Updated2022-03-21 10:10:25
“Hi there, can you help me cut the price down?” Inviting friends to bring prices down has become one of the methods for many e-commerce platforms to get new users and keep existing consumers active, but this mechanism has also been criticized as it always fails. On March 17th, the game anchor “Super Xiaojie” participated in Pinduoduo''s recent “get products for free” campaign. The anchor said that even with the help of tens of thousands of netizens, the bargaining progress was still unsuccessful by the end of the live streaming session. This episode has attracted widespread attention and resonance, and related hashtag topped the trending list on Weibo.
An expert said in an interview that the platform did not make false promises about the probability of winning the free product and did not specify how many friends a user should invite in order to get the free product successfully, so it was difficult to determine that it constituted false promotion. However, e-commerce enterprises should carry out comprehensive compliance self-assessment and strive to improve their reputation.
Unable to cut the prince in two hours
On March 19,“Super Xiaojie” recalled the details of this event in his live broadcast of the day. He said that he lived the bargaining process out of curiosity. Many people mentioned that they had not been successful in Pinduoduo’s campaign to get products for free. He thought that he could try it in his live streaming session. “Maybe the reason they failed is they didn’t get enough people to cut the price, but I have so many viewers in my live streaming session.”
The anchor selected a mobile phone in this campaign, and quickly the bargaining process reached 99.98% by using "free order card" and gold coins. According to the requirements of the campaign, the anchor showed the QR code to online netizens to obtain gold coins. When the process reached 99.999%, the page showed that the anchor was still short of 10.52 gold coins. With the help of more and more fans, the gold coins that each person helped to get reduced from 1 to 0.1, and then to 0.01. The process was getting more and more difficult.
The anchor shared the link toseveral QQ chat groups, but the process remained unchanged, and some people could not successfully open the link. In the end, the anchor said that it took him nearly 2 hours, and then he “was not able to cut the price down any longer.” Later, the anchor called Pinduoduo customer service and he was told that not everyone’s attempt to bring the price down could succeed, there is a certain degree of randomness, and if too many people take part in the process, the system may regard it as click farming behaviour.
At 4:00 pm on March 17, "SuperXiaojie" received a notification that he successfully brought the price down, and it had been nearly two hours since he ended his live streaming. The page showed that he had obtained an unconditional coupon, and he could get a Vivo mobile phone for CNY0.01. He said that he did not succeed during the live broadcast, and did not do anything after that.
Afterthis event attracted great attention, on March 19, Pinduoduo denied failure of mass bargain. Pinduoduo explained that it had already sent a special coupon to the anchor’s account. In addition, it is not true that "tens of thousands of people participated in this mass bargaining event". The anchor sent the invitation to several QQ chat groups, not to the audience in his live streaming channel. Pinduoduo also said that the platform will further improve the process and rules to enhance user experience.
Since Pinduoduo’s activity page only displays the list of the top 30 friends who have helped, the specific number of helpers remains unknown. "Super Xiaojie" said on Weibo, “There were 60,000 to 70,000 viewers watching my live broadcast at the same time, it is impossible that everyone clicked the link and helped cut the price, but I think at least a few thousand did.”
Enterprises should carry out compliance self-assessment
Netizens complain about Pinduoduo's opaqueprice-cutting mechanism, or falsehood. Some people think that the platform should clearly inform users how many people they need to invite in order to successfully bring the price down.
The rules of Pinduoduo's “get products for free” activities explain that users need to invite friends to participate together, and the results of friends' assistance are randomly determined by the system. The rules do not specify the specific number of people that users need to invite, the probability of getting free products is also unclear.
On the Heimao Complaint Platform, thereare more than 3,600 complaints related to Pinduoduo’s price-cutting mechanism, including "Invited hundreds of friends to help, but many attempts were failed by the platform." "Frequently received invitation links to help cut price. Unbearable!" and so on. Pinduoduo rarely responds to these complaints. However, some netizens also said that they had successfully brought the price down and obtained free goods.
In March 2021, Shanghai-based lawyer Liu Yuhang participated in Pinduoduo's "get products for free" activity. He invited many people to cut the price, but the process remained at 99.1%. Out of doubts about the data, Liu Yuhang claimed that "Pinduoduo’s use of false data has constituted fraud" and filed a lawsuit against Pinduoduo, and the court accepted the case.
In January this year, Liu Yuhang disclosed thatin Pinduoduo’s explanation to the court, the activity page is not able to show all digits, so a percentage with at least 6 digits after the decimal point was omitted and displayed as 0.9%.
"Infinite approximation means unreachable. It takes advantage of the weakness of human nature. It is actually a contest between human and intelligent system algorithms," said Xia Xuemin, a researcher at the Institute of Public Policy Research at Zhejiang University.
"The platform constantly attracts newusers by asking existing users to invite friends to cut prices, so as to quickly attract traffic and close deals." Li Min, senior partner of Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, believes that in terms of the rules of Pinduoduo's “get products for free” activity, there is no false promise in the statement of the number of helpers and the probability of winning free products, so it is difficult to determine that it constitutes false promotion. Li Min also noticed that the notification that "a user has won the lottery" often pops up on the activity page. If the information is fictitious, then the platform may constitute false promotion, but the case mentioned above is more difficult to verify.
"This activity is problematic in terms of the rationality of the rules. The face value of RMB is at least one cent. If the price is cut to a few decimal points after one cent, it will actually be settled by one cent.It makes no difference whether you cut the price or not at this point.” Li Min believes that the rules of the platform must be reasonable and legal, and the relevant expressions cannot be misleading. Once consumers find that the platform is infringing on the interests of consumers, they can report to the relevant departments in time to regulate the market environment.
In Xia Xuemin's view, itdoes no harm for consumers if they participate in such activities only for fun. "If their purpose is indeed to get a certain commodity for free, then they are compromising their own trust and credit."
In addition, the "E-commerce Law" stipulates that e-commerce operators shall disclose information on goods or services in a comprehensive, truthful, accurate and timely manner to protect consumers' right to know and right to choose. Xia Xuemin believes that e-commerce companies should carry out comprehensivecompliance self-assessment, reduce disputes with consumers, reduce business risks, and strive to improve corporate reputation.
Editor: Wu Xiaoxian
