Are you kidnapped by "friendship" when selling goods in the circle of friends?

Since when, many people have found that their WeChat Moments have quietly "changed": the friends who were once familiar suddenly changed their faces, turned into purchasing agents, frantically swiping the screen, posting advertisements for various facial masks and high-end imitation bags...

Some people blocked the user directly, while others were too embarrassed to block the user due to their friendship.

Experts warn that as a social platform for exchanging friendships, Moments should not be allowed to become a commercial tool for "killing old acquaintances", and we should be wary of using this channel for pyramid schemes.

Three faces, all for the word "sell"

The reporter found that there are three types of sellers in the circle of friends.

One type is sellers who only work part-time and make a little money.

Miss Ji, who is studying in Japan, earns extra money by being a purchasing agent. "The Japanese cosmetics circulating in the market are mixed, some are not authentic and the prices are high. Many people choose to buy from Japan and pay through Alipay." Miss Ji has been doing purchasing for more than a year, and about 30% of her customers come through introductions from friends. Because she is not a professional purchasing agent and does not have a fixed purchase and delivery procedure, she posts some cosmetics information on WeChat Moments to understand customer needs. "After class, I go to shopping malls and drugstores in Japan to purchase. Because the postage is expensive, except for special personal direct mail, it is basically a matter of several people pooling the postage."

One type is a professional marketing account. These sellers can gain a lot of attention through marketing methods.

There is also a sales model that is clearly suspected of being a pyramid scheme.

After graduating from university, Ms. Zheng started selling facial masks in her circle of friends, which is one of the most popular product categories. She revealed: "There are three types of facial mask agents. The highest level is the general agent, followed by the first-level agent, the second-level agent and the network distributor. As long as you master the skills, it is not a problem to earn 10,000 yuan a month. The higher the agent's specifications, the lower the purchase price."

It is worth noting that the model run by Ms. Zheng is the "MLM model" criticized by the outside world. It is understood that in this model, high-level agents get cheap products from factories and then sell them to downline agents. They develop downline agents to earn the difference, and the product quality does not matter, it is just a prop for passing the parcel.

From "embarrassment" to "blacklisting", how far is the distance?

Li Xiaoyu, who just graduated from university this year, said that she cooperated with luxury goods imitation factories and sold goods in WeChat Moments. A genuine Louis Vuitton travel bag, a high-end imitation, only sold for 700 to 800 yuan, which met the needs of some women.

But Li Xiaoyu said she also noticed that frequent screen swiping made her friends unhappy.

What do you think about selling goods in WeChat Moments? According to the interviews with reporters, there are basically three attitudes.

One is the indifferent attitude. "I won't buy it anyway."

One is "It's OK, I'm too lazy to look online, it's also good to look at the products on my phone."

Some citizens said that selling goods on WeChat Moments is "convenient and acceptable". "As long as the price is reasonable and the goods are genuine, I will buy them on WeChat Moments, but only with friends I am very familiar with," said Chen Xi, a Shenyang citizen.

Another attitude is very firm. "My Moments are flooded with ads, I hate it! I must block them."

Xiong Lian, a resident of Chengdu, gave an example of a person she knows who adds everyone she can talk to as a WeChat friend, and then "the whole screen is filled with her fake bags, which is simply visual pollution. It's best not to blatantly promote products among acquaintances. I block everyone I see."

Yuanyuan, who is in his third year of college, said that most of the sellers are college students, who usually do it as a part-time job. If some old classmates who haven't contacted for a long time suddenly contacted them, they were mostly trying to promote their own products. "I wanted to refuse, but because of my face, I couldn't refuse and had to help forward one. If I blocked it, the other party would find out, and I would feel embarrassed. But the screen was too flooded, so I had to block it. After blocking it, the world became much quieter!"

How long can social media platforms “sell goods” last?

A big problem is that buying and selling in the circle of friends is far more than just face and psychology.

Experts remind us that selling goods in the circle of friends is different from opening a WeChat store. The payment method is agreed upon by both parties, and the transactions between consumers are purely personal transactions. There is no third party involved in guarantee and supervision. If you buy fakes or get cheated, or if you are cheated by an acquaintance, you often can only suffer in silence.

Zhang Baoyi, director of the Institute of Sociology of the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said that WeChat Moments is a social platform and that commercial activities will be resisted by some people if they are involved. He suggested that business people group their Moments into groups and add customer groups separately to distinguish them from the groups of relatives and friends.

Yi Tianxiang, partner of Tianjin YunGong Law Firm, said that selling goods in WeChat Moments depends on the nature of the goods and the sales method. "If it is suspected of infringing intellectual property rights, selling fake goods is against the law. Products that require franchise, such as tobacco, are not allowed to be sold privately. Pyramid schemes that disrupt the economic order are criminal acts that are prohibited by law and severely cracked down on."

Zhang Baoyi believes that we should be alert to the situation of giving the green light to pyramid schemes in the integration of social media and e-commerce. Pyramid schemes that prey on old customers and pyramid schemes that use the mobile Internet are more covert. When regulatory authorities receive clues from public reports, they also need to obtain relevant evidence, such as current account information, goods circulation, and fund transaction records.

Industry insiders said that acquaintance credit cannot replace commercial credit, and the continued market still depends on the quality and reputation of the goods and services themselves. Selling goods in the circle of friends may be popular for a while, but in the long run, as the trading platform improves, this trading method will gradually weaken.

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.