How much of the ever-growing list of "subscription numbers" are you forced to pay attention to?
Emotional kidnapping, service congestion, scheming and indulging … … In the daily scene of compulsory attention to WeChat official account after scanning the QR code, there is a logic that "you can’t XX without paying attention".
Pink-up has formed an industrial chain. On a variety of pink-up platforms, some weighing scale fans only need 7 cents each, and 3,000 pieces will be sold, with large quantities and discounts.
Compulsory attention to WeChat official account to earn traffic is only the first step, and other profitable behaviors such as taking personal information and accurately pushing advertisements will follow.
"Are you there? Vote for me?" Click on the link sent by relatives and friends, but I want to enter the voting channel only to find that I should pay attention to WeChat official account first; When I came to the door of the pharmacy, a small line appeared on the weighing scale, which was intended to help customers understand the basic health conditions such as height and weight: "Scan the QR code and you can use it"; I plan to drive away from the garage after shopping, but I don’t care that WeChat official account can’t continue to pay the fee … … In the scanning code again and again in daily life scenes, the list of "subscription numbers" of mobile phones becomes longer and longer.
Pay, add friends and get information … … With the rapid development of Internet and mobile payment, the operation of "scanning QR code" is becoming more and more popular, which brings a lot of convenience to people. However, at the moment of chasing users’ attention, it is not uncommon to force attention to WeChat official account after scanning the QR code. Stranger still, the WeChat official account may have nothing to do with the user’s ongoing activities.
Why can’t we "bypass" WeChat official account? The reporter’s investigation found that there is a hidden gold chain behind it.
Hit Xu Juntu/this magazine
Do everything possible just to attract attention
Use WIFI in public places, and use coupons for hotel bills … … There is a logic that "you can’t do XX without paying attention" in many scenes of compulsory attention to WeChat official account. The reporter combed and found that the reasons for pushing people to submit can be subdivided into three categories:
Emotional "kidnapping" type WeChat official account used the interpersonal network of the direct participants to "escort" with feelings, and distributed the task of paying attention to WeChat official account as an adjunct to voting and helping others.
White-collar Ling Lu inadvertently cleaned up WeChat and found that less than half of the "subscription numbers" were what he really wanted to pay attention to. "The most common situation is voting. You must first pay attention to WeChat official account, the sponsor of the voting." Ling Lu said that due to family ties and friendship, I can’t help but vote. Sometimes I forget to cancel my attention after voting, and I have saved so much unconsciously.
Service "jam" type. The public company cooperates with the merchants to take "paying attention to the public company" as a compulsory channel for users to complete services and attract traffic.
When Cheng Xiaoqi, a citizen of Nanchang, Jiangxi, recently parked in the underground garage of a large shopping mall, he was asked to pay attention to a WeChat official account named "Stop on time" with WeChat. When asked whether direct payment could be made without paying attention to WeChat official account, the staff said no. Cheng Xiaoqi questioned: "What can be solved by scanning a receipt code? Why do I have to pay attention to WeChat official account?"
Click "Stop on time", and the main body of this account is Jiangxi Yixing Intelligent Parking Management Co., Ltd. The reporter called the company’s customer service, and the other party said that the cooperation between WeChat official account and the parking lot would require the parking lot to guide users to pay fees through the platform, which was a business model, and he was concerned that WeChat official account "would not bring any losses to car owners". When the reporter further confirmed that "I don’t care if I can’t pay for leaving", the customer service first said that there is another QR code that can pay directly. After the reporter said that he didn’t see the QR code in the relevant parking lot, the customer service also called "it depends on the parking lot".
The "inducement" type. The public party, that is, the service provider, defaults to the platform as the "necessary carrier" for using services and offers to guide attention, which is more concealed.
Nowadays, when you go to a restaurant to spend money, some restaurants no longer provide paper menus. The waiter will remind customers to order through the QR code posted on the corner of the table. And many ordering QR codes ambush a "careful machine": only when you pay attention to the WeChat WeChat official account of the store can you order food; Linking attention to WeChat official account with preferential activities has become one of the means for most "no paper menu" hotels to retain guests.
"weighing scale fans" are 70 cents each.
In the Internet age, fans mean value. It is WeChat official account’s desire to "suck gold" after rising in powder, which triggered a series of operations to pay compulsory attention to WeChat official account.
