Regarding the case analysis of the "sales inheritance" of an e-commerce platform handled by the market supervision and law enforcement department of a city in Shandong, the author believes that some of the views are pioneering and cutting-edge, have strong exploration and reference significance, and are worth discussing.
1. What is "sales inheritance".
To put it simply, in order to quickly improve the trading opportunities of operators on its platform, platform A makes a fuss about the important reference index before consumers make a transaction - "sales figures". The specific link is as follows: platform A develops tools and promotes them, and encourages operators on the platform to copy and submit the sales figures of specific goods or services in their own stores on platform B, which is more mature in commercialization, to platform A;After being reviewed by platform A through technical means, the operator will present the corresponding goods or services of its own stores on the platform to the audience in the form of "'whole network sales' + numbers". Among them, the final "number" is the superposition of the operator's "sales volume of goods or services on other platforms + sales volume of goods or services corresponding to that platform". In addition, in order to encourage the enthusiasm of operators on the platform to participate in the activities, the platform will provide relevant support to the operators participating in the activities in terms of traffic recommendation, search ranking and other business aspects.
Second, the platform logic behind "sales inheritance".
In the Internet market economy, winning and capturing users and expanding market share is the focus and core of Internet platform competition. In order to achieve the above goals, the platform needs to invest a huge amount of manpower, material and financial resources to collect and precipitate data, and establish a fair and honest rule system model composed of elements such as algorithm recommendation, content production, rights and interests protection, and fair competition based on data precipitation. The construction and improvement of the system model is a long-term process, which is the basic path for the platform to bond users and enhance its core competitiveness. For late-mover platforms that have just started commercialization, without sufficient data, samples, and sufficient investment in human, financial and material resources, it is impossible to talk about building a system model. If the late-mover platform wants to achieve "corner overtaking" and seize market share and trading opportunities, it is necessary to "free ride" in the form of "small incision" for mature platforms. The logic behind the various new types of unfair competition cases handled by the market regulation authorities in recent years is the same. For example, using technical means to steal the background data of the platform, encouraging and supporting merchants to "move with one click" through illegal software, and collecting user information by improper means.
The "sales inheritance" case is also a "small incision" type of "free-riding" behavior carried out by the late-mover platform in order to quickly establish a commercial advantage. The entry point of "sales inheritance" is really small, and it is only aimed at sales figures. In order to avoid risks, the platform adopts the method of encouraging operators to participate independently, carry and copy themselves, and name it "whole network sales". Through the above means, the platform implicitly realizes data transplantation, and can stay out of the matter after an "accident". In addition to objective factors such as the large amount of data on other platforms, strict technical protection, inability to fully transport, and too much plagiarism, the author personally understands that there may be three purposes behind the behavior of "sales inheritance".
The first is to artificially create the appearance of commercial prosperity. If the operators on the platform can present a scene of attractive advertising content and soaring sales figures, the audience may perceive the platform as a high-quality online trading place with first-class quality control, prosperous business and vitality, and then increase the probability of visiting the store. If the above goals can be achieved, the probability of traffic conversion will increase, the probability of forming a win-win situation with enhanced platform audience adhesion and commercial market opening will increase, providing a good external environment for "corner overtaking".
The second is to use herd psychology to guide consumption Xi. Although sales volume data is a small indicator in the transaction summary, its connotation is not simple, and it is an important longitudinal reference index that affects consumption decisions. The sales volume figure not only reflects the transaction situation, goodwill and market recognition of specific goods or services in a certain period of time, but also allows operators to use the "herd effect" to potentially influence consumption decisions and bring greater transaction opportunities. Because of this, increasing sales figures is also one of the purposes of swiping orders, speculating on letters, traffic hijacking and other behaviors. Once consumers recognize operators in the "sales inheritance" scenario, it is possible to establish new consumption channels and consumption Xi to provide a good customer base for "corner overtaking".
The third is to grab data and build a database quickly. If the late-mover platform can achieve the first two goals, it can quickly build its own information precipitation database through sales data drainage, as far as possible through follow-up information such as transaction orders, consumer evaluations, and customer complaint feedback. Subsequently, through big data analysis, it provides important references in terms of accurate information push, formulation of first-class plans, selection of high-quality commodity merchants, analysis of competitive business strategies, etc., and provides good strategic support for "corner overtaking".
