Misi mother and baby store first carried out promotion and drainage through a large number of little red book bloggers to attract a large number of consumers. After placing orders for many times, consumers will be repeatedly delayed or falsely delivered, and the merchants will eventually lose contact…
“The number you dialed is not answered for the time being. Please redial later.” There was still no response to the string of phone numbers that were badly remembered, and the mechanical voice prompt at the end of the phone became more and more harsh.
From the initial patient explanation to a few words later, and then gradually no longer reply to the message, until the whole person finally disappeared, Li Xiao suddenly realized that, Over the past few months, the change in the attitude of the person in charge of Misi maternal and infant life center (hereinafter referred to as “Misi store”) is actually a signal: the baby milk powder ordered at a cost of nearly 10000 yuan is likely to be empty. According to Li Xiao, more than 400 parents in a rights protection wechat group bought milk powder in this Misi store, with a total loss of more than 1 million yuan.
“The cheated parents basically place orders for many times, (Misi store) will initially settle on time and send gifts. After attracting customers to place orders for two times, they began to delay and send empty packages. Later, they were unable to contact the merchants. Our (cheated) parents spontaneously built a wechat group. At present, the number of wechat groups has been increasing.” At the end of February, according to Li Xiao’s statement to the reporter of the international finance news, in September last year, under the attraction of gifts and low prices and the “endorsement” of relevant users on the little red book, Li Xiao ordered many cans of infant milk powder of a well-known brand in the Misi store. So far, nearly half a year has passed, most of the children’s rations have not been received, and the store is in a state of being out of touch.
It is worth noting that after a period of investigation, the reporter found that in this incident, the online channel of Misi mother and baby store was promoted and drained through a large number of xiaohongshusu bloggers to obtain orders from consumers all over the country. After collecting the payment from consumers, the “fraud” routine began. At first, milk powder and gifts were sent to consumers on time, After consumers place orders for two or more times, there will be delays and non delivery, and finally the relevant person in charge of the store will lose contactP align = “center” screenshot of little red book
After the incident, in addition to finding a way to get back the money, the rights safeguarding parents also wondered: will they continue to trust xiaohongshu in the future?
“Xiaohong book started with content and hatched a large number of plain bloggers, but because its content form is closer to life scenes, it is easier to implant advertisements.” According to Wang Guoping, a member of the senior advisory group of lianshang.com and a senior retail expert, it is precisely because of this that some bad businesses, driven by their interests, earn one-time sales through short-term traffic exposure on platforms such as xiaohongshu, and control the return on investment within 6 months, which is a more popular method in recent years, “But for xiaohongshu, if the platform is filled with malicious marketing content or false information for a long time, and it is difficult for some users to distinguish whether it is a real experience, after ‘planting grass’, in the long run, what will eventually damage xiaohongshu’s own content ecology.”
mother baby store’s “Ponzi scheme”
243 Jingzhou Road, Wenxin street, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is the specific location of Misi store, and the blue door number is particularly dazzling. In the past few months, this seemingly unknown mother and baby store has gained a lot of popularity in Baoma circle by claiming to sell well-known milk powder brands with high cost performance.
“Hangzhou Misi maternal, infant and child life center has cheated more than 400 treasure mothers by collecting money and not delivering goods. The children’s milk powder money is not spared. It’s crazy.” In mid February, a user shared this text on xiaohongshu. In dozens of comments, many users also said they had a similar experience.
Screenshot of little red book
Most of the cheated parents called the “Misi store incident” a “Ponzi scheme”. They originally wanted to hoard some authentic rations for their children at a low price. As a result, they not only didn’t receive the products, but also couldn’t contact the person in charge of the store at present. Linli has recently been particularly active in a number of wechat groups, which have gathered Baoma and Baoda from all over the country. “Missy”, “liar”, “acting”, “lost contact”, “little red book”… Are all high-frequency words in the group.
“About last October, when I was going to buy milk powder for my children, I didn’t intend to brush the plain person blogger’s recommendation on the little red book. At first, my main impression was that it was a little cheaper than the market price. If I ordered a certain quantity, I could send authentic products worth nearly 1000 yuan. In addition, the products of physical stores should be guaranteed.” Lin Li and Li Xiao were cheated in the same way. He told reporters, “in the later period of time, I brushed the relevant contents in Xiaohong book for many times. After several considerations, under the recommendation of one of the bloggers, I got in touch with the owner of Misi store.”
