Recently, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was unable to accept the annual subscription price of tens of millions of Zhiwang, so the two sides stopped cooperation on April 20, 2022, which aroused heated discussion. Many Zhiwang users resonated with it, resulting in the high popularity of the topic.
On April 19, HowNet officials responded to this matter by issuing a document “description on the cooperative services between China HowNet and the documentation and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences”, which said that in 2022, the documentation and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences adjusted the procurement mode of some databases outside China, including HowNet database, from unified centralized procurement mode to joint procurement mode organized by colleges and institutes in need. After friendly negotiation, the work of adjusting the subscription mode of HowNet database is being carried out in an orderly manner. Each institute selects the subscription content, and plans to complete the group work, sign the agreement and start the service in 2022 in the near future.
“That is to say, in the past, the Chinese Academy of Sciences used centralized procurement, which was used by all research institutes, and the volume is relatively large, but now some institutes choose to renew the HowNet, and some do not renew it, so the institutes in need form groups to purchase.” Liu Bin (pseudonym), a senior person in the field of intellectual property rights, explained to the reporter of China business daily.
On April 21, a graduate student of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told reporters that his account in the Chinese Academy of Sciences could no longer download HowNet papers. Two days ago, the Chinese Academy of Sciences had begun to carry out online training on resource use skills of Wanfang system. The reporter contacted HowNet about the price rise, but no reply has been received as of press time.
The reporter learned from the interview that due to the obvious advantages of HowNet’s resource pool, it is considered to have strong bargaining power. The high subscription fee and its rise year after year have been controversial. In recent years, many colleges and universities or scientific research institutions in China have suspended or cancelled renewal due to the price increase of HowNet of more than 10% or even 20% per year.
In addition, HowNet has also lost a lawsuit for infringement of intellectual property rights, and its current resource acquisition mode is also controversial in the legal circle, including whether it infringes the information network communication right of paper producers. Moreover, it is understood that HowNet has signed exclusive contracts with colleges and universities in some cooperation, and the respondents said that there may be unfair competition. On whether HowNet is in a monopoly position, legal sources said that the relevant market needs to be defined.
subscription fee increases by more than 10% per year
The document and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a notice on April 8: over the years, CNKI (China Knowledge Network) database has maintained a high increase in renewal prices due to its highly influential market position in the Chinese journal database market. In 2021, the subscription cost of CNKI database of CAS group reached tens of millions. The high subscription cost of the database has become a “Big Mac” in the introduction of resources of CAS group.
The circular also said that in 2022, after several rounds of negotiations between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CNKI database on fees and ordering mode, the group group scheme given by CNKI database was quite demanding in terms of number of members, unit price and price. Therefore, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is considering replacing CNKI database with VIP journal database and Wanfang dissertation database.
“It can use Wanfang, but Wanfang only has some journals. It’s not as good as HowNet. HowNet covers all categories, and there is only one in the country.” A person engaged in the book industry told reporters, “the literature and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences stopped ordering Chinese paper journals a few years ago and all adopted electronic journals, resulting in the Chinese Academy of Sciences relying more on HowNet.”
The price of HowNet is high, which is no longer news in the academic circle. Liu Bin told reporters that many scientific research institutes and universities have reported to themselves that the price of HowNet is too expensive, increasing by 10% ~ 20% every year. “HowNet does not raise its price every year, but every year. However, the funding allocation of scientific research institutes and university libraries will not increase by 10% ~ 20% every year. The financial allocation does not match the price increase of HowNet.”
The reporter inquired about the China government procurement network and found that different colleges and universities have different purchase prices for HowNet products. Taking the bidding publicity in 2021 as an example, the higher price is more than or close to 2 million yuan / year. For example, the purchase price of Beijing University of technology is 2.94 million yuan, that of Beijing Normal University is 1.9835 million yuan and that of Tsinghua University is 1.88 million yuan. The lower price is less than one million yuan a year, for example, about 644600 yuan for China language and Culture University, 825000 yuan for Fudan University and 875000 yuan for Lanzhou University.
The reporter also noted that the price of HowNet has increased year by year in some schools. Taking the purchase contracts signed by some colleges and universities in the last three years as an example, from 2020 to 2022, the purchase price of HowNet of Beijing Language and Culture University has increased from 505000 yuan to 654500 yuan, an increase of about 30%; Central South University increased from 1355000 yuan to 1.5 million yuan, an increase of about 10.7%; Wuhan University of technology rose from 1.15 million yuan to 1.27 million yuan, an increase of about 10.4%.
