Illustration Wang Chen Jun
Last week, the game anchor "Her Royal Highness Qiao Biluo" was blacklisted by the Network Performance Branch of China Performance Industry Association because of malicious speculation that a beautiful woman became an aunt. Fans who thought she was sweet and beautiful could not ask the platform to return the money for brushing gifts.
Both network anchors and idol stars are now supported by fans’ real money: spending money to buy virtual gifts, flowers and diamonds, and putting idols at the forefront of the list set by the platform, as evidence that idols are popular, explosive and worthy of advertisers — — This is the general rule in the era when fan economy and traffic are king.
However, when fans exhausted their wallet labor to support their idols, they also walked into the rights trap created by the list setters and their upstream and downstream industries: virtual flowers that were not used because of changing the rules of the list were unable to get a refund; The automatic ranking software used to improve efficiency has been blocked, and who can I ask for the membership money in 2040? The list promises resources to idols. What if fans don’t fulfill their promises?
In the opinion of experts, this behavior of brushing data for idols makes the entire Internet industry sink into the carnival of crazy wallet harvesting, which is not beneficial to the long-term development of the industry.
The list was stopped and the website did not refund money.
"The star power list is the root of all evil." A Xiao, a 29-year-old white-collar worker, is a fan of H, the star who debuted in the talent show "Creation Camp 2019". In July, in order to make H rank in the top three in the "New Star List", the fan group began to spend a lot of time and money playing the list: "Reading, forwarding, commenting and posting about Weibo can get extra points, commonly known as interaction. If you don’t have time to interact, you can spend money directly. "
A Xiao introduced that Weibo sells virtual flowers, one in 2 yuan, and every time a flower is sent, the idol’s admiration value increases by 2 points: "It is said that flowers are sent to idols, but in fact, they have turned around and returned to Sina’s pocket, and idols can’t get a dime."
In mid-July, Weibo was suspended from the list of July H due to the accidental exposure of the fan group through special channels.
"It is to buy a Weibo trumpet to interact. Sina usually turns a blind eye. This time we were reported by competitors, and Weibo could not pretend to be blind." A Xiao said that in this way, the fans’ early investment has hit Shui Piao. "Forget the time, shouldn’t Sina refund the flowers bought with real money?"
A Xiao said that at first, Sina just returned the flowers to its account: "The people who sent the flowers can’t make the list. What’s the use of flowers for us?" After that, fans began to call 12345 and 96315 to complain that Sina violated consumer rights.
"At that time, I realized that we were actually consumers who spent money first, and then fans." A Xiao said that after the complaint lasted for a week, the Beijing Consumers Association talked about Weibo, and Weibo gradually returned the money. "Later, I went to look at it carefully. There is no explanation on the flower purchase page, and there is no regulation on whether it can be returned."
In August, H’s qualification for the list was restored, but A Xiao no longer bought flowers: "The list is a means for websites to make money, and I won’t send money to do stupid things again."
Software blocked, membership fee wasted
On June 10th, the "Star Aid App", the behind-the-scenes promoter of 100 million reposts, was investigated. A few days later, super fans said that "Super Aid" could not be used: "From then on, it returned to the era of manual ranking."
"Star Aid App" and "Super Aid" can help users to automatically perform some operations, such as commenting on Weibo who forwarded idols, sending Weibo related to idols, and automatically searching the names of idols, thus improving the rankings of idols on Sina’s "Star Power List" and Baidu Encyclopedia’s "Star Popularity List".
"Super aid is from Sina subsidiary, and the annual membership fee for an account is 35.88 yuan. The Star Aid App is even more fierce. 20 yuan, a member for one month, can bind many trumpets with one click, and then let these trumpets automatically sign in and forward every day. " Yan Yan told reporters that the two appeared in 2018 and were very popular among fans.
Where did these members’ money go after the service was stopped?
"Can Star Aid App refund money?" On the second day after the Star Aid App was investigated, Xiao Ran asked questions on the Weibo, but so far he couldn’t find a way. "I heard that the illegal profit was more than 8 million, but the App was taken off the shelf and people were arrested. I don’t know who to ask for a refund."
After the service of "Super Aid" stopped, some fans found that they could ask for a refund from the Sina subsidiary. "Send them payment voucher screenshots, Weibo nicknames and Alipay account numbers. It doesn’t matter if you have more money or less. Remember to ask Sina for a refund. " Weibo user @ honeythurts sent this Weibo on June 17th and got 718 reposts.