3. The behavioral attribute of "sales inheritance".
"Sales inheritance" is a typical "small incision" type of "corner overtaking" behavior in the market economy environment. It should be pointed out here that "small cut" style "corner overtaking" is not a pejorative term. If used properly, the main body of the market can quickly identify the difficulties, blockages, and pain points of development, quickly gather strength, and find solutions to form their own core competitiveness. However, once it is used improperly, without self-motivation and without permission, improper means of "copying homework" may involve acts of unfair competition. Regarding the "sales inheritance" involved in the case, the author has the following superficial views:
(1) "Sales inheritance" refers to the improper acquisition of the commercial value of sales data. The generation, acquisition, processing and use of data has always been one of the core competitive assets of all Internet platforms. From a macro point of view, in the Internet economy, whoever has large, large and complete data will have strong ability to analyze data, bond the audience and build the system, and its core competitiveness will be stronger, and the market recognition will be higher. The sales figures may seem inconspicuous, but their formation is not simple. It not only requires the efforts of operators, but also implies the online trading environment, strategy and atmosphere created by the platform, the support and assistance given to the operators on the platform, and the whole process of the platform determining the statistical interval, formulating data rules, eliminating invalid data, and upgrading technical means to track transactions. Behind the figures is the huge investment of the platform and the painstaking efforts of merchants to operate in good faith in accordance with the rules of the platform, which is the embodiment of joint efforts and has great commercial value. From a micro point of view, the historical sales figure of a certain product or service is used as a commercial element or appearance, which contains the goodwill of the operators and the platform within the platform. This kind of goodwill not only reflects the market recognition, but also reflects the consumer's recognition of the internal factors of the transaction such as the standardized selection of products and honest management. Similarly, merchants can also get more transaction opportunities if they continue to increase their sales numbers while complying with the rules. "Sales inheritance" seems to only involve the sales figures of some participating merchants, but in essence, the latecomer platform has taken the commercial value behind the sales figures without the permission of the original platform.
(2) "Sales inheritance" itself increases the cost of consumer choice. In order for consumers to become loyal users of the platform, in addition to factors such as whether the content of the platform is in line with the taste, whether the service is smooth or not, and whether the purchase experience is comfortable, the system model of the platform itself such as the construction of the integrity system and the consumer protection mechanism is also an important reference dimension. The recognition of the platform can be reflected in multi-dimensional indicators such as market share, the number of merchants settled, and user activity at the macro levelAt the micro level, it means that consumers do not need to worry about the follow-up problems of consumer behavior and do not need to pay too much choice cost. Specific to the merchant product level, when the author buys online, in addition to the brand, performance, ** evaluation and other elements of the product, the sales volume is also an important reference dimension, and the high sales figure is preferred when the conditions are the same. Returning to this case, empathy, as an ordinary consumer, seeing the statement "sales volume of the whole network" before seeing the number, it is likely that this is the total sales figure on the platform that is counted according to the corresponding rules, and it is the result of reliable screening and sales certification under the integrity system of the platform, and generally will not expand to think that the sales volume of the third-party platform is superimposed. Similarly, under the premise of poor information, inappropriate sales display may cause consumers to think that the platform's system model is high-quality, and the value of the platform and a certain product or service will be implicitly inflated. According to the above logic, it is obviously unreasonable to interpret the behavior of "sales inheritance" as the data translation that the merchant unilaterally decides to implement. It is very likely that its behavior violates consumers' right to know and the right to choose, and then misleads consumer behavior and increases the cost of consumers' choice.
