"Sharing Membership": watch videos as low as 2 yuan, rent out accounts to generate agency business

　　"XX members, who has it?" When sharing video members becomes a way to save money, "paid sharing" has formed a black and gray industry chain.

　　"Sell VIP members of major audio-visual platforms, both direct charging account and sharing account, and the lowest price can be half of the official price." A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics found that on some agency platforms, members who download videos, online disks, and download apps can enjoy low prices. For rent and sale, the lowest price is 2 yuan/5-7 days.

In addition, shared members also have a variety of options such as monthly subscription, 3-month subscription, and year subscription. Among them, Mango TV monthly membership is as low as 4.85 yuan.

　　The Shell Finance reporter noticed that these "shared accounts" only need account passwords to log in.

However, the user experience is not good. During the login period, you will be offline, or you will be prompted to verify your mobile phone number to log in from another place.

It is worth mentioning that, for video platforms that require a verification code to log in, merchants have already had a way to deal with it. Buying a "shared account" also provides a verification code receiving platform.

　　In this regard, Zhao Hu, a partner of Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, told the Shell Finance reporter that there is no legal prohibition on users renting out their own video platforms or accounts on other platforms without authorization, but when users register, they will operate with the APP. There is a contract agreement.

"If there is an app that specializes in renting out corresponding video website accounts, it may be sued by the video website, because this destroys the business model of the video website and infringes on its interests, which is unfair competition."

Monthly membership as low as 3.45 yuan, verification code login

　　"We mainly sell direct recharge cards for members, but if you want to share member accounts, we also have them here, including Youku, iQiyi, Mango TV, Sohu, and LeTV, all of which are rented out at low prices." A reporter from Shell Finance searched and found that a Merchants claim to be able to lease membership accounts.

　　A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics can see from the news released by this merchant named Xiao Zhou that most of the people who buy shared membership accounts through it are students and users who only want to watch specific programs or a single TV series.

　　"If you want a monthly membership, iQiyi is 7.65 yuan, Mango TV is 4.85 yuan, Youku and Sohu Video are 4.75 yuan, and LeTV is 3.45 yuan." Xiao Zhou told the Shell Finance reporter that different video platforms VIP can choose 5 to 7 Day number, 3 month number and year number.

"If you think it's too expensive, you can experience it for 5 to 7 days at a minimum price of 2 yuan."

　　These low-single-digit shared membership accounts are extremely tempting.

In contrast, Youku's continuous monthly subscription VIP membership is 12 yuan/month for the first month, and 25 yuan/month for subsequent months.

This also means that the lease sharing membership account is only 40% of the recharge price for the first month and 20% of the monthly membership price.

　　From January 5th to 8th, the Shell Finance reporter rented a video sharing member account for the purpose of experience. Although the login methods of different video VIP members are different, most of them can use the account password (mostly the user account is an email address).

　　After the reporter paid to obtain the account password, the merchant immediately sent a reminder, "Only one device can be used to log in, whichever device you log in for the first time, you can use whichever device you use, you cannot log in with another device, sharing is prohibited, and multiple logins are prohibited. Multiple logins are 100% unstable. ".

　　The Shell Finance reporter found in the experience that the user experience of renting an account to watch videos is not good.

The reporter tried to log in as a member of Youku. For the first time, he could log in by entering the email account password, but after a few hours, he found that he had been disconnected.

In the meantime, the reporter quit the Youku APP, and when it was reopened, it was prompted that "too many accounts are logged into the device at the same time", and it was necessary to log in again.

　　When the reporter tried to become a member of Mango TV, when logging in, the page frequently popped up warnings about logging in from other places, requiring a mobile phone number verification code.

In this regard, the merchant said that if there is a verification code, just contact him.

After that, it sent a verification code receiving platform to the reporter, and the reporter entered the mobile phone number provided by the other party to query and receive the corresponding verification code through the "code receiving platform".

　　People engaged in anti-fraud business told the Shell Finance reporter that because of bypassing the real-name system authentication, the "code access platform" is actually widely used in the black and gray industry.

　　It is worth noting that among the various video sharing members, Xiao Zhou said that Tencent Video has no way to rent out at present. The reason may be that Tencent Video is restricted by QQ or WeChat account login to avoid account sharing problems.

Derivative shared membership business: 48 yuan to join, can act as an agent for renting out major film and television accounts

　　A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics found that behind the sharing members, an "agency platform" that specializes in renting out various software accounts has been derived.

　　An "agent platform" claims that the agency fee of 48 yuan can obtain the account number platform of major film and television accounts. On the platform, the account numbers and passwords of various shared accounts can be obtained at a low price, and the realization of film and television, music, online disk, takeaway coupons, listening Direct charging, sharing and activation codes of various products such as books.

After joining the agency, "you can sell it on second-hand websites or Moments, or you can collect agency fees yourself, and the income is considerable." "The platform is permanently valid without any restrictions."

　　And an agent also posted a screenshot of the daily salary of nearly 200 yuan in the circle of friends.

　　A reporter from Shell Finance logged on to this agency platform and found that the types of products it operates are more abundant, but most of them are direct recharge, that is, the membership fee is directly recharged into the personal account.

A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics browsed this agency website and found that it is actually a "card-issuing platform" for member accounts. The video accounts involved mainly include five categories: video, music audiobooks, knowledge education office, life services, and Tencent value-added services.

　　The shared account business of this proxy website involves shared membership accounts for mobile APPs, TVs, and tablets.

