How to go to the norm after the hustle and bustle of Internet celebrities who have been running all the way
In the past few days, major e-commerce platforms have launched the "New Year's Day", and Li Dian, a Beijing citizen, is also busy "buying, buying and buying" in the live broadcast room, but she feels that she has become more rational recently. "Now I won't spend a lot of time squatting in the live broadcast room, but when I want to buy something, I will take a few minutes to go to the live broadcast room of the head anchor, browse the products of the day, buy if you need it, and immediately exit the live broadcast room if you don't. ." Li Dian has bought a lot of good and cheap things in the live broadcast room, and he has also encountered "things that are not as good as the anchors say" or even have quality problems. "But the overall feeling is that the live streaming industry has become more and more standardized recently."
On December 20, 2021, the Inspection Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau of Zhejiang Province notified that the online anchor Huang Wei (net name: Wei Ya) had been legally punished for taxation and administrative punishment, and the tax was recovered, late fees were imposed, and a total of 1.341 billion fines were imposed. Yuan. Subsequently, Wei Ya's various platform accounts were blocked. As soon as the news came out, there was an uproar in public opinion. People were surprised not only by the myth of wealth created by the Internet celebrity economy, but also by how much chaos there is still in the live broadcast delivery industry.
Indeed, this is not the first time the Internet celebrity anchor has "rolled over". "Shuijun" brushing orders, selling fake goods, evading taxes... Coexisted with the constantly refreshed transaction volume of the Internet celebrity economy are all kinds of chaos that have never stopped. In the past two years, with the introduction of various management measures and the strengthening of tax supervision, a clear signal has emerged—
The period when the Internet celebrity economy, such as live broadcast and delivery of goods, was running like a wild horse, has passed in a hustle and bustle. Only by regulating and developing in the development, and changing to a healthier way of growth, will the Internet celebrity economy have a long-term future.
Singing forward: The market size of live broadcast delivery last year was nearly 2 trillion yuan
"3, 2, 1! Up the link!" "Buy it", these familiar slogans were not popular more than two years ago.
In Li Dian's impression, I have heard the names of top anchors such as Li Jiaqi in about 2019, but I did not watch the live broadcast at that time.
"At that time, I didn't even know where to watch the live broadcast. After chatting with my friends, I found out that Taobao actually has an app for watching live broadcasts." Li Dian recalled that after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia in 2020, the time to go out became less. More time at home.
Slowly, she began to follow the head anchor to place an order for shopping.
Looking back at the development of e-commerce live broadcasts, with the influx of capital and the boost of the epidemic, the entire industry has made great strides in the past two or three years. Some media even use "rapid ripening" to describe the development of this industry.
"During the epidemic, many merchants' offline operations were hindered, and their inventory pressures were high. The sales method of live streaming has found a way out for stores with sales difficulties, and also met consumer demand. Active promotion in e-commerce platforms, shopping malls, etc. The rapid development of live-streaming and delivery of goods," said Pan Helin, member of the Information and Communication Economy Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and executive director of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.
According to the "2021 China Live E-commerce Industry Research Report" released by iResearch, by the end of 2020, my country's live e-commerce users will reach 388 million, accounting for nearly 40% of the total netizens, and nearly two-thirds of users have watched the live broadcast after watching the live broadcast. make a purchase.
According to the company's data, the number of new live broadcast companies registered in my country in 2020 will increase by 10 times compared with 2016.
The Internet celebrity economy such as e-commerce live broadcast has attracted a large number of practitioners to enter the market, and MCN institutions engaged in Internet celebrity brokerage have achieved a blowout growth from more than 150 in 2015 to more than 20,000 in 2020.
The report pointed out that nearly 1,000 live broadcast rooms with sales of over 100 million yuan will be born in 2020, and the market size of live broadcast delivery is expected to be close to 2 trillion yuan in 2021.
The super monetization ability of Internet celebrity traffic anchors has attracted many celebrities and entrepreneurs to enter the game, trying to get a piece of the pie.
Judging from the overall sales record, the live broadcast of "Out of the Circle" not only makes many new domestic brands known, opens up more sales channels for agricultural and sideline products, but also drives the rapid growth of online consumption.
The latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2021, the national online retail sales will increase by 14.1% over the previous year. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods will increase by 12%, and the average two-year growth rate will be 13.4%. The growth rate is significantly higher than offline consumption.
There is no doubt that the online celebrity economy, such as live broadcasts and goods, has promoted the development of the digital economy.
