Wu Zhiming, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
The 2024 National People's Congress and the National People's Congress are about to be held, The Paper (www.On March 2, Wu Zhiming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Democratic National Construction Association, planned to submit the "Proposal on Strengthening the Anti-monopoly Supervision of China's Major Super Platforms" to the General Assembly.
Wu Zhiming pointed out that in recent years, thanks to the rapid development of Internet technologies such as 5G technology, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, the Internet platform economy has flourished, giving birth to a number of large Internet platform companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Douyin, Meituan, Pinduoduo, JD.com, and Didi. These enterprises use network technology to efficiently connect bilateral users, form a strong market scale effect, facilitate purchase, reduce transaction costs, and inject new vitality into economic growth.
He said that after most of the leading platform companies gradually occupy a dominant position in the market competition, they will accelerate the concentration of market resources to themselves, resulting in the transition of the platform economy from diversified competition to a situation dominated by a few giants, and these giants have begun to abuse their dominant market position and formulate an unfair income distribution mechanism after mastering a large amount of data and market share. This not only leads to the continuous rise in the proportion of capital remuneration in the platform income, squeezes the living space of manufacturers, exacerbates the income gap between capital owners and ordinary workers, but also reduces the efficiency of the market economy, undermines fair competition, hinders scientific and technological innovation, and even poses a potential threat to economic security.
For example: 1. The platform charges high commissions. Platforms use advantageous positions such as capital, data, and traffic to implement unfair competition and even monopoly, causing the industry to fall into chaos and disorder, and adversely affecting the underlying employment and the real economy. For example, the high percentage of the platform's commission makes the settled enterprises and flexible employees lack bargaining power, and the individual income is seriously squeezed.
2. The platform charges high traffic fees and advertising fees. Some platforms take advantage of their dominant and monopoly positions to charge high traffic fees and advertising fees, resulting in small, medium and micro merchants being excluded from market competition because they cannot bear the cost. This not only reduces the overall innovation ability and service quality, but also harms the interests of consumers and the right to make shopping choices; At the same time, high advertising and traffic fees have exacerbated the digital divide, and many merchants are unable to make full use of platform resources.
Third, the platform approach is easy to form an oligopoly. Internet companies are characterized by a "winner-takes-all" characteristic, expanding into oligopolies through financial means, preventing other small and medium-sized enterprises from entering the industry to compete. These oligopolistic enterprises not only hinder fair competition and curb market vitality, but also may form a new type of "too big to fail" company through capital expansion, which brings potential risks to social and economic operations. In addition, some super platforms that are directly or indirectly controlled or deeply involved by foreign capital are not only divided by overseas with high returns, but also may have a serious impact on the economic security of the country.
To this end, Wu Zhiming put forward three suggestions: 1. Formulate a fair profit distribution policy. Strengthen the regulation of internet platforms, guide platforms to establish fair profit distribution policies, and ensure that the interests of all parties are treated equally. Improve the transparency and fairness of distribution. Reasonably adjust commissions, traffic fees, advertising fees and other charging standards, and give back part of the revenue to merchants and consumers.
2. Establish and complete mechanisms for restraining platform power. Strengthen the anti-monopoly supervision of the platform economy, and change from post-event supervision to ex-ante and ex-ante supervision. Carry out key supervision and risk prevention for leading platform enterprises and Internet celebrities, and effectively implement compliance operations and mergers and acquisitions. Strengthen the complaint handling mechanism of the supervisory body to protect the rights and interests of small, medium and micro businesses and consumers from being infringed upon.
3. Enhance anti-unfair competition and anti-monopoly law enforcement capabilities. Establish and improve the "double anti" law enforcement system and cooperation mechanism to form a joint force in law enforcement. Strengthen the construction of the "double anti" talent team and the level of comprehensive ability. Encourage colleges and universities to set up "double anti" related majors to train more professionals for industry management.
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