On December 31, 2012, Nanjing Normal University announced that the prices of CNKI China HowNet database merchants were too high and would be suspended in January of the next year. On January 5, 2016, the library of Wuhan University of technology stated in a statement that HowNet’s “price rise is outrageous”, and said that since 2000, Tongfang HowNet’s quotation for the university has increased by more than 10% every year, 132.86% from 2010 to 2016, with an average annual increase of 18.98%.
On March 31, 2016, Peking University Library publicly released the notice on possible service interruption of “China HowNet”, which also said that the price of HowNet database providers is too high and may not be able to renew. In January 2021, Jimei University Library also announced that due to the rising price of HowNet database resources and budget reasons, the library adjusted the ordering scheme.
Although the high price increase frequently aroused protests from colleges and universities, most schools will continue to cooperate because of the irreplaceable content of HowNet database resources in the later stage. “Some teachers and students are also inseparable from the HowNet. If they need to publish papers, they will force the school to renew them. We have used the HowNet for more than ten years. It has a long time and a wide variety, and the income of periodicals and media resources is dozens of times that of other companies.” Liu Bin said.
The aforementioned book industry insiders told reporters: “from China, now HowNet has a monopoly position, and everyone depends on it. The most important thing is that the publication and query of articles are basically through HowNet, which is inseparable from it. In this process, it gradually monopolizes and has absolute bargaining power.”
can’t afford a lawsuit
China HowNet belongs to Tongfang HowNet (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. Tianyancha shows that Wang Mingliang, the legal representative of tongfangzhiwang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of US $1 million, belongs to the headquarters of Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) (hereinafter referred to as ” Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) “, Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) . SH) knowledge industry network, and Tsinghua holdings is the largest shareholder of Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) . Public information shows that CNKI was jointly launched by Tsinghua University and Tsinghua Tongfang and was founded in June 1999.
The picture comes from the recruitment poster of China HowNet in 2020
According to the official website data of CNKI, CNKI currently has 27000 institutional users in more than 50 countries and regions around the world, with a total of 2 billion documents downloaded annually. Users include university scientific research, party and government enterprises and their think tanks, public security, procuratorial and legal forces, medicine and health, primary and secondary schools and rural areas. Among them, 76% of the world’s top 500 universities are university users.
In Liu Bin’s view, HowNet did seize business opportunities in the past, meet market needs, and gradually develop to a dominant position in the market, so it has the absolute bargaining power now. “In particular, some economically developed cities in the East really needed this product at that time. HowNet did some useful things to meet the market demand.”
Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) was listed in 2008. Its first financial report data showed that tongfangzhiwang had a revenue of 274 million yuan in 2006, with a gross profit margin of 48.5%, which has been stable at more than 50% since 2007, with a maximum gross profit margin of 72.1%. Revenue is also rising all the way, from 274 million yuan in 2006 to 1.168 billion yuan in 2020.
Liu Bin believes that the vision of HowNet is keen, but the charge of HowNet in the later stage is too high and unreasonable, and the legitimacy of its access to resources is controversial.
The main customers of HowNet are teachers and students of scientific research institutes and universities. It can not be ignored that this group is also its main product source. “HowNet does not have the ability of originality, but arranges and combines the products needed by the market, and then packages and sells them to customers.” Liu Bin explained that if scientific research institutes and university teachers and students are regarded as a whole, it is equivalent to HowNet using the author’s works and selling them to the author. However, in terms of intellectual property rights, the author’s products are sold to the author in the form of sales, and the use right is still the author’s.
\u3000\u3000 “I have to admit that the author has gained a wider range of demand through HowNet, which is the contribution of the platform, but the platform itself has no core production capacity. It still depends on the buyer, that is, the author’s works, and should maintain a reasonable profit acceptable to everyone. At present, HowNet has formed a strong sales behavior by taking advantage of its monopoly position in the market, which is not only beyond the affordability of schools and scientific research institutes, but also beyond the affordability of many individuals I can’t get up. ” Liu Bin said.
More and more problems are exposed. Previously, in December 2021, Zhao Dexin, a retired old professor of Zhongnan University of economics and law, sued HowNet, which reprinted more than 160 articles without paying a penny. Zhao Dexin had to pay for downloading his papers.