Sun Dongdong, who lives in Hangzhou, first placed an order in Misi store at the end of October 2021. At that time, he purchased 6 cans of milk powder, and the store sent the milk powder according to the agreed time. A month later, it transferred more than 3000 yuan again and placed an order for more than 10 cans of milk powder, but the Misi store did not deliver the goods immediately, but replied that it “needs to wait for the goods”. In December 2021, Sun Dongdong once again urged the store to deliver goods, but the result was that he “recharged” another 8100 yuan under the attraction of the merchant’s recharge of Huawei tablets and other gifts. “Up to now, only 7 cans of milk powder have been received for the second order. After the third recharge, gifts and milk powder have not been received.”
Picture provided by the interviewee
In the interview, the reporter learned from dozens of injured parents that the one-time recharge amount of some parents reached nearly 20000 yuan, and most of them chose Misi stores to buy milk powder for the following reasons: “recommended by xiaohongshu bloggers, the price is cost-effective, lower than the market price, gifts and physical stores”.
Picture provided by the interviewee
But what these parents didn’t expect is that things didn’t go as smoothly as expected. This seemingly reliable and cost-effective deal turned into a “minefield” in just a few months.
“At the end of January this year, I vaguely felt that there was a problem in the store. I didn’t deliver the goods and couldn’t contact the store. Even if I could contact the store, I delayed again and again. Later, I even sent me a fake express. There was only a piece of paper in it.” In an interview with the reporter, Li Tang, who was also the victim’s parent, could not hide his anger. He told the reporter, “at the end of January, I couldn’t contact the boss. I heard that before, the store just asked the treasure mother who received the goods to help promote it on the little red book, and then paid a certain amount of compensation, such as giving toys, so that more and more people promoted it on the little red book.”P align = “center” picture provided by respondents
In mid March, the reporter obtained a statistical data of Missy’s arrears, which showed that 399 statistical results had been collected, and the losses of cheated parents ranged from 10 to tens of thousands of yuan. According to many parents, in the case of “no money and no goods”, we can only buy milk powder from other channels. “This is the second registration. The first statistics are more than 400 parents.” A treasure mother in Hangzhou told reporters. However, the reporter did not see the first statistical table.
breach of contract or contract fraud
Why did Missy store run away? Until now, parents still don’t know the reason behind the “cheating consumers” of Misi stores.
The reporter noticed on the little red book that the account named “Missy maternal and infant life hall” once issued a letter of apology on February 26, in which Missy store said that in September 2021, it specifically designed the marketing activities of Royal maisujia’er, altamitre and other products, which has been widely publicized by the word-of-mouth of customer groups and social media such as wechat and little red book, Sales orders were unusually hot, far exceeding expectations. “Due to the mistakes in operation and management, the supply of goods did not keep up in time, resulting in many customers failing to deliver and receive goods on time. On January 19, 2022, the staff temporarily closed for a day due to something at home. On January 20, due to a small friction with their peers, some changes occurred in the store, resulting in many customers mistakenly thinking that the store was going to close, causing an uproar on social media and causing a lot of trouble at the same time People from all walks of life pay close attention to it. At present, the store cannot operate normally. “
In this letter of apology, Misi store also promised to work hard to solve the problems of capital and goods supply, and gradually deliver goods or refund to all customers. In addition, the account also disclosed the records of refunds from stores to some parents at the end of January, but the amounts were small, basically hundreds of yuan.
However, in the view of some deceived parents, the aforementioned move of Misi store is a “soothing performance”. “I returned 300 yuan twice in the middle, but there was still a debt of nearly 9000 yuan. For this, the store didn’t make any commitment.” Sun Dongdong reluctantly told reporters that he can’t contact the person in charge of the store now, “wechat doesn’t reply”. It revealed that at present, parents have reported the matter to the police station. In addition, there is not much progress.
According to the data of Tianyan survey, Hangzhou West Lake District Misi pregnant, infant and child life hall was established on September 16, 2021, and the legal representative is Qian Jingjing. In addition, there is no more public information about the store. In mid March, the reporter of the international finance news called Qian Jingjing many times to inquire about the above-mentioned arrears of milk powder, but his phone has been busy as of press time.
