In 2000, Yao Jinbo, who had just graduated from college, unfortunately encountered a black intermediary. This gave him an idea: "Create a platform to leave black intermediaries with nowhere to go." With this original intention, Yao Jinbo founded 58.com in 2005 and became one of the pioneers of China's Internet industry.

On August 9, a piece of news made 58.com, which had been silent for a long time, once again become the focus of public attention: According to NetEase Finance, 58.com collected a large amount of personal information of graduates under the guise of recruitment, and sold it to various training institutions at high prices ranging from 30 to 2,000 yuan. These training institutions used these resumes to contact graduates, and under the guise of providing employment guidance and career planning, they sold them various training courses and made profits from them.

It is reported that 58.com also collected commissions from these training institutions, making a profit of more than 2 million yuan in more than a year, and nearly 20 companies cooperated with it to purchase resumes.

Ironically, just a few hours ago, 58.com released data, announcing that in the first half of this year, 58.com had banned more than 3.78 million accounts of illegal recruiters, blocked more than 49.5 million risky logins, deleted more than 20.77 million high-ranking recruitment posts, and issued recruitment warnings to 2.71 million vulnerable job seekers.

From cracking down on black intermediaries, to developing into a black intermediary stronghold, and then to becoming a black intermediary itself, the 18-year-old 58.com finally became the person it hated.

Negative magical website

In fact, in recent years, 58.com, this "magical website", has been plagued by negative news and has attracted public attention almost every year due to similar news.

For example, recruitment has always been a major disaster area for 58.com, and it is even called a "scammers' concentration area", with numerous cases of black intermediaries. The scammers' methods include but are not limited to using high salaries to attract job seekers, requiring job seekers to pay for physical examinations, training, deposits, clothing fees, etc.

I have many friends who have been deceived. They were attracted by the high salary and then were told to go to a specific training institution to pay high tuition fees for training. If the job seeker does not have money, the training institution will also trick him into applying for online loans to pay the fees. This can be called "the first online loan for young people". The tuition for this "first lesson" in entering society is really not low.

It is also worth mentioning that this is not the first time that 58.com has been in the news for "selling resume data."

As early as 2017, the media discovered that some Taobao e-commerce companies were selling "58.com resume data". A shop owner told reporters: "If you buy more than 20,000 copies at a time, it's 30 cents per piece; if you buy more than 100,000, it's 20 cents per piece. We have as many as you want, and it's updated in real time across the country." There are also stores that directly sell crawler software for a few hundred yuan, so that buyers can collect 58.com data themselves. The owner said: "This software has become very popular."

The Cambodian "blood slave" incident that caused an uproar on the Internet also involved 58.com. Afterwards, cases of 58.com being scammed and involved in fraud, pyramid schemes, prostitution, and drug trafficking gangs were reported on a large scale.

It's hard to find an excuse this time.

If the previous "resume sales" and "black recruitment agencies" could be explained away by "data leakage" and "illegal accounts", then what NetEase Finance exposed this time was that 58 Group collected and sold graduates' resumes under the guise of recruitment, which was a case of the platform knowingly breaking the law.

On November 1, 2021, the "Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" was officially implemented. This is the first law in my country specifically aimed at the protection of personal information. It aims to regulate personal information processing activities, protect personal information rights and interests, and promote the reasonable use of information data.

The law clarifies the principles and rules that should be followed in the processing of personal information, and sets strict legal responsibilities for illegal collection, use, processing, transmission, provision, disclosure and other acts that infringe on the rights and interests of personal information. The introduction of this law provides a comprehensive and systematic legal basis for the protection of personal information rights and interests, the obligations of information processors and the scope of authority of competent authorities, and together with laws and regulations such as the National Security Law, the Cybersecurity Law, the Civil Code and the Data Security Law, it has built a legal dam for the protection of personal information.

58 Group's behavior of reselling graduates' resumes not only violates the provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law, but also violates the social responsibility and moral bottom line of 58 Group as a recruitment platform. Article 4 of the Personal Information Protection Law stipulates that the processing of personal information shall follow the principles of legality, legitimacy and necessity, and shall not exceed the scope of achieving clear, specific and legal purposes.

Article 13 stipulates that personal information processors shall clearly inform and obtain the consent of the personal information subject before collecting personal information, unless otherwise provided by laws and regulations. Article 22 stipulates that personal information processors shall take necessary measures to protect the security of personal information and prevent the leakage, damage, or loss of personal information. Article 43 stipulates that personal information processors shall not sell or illegally provide personal information to others in any form.

Article 64 stipulates that if anyone violates the provisions of this Law and sells or illegally provides personal information to others, the relevant departments shall order him to stop the illegal behavior, confiscate the illegal gains, and impose a fine of not less than RMB 10 million and not more than RMB 50 million; if the circumstances are serious, the relevant license or business license shall be revoked.

How did the former Internet pioneer fall to this point?

The development of 58.com can be said to be drifting further and further away from Yao Jinbo’s original intention of “no fraud in the world”, and instead it has turned into a well-known “den of scammers”.

The support of the people determines the height of the platform.

The panic exodus of users, coupled with the emergence of powerful competitors in vertical fields such as recruitment, real estate, and second-hand goods, caused 58.com, a pioneer in China's Internet, to fall behind.

In September 2020, 58.com was delisted from Nasdaq. The last financial report before privatization showed that 58.com had a revenue of 2.56 billion yuan and a loss of 55.8 million yuan during the reporting period. In early 2022, the prospectus of Kuaigou Taxi, which was spun off from 58.com, showed that in less than four years, Kuaigou Taxi had accumulated losses of more than 2.3 billion yuan.

Just at the end of last month, 58.com CEO Yao Jinbo issued an internal letter, frankly stating the gap between the current situation and the company's goals, expressing his determination to reform, and putting forward six requirements, including saying goodbye to the big pot meal, making good preparations, deciding whether to keep or leave personnel, shrinking business, and cutting off unprofitable businesses within the year, etc., showing a sense of urgency in the face of the crisis.

Previously, the platform that attracted a large number of scammers could use the "safe harbor" rule to excuse itself, but operational and management issues can hardly be an excuse for knowingly breaking the law and selling user resume data. In the end, 58.com became what it once hated the most.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.