Among them, the price of Bilibili TV membership monthly is 9.25 yuan, and the 5-7 day Kumeow TV membership is priced at 2.85 yuan.

The reporter noticed that when purchasing, the website also specifically reminded that "only one device can be fixed for use, and if you find that you sell more, all your after-sales problems will not be dealt with."

　　In addition to shared member accounts for various videos, this agency platform also has VIP members for Zuoyebang, Xunlei, WPS, Baidu Netdisk, Netease Cloud Music, etc. The monthly membership price ranges from 3.35 yuan to 6.85 yuan.

　　In addition, a reporter from Shell Finance and Economics found that there are currently platforms that provide the service of "VIP permanent membership of the whole network film and television". You can watch movies from all video APPs.

　　Industry insiders said that this is another form of shared membership, which is suspected of copyright infringement.

　　Since last year, strengthening account management has become an industry consensus on video platforms.

Domestic long-form video platforms such as iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video are constantly updating user agreements to increase the crackdown on account sharing.

A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics found that the user agreement of most video apps clearly stipulates that "users shall not transfer, rent, lend or share their accounts for use by others".

　　It is understood that Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, etc. currently have different regulations on multiple devices logging in with the same account. The Youku VIP agreement stipulates that a user account can log in at most 3 devices at the same time (1 App on the mobile phone, 1 App on the Pad, 3 TV terminals, 1 computer client terminal, 1 web terminal terminal, 1 vehicle terminal terminal, and 1 other terminal terminal); iQIYI allows up to 5 devices to log in for the same VIP account (2 mobile terminal Apps, Pad terminal App 1 1, 1 on the computer, and 1 on the webpage), the same iQIYI VIP account can only be viewed on 2 devices at the same time; the Tencent Video VIP membership service agreement indicates that it can be viewed on mobile phones, computers, tablets, smart hardware ( except the TV terminal).

15 yuan Sam members can also share, account leasing is suspected of

　　A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics conducted random interviews and learned that many people have the experience of sharing membership accounts with relatives and friends.

At present, offline members can also realize "paid sharing".

　　A customer service member who sells Sam's physical store memberships told the Shell Finance reporter that they can buy other people's membership cards at the price of 15 yuan twice and 24 yuan for a whole year. Refund by use, not by bag."

　　However, the reporter found through experience that to share this membership card, you need to download the "cottage version" of the Sam's Club APP, and you need to wear a mask to avoid the identity verification of the clerk when using it offline, and you cannot check out through the self-service machine, otherwise it will be blocked due to facial recognition. Checkout failed due to pass.

　　On January 10, the reporter called Sam's official customer service number, and the other party said that consumers cannot take other people's membership cards to offline consumption alone.

　　A judge in charge of hearing intellectual property cases told the Shell Finance reporter that the right to use a virtual account is similar to leasing, and subleasing for profit is definitely prohibited.

In practice, the cost of rights protection for video sites is indeed relatively high.

As for private account sharing behavior, if the member account is shared by family members or friends, which does not generate profit, it should not be regulated or (consequences) should be very slight.

　　Another intellectual property court judge told the Shell Finance reporter that the main legal provisions that generally restrict the renting of member accounts of video websites are Article 12 or Article 2 of the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law".

However, it is difficult to stop individual private behaviors, and video sites often take some technical measures to restrict them.

　　Zhao Hu told the Shell Finance reporter that there is no legal prohibition on users renting out their own video platforms or accounts on other platforms without authorization, "That is to say, at the legal level, neither users can rent out nor say Users cannot rent out. However, when users register, there is a contract agreement, that is, the electronic contract between each of us and these APP operators. Most of the contracts state that renting is prohibited. If users rent out, they can deal with the agreement."

　　In Zhao Hu’s view, if there is an app that specializes in renting out the account of the corresponding video website, it may be sued by the video website, “because this destroys the business model of the video website and infringes its interests, it is unfair competition. It’s a whole other level than that.”

　　A reporter from Shell Finance and Economics browsed the existing cases and saw that a platform for providing account leasing has been fined one million yuan.

In the 2020 case of "U Number Rent" sharing Tencent Video member accounts, and the 2021 judgment and 2022 judgment of the blade company's "rental play" platform sharing iQiyi member account cases, the court mentioned that " The accused behavior violated the principle of good faith and business ethics”, and was finally sentenced according to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

　　"A website that normally operates genuine video resources must bear high copyright royalties, server costs for video storage, bandwidth costs, etc., and other cost inputs such as publicity and promotion. In order to recover costs and obtain benefits, making Operators have gradually shifted from the mode of providing free video services plus advertisements to the mode of paid video services. Only by providing more diversified video playback methods can operators continue to meet the different needs of users and continuously improve the viewing experience of users. In order to enhance the stickiness of users, so as to obtain more competitive advantages.” Regarding the leasing behavior of video member accounts, the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing pointed out in the 2020 judgment document.

　　The People's Court of Haidian District, Beijing stated that the payment video model generally includes two types of single-chip payment and member payment. Operators formulate specific charging standards and membership rules based on costs and competition strategies, and use technical means to clarify the scope of use of member accounts. Restricted, because the target of the paid service model is network users, not other operators that provide Internet video services, so it is limited to the personal use of members, and the specific use quantity is usually controlled within the scope of the members themselves and a few people around them. It is prohibited to be used by others for profit.

The above-mentioned competitive resources and competitive advantages obtained by the operator through honest operation shall not be improperly used or destroyed by others.