Zhao Zhanzhan, deputy director of Beijing Yunjia law firm and special researcher of intellectual property research center of China University of political science and law, said in an interview with reporters that the behavior of recharging part rebate like Misi store is not the violation of this model itself, but it does not mean that the store has no problems, “Its main problem is that it fails to deliver goods to consumers within the agreed time limit, which constitutes a breach of contract.”
Zhao Zhanzhan further said that the incident also involved the issue of whether it was a criminal crime or a civil dispute. “Civil dispute means that whether the gifts are not delivered as agreed after recharging, or the milk powder or other commodities I bought are not delivered on time, these belong to the scope of contract dispute and breach of contract. However, if the crime of contract fraud is committed, it may need some relevant evidence and need the public security organ to investigate and collect evidence.”
“Consumers can report the case and see whether the public security organ files a case. In addition, they can also sue through civil litigation.” In Zhao Zhan’s view, “it’s mainly that the goods are not delivered according to the agreed time. There are no goods or gifts bought now. As long as the goods are not delivered according to the time, it constitutes a breach of contract.”
how to develop “drainage” platform
It is worth mentioning that in the same period when Misi store was “on the run”, in January 2022, many cheated parents shared a post on xiaohongshu, saying that Grandjoy Holdings Group Co.Ltd(000031) a mother and child experience center in Kunming is the same as Misi store, taking a well-known milk powder brand as the key word and promoting it through xiaohongshu platform, After that, the user placed an order on the offline recommended by the relevant blogger, and there was no response and reply after that, and the request for refund was ignoredP align = “center” screenshot of little red book
As China’s largest “grass planting” community, xiaohongshu, whose valuation has climbed to $20 billion, is officially defined as a lifestyle platform for young people, founded by Mao Wenchao and Qu Fang in Shanghai in 2013. The company’s mission is “inspire lives to share and discover the wonders of the world”. Users can record their lives in the form of short videos, graphics and other forms, share their lifestyles, and form interaction based on interest. As of October 2019, the number of monthly active users of xiaohongshu has exceeded 100 million, of which 70% are post-90s and continue to grow rapidly.
Monday is a long-term concern for the small red book industry insiders, in its view, compared to other tiktok, B station and other UGC (user generated content) platform, Xiao Hong is committed to mobilizing the enthusiasm of users content production, the biggest advantage is sincere grass planting, real sharing, content with high trust, and gave more exposure opportunities for vegetarian. “Bloggers’ real use experience or purchase channels and prices can assist xiaohongshu users in making decisions. It is precisely based on this usefulness and mutual assistance that xiaohongshu has high community viscosity and activity.”.
Previously, Sinolink Securities Co.Ltd(600109) wrote in a research report that xiaohongshu is the largest lifestyle content platform in China. Among the head apps, the growth rate of active people is in an obvious leading position, and the number of active people has reached 200 million by January 2022. In terms of the total amount, xiaohongshu has produced about 360 million notes in recent years. In the maternal and infant products track, there are a large number of notes in maternal and infant categories. In recent years, the total number of notes is 8.995 million, and the number of notes put in is 1.927 million. The proportion of plain notes is much higher than that of the market, with large user demand and large spontaneous flow.
However, based on this natural “grass planting” attribute, with the proliferation of platform users, xiaohongshu has also been criticized for its false “grass planting” content. Five months ago, xiaohongshu was questioned and scolded for hot search because of the “filter scenic spot”. At that time, most xiaohongshu users thought that their platform was full of a large number of false “grass planting”. In the process of punching in some scenic spots, there was a huge gap between the photos released and the actual situation, resulting in a large number of netizens being “cheated”.
In addition, after a period of investigation, the reporter found that there were many cases of “stepping on the pit and being cheated” because of the relevant tweets on Xiaohong book. In mid March, the reporter used “Little Red Book deception” as the keyword to search on the black cat complaint, and 654 results can be obtained. Among them, there are many cases of cheating consumers by falsely marking the product price due to the suspected false publicity and drainage of little red book; Taking “Little Red Book advertisement” as the search term, there are 239 corresponding results.
A month ago, xiaohongshu launched a new round of false grass planting control. The data showed that the round of control focused on medical and beauty products. 279000 illegal notes had been disposed of in the first batch, and 168000 illegal accounts had been punished.