Not all fans who ask for a refund can get it. "Private letter, no refund, and now I will ignore it." Fan Xiaozhen said, "There is not much money, forget it."
Forwarding for resources, promises are hard to honor.
A trend — has been observed in the side dishes that have been mixed with powder circles for nearly 10 years; — More and more companies have joined the ranks of harvesting fans with the list. "Click on the authentication information, some are still film and television companies, and some are simply trading companies selling hardware department stores, so let’s share a piece of it."
Dishes told reporters that the common feature of these lists is that fans can vote for idols without spending money, but they must first complete some tasks to get tickets: "What do you need? Watching a 15-second video advertisement will give you 5 votes, and sending a Tik Tok with an idol name and a small program name will give you 15 votes. To put it bluntly, it is to use fans as advertisers, as free publicity, and as a resource for other apps. "
What are the benefits of idols topping the list? "It’s nothing more than putting some advertisements that can reveal the idol image in some places for fans, such as airports, high-speed railway station, squares and cafes, and opening their small programs for a day, even including sending a low-end ‘ Reward ’ 。” Xiaocai said that new fans are often confused by these "rewards", and the old fritters can see the tricks at a glance. "Take the coffee shop advertisement as an example. The promise is 10 coffee shops, 10 Starbucks or 10 coffee shops that you can’t name. There is a big difference. This kind of commitment is simply vague. After the fans sold the coolies, they found that it was different from what they thought in advance, and there was no place to say it. "
statement
Help the stars brush the list, fans are suspected of breaking the law.
"Internet idolize has evolved into a stage full of deception and profit-seeking, which is not the same as the idolize we used to know." Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview with Beijing Evening News that, taking the flower incident as an example, according to the provisions of the Consumer Protection Law, online shopping goods have no reason to return within 7 days, while digital goods, such as audio-visual products and software, are generally not included. "Virtual flowers belong to what goods? There is no clear law about whether it is reasonable to return it for 7 days, or whether it is similar to software. The platform should be stated in the user agreement, and consumers should be clearly informed in advance whether they can retreat. "
Zhu Wei thinks it is very difficult for users to get back the prepaid membership money after the automatic ranking software stops serving: "It is illegal to brush the list, not only the operator is illegal, but also the participants are illegal. In this case, the illegal income of the operator should be collected, and it is difficult for participants to claim a refund."
As for the practice that fans use labor to exchange resources for idols, Zhu Wei bluntly said that this is no longer a normal consumption behavior, and the identity of fans is no longer a consumer, which is very risky. "This does not constitute a contract, there is no clear consideration, and it is working for others and others are not aware of it. Whether the operators have relevant abilities and qualifications is often unknown. Whether these unilateral commitments are fulfilled or not, and there is no way to measure them. Don’t do this kind of exchange under the guise of giving aid to idols. This is likely to be fraud or even fraud. "
Quick comment
Stars rely on marketing, which is a social disease.
"The power of Chinese idols has made many people see the huge business opportunities, and it is easy to turn business opportunities into money." Zhu Wei said that the platform corner definitely welcomes fans to play the list. "It can not only improve the popularity of the platform, but also make a lot of money. Idols can also profit from it, because they generally have no works, and they can only increase their popularity through repeated activities. As for whether they can get the benefits of selling flowers from the platform, only fans don’t know. How many people who take the lead in crazy support are sent by idols to brainwash and circle money, and fans will not know. "
"For the fan economy, the Internet industry is actually a contradictory attitude. On the one hand, fans can increase activity and increase income for the platform; On the other hand, intentional or unintentional, active and passive list brushing, water army and public relations behavior also make the industry hate it, because a good ecology needs a fair and equitable environment, but the reality is that a mouse has broken a pot of soup. When one person starts to brush the list, everyone starts to be forced to brush the list, and the whole ecology is broken. " Liu Xingliang, president of DCCI Internet Research Institute, believes that even at the expense of reducing the activity of the platform, such ecological destruction cannot be tolerated.
Liu Xingliang introduced that in such a list-brushing game, many ash production companies in the industry earned a lot of money, such as selling trumpet, being a navy soldier and making automatic list-brushing software. "A large part of the money in the entire industrial chain has been earned by these companies, but what these companies do is meaningless or even harmful to the industry and society. The criteria for evaluating stars have also changed from works to well-done marketing and high energy of fans, which is the morbid state of the whole society. " (Reporter Bai Ge)