Mr. Zhang is the head of an operation in WeChat official account, where a single tweet has been read more than 100,000 times. He revealed to reporters that the current cost of acquiring a fan through official channels is around 5 yuan to 10 yuan. Because of the high cost of obtaining customers, only WeChat official account, a capital-rich head, can afford it, and most WeChat official account can only choose unofficial channels to raise money at the initial stage.
Search for "WeChat official account Pink" in Baidu, and a variety of pink platforms will come into view. Industry insiders told reporters that at present, Fanfen has formed an industrial chain. The accuracy of fans, the richness of equipment channels and the professionalism of customized solutions have become the main means for platforms to compete for customers’ competitiveness, and compulsory attention has become the main means for platform offline customers.
The reporter investigated a powder-increasing platform that mainly helps customers realize their demand for powder-increasing through offline equipment, and found that there are many offline scenes promoted on its corporate homepage, including weighing scale, doll machine, shared charging treasure, vending machine, hospital equipment powder-increasing, karaoke powder-increasing, WIFI powder-increasing, etc. There are also differences in retention rate, age group and price among different channels.
For example, if the hospital equipment is powdered, users can pay attention to WeChat official account to receive environmental protection bags or medical records for free by scanning the code in the hospital. The retention rate of fans in this scene is 60% to 80% of that day, and the age group is 18 to 45 years old; The doll machine adds powder by inducing users to scan the code to pay attention to WeChat official account’s voucher collection. The retention rate of fans is 60% to 80%, and the age group is 18 to 35 years old.
"This company is well-known in the industry and has offline equipment all over the country. Because the equipment is laid directly offline, the customer’s cost of obtaining customers is relatively low. The cheapest weighing scale fans only need 7 cents each, and 3,000 are sold, with a large quantity and a discount. " Sales staff said that many so-called powder-increasing platforms on the Internet actually don’t have the ability to get customers offline, and most of them cooperate with first-hand customer-obtaining platforms like them to earn the middle price difference by being a "profiteer".
Another powder-raising platform has only three ways of powder-raising: paper towel machine, weighing scale and WIFI. The price of powder-raising package in weighing scale is: 1,000 fans 900 yuan, 4,000 yuan for 5,000 fans and 7,000 yuan for 10,000 fans. The prominent position of its homepage is also straightforward, indicating that the number of customers served has exceeded 25,000, with a cumulative increase of 90 million, and the amount of powder increased by more than 120,000 that day.
Seemingly voluntary, but actually compulsory.
Is there any infringement in WeChat official account’s behavior when he is forced to pay attention to "no consultation"? According to the experts interviewed, under the premise of consumption, it is a kind of "voluntary in form and compulsory in essence" for merchants to force consumers to pay attention to WeChat official account.
"You must scan the code to pay attention to WeChat official account to order food, which is suspected of infringing on consumers’ right to choose independently." Gu Zhiming, Secretary-General of Jiangxi Consumer Protection Committee, said that Article 26 of the Consumer Protection Law stipulates that operators shall not exclude or restrict consumers’ rights, reduce or exempt operators’ responsibilities, increase consumers’ responsibilities and other unfair and unreasonable provisions to consumers by means of format clauses, notices, statements and shop notices, and shall not use format clauses and technical means to force transactions. Format clauses, notices, statements, shop notices, etc. contain the contents listed in the preceding paragraph, and their contents are invalid.
What’s more, according to industry insiders, the ultimate goal of business promotion is to turn online traffic into offline revenue. It is only the first step to pay compulsory attention to WeChat official account to earn user traffic, and other profitable behaviors such as obtaining personal information and accurately pushing advertisements will follow.
Zeng Yue, a lawyer of Jiangxi Qiuzheng Ward Law Firm, said that when WeChat users pay attention to WeChat official account, they will often receive a prompt that "WeChat official account has applied for your WeChat avatar, nickname, region and gender information". If they don’t click "allow", they will not be able to pay attention and get the services provided by WeChat official account. There is also the risk of revealing personal information for WeChat users, especially the elderly who are not very likely to use mobile phones to surf the Internet.
"The original intention of QR code is to make life more convenient, but it is mandatory to pay attention to what WeChat official account can consume ‘ Additional terms ’ To a certain extent, it also excludes the consumption rights of non-netizen groups. " Ruan Xinyi, a lawyer of Shanghai Jintiancheng (Nanchang) Law Firm, said that in the context of Internet consumption becoming a general trend, it is the only way to win the support of consumers to advocate businesses to simplify operating procedures while providing high-quality Internet products or services, to exercise their rights to the minimum extent and to protect the rights of network users to the maximum extent. (Reporter Hu Jinwu, Yuan Huijing)