Original title: The original sin of mutual gold from Luo Min to Hu Jun never disappeared
On the last day of July, the public opinion caused by Internet finance has not dissipated.
Hu Jun was at the cusp of the storm, and was shouted by investors to ask him to stand up and pay back the money.
Topics such as "Hu Jun" and "Wukong Financial Spokesperson Hu Jun's Weibo Exploded" remain very popular.
Before Hu Jun, Qudian and its founder Luo Min, a US-listed company that entered the field of prepared dishes with a high profile, also caused uproar because they started in the Internet financial business.
The public figures who cooperated with Luo Min in the live broadcast successively announced the termination of their contracts and apologized to the public.
The live broadcast of Qudian originally planned for July 30 was also announced to be suspended.
In-depth study of the reasons behind the two public opinion incidents is the awakening of the public's awareness of corporate ethics, the improvement of the responsibility requirements for public figures, and the original sin that cannot be washed away by Internet finance.
Hu Jun is on the hot search again
Hu Jun was once again on the Weibo hot search list because of Wukong Finance.
On July 31, "Hu Jun's endorsement" ranked 10th on the hot topic of Sina Weibo's entertainment section, with more than 360,000 topics.
Prior to this, related entries such as "Hu Jun" and "Wukong Financial Spokesperson Hu Jun's Weibo was maxed out" appeared in the hot search.
Back in 2014, Internet finance as an emerging concept attracted many participants, and P2P platforms also sprung up.
In September of the same year, Wukong Wealth Management, a P2P product of 9F Group, was officially launched. The main operating company of the platform is Beijing 9F Puhui Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "9F Puhui"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of 9F Digital Group. company.
According to the previous publicity information of Wukong Finance, the annualized return rate of Wukong Finance in the initial stage of the launch is concentrated in the range of 4%-10%.
On the first day of the platform's launch, the transaction volume exceeded 1 million yuan, and the number of users exceeded 10,000 in three days.
Talking about the incident of Hu Jun's endorsement of 9F Group, many practitioners said that "there are still impressions".
Li Ran (pseudonym), a reader who has been deeply involved in the Internet finance industry for many years, recalled to a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that in September 2018, 9F Group official announced Hu Jun as the endorsement and became the company's chief experience officer.
There have also been celebrity endorsements for P2P before, and the industry's more views on this are accustomed to it.
"But compared to the time when other platforms choose celebrities as their spokespersons, Hu Jun is a bit passive. When Hu Jun became the spokesperson of 9F Group, the deadline for online loan rectification originally scheduled for June 2018 has been postponed, and P2P exists. Problems have gradually emerged, and many platforms have even run away. Only the top platforms are left to explore the transformation, while waiting for the supervision to speak, seeking the possibility of filing." Li Ran added.
In fact, Hu Jun served as the spokesperson of 9F Group, and there are still traces on the Internet to this day.
In some of the publicity manuscripts, it is clearly mentioned that Hu Jun's image of a powerful and tough guy on the screen is in perfect harmony with the "responsible and reliable" concept of the powerful group advocated by 9F Group.
At the same time, Wukong Wealth Management, the star brand of 9F Group, is trusted by users, which is also an important reason why Hu Jun chose to serve as Chief Experience Officer of Wukong Wealth Management Platform.
But just two years later, 9F Group was overdue.
The business information disclosed on the official website of Jiufu Pratt & Whitney also came to an abrupt end in July 2020.
Data shows that as of July 31, 2020, 9F’s inclusive loan balance was 31.9 billion yuan, and the number of lenders exceeded 340,000.
To this day, the image of Hu Jun's endorsement for the 9F Group is still circulating on the Internet, and the words "repay the money" often appear in the comment area of his own Weibo.
Recently, with Hu Jun being selected as the best male supporting candidate for the Hundred Flowers Award, this incident has fermented again, and Hu Jun finally missed the award.
"The Hundred Flowers Award is a public review, which can better reflect the audience's preferences. Whether Hu Jun's failure to be selected is related to his identity as a spokesperson for mutual gold, there is no accurate reply. But it is clear that Hu Jun has been labeled as mutual gold. On the 'Star Way', more viewers will make judgments based on this content." Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, pointed out.
Regarding the cooperation between 9F Group and Hu Jun, the current progress and arrangement of payment collection and other issues, on July 31, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily also learned about 9F Group, but as of press time, no reply has been received from the other party.
Qudian postpones live broadcast
The Internet still has memories, not only in Hu Jun.
And Hu Jun is not the only star who has been condemned for linking to Internet financial platforms.
"Sorry, it was originally planned to start at 13:00 today, but it was postponed for some reasons, and I couldn't inform you in time, which delayed everyone's time. I'm here to say sorry to the friends who are waiting, thank you for your support, and we will work hard. Do a good job and get through the current difficult time." This is the message posted by the owner of Douyin account Qudian Luo on July 30 in the fan group.
For this live broadcast to be suspended, the industry has already expected.
The "current difficult moment" mentioned in the above notice is also generally considered to be the severe public opinion environment that Qudian is currently facing.
