Can paying members lose their high-quality services (first-line survey (the new observation of the Internet continued))
Core reading
In recent years, various Internet platforms such as video, take-away, and network disk have launched member products. There are more and more members, but all kinds of "routines" follow one after another-speed limit is imposed without membership, and advertisements are still kept after membership … This makes many users call "having so many members, you still can’t enjoy the carefree service". What are the chaos in the current network service member market? What are the deep-seated reasons behind it? The reporter launched an investigation into this.
Members’ routines are deep, and users are hard to parry.
There are exclusive advertisements for members, even members have less preferential treatment than non-members, and svip has eroded the normal welfare of standard members.
Membership, for what? Almost all users have the same answer: for better service.
This "better", the members of the video website want to go to advertisements, member film libraries and high-definition movies; Network disk members pursue high-speed, lossless and private uploading and downloading; Music APP members go for more good songs … but in reality, members often encounter the situation that the service is "discounted".
"I opened a Tencent video member, and I thought I could avoid advertising. As a result, there are still advertisements, which is really irritating." Zhu Qianling, a white-collar worker who works in a foreign company in Shenzhen, is a fan of online drama. She wanted to be "clean and refreshing" after becoming a member, but the result failed.
According to the reporter’s investigation, under the membership system of online video service providers, there are many forms of advertising "variants", which makes people hard to prevent: Iqiyi video will have more than 10 seconds of "member recommendation" before playing, and some Sohu videos cannot block advertisements because of copyright issues …
The same problem exists in the takeaway platform. Under the constantly revised rules, there are even strange things that it is more expensive to be a member.
Some netizens in Guangzhou broke the news on the Internet. In the same store, the same order, the unit price of dishes, online discounts, etc. are all the same. The difference is that the original price of the member delivery fee is 8 yuan, and after enjoying the 50% discount, the delivery fee becomes 4 yuan, and the red envelope deduction is only 3.9 yuan; Although the distribution fee for non-members is 5 yuan, the red envelope deduction is 6 yuan. In contrast, members pay more than non-members by 1.1 yuan.
Wen Hao, a Beijing citizen, has also been cheated by the randomly changing membership rules: in September last year, he opened a member when he was "hungry". At this time, the membership rule is: no matter how much money he spends, users will give 5 yuan a red envelope without threshold for every five orders they complete; However, after a period of time, he found that the membership rule was changed to that the order must be full in 20 yuan before sending the 1 yuan Prize.
A similar situation also occurred in the network cloud disk. Members have different levels, and the introduction of high-level members has eroded the product functions that originally belonged to ordinary users or low-level members.
Take Baidu’s network disk as an example. Members are divided into standard members and svip. The former has an annual fee of 96 yuan, while the latter has an annual fee of 269 yuan. Correspondingly, the space capacity and download speed of the two different members are quite different. Among them, the most important difference is that svip has the privilege of speeding up, while standard members do not. This is exactly the problem: many experienced users of network disk said that standard members also had the right to accelerate in the past, but only after the launch of svip. Many network disk users said that "the so-called member welfare is actually reducing the user rights of non-members and low-ranking members in various forms."
The membership system has gone bad, and the merchants have broken their promises frequently.
The essence of membership system is contractual relationship, and the violation of contract by merchants is harmful to consumers’ rights and interests.
What is the legal relationship behind the word "member"?
Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that the act of users obtaining membership is a paid service, that is, consumers only enjoy the corresponding benefits after paying a certain fee. Therefore, there is a contractual relationship between members and operators, that is, a contractual relationship, which is a civil relationship with two services paid, equality and voluntariness. This means that the marketing model of membership system should follow the principles of mutual benefit and equal value and compensation.
"At the moment, some Internet membership systems have gone bad. To put it bluntly, the card issuer has broken a promise." Liu Junhai told reporters.
Can the confusion of members be explained simply by "businessmen seeking profits"?