“I didn’t think that blogger was a popular blogger at the beginning. I thought she was really sharing her shopping experience like our ordinary Baoma. Who knows it will also be cheated. At present, as far as I know, the recommendation posts at that time have been deleted.” According to the screenshot of xiaohongshu chat record displayed by Li Tang to the reporter, in mid October 2021, he went to find the contact information of Misi store after seeing the recommendation post shared by a plain blogger. At present, the chat records of both sides are still in, but the recommendation post at that time has disappearedP align = “center” picture provided by respondents
The reporter of the international finance news has searched Xiaohong book for many times recently and found that the “plain person blogger” who had planted grass for Misi store has deleted the relevant copy, and there is almost no trace of store promotion. However, in the screenshots provided by some parents, the words “buy milk powder to send the baby walking artifact”, “authentic”, “date fresh” are attractive. A parent confirmed to reporters that the relevant person in charge of Misi store had warmly invited her to help publicize, and later gave something as a gift, but until now, with a recharge of more than 20000 yuan, she only got a small part of the milk powder.
difficult road of supervision
“Businesses that entrust others to plant grass falsely belong to unfair competition engaged in false publicity. Xiaohongshu, as a platform, should fulfill the obligation of reminding, reviewing and deleting after discovery. However, for content platforms such as xiaohongshu, it is difficult for plain bloggers to share shopping experience on the platform and judge it as false publicity only in terms of content.” According to Chen Yuanxi, partner of Shanghai Haihua Yongtai law firm, “from the long-term development of the platform itself, xiaohongshu should upgrade the control means of the platform and crack down on the use of the platform for false publicity, otherwise it will eventually eat xiaohongshu itself and affect the content quality and user experience of the whole platform.”
“In the above cases, xiaohongshu serves as a ‘drainage’ platform, but it is actually difficult to be held accountable in legal disputes.” In Zhao Zhan’s view, if you want to pursue responsibility, you must first define whether the information released by relevant bloggers on Xiaohong book is true. If it is not true, it is suspected to constitute infringement, and relevant bloggers need to bear relevant tort liability to consumers. In this context, it will be related to whether xiaohongshu as a platform has fulfilled its obligations under the law. “According to the civil code, as a network service provider, xiaohongshu generally follows the notice deletion rule for the infringement information published by platform users, and will bear joint and several liability for infringement only when it knows or should know.”
“Xiaohongshu has its own set of audit mechanism, but its audit focuses more on hard and wide and some parts seriously complained by users.” Recently, a senior Internet observer who asked not to be named admitted in an interview with reporters that at present, general Internet platforms can only supervise some marketing behaviors of their own platforms. If cross platform control is involved, it belongs to the difficulty of platform supervision.
“From the root, xiaohongshu is still completing the content value. Users come to xiaohongshu platform because of the content. After obtaining the content, they are guided to other platforms for trading. This is not a complete closed loop. The industrial chain involved is too short, but only one of them.” The above senior Internet observer further said, “in terms of the maturity of the commercial platform, next, xiaohongshu must increase investment in the audit team, such as multi-party verification. Of course, the corresponding cost will rise sharply.”
Up to now, xiaohongshu has not publicly disclosed the number of its ecological governance team. However, according to relevant media reports, at the beginning of 2021, xiaohongshu disclosed that it had established an ecological governance team with more than 1000 people in security, ecology, strategy, audit, technology and other departments. By contrast, Kwai’s audited team has been in the scale of thousands of people as early as 2018, and tiktok also said in 2018 that the audit team will expand from 2000 to 5000 in the future.
On March 14, the reporter of the international finance news contacted xiaohongshu on whether he was concerned about the above events, the review mechanism of relevant contents and the scale of the current ecological governance team. However, as of press time, no further response has been received.
In Wang Guoping’s opinion, xiaohongshu had better control over the content in the early stage, but with the continuous increase of the number of users, the continuous improvement of supervision costs, and its own demand for the realization of advertising revenue, the pressure to consider the profitability of the platform also follows, “All Internet platforms need to burn money in the early stage, but the original intention of capital investment is to make profits. When the platform starts to pursue profits, it is the time for the platform to weigh. If the balance is improper, there will be a double drop problem of weak liquidity and then decline in content quality”. For Yu xiaohongshu, the rectification action itself is related to the survival of the platform.
At the request of the interviewee, Li Xiao, Lin Li, Sun Dongdong, Li Tang and Zhou Yi are pseudonyms.