After the huge live broadcast on July 17, Qudian and Luo Min ushered in overwhelming doubts.
From campus loans to pre-made dishes, from students to Bao Ma, Qudian's family history of lending has been "skinned" by turns, and it has also been accused of targeting Bao Ma's lending to join in and continue to harvest.
Qudian’s new business of pre-made dishes has also been boycotted by users.
"Today's food is the blood of yesterday's students." "Wash your hands, and continue to change another batch to cut"... Under various criticisms, the account of the owner of Qudian Luo quickly lost fans, and the comment area was also "attacked and occupied" by netizens was closed later.
The discussion about the campus loan of Qudian also spread to the Weibo comment area of Fu Seoul and Jia Nailiang.
The two public figures who appeared in the live broadcast room of the owner of Qudian Luo as partners made public apologies one after another under pressure.
On July 26, Fu Seoul and Jia Nailiang explained their cooperation with Qudian through their personal Weibo accounts, and both expressed their lack of understanding of the brand's predecessor.
During the turmoil, Qudian and Luo Min never responded positively.
But the postponed live broadcast still faintly conveyed the signal that Qudian was influenced by public opinion.
For Qudian, how to deal with the indelible mutual gold brand has always been a major problem in the company's transformation.
Regarding the specific reasons for the postponement of the live broadcast of Qudian, how to treat the relevant statements of Fu Seoul and Jia Nailiang, and how to deal with the company's public opinion news related to the loan business, on July 31, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily also sent an interview letter to Qudian. , but has not received a reply from the other party as of press time.
Su Xiaorui, a senior analyst in the financial industry of Analysys, pointed out that Qudian was boycotted by users, which further forced its co-stars to speak out. Traffic platform promotion.
In Pan Helin's view, Qudian cannot develop new business smoothly due to past business, which is a good phenomenon for the market.
The above two public opinion incidents both show that the public has higher requirements for corporate ethics, and they are more willing to express their dissatisfaction with companies with bad ethics, which will objectively promote the progress of corporate ethics and urge companies to conduct business more prudently.
Financial business endorsements should be more cautious
In the comment area related to the Hu Jun and 9Fu incident, some users asked if there are fans who really choose 9F and buy related financial products because of Hu Jun's endorsement?
In response, some users responded that among the same unknown platforms, they would be more inclined to choose agencies with celebrity endorsements.
According to incomplete statistics from reporters from Beijing Business Daily, since 2014, a number of public figures, including Huang Xiaoming, Fan Bingbing, Zhang Tielin, Zhao Yazhi, Lang Lang, Tang Yan, Wang Baoqiang, Tang Guoqiang, Dong Chengpeng, Wang Han, etc., have all been endorsed or promoted by P2P platforms. into the storm of public opinion.
Yu Baicheng, Dean of the Zero One Research Institute, pointed out that celebrity endorsements have become an important means of marketing for companies. When the online lending market was hot in the past few years, celebrity endorsement promotions were also common, and the top online lending platforms basically have them. Celebrity spokesperson, and the endorsement fee is not cheap.
In January 2021, the Financial Dispute Resolution Center of Chaoyang District, Beijing issued an announcement saying that in order to seek illegitimate interests, online lending institutions hired well-known entertainers and public figures as advertising spokespersons, and used their influence to attract investors to buy illegal financial products.
The above-mentioned advertising spokespersons failed to fulfill their reasonable review obligations, made false propaganda, were at fault for the occurrence and expansion of the damage results, and took unshirkable responsibility.
And further request the advertising spokespersons who have been or are still involved in P2P online lending advertisements to contact the mediation center as soon as possible to explain the relevant issues.
Su Xiaorui said that being asked to pay back money after a celebrity endorses a wealth management platform can be regarded as an important component of the platform’s recovery of stolen goods and damages. Morally speaking, recovering the endorsement fee from a celebrity can recover a large amount of loss, and can partially compensate for the loss for investors. .
From a practical point of view, there are many difficulties in identifying such activities, such as a long time span. In addition, according to the old advertising law and other laws and regulations, how to identify false advertisements for such activities and identify the "subjective intention" of the spokesperson is doubtful.
Judging from past cases, the effect of recovery is not significant.
"The Internet has a magnifying effect. It is not uncommon for celebrity endorsements to have problems with the companies or products they endorse, and it is not uncommon for 'endorsement to overturn' incidents, which have also had a lot of negative impact on celebrities," Yu Baicheng said. At the same time, the Internet It is a public opinion field. For celebrities, in addition to reviewing the compliance and authenticity of the endorsed brands and content according to the law, they also need to do a good job of matching the style and reputation of the endorsed brands with themselves.
Yu Baicheng also added that for brand owners, it is also necessary to be cautious when choosing celebrity endorsements, and to understand the personal style of celebrities. In professional fields such as finance, it is best to introduce spokespersons who understand the company and products; for consumers. In other words, we must look at endorsements objectively, and don’t blindly trust products just because of celebrity endorsements. Endorsements are just a marketing behavior that expands influence.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Liao Meng
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