According to Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, there are complex market and economic factors behind the "membership routine": the Internet economy model of "free+value-added services" has emerged, and the Internet has developed to the stage of free opening to the general public, but the value-added services are charged, and the expression mode is membership. The amount of payment determines the level of members such as diamonds, gold and supreme, and the benefits they can enjoy are also different.
On the criticized issue of "watching advertisements", Zhu Wei pointed out that to some extent, it is an obligation for ordinary users to watch advertisements. The huge user base has brought massive traffic to the platform, and "advertising privilege" means that members directly spend money to buy out this "obligation".
What rights and interests of consumers have been infringed by the distortion of membership system?
In Liu Junhai’s view, whether it is "the acceleration of members is actually equal to the speed limit of non-members" or "the take-away rules are changed at will, and the final interpretation right belongs to the merchants", they are all real infringements, which violate the contract law and the consumer protection law, and even are suspected of violating the anti-monopoly competition law, which is a disregard for the spirit of the contract.
Regulating the membership system, supervision is indispensable.
Consumers have the right to hold service providers liable for breach of contract, and relevant departments should strengthen supervision.
Faced with the "barbaric growth" of the membership market, experts believe that the key lies in clarifying the boundaries of powers and responsibilities and strengthening management.
"Supervision must be strengthened." Liu Junhai said that for all kinds of member marketing practices of water injection and discount, the supervision should be stable and accurate, and those who take the lead will be accurately attacked; When necessary, relevant departments can jointly issue a document, issue special documents to clean up and rectify the dishonesty of membership system, and carry out special law enforcement actions throughout the country.
Liuyong, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Law, Hebei Academy of Social Sciences, also said that the channels for safeguarding rights should be unblocked, the analysis and application of big data on complaints and reports should be strengthened, the joint punishment of credit should be strengthened, and the cost of dishonesty should be increased for operators who refuse to perform their legal obligations.
Liu Junhai believes that consumers have the right to investigate the liability for breach of contract of recruiting member operators, and require enterprises to either continue to perform their duties and provide the services promised before; Either cancel the contract, return the consumer’s funds and pay some interest. If you are suspected of inducing fraud, you can directly introduce the compensation rule of "fake one loses three" in the Consumer Protection Law to effectively increase the illegal cost of illegal businesses.
Consumers themselves also need to raise their awareness of rights protection. Professor Ge Xiaobin of Anhui Finance and Trade Vocational College believes that the popularity of membership system has caused some businesses to have bad motives. Consumers need to learn to identify true and false membership businesses and effectively improve their ability to prevent consumer risks.
According to industry sources, the market environment is changing, and within a reasonable range, the membership rules will sometimes change accordingly. However, due to technical reasons, sometimes users can’t find the changed content in the website or application page in time, which requires service providers to display the changed membership rules as promptly, openly and transparently as possible. At the same time, it is also necessary for member users to update the knowledge map of member rights and interests to avoid losses.
Zhu Wei believes that users choose to register as members because they pursue better services. This requires enterprises to return to the essence of competition and provide better, safer and more efficient services, so that ordinary users and real members are willing to stay for a long time.
■Reporter’s notes
Customer first, sincerity first.
Being a member is a win-win situation: consumers can enjoy more benefits and businesses enjoy it. However, the reality of "skinny" makes consumers vomit constantly. A penny for a penny, if you can’t buy comfort after spending money, users are naturally reluctant to buy it.
The essence of Internet economy is user economy. Whoever provides better services will be more popular. In order to attract users, some service providers first attract consumers to register as members by means of preferential benefits, and then "play tricks", modify the membership agreement without authorization and release it unilaterally, and fail to inform consumers clearly and in time. This is a typical overlord clause, which seriously infringes on consumers’ basic rights such as the right to know, the right to choose independently and the right to fair trade. If the quality service that should be provided is discounted or even terminated because of profit impulse, or even the members are divided into "three, six and nine grades" and the rights and interests of members are reduced in disguise, playing this clever platform will eventually be abandoned by consumers.
People’s Daily (April 21, 2018, 06 edition)