(3) "Sales inheritance" is the "free-riding" behavior of the platform's integrity system. The integrity system is the foundation for the security of platform transactions, long-term survival and development, and recognition of the consumer market. In order to establish an integrity system that adapts to its own business format and has a high enough market recognition, it is necessary to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to accumulate, process and analyze massive information, which can provide accurate information matching, consumer decision-making reference, supply and demand balance and other services for both potential transaction parties, and constantly establish and improve various management guarantee mechanisms. With a mature and complete security system model, information transmission is accurate and timely. For example, a large amount of information is distorted and wrong, which will cause problems such as mismatch between supply and demand, increased friction, and increased transaction costs. The sales data is based on the results of precipitation and processing under the closed rules of the platform, reflecting the integrity of a certain set of mechanism system. The latecomer platform simply inherits and transplants the sales figures, and only targets the "wool" of a specific platform, which does not help its data precipitation and targeted construction and improvement of the integrity guarantee mechanism system. Without the core of the integrity system, forcibly plagiarizing the achievements of the integrity system, from the results point of view, it has no innovative behavior, and it does not help the development of the integrity system and the industry, which belongs to the new type of "unjust enrichment" of the "free ride" of the integrity system between platforms.
In addition, whether it is false advertising adjusted by the Advertising Law or false publicity adjusted by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, it not only contains false and untrue situations that are inconsistent with objective facts, but also includes misunderstandings caused by incomplete disclosure of information, and the Advertising Law also clearly stipulates that "the use of data, statistical materials, survey results, abstracts, quotations and other cited content in advertisements shall be truthful and accurate, and the source shall be indicated". The so-called "sales inheritance" operation of the e-commerce platform is obviously misleading, and it is obviously illegal to fail to clearly indicate the source of the sales data of "sales inheritance".
Fourth, what the market supervision department should do
The phenomenon of "sales inheritance" is a new type of unfair competition phenomenon caused by a development blockage in the context of the rapid development of the Internet economy and the strong demand for innovation and development. It is not uncommon for the market regulation authorities to have a "hedgehog-like" phenomenon in which upstream acts of unfair competition have given rise to multiple downstream advertising problems, or that multiple downstream acts of unfair competition have mapped out upstream advertising problems. In the face of new situations and new problems, it is worth thinking about what the market supervision department should do.
(1) It is necessary to fully protect the fruits of labor produced by the precipitation of data and information. Under the Internet economy, the market battle is ostensibly a traffic grab, but in essence it is a data information battle, whoever has the data information will master the password for traffic monetization, and can launch a series of products based on a sufficient number of samples to strive for market share. It is precisely because of the importance of data information precipitation that, on the one hand, the first-mover platform is willing to invest huge resources to strengthen the protection of data achievementsOn the other hand, latecomer platforms are also trying to obtain data information from other platforms to enrich their own databases. In the past two years, the underlying logic of new Internet unfair competition behaviors, such as the "business counselor" case and the "one-click moving" case investigated and dealt with by the market supervision department and decided by the court, all point to the commanding heights of data and information. In the face of this situation, the market supervision department should encourage and protect the market behavior of platforms to legally obtain data and compete fairly through their own efforts and construction, but should pay attention to the phenomenon of improper production and competition for data and information, and severely crack down.
(2) It is necessary to fully understand the behavioral logic of the appearance of new types of illegal conduct. With the continuous development of Internet business logic, the unfair competition of "small incisions" has become more complex and hidden. There may be more and more "small incisions" in the work, which actually requires our full attention and awareness. If the clues that seem to be "harmless to humans and animals" are not clearly recognized, they may not be able to grasp the behavioral logic behind the appearance, and they will not be able to accurately cut the knife, which will eventually lead to huge losses to the legitimate interests of the operator. Only by clearly understanding the true purpose and motive of the implementer can we make correct analysis and judgment and take prudent actions. The case of "sales inheritance" is a typical act of unfair competition with "small incisions" and "big goals", and if it is not paid attention to and stopped, a series of seemingly harmless "inheritance" behaviors such as "comment inheritance", "* inheritance" and "face sheet inheritance" may appear later, and then a more serious new type of unfair competition "corner overtaking" behavior will appear. It should be pointed out that in the future of the rapid development of the Internet economy, we may need to deal not only with a single illegal act, but also with new synthetic illegal acts that have derivative relationships between upstream and downstream but have different illegal natures. The final application of the legal provisions in the "sales inheritance" case puts forward a new idea for us to supervise and deal with such situations, through the extension and competition of the legal provisions, and the classification and disposal according to the upstream and downstream relationships, so as to achieve the purpose of both education and punishment and standardized management.
