision released data that e-commerce platforms accounted for a relatively high proportion of consumer complaints and reports in 2020; the "Internet Transaction Supervision and Management Measures" issued on March 15 formulated a series of measures to regulate transaction behavior and compact the main responsibility of the platform.
At the ninth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee held on March 15, General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important speech and emphasized that my country’s platform economy is at a critical period. It is necessary to focus on the long-term, take into account the current situation, make up for shortcomings, strengthen weaknesses, and create Innovate the environment, resolve outstanding contradictions and problems, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy.
Standardizing healthy and sustainable development is the way for the platform economy to go in the future.
Just like the growth process of a child is always accompanied by pleasure and troubles, achievements and mistakes.
But compared with it, what is more important is how to guide its healthy growth, and the same is true for the platform economy that has grown step by step.
From "childhood" to "youth"
The scale is getting bigger and the problems are getting more and more
【data】
According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: in 2020, my country's Internet and related service companies above designated size will complete business revenue of 1,283.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. Internet platform service revenue grew steadily. In 2020, business revenue was 428.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%. Online sales methods such as live streaming and social group buying continue to be active, and the income of enterprises that mainly provide manufacturing and production logistics platform services continues to grow rapidly.
Online shopping, mobile phone ordering, car-hailing, grocery shopping, online recruitment, remote medical treatment, online education...In recent years, my country's platform economy has developed rapidly, which has increasingly penetrated into all aspects of people's food, clothing, housing and transportation, making life more convenient.
Its endless new business formats and new models have also played an important role in promoting high-quality economic development.
"The platform economy has grown in the past ten years and the scale of the industry has continued to rise. Large-scale platform companies have been cultivated in the fields of e-commerce, search engines, knowledge questions and answers, culture and entertainment, social media, and financial payments. The scale of netizens, daily active users, Indicators such as the total transaction volume are leading the world and showing a continuous growth trend. This is an important foundation for building a new competitive advantage for the country." Zhao Ping, vice president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Research Institute, told our reporter that the role of platforms in driving the real economy has become increasingly apparent. The online retail sales of physical goods based on the platform is close to a quarter of the total retail sales of consumer goods, and online service consumption is growing rapidly.
Online and offline integration has injected new growth momentum into the development of the real economy and created new growth points for the platform economy itself.
But at the same time, the platform economy of "willful" growth has also exposed many problems.
The same taxi-hailing software, the same departure and destination, the prices used by different people are very different. Such "big data kills" cases are common when buying air tickets, booking hotels, and ordering takeaways through the platform; live streaming products look very different. "Beautiful", the actual goods are not on the right board and even have quality problems; personal information is over-collected by software or willfully leaked; false advertisements are rampant, and the fake chain is "interlocked"... Various bad behaviors of the platform have seriously infringed consumers rights and interests.
In addition, the winner-takes-all rule also causes businesses operating on the platform to be forced by the platform to "choose one of two", and they are often unable to resist.
Even larger companies do not have much say when facing a huge platform.
Head platforms often rely on their capital advantages to get involved in multiple different areas and continue to expand horizontally, leading to issues such as monopoly, suppression of innovation and fair competition, and data security risks.
Shi Jianzhong, the vice president of China University of Political Science and Law, once made a metaphor in an interview with our reporter: more than ten years ago, my country’s Internet economy was still in the early stage of "childhood", and now it is beginning to enter the platform companies represented by " In the youth era, certain platform companies have grown into giant companies.
In the initial stage, the Internet economy needs encouragement, tolerance and guidance to support its innovative spirit and development opportunities, but after it grows, while continuing to provide support and guidance, it should also be allowed to assume corresponding obligations and responsibilities.
From a regulatory perspective, the platform economy, as a new economic form, has continuously bred new business models and new models such as "social e-commerce" and "live delivery of goods", in terms of participants, business structure, transaction process, and information dissemination methods. They are different from traditional online trading activities, and the supervision of these platforms is relatively lagging, which to a certain extent encourages the platform economy to "fly free" with a fluke mentality.
From barbaric growth to over-regulation
Standardized development can go further
【phenomenon】
From the beginning of last year’s Politburo meeting of the Communist Party of China, the idea of “strengthening anti-monopoly and preventing the disorderly expansion of capital” appeared for the first time. After that, the key anti-monopoly tasks of the Central Economic Work Conference mentioned platform companies many times; The Anti-Monopoly Guide in the Economic Field was released, and this year’s “Government Work Report” stated that “the state supports platform enterprises’ innovation and development, enhances international competitiveness, and at the same time regulates development in accordance with the law”, and all of them have released a clear signal: supervision has been “ Long teeth", the platform economy must speed up and bid farewell to barbaric growth.
In fact, the regulatory and restraint signals on the platform economy can be traced back: In August 2019, the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Standard and Healthy Development of the Platform Economy" issued by the General Office of the State Council proposed to promote the establishment of a sound platform that adapts to the characteristics of the platform economy. A new type of regulatory mechanism, focusing on creating a fair competitive market environment.
Before the arrival of "Double 11" last year, the intensive introduction of new regulatory regulations aroused widespread public concern.
The State Administration for Market Regulation successively issued the "Interim Regulations on Regulating Promotional Behaviors" and "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Online Live Marketing Activities". Subsequently, the Central Cyberspace Administration and the State Administration of Taxation convened 27 major Internet platform companies to conduct administrative guidance on regulating online economic order Meeting, and later released the "Guidelines for Anti-Monopoly in the Field of Platform Economy (Draft for Comment)."
On December 11, the Politburo meeting of the CPC Central Committee proposed for the first time "strengthening anti-monopoly and preventing the disorderly expansion of capital."
