On the morning of April 18, it was reported on the Internet that the Chinese Academy of Sciences stopped using the HowNet and rushed to the microblog hot search. As of 17 p.m. on April 18, the reading volume of this topic had reached 150 million.
The online content is that the literature and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences issued a notice on April 8, saying that Tongfang Zhiwang Technology Co., Ltd. (CNKI database publisher) suspended the access of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to the CNKI database. From now on, CNKI scientific and technological journals and doctoral and master’s degree thesis databases cannot be downloaded.
At the same time, the website said, “in 2021, the total subscription cost of CNKI database of CAS group reached tens of millions, and the high subscription cost of the database has become a ‘Big Mac’ in the introduction of resources of CAS group”.
Netizens were also indignant, “universities and many graduates have known the network for a long time”, “I have to spend money on my own paper and downloading it myself”, “why can the network collect money from customers for other people’s papers, and has the network given the author of the paper royalties and copyright fees”?
The Chinese Academy of Sciences said it was true, but HowNet denied it
In the morning of April 18, the relevant person in charge of the library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an interview with the media that the information about the suspension was true. “It has been out of service since the 20th and can still be used now. Because the Academy of Sciences has not reached a unified procurement cooperation with CNKI. Now Wanfang and VIP have been opened, which can be replaced.”
HowNet responded exactly the opposite. On the morning of April 18, in an interview with Changjiang Daily, HowNet said that the contents of the online reports were untrue, “for details, you can contact the documentation and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.”
On the afternoon of April 18, when times finance and economics verified the authenticity of the above contents with the office of the literature and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the other party said: “we don’t accept the interview. If the information is true, you can verify it yourself.”
Public information shows that CNKI was initiated by Tsinghua University and Tsinghua Tongfang. It was founded in June 1999. It is an information construction project aimed at realizing the dissemination, sharing and Value-added Utilization of knowledge resources in the whole society. As a Chinese database with the highest popularity and paper load in China, CNKI has been in the forefront of database selection of major university libraries in China since its establishment.
Tianyancha shows that the company of China HowNet project is Tongfang HowNet (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Tongfang HowNet”), which was established in November 2004 and is held by Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) 100% of A-share listed company.
Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) financial report shows that Tongfang HowNet is mainly engaged in Internet publishing and service business, and has formed a “China HowNet” (CNKI) portal to provide users with a series of products such as China academic journal database and China doctoral and master thesis database. In 2020 alone, Tongfang HowNet’s main business income was 1.168 billion yuan, with a gross profit margin of 53.93%; In the first half of 2021, the company’s main business income was 496 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 51.30%.
HowNet occupies a high market share in the field of Chinese literature retrieval. As can be seen from the public information of HowNet, CNKI is already the largest academic electronic resource integrator in China, including more than 95% of officially published Chinese academic resources. Therefore, most colleges and universities can only be forced to accept the price increase requirements put forward by CNKI.
Sun Jin, Professor of the Law School of Wuhan University and director of the competition law and Policy Research Center, said in an interview that if the academic database no longer takes copyright protection as a catalyst to stimulate innovation, but as a means to grab high monopoly profits, wantonly abuses copyright, monopolizes high prices, destroys, hinders and restricts relevant market competition, its abuse will not escape the review and punishment of the anti-monopoly law.
For whether the business model of HowNet is suspected of monopoly, the market supervision office of Dongsheng Town, Haidian District, Beijing told times finance that it needs to investigate and judge after mastering some evidence. “I will keep in close contact with our law enforcement team, including Haidian District market supervision and Administration Bureau, to see if it is true.”.
“Deactivation is a negotiation strategy”
In recent years, CNKI has been boycotted by colleges and universities for frequent price increases. According to the statistics of Red Star News, in the ten years from 2012 to 2021, at least six universities announced that they would suspend the use of HowNet, including Peking University, due to the high increase in HowNet fees.
In January 2016, Wuhan University of Technology issued a notice on the suspension of HowNet, saying that “due to the unreasonable increase in renewal price, the negotiation between our university and China HowNet company was unsuccessful. In recent years, CNKI’s excessive price increase has been resisted by many colleges and universities across the country, including many well-known 985 colleges and universities.”
According to the statistics of Wuhan University of Technology Library, since 2000, the quotation of HowNet has increased by more than 10% every year, especially 24.36% in 2012. The (quotation) increase from 2010 to 2016 was 132.86%, with an average annual increase of 18.98%.
In March of the same year, Peking University also posted a notice about stopping HowNet, saying that “it is not easy to compromise with merchants’ excessive price increase”. In an interview with the media, the relevant person in charge of Peking University Library said that the increase in the purchase cost of HowNet is too high, which has exceeded the budget limit of the library.
In December 2018, the library of Taiyuan University of technology announced that due to the failure to reach an agreement with HowNet on the renewal price and use method, it was decided to suspend access to HowNet database from January 1, 2019.
In 2021, Jimei University Library announced that due to the rising price of HowNet database resources and budget reasons, the University adjusted the ordering scheme.
However, after being out of service for a period of time, most colleges and universities have resumed their cooperation with HowNet.
On the afternoon of April 18, the relevant staff of Taiyuan University of Technology Library explained to times finance that many teachers and students of the university are used to using HowNet. If they stop using it, they will be uncomfortable. “In 2018, they stopped using HowNet after only a few months”.
The staff member admitted that stopping HowNet was a strategy for the school to negotiate with HowNet, “Their increase is still relatively large. They don’t want the price to rise so high. We should talk about the price within the economic capacity we can afford. The price of HowNet is related to the quantity and scope of the content ordered. Our subscription is enough to meet the use of our teachers and students. Now the subscription price is hundreds of thousands of yuan per year. Therefore, even if HowNet increases greatly, it has little impact on us.”
