WeChat business survey in WeChat Moments: Pyramid scheme-like fraud and huge profits coexist

After the sales of “Friends Circle” became popular, some people said that it would become the next Taobao. In the second half of 2014, overseas purchasing, facial mask wholesale, weight loss products and even Buddha amulets finally began to sweep the circle of friends. Different from the chicken soup for the soul model that was once a small business, the booming micro-store model has attracted public attention to a large number of “micro-business” groups that claim to have an annual income of more than one million.

Since the beginning of this year, negative news about "WeChat business" has begun to increase. According to reports, Zhou Menghan, a girl born in the 1990s, went to Austria to study. After returning to China, she created an "Internet celebrity" identity, accumulated 100,000 fans and sold facial masks, claiming that her annual income was nearly eight figures. In February this year, many buyers complained that the inferior facial masks had ruined their looks, and Zhou disappeared.

Zhou is just a typical member of this "micro-business" trend. The endless emergence of micro-business training institutions indicates that this industry is still in rapid growth. Unlike the scattered guerrillas in the past, some large e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Suning are also using the micro-business model to expand channels. At the same time, some young micro-businesses have also begun to try platform-based operations. The chaotic micro-business industry may be changed.

Similar to pyramid scheme

At the end of 2014, the sales of facial masks in WeChat Moments began to explode. Statistics show that currently more than 80% of the products sold through WeChat Moments are facial masks.

A facial mask agent described the agency model of facial mask sales to Tencent Technology:

1. There is no need to join the agent, you can become a facial mask sales agent by directly purchasing goods worth about 1,000 yuan;

2. Brand agents have multiple levels. The more goods you purchase, the higher the level. According to him, the highest-level agents need to purchase more than 100,000 yuan of goods at a time;

3. After becoming a senior agent, you can develop offline agents.

According to the mask agent, the purchase price of each level is different, and the income from the price difference is much higher than direct sales. She claimed to be a second-level agent of the brand, and her net income is about 200,000 yuan per month.

This model is hard not to be associated with pyramid schemes. The current definition of pyramid schemes is: the act of enticing people to join the organization and collecting membership fees in the name of selling or promoting goods as the main way of making profits. An important basis for identifying pyramid schemes is whether their bonus distribution system has a pyramid distribution.

Lawyer Zhao Zhanling told Tencent Technology: "If they are just selling products under the guise of being agents, but actually sell very few products and mainly make profits by developing downline members, they may be suspected of pyramid selling."

The mask agent further told Tencent Technology that the work of WeChat merchants is very simple, as long as they keep updating their Moments every day. Regarding the quality of the goods, the agent admitted to Tencent Technology that many WeChat merchants only forward pictures from their superior agents and are unaware of the quality of the goods: "When a customer requests a product, the WeChat merchant collects the customer's money and then forwards the customer's request information and the cost of the product to the superior agent, who then ships the product to the customer based on the information."

Zhao Zhanling said that even if WeChat merchants accidentally participated in the sale of counterfeit goods, they still have to bear responsibility: "For such sellers, if they sell counterfeit goods, they should also bear the responsibility of paying consumers three times the price of the counterfeit goods. It's just that it's difficult for consumers to protect their rights. For example, it's sometimes difficult to prove the seller's true identity, and the cost of protecting rights is high and difficult to enforce."

Software fraud

If you search on search engines such as Baidu, you will find a large number of micro-business training institutions.

According to Tencent Technology, the vast majority of training institutions use the slogan of "getting rich overnight". There are reports that even if it is a less well-known brand, as long as it uses the gimmick of micro-business, it is very common for thousands of people to attend and even invite celebrities to appear.

A WeChat business operator who has participated in many training sessions told Tencent Technology about the enthusiasm of the event: "There were slogans and mobilizations, and some people even brought their families to participate."

During the training, more "dry goods" were shared, mainly including "secrets to add people" and "clever sharing on WeChat Moments". According to industry insiders, most of the promotional methods currently circulating on the Internet are real.

At the same time, most training institutions will also require members to purchase two types of software. The first type is software for automatically adding friends on WeChat, which can add fans based on region, age, and gender; the second type is software such as "WeChat conversation generator" and "transfer screenshot maker", which can automatically generate pictures of WeChat conversations and transfer screenshots.

Tencent Technology then tried to download a "WeChat conversation generator". Just by following the prompts, it was possible to quickly generate screenshots of the conversation. The software not only allows you to arbitrarily set the avatars, nicknames, and conversation content of both parties, but also allows you to insert voice, which is no different from a real chat record.

According to a Taobao shop owner, this type of dialogue generator has a long history, and its application is not limited to WeChat stores. In the grassroots stage of Taobao entrepreneurship, many Taobao shop owners also used similar software for promotion.

According to relevant persons from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, the use of online tools such as "dialogue generators" to commit fraud is deceptive. Although these software technologies themselves are not illegal, the use of cheating software by micro-businesses to fabricate transaction volumes and buyer reviews, thereby misleading consumers into transactions, is essentially false advertising and has constituted fraud against consumers.

Platform-based micro-business may be a way out

Amid the general decline of WeChat business, some large e-commerce platforms have bucked the trend and started to make arrangements in WeChat business. JD.com's Paipai WeChat Store has launched a plan to recruit 100,000 WeChat business partners and a nationwide tour of "WeChat Business Special Training Camp". Suning encourages employees to open WeChat stores, and Gome (Weibo) has also launched a plan to open 100,000 WeChat stores.

On the surface, this model is still about individuals swiping the WeChat Moments, but the products, logistics, and after-sales service are all supported by large e-commerce companies. In fact, WeChat businesses have already moved away from the personal agency model and entered the distribution model.

According to Tencent Technology, the two e-commerce platforms mentioned above have introduced relatively few offline resources, and are still mainly operated by their own employees. According to industry insiders, "The micro-business model of e-commerce platforms is not only for selling goods, but more importantly, it is to promote and expand channels through the WeChat platform."

According to Suning, some employees have already taken the micro-store model as an important part-time job, and some even earn more than 1,000 yuan a month. Currently, more than 50% of Suning employees have opened Suning micro-stores. Based on Suning's 180,000 employees, there are currently 90,000 micro-stores online. Gome has even promoted micro-stores to the company's strategic level: "Whether Gome can achieve its full retail strategy after 2015 and whether Gome Online can achieve 100% growth depends on employee micro-stores."

In addition to these e-commerce giants, some former WeChat merchants have also begun to look for ways to formalize sales and processes. Li Meng, a post-90s entrepreneur who was once reported by Tencent Technology, made her first fortune from WeChat merchants. After switching to the smart adult products industry, she began to think about how to formalize her WeChat merchant channels and immediately established a WeChat merchant platform "Wei Shang Youpin" focusing on adult products.

According to her, since the end of 2014, more and more first-line micro-businesses have been thinking about "platformization". First, the original gameplay has reached a bottleneck period, and second, some media exposure has made them worry about being impacted. "But micro-business platforms require certain technical strength to build. Many old micro-businesses don't have the patience to spend time and energy on technology, and finally return to the old way."

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.