The platform economy ushered in a "combined punch" of strong supervision.
It is worth noting that the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions" (the "Measures"), which will be implemented on May 1 this year, will force criticized platforms to "choose one of two" and "live delivery" as operators. , Platforms and operators’ excessive collection of personal information and other issues have responded.
The Measures stipulate that platforms must not restrict operators from choosing to operate on multiple platforms by searching for rights down, removing products, restricting operations, blocking shops, and increasing service charges; require webcast service providers to conduct live videos of online trading activities It shall be kept for at least three years from the date of the end of the live broadcast; it is clear that online trading operators must obtain consumer consent item by item before collecting and using personal sensitive information, and shall not provide it to any third party without the authorization of the collector.
In Zhao Ping's view, the current regulatory measures introduced one after another are aimed at issues such as the abuse of market dominance that are more prominent in the current performance of the platform economy, in order to curb the disorderly expansion of capital.
At the same time, we will continue to improve the relevant regulations for the development of the platform economy, protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and related operators, promote the healthy development of the industry, and ensure fair competition.
Supervision is to promote the orderly, innovative and healthy development of the platform economy.
The ninth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee held on March 15 also made it clear that both development and regulation should be emphasized, the law of platform economic development should be grasped, the platform economic governance system should be established and improved, the rules should be clarified, the bottom line should be clarified, supervision should be strengthened, and order should be standardized. Coordinate development and security, domestic and international, promote fair competition, oppose monopoly, and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital.
"We must continue to take the decisive role of the market's allocation of resources as the goal, oppose monopoly, prevent the disorderly expansion of capital, and maintain a fair and competitive market order. We must adhere to the people-centered development tenet, and pay attention to the protection of consumer rights and personal privacy. Improve people's livelihood and well-being in the development of the platform economy." Zhao Ping said.
Zhang Xinhong, Chief Information Officer of the National Information Center, pointed out that it is necessary to enhance the understanding of the platform economy and strengthen research on the development law and growth mechanism of the new economy.
Adhere to the bottom line thinking, including the bottom line of security, that is, the bottom line of user data protection; the bottom line of consumer interests, that is, the platform must not infringe the interests of consumers and platform participants.
It is necessary to implement classified policies and coordinate supervision for various industries and various forms of platform economy.
Strengthen supervision during and after the event, innovate supervision methods, and use digital technology to supervise the digital economy.
From "rent collection platform" to innovation platform
The platform economy should achieve greater deeds
【Case】
Last year, an article "Takeaway Riders, Stuck in the System" that was reposted a lot, revealed that the platform uses "precise calculations" and rule design to allow customers to receive food delivery more efficiently, and the platform benefits more, but the food delivery brother There is less and less time to breathe.
In fact, not only the takeaway guys are "trapped in the system", but the merchants on the platform also feel this way.
"I have encountered the problem of'choose one out of two' on the food delivery platform. If a shop wants to use two competing platforms, the commission will increase from 16% to 21%." The owner of a dessert shop in Guangzhou once told the media.
How can the platform economy, which can better serve the real economy and allocate resources more efficiently, fall into the vicious circle of "rent collection platforms"?
The development of the platform economy is conducive to improving the efficiency of resource allocation in the whole society, promoting the accelerated evolution of technological and industrial reforms towards informatization, digitization, and intelligence, helping to connect all links of the national economic cycle, and also conducive to improving the intelligence of national governance , Globalization, individualization, and refinement level.
However, in the process of platform economic development, various business chaos are not uncommon.
Some platforms are keen to make quick money, and use means such as raising service rates to grab high profits from merchants, harming online merchants as well as consumer interests.
Some platforms are keen to take advantage of capital and traffic to seize the market through subsidy wars and disrupt the market price order with improper price behavior. However, after occupying the market, they are likely to raise prices significantly to obtain high monopoly profits and infringe on consumer rights.
Focusing on the "rent collection platform" and keen on subsidizing the melee, this is undoubtedly a waste of resources for the platform economy that can efficiently allocate resources through the network.
The platform economy should focus on a larger world, have higher pursuits, and achieve greater achievements.
In this regard, the ninth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee proposed to promote the platform economy to serve high-quality development and high-quality life, accelerate the use of industrial Internet platforms to transform and upgrade traditional industries, develop advanced manufacturing, and support consumer platform companies to tap market potential. Increase the supply of quality products and services.
It is necessary to strengthen key core technology research, support and guide platform companies to increase R&D investment, strengthen basic research, consolidate the foundation of the underlying technology, and support the innovation of small and medium-sized technology companies.
In fact, the high-quality development of the platform economy is promising.
From the QR code payment, which foreigners call one of China's four new inventions, to the health code and AI diagnosis technology that appeared in the new crown pneumonia epidemic, they are all vivid practices of platform economy in terms of innovation.
"This meeting put forward many good decision-making suggestions. Related policies must be implemented well. When implementing these policies, relevant departments must further emancipate their minds, increase innovation, and accelerate the development of the platform economy while ensuring that the platform economy does not cross the bottom line." Zhang Xinhong said.
Zhao Ping stated that it is necessary to be guided by high-quality development, give full play to the informatization, digitization, and intelligence of the platform economy, promote the circulation of production factors and the organic connection of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, and build a strong domestic Market, build a new competitive advantage for the country.
At the same time, it is necessary to introduce and implement relevant incentive policies to support and guide platform companies to increase R&D investment in order to enhance their core competitiveness.
Advantageous platform companies must give full play to the advantages of massive data and rich application scenarios, support small and medium-sized technology companies to innovate, promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, and enhance their driving role in the transformation and upgrading of the real economy.
(Reporter Chen Chen)