"Live streaming involves a wide range of commodities, and the live broadcast content and affordable discounts have stimulated the enthusiasm of consumers, contributed to the prosperity of my country's consumer market, and played an important role in promoting the development of domestic and trendy commodities. "Pan Helin said.
Zhao Ping, vice president of the Research Institute of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told reporters that, as an iterative model of traditional e-commerce, live streaming has accelerated the high growth of online consumption, and online interaction and comprehensive display of products are more convenient for consumers to understand and choose. Commodities are conducive to expanding the scale of consumption, creating more consumption growth points, and further exerting the role of consumption in driving economic growth.
Frequent chaos: exaggerated propaganda, selling fake goods, "water army" brushing and other problems emerge in an endless stream
Like any savage industry, the online celebrity-carrying industry is running fast and has constant problems, just like a gorgeous robe covered with lice, and behind the brilliance is "a piece of chicken feathers".
During the Double Eleven last year, the Consumer Protection Committee of Zhejiang Province conducted a consumption experience on the live streaming of 5 platforms Taobao, Pinduoduo, JD.com, Kuaishou, Douyin and 17 anchors.
It was found that 5 anchors such as Timor Little Crazy and Yunyun live broadcast room have exaggerated propaganda, use absolute advertising slogans, and price comparison with other live broadcast rooms. Non-standard problems; in the live broadcast rooms of Li Jiaqi and Baibaitu, 1 batch and 2 batches of product labels were found to be irregular.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Previously, the anchor Simba attracted much attention because of the "fake bird's nest" incident.
In addition to him, there are many anchors selling fake goods.
The live broadcast products of anchors such as Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi have been exposed from time to time due to incorrect shipments and quality problems. Consumers’ rights protection often encounters the phenomenon that the anchors do not act after the sale, and they kick the ball with the merchants.
From the perspective of price, during the Double Eleven last year, Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya and L'Oreal had disputes over pricing.
At that time, some consumers found that the price of products purchased in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room was higher than the price in L'Oreal's store. L'Oreal explained that it was due to the superimposition of Tmall's official cross-store coupons.
At that time, public opinion was quickly divided into two waves. Some people thought that L'Oreal had not achieved the maximum strength promised for the whole year, which was a sign of dishonesty. Others believed that the top anchors demanded the lowest price on the entire network by virtue of their almost monopoly status. It is unreasonable.
The entry "The world has been suffering from live broadcasts for a long time" immediately appeared on the hot search. "If you don't squat in the live broadcast rooms of these anchors, is it not worth buying low prices?" Some netizens asked such a question.
Some small and medium-sized businesses do not have much say in the face of well-known anchors. They often pay high slot fees and the actual sales in the live broadcast room are not as good as expected. Merchants "paid for a loneliness".
According to media reports, a company recently organized a live broadcast for poverty alleviation in cooperation with an Internet celebrity anchor to help sell agricultural products, etc. The transaction volume was about 450,000 yuan. .
Similar things are not uncommon.
"On the one hand, the falsification of influential indicators such as the inflated number of viewers and the water injection of sales data has formed an industrial chain. On the other hand, industry competition such as malicious swiping, fancy kicks, and false reports have also polluted the live broadcast ecosystem. "As early as after the Double Eleven in 2020, the China Consumers Association wrote in the report.
In Pan Helin's view, there are many problems in the development process of online celebrity live streaming.
For example, through the way of navy drainage, improper traffic attention; false propaganda, wrong products, and poor after-sales service; false pricing, merchants and anchors first mark up the price and then give discounts, consumers do not actually get benefits, Instead, it pays a lot of time costs; pit fees and commissions increase channel costs, which are either borne by suppliers or passed on to consumers; abandoning the lower limit for traffic, breaking the boundaries of content creation, and so on.
"These behaviors have disrupted the market economic order, affected the user experience, and violated consumer rights. In addition, with the emergence of the Matthew effect and the 28 phenomenon in the live broadcast delivery industry, the anchors with head traffic have further raised the threshold for live broadcast delivery. , the increased cost has put a certain pressure on the merchants.” This view of Pan and Lin is supported by figures: although the types of anchors are increasingly diversified, the Matthew effect of anchors bringing goods is prominent, and top anchors such as Li Jiaqi have attracted most of the traffic. .
According to research and estimates, the top 10 anchors with goods account for nearly 55.75% of the market share.
Zhao Ping said that these problems sounded the alarm for the development of my country's digital economy.
Although the development of the digital economy has broad prospects, anchors and enterprises must keep upright and innovate, jointly create a market order with fair competition and a consumption environment that reassures consumers, and promote the healthy development of the digital economy.