(3) It is necessary to pay full attention to the hidden consequences behind the innovative development model. As the Internet economy moves towards the deep water area, the demand for technology and development innovation on the platform is becoming more and more intense. To meet these needs, platforms will increasingly use "small cuts" to improve their competitive advantage. Among them, some of them belong to the self-innovation of the platform, which is beneficial to the development of the market, and the other part may seem to be "harmless to humans and animals", but in fact it is not conducive to market innovation and promotes the atmosphere of "cannibalism and fattening", which is harmful. For example, in the case of "sales inheritance", the platform encourages merchants to self-transplant the data in the third-party platform, and from a micro point of view, it is the individual's exercise of legitimate rights and interests in self-data. However, from a macro point of view, behind the "innocent" case, there is the grafting and confusion of the platform's integrity system. If the individual case is not used as a traction, the consequences of their actions are difficult to detect. If the regulatory authorities do not pay attention to these "small things" and let them develop, it is possible to cause irreparable losses to the entire integrity management system that has been painstakingly operated.
(4) It is necessary to fully consider the solutions to the difficulties of new problems. The "sales inheritance" case is a case worth learning and Xi discussing, in which the author sees that there are indeed many blockages and difficulties in the growth and development of the platform. From the perspective of development, when enterprises encounter new problems and new difficulties, the market supervision department also needs to guide enterprises to self-pressurize, strive to stimulate internal motivation, and solve problems with fair means. Allowing platforms and operators to use their brains and take shortcuts is not conducive to the development of the market economy, nor is it conducive to the formation of core competitiveness with their own characteristics through accumulation. In the long run, it can only promote the bad atmosphere of "two-skin face" and "nest horizontal", which will not help enterprises to truly go abroad and go to the world.
In addition, in the case of "sales inheritance", the issue of the boundaries of the rights and interests of the participating parties in the process of data generation, processing and presentation arose. In the author's opinion, in the absence of a clear boundary and conclusion on the ownership of data rights and interests, business ethics should be the criterion. The use of data rights and interests shall be reasonable and lawful, and shall not harm the legitimate rights and interests of relevant rights holders or third parties.
Author |Xie Xuyang, Market Supervision Bureau of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
Audit |Yu Jackie Chan Zhang Lijuan.
Edit |Zhao Jing.
Practice Xi Editing |Du Zongxi.
Produced by the New ** and Digital Publishing Department of China Industrial and Commercial Press.
From today, these new market supervision regulations will affect your life **What is an unfair price comparison?How to fundamentally solve the problem of "knowing fake and buying fake"?The Supreme People's Court Releases Typical Cases of Punitive Damages for Food Safety!"Point out" and "Check it out"!Shandong Province Food Safety "You Point Me Check - Work Together to Protect Food Safety" activity was launched today!Enlightenment of the "Inquiry (Investigation) Record" of the Market Regulation Department.
Regulatory EnforcementAnnual Report |Notification and Commitment System |Food |Quality |Consumer Rights Protection |Drugs |Cosmetics |Antitrust |Anti-Unfair Competition |Ad |Special Equipment |Inspection and testingLearn to Xi chargingYou ask me to answer |Typical Cases|One lesson a dayThink tank expertWei Junxin |Wang Difei|Liu Shuangzhou|He Maobin|Condy|Dong Xiaohui|Xie Xuyang|Jing Weidong|Jiang Shiping |Li JunProduct ActivitiesSemi-monthly subscription |Book Selection|Micro Classroom Integration**Integrated Information Service|Spot check treasure|"Three micro" selection and "five hundred" selection |Social Co-Governance ConferenceNew ** listWeChat|Weibo |Tik Tok |Headlines |Kuaishou |Consumer protectionSocial ** streamDirector|Law Enforcement Case Handling|You ask me to answer |Advertising Regulation |Food regulation.
NEW!The regulations since the establishment of the State Administration for Market Regulation are here (Order No. 1-82).
2024 Annual Issue of Market Supervision and Administration (Semi-monthly) (24 issues in total).