“My personal rights protection is secondary. I hope to protect intellectual property rights and the enthusiasm of intellectuals for innovation.” Zhao Dexin told the media that she had appealed to protect her rights since 2013. Finally, the court ruled that Zhao Dexin won the lawsuit and won a compensation of more than 700000 yuan.
The incident immediately caused a heated debate, but behind it, a considerable number of authors faced the same problem, but they could not solve it and could only suffer a loss. An interviewee told reporters that he had two papers sent to HowNet without consent, one of which was downloaded more than 3000 times, but so far he has not received any royalties. “I went to the magazine that originally published the article and asked. They said that they had no authorization and that HowNet grabbed it by itself.”
On December 10, 2021, HowNet issued an apology to Zhao Dexin in the “explanation on the relevant issues of” Professor Zhao Dexin suing China HowNet for compensation “, and said that since 2019, China HowNet has opened an author service platform. Once all authors are registered in their real names, they can use their works for free indefinitely, manage their academic achievements, and track the academic impact of their research achievements at any time.
“Professor Zhao has the energy to file a lawsuit only after he retires. It is difficult for ordinary teachers to protect their rights, because during their employment, they have to evaluate their professional titles by publishing papers. As soon as they file a lawsuit, the HowNet deletes all the author’s articles, which is a very contradictory thing.” Lawyer Zhao Hu, equity partner of Beijing Zhongwen law firm, told reporters, “many teachers have complained to me about HowNet. They have to pay for downloading their papers on HowNet. This is also unfair. Purely from the perspective of law, I suggest you take up the weapon of law to protect your rights.”
sell products to producers
Where do HowNet’s papers usually come from?
Liu Bin told reporters that in addition to the secondary processing of content captured by the whole network, the main access channel of HowNet is to reach agreements with some academic journals. The magazine will sell articles to HowNet cheaply for tens of thousands of yuan a year, or provide HowNet browsing card and reading card. Liu Bin, for example, said that the provincial-level periodicals cost twenty or thirty thousand a year. For the periodicals with large circulation, the lowest price of an article is a few cents. If it is uploaded to the HowNet, it will change, and the price will be a few yuan or even dozens of yuan.
Screenshot of HowNet official website
Liu Bin further explained to reporters that for journals and magazines, what they value is not the twenty or thirty thousand yuan, but the influence of HowNet platform. “On the one hand, it is a good thing for scholars or authors, and their works can be spread more widely; on the other hand, the media also want to have their voice on the knowledge network.”
“But this kind of cooperation actually has serious inequality. Newspapers and periodicals have no bargaining power, and HowNet has strong bargaining power.” Liu Bin said, “it also involves the integrity of the power chain. The magazine uploads its works to the Internet without the author’s written consent or retention of written consent. This sublicense violates the author’s right to information network communication.”
Zhao Hu added: “the main problem of this model is whether these journals have the right to authorize the right of information network dissemination to the HowNet? The way of journals is to use notices to explain that submitting contributions is regarded as agreeing to be included in the HowNet. Can this notice play this role? This is also a very controversial issue in practice. Contract law of the people’s Republic of China” It stipulates that the standard terms can not be used to exclude the main rights of one party, which is equivalent to excluding the author’s right to receive remuneration. Therefore, now some courts have found that these notices are invalid. “
Liu Bin also revealed to reporters that HowNet has signed exclusive contracts with colleges and universities in some cooperation. “The terms signed by some colleges and universities stipulate that other similar platforms are not allowed to be used during the use of HowNet. This kind of unfair competition is very obvious. Even if the signing price will be appropriately cheap, it will not be very obvious.”
The reporter consulted Zhao Hu on this matter. He believed that if HowNet prohibited the trading counterpart from trading with others, it would be an abuse of market dominance and a violation of the anti-monopoly law.
As for whether HowNet is in a monopoly position, Zhaohu said that we should first define what the relevant market is, and then determine what the monopoly position is. “As far as I know, compared with traditional monopoly enterprises, HowNet’s profit has not reached that large, so it can only be regarded as a small enterprise. However, in a relatively narrow field, HowNet’s market share is very high, so how to define the relevant market is particularly important to determine whether there is a monopoly position in the market. This is an economic analysis, which is not easy to judge.”