Supervision takes action: multiple departments tighten the "reins" to allow the industry to develop healthily
After Wei Ya was dealt with and punished for tax evasion, the tax authorities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places issued notices, requiring star artists and Internet anchors to check and pay taxes as soon as possible.
This isn't the first time regulators have made a move.
In the past two years, the management measures and professional norms for online marketing such as live streaming have gradually been implemented.
In November 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Interim Regulations on Regulating Promotional Behaviors", followed by the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Online Live Broadcast Marketing Activities" to strictly regulate online live broadcast marketing activities.
On March 15, 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions" to restrict online transactions such as live broadcasts from four aspects: online trading operators, online trading platform operators, supervision and management, and legal liabilities; in April, The seven departments jointly issued the "Administrative Measures for Online Live Broadcasting (for Trial Implementation)", which clarified the behavioral red line for practitioners of live broadcast marketing activities; Scope.
Undoubtedly, the regulatory authorities are tightening the "reins" of regulating the online celebrity economy such as live broadcasting.
When answering a reporter's question about the tax evasion case of Weiya, the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau's Inspection Bureau said that the platform economy is a new form of economic development, which has played a role in better meeting consumer needs, promoting the conversion of old and new kinetic energy, and promoting high-quality economic development. positive effects.
In the process of the rapid development of the platform economy, the tax violations of some network anchors have disrupted the order of tax collection and management and damaged the market environment for fair competition.
The tax department shall investigate and punish relevant online anchor tax violations in accordance with laws and regulations, which is conducive to the long-term, standardized and healthy development of the platform economy.
The State Administration of Taxation also stated that it resolutely supports the Hangzhou tax department to seriously handle the tax evasion case of Wei Ya in accordance with the law.
At the same time, tax authorities at all levels are required to strictly investigate and punish various tax evasion acts in accordance with the law, resolutely safeguard the authority of the national tax law, and promote social fairness and justice; The new economy and new business forms are regulated and developed in the process of development.
This statement of the tax department reflects the consistent attitude of various regulatory departments: we never deny the contribution of online celebrity anchors to promoting the development of the platform economy and the platform economy to my country's economic and social development.
But whether it is the live streaming industry or the platform economy, in order to develop healthily for a long time, it is necessary to bid farewell to chaos, and to regulate and develop in the process of development.
Zhao Ping believes that in order for Internet celebrities to bring goods to grow in a healthier way, the Internet celebrity economy such as live broadcast and goods must be brought into the legal development track, so that they can maintain the legal bottom line while developing rapidly, and legally and compliantly. Conduct business and innovation activities.
It is necessary to strengthen the compliance supervision of Internet celebrity economic entities and related behaviors, starting from all aspects of the Internet celebrity economic supply chain, from product production, online sales to after-sales service, must comply with the product quality and safety law, advertising law, anti-unfair competition Law, anti-monopoly law, consumer rights protection law and other relevant laws and regulations, maintain a fair competition market order, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
"As for the 'navy problem', we must find out and deal with it together, and consumers cannot be guided by 'fake traffic', so as not to undermine the fairness of market competition. Quality and after-sales issues require relevant departments to strengthen supervision, as well as consumer associations, etc. Organize actions to help consumers protect their rights. Regarding pit fees and commissions, industry organizations should issue proposals to limit the percentage of commissions and not increase the cost of merchants excessively. In response to tax evasion, the tax department must crack down on such illegal acts on the one hand On the other hand, it is necessary to build a normalized tax monitoring system. For the marketing behaviors dominated by traffic and well-known, the e-commerce platform must use algorithms to detect and deal with them in a timely manner. The company where the live e-commerce company is located must also cooperate with the anchors who bring the goods. education, and restrict the behavior of anchors." Pan and Lin suggested.
Gao Baohua, a researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it is necessary to strengthen the key management and compliance inspections of top live broadcast rooms, top anchors and accounts, and high-traffic or high-transaction live-streaming activities, and guide those engaged in Various subjects of online live broadcast marketing activities, strengthen industry self-discipline, and build a standardized live broadcast supply chain system from multiple dimensions such as commodity supply, consumer rights protection, and platform construction.
Pan Helin bluntly said that whether live e-commerce will ultimately benefit society depends on two points: First, whether live e-commerce has promoted commodity circulation and consumption.
Second, whether live e-commerce has reduced the cost of sales channels while maintaining compliant operations, so that both suppliers and consumers can benefit.
With the tightening of the regulatory "reins", we expect that the online celebrity delivery industry that has experienced shocks and adjustments can truly benefit more merchants and consumers, and can go more stably and for a longer time.
(Reporter Chen Chen of this newspaper)