Research conclusion
According to the State Administration of market supervision and administration on May 13, the State Administration of market supervision and administration filed an investigation into the suspected monopoly of HowNet according to the law according to the preliminary verification. On the same day, HowNet announced its firm support and full cooperation. At the same time, HowNet will take this investigation as an opportunity to conduct profound self-examination, comprehensive self-examination, complete rectification, operate in accordance with the law, innovate the development model, and assume the social responsibility of China’s knowledge infrastructure.
China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) is an information construction project aimed at realizing the dissemination, sharing and Value-added Utilization of knowledge resources in the whole society. It was initiated by Tsinghua University and Tsinghua Tongfang. It was founded in June 1999 and was strongly supported by the state in the process of establishment. From the current business scope and profitability, according to Tongfang technology’s 2021 annual report, Tongfang Zhiwang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in Internet publishing and service business. At present, it has formed a “China Zhiwang” (CNKI) portal to provide users with China knowledge resources database, China Academic Journal Database, China doctoral and master’s thesis database, China Yearbook Full-text Database A series of Internet publishing tools, as well as China’s Internet publishing resources. According to the financial data, tongfangzhiwang’s operating revenue reached 1.289 billion yuan in 2021, with a net profit of 194 million yuan and a gross profit margin of 53.35%, which is the highest of all holding and participating subsidiaries announced by Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) announcement. According to the anti monopoly law, if an operator violates the provisions of this Law and abuses its dominant market position, the anti-monopoly law enforcement agency shall order it to stop the illegal act, confiscate the illegal income and impose a fine of more than 1% and less than 10% of the sales of the previous year. Since 2021, Alibaba and meituan have been fined a total of more than 20 billion yuan.
Prior to this investigation, HowNet has received extensive attention from the society for similar reasons for many times: (1) Professor Zhao Dexin of Central South University of Finance and economics had an infringement dispute with China Academic Journal (CD version) e-magazine Co., Ltd. (the “operator of China HowNet”), saying that HowNet included articles without its authorization, and never paid royalties to it, violating the right of information network dissemination of its works, Finally, HowNet was judged to compensate Professor Zhao Dexin for more than 700000 yuan and made a public apology for this. On December 10, 2021, HowNet issued an apology statement; (2) Guo Bing, a distinguished associate professor of the school of law and politics of Zhejiang University of technology, filed a lawsuit against the parent company of HowNet Tsinghua Tongfang Co.Ltd(600100) , Tongfang HowNet Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd., which provides technical services for HowNet, and China Academic Journal (CD version) electronic magazine Co., Ltd., which undertakes the content construction of HowNet, asking the three defendants to stop abusing their dominant market position, Open the academic misconduct detection system service to individual users including Guo Bing, and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 10000 yuan. On March 21, 2022, Hangzhou intermediate people’s court officially decided to file a case for acceptance; (3) On April 19, 2022, in response to the storm of “the Chinese Academy of Sciences stopped using HowNet for tens of millions of subscription fees”, HowNet issued a statement that it would continue to provide services to the Chinese Academy of Sciences; (4) On April 25 this year, when replying to the online message, the State Administration of market supervision and Administration said that it had paid attention to the suspected monopoly of HowNet reflected in all aspects and was carrying out relevant work in accordance with the law.
Whether HowNet is involved in monopoly or infringement needs the final judgment of relevant institutions such as antitrust. However, this case filing investigation shows that: (1) HowNet has been involved in public opinion storms for many times in recent years, which has been thoroughly investigated, releasing the signal of antitrust work responding to social concerns and highlighting the authority of the rule of law; (2) Normalized regulation continues. On April 29, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee stressed that “we should promote the healthy development of the platform economy, complete the special rectification of the platform economy, implement normalized supervision, and introduce specific measures to support the standardized and healthy development of the platform economy”. For the platform enterprises, especially the academic infrastructure such as HowNet, the possible infringement and monopoly behaviors damage fairness and justice and are not conducive to the maximization of knowledge value, The fundamental purpose of stricter supervision is to standardize the business behavior of the platform, promote the healthy development of the industry, and further realize the dissemination, sharing and Value-added Utilization of knowledge resources in the whole society.
Risk tips
New regulatory risk events in the fields of cross-border data transmission, personal information protection and antitrust of Internet enterprises;
The supervision of Internet enterprises has further increased the pressure on youth employment.
