Recently, Tencent's "Dawn Plan" has stirred up thousands of waves at Station B.
A number of up owners complained that there were many problems in the landing of the above plan. For example, the settlement fee and work traffic income of the promised up owner are not in place; after the entry, the video posted by the up owner on other platforms is complained about being removed; the up owner cannot independently withdraw from the plan and the Penguin account is difficult to cancel.
In addition to Tencent, mcN institutions as "middlemen" have been pushed to the forefront of public opinion. Under pressure, MCN agency staff also can't help but jump out and break the news, the platform sets a threshold for entry, does not meet the standards and does not issue a head fee, and Tencent looks at the closure of the "recommendation pool", resulting in the up owner and themselves can not get the work traffic and income.
Due to the different opinions of all parties, this plan intended to invite up owners to enter the Tencent Penguin platform through MCN institutions is like a Rashomon. On November 17, Tencent announced the termination of the Dawn Project and apologized to the creators. After the platform apologized, can this storm be over?
"Recruitment"
200 yuan settlement fee, traffic support, withdrawal at any time
On July 28, Tencent's content open platform announced the launch of the "Dawn Plan".
According to Tencent, the "Dawn Plan" hopes that under the premise of obtaining the authorization of creators, THE MCN agency will invite creators to settle in and help them operate, so that creators can get benefits on Tencent's various content platforms. It is reported that the platform Penguin was established in June 2016 and is a one-stop content creation and operation platform created by Tencent.
According to the requirements of the platform, the MCN institutions participating in the plan need to introduce external authors to settle in and complete the relevant document issuance tasks within the specified time. In return, the platform will offer cash rewards, various tools, benefits and operational services.
Under various incentives, MCN institutions began to recruit for Tencent. Nandu reporter interview found that some MCN institutions promised to the B station up master that after successful settlement, they will get a reward of 200 yuan, and the works will automatically be synchronized to several major platforms of Tencent, without the need for the up master to carry it by himself. The final work income will be calculated according to the total number of plays, up to 30 yuan / 10,000 times. These proceeds are divided between mcn agencies and up masters on a three-seven basis. In addition, the platform will also give certain traffic support.
Such a commitment once touched the hearts of many creators. The owner of Station B, "Cantonese Black Tea House", said that the original intention of choosing to join the "Dawn Project" was to prevent people from impersonating to register for porting. An up owner who asked for anonymity told Nandu reporters that mcN agency staff invited themselves very early and claimed that they could quit at any time without any risk. After a little "examining" the mcnogical organization's registration, the staff's circle of friends, and the relevant online comments, he chose to believe it.
So, how do you join the Dawn Project? Specifically, the up master needs to register through the QQ number, and the MCN agency obtains the creator's QQ number and mobile phone number before sending an invitation link to the creator. After the up owner accepts the invitation to settle in, it will become a matrix account under the MCN institution and form a sub-parent account relationship with the MCN account. The traffic proceeds of the works are settled and withdrawn by the MCN agency, and the two parties share them proportionally.
On the communication channels, the creator's video will be "transported" to the eight major platforms of Weishi, QQ Space, QQ Watchpoint, WatchPoint Quicksurance, WeChat, QQ Browser, Tencent News, and Tencent Video.
It is worth noting that at the bottom of the invitation page, there are also two specific agreements marked in small blue characters - "Penguin Matrix Authorization and Commitment" and "Revenue to Be Settled Authorization Commitment", which need to be clicked on by the owner himself.
"Doubtful Clouds"
The income is not in place, the complaint is taken down, and the up owner launches an escape plan
Originally, it was a good thing to help creators increase the exposure of their works and achieve multi-platform drainage, why is there so much controversy?
According to the Nandu reporter, the earliest questions were raised by the up master", "cool wind" and "mint small dreams", and then the doubts snowballed like a snowball. According to the data, as of 18:00 on November 18, the video playback of "Mint Dream" has exceeded 6.9 million, and the number of likes has reached the level of one million.
Nandu reporter combed a number of up main speeches to understand that the doubts first focused on the early MCN agency promised that the benefits were not in place. Many creators reported that they did not receive a 200 yuan settlement fee at all. "At the beginning, I was very enthusiastic, I had to answer questions, and after moving in, I felt that I had forgotten about this person, and the settlement fee was not given to me." There is an up lord to the Nandu reporter said.
In addition, the "maximum 30 yuan / 10,000 plays" incentive fund hyped by MCN institutions has also been questioned about playing word games. B station up main "grape sweetheart" in the video complained, "the upper limit may be 30 yuan, but the lower limit may be 1 cent, up the main 'or cut leeks'." ”
The owner of the up, whose pseudonym is "Snorter", told Nandu reporters that although he got 200 incentive payments, the two videos synchronized to the Penguin did not get the high traffic imagined. "About 10,000 video plays are less than two dollars in revenue, and seven or three points." Under the same conditions, our income at Station B should have more than ten blocks. ”
The B station up master "Angel Grand Attack" also reflected that the three videos he was transported to the Penguin had a total of 2,000 views and a revenue of 0.17 yuan.
Not only that, but there are also up owners who reported that after entering the Penguin platform, the videos they posted on other platforms were complained about being removed. Up owners suspect that the previously signed agreement may involve exclusive authorization, and then ask other platforms to remove videos on the grounds of "exclusive copyright" by the platform party or MCN agency.
"Angel Grand Attack" noted that the videos they posted on the Douyu platform were restricted from viewing due to copyright disputes. He suspected penguin of labeling the video "exclusive" when handling it, and instead reported his own video of Fighting Fish.
Another up-and-comer, "Silla reiss," also mentioned the "MCN agency reported the removal of the video" in the relevant video. However, when the Nandu reporter asked him about it, he said that it was inconvenient to disclose specific details, but added that there were about 5 owners like him who reflected substantial damage.
From "exclusive authorization" to "complaint removal" doubts shrouded in the hearts of many up owners, in order to prevent being "trapped" by the Penguin family, many people have retreated.
Contrary to the previous "termination of the contract at any time" rhetoric, the road to termination of the contract of the lord is not easy to follow. Since the penguin number of the up owner is a sub-account of the MCN institution, it needs to be agreed by the MCN institution to unbind and withdraw. Coupled with the settlement of income, at first the up owner still had to wait for a 90-day untiing period.
As a result, the up owners plan to cancel their accounts to escape the "Dawn Project". But to their surprise, Penguin didn't even offer a cancellation option at first. Subsequently, under the reflection of many parties, Penguin went online to cancel the channel independently, canceling the 90-day unbinding period, but still needed to wait until the seven-day freeze period. Later, the up master can be logged off at any time.
The anonymous owner interviewed said that he also experienced twists and turns to complete the cancellation. "Penguin ignored the money but wanted to increase video exposure, so I wrote 'the same name on all platforms' on the profile. Later, Tencent thought that the profile did not meet the specifications and was not allowed to pass, so I deleted that sentence, and the result was that the customer service believed that I had modified my personal information. ”
Modifying his personal information directly led to the inability to cancel the account within 30 days, which was the first time he went to Tencent customer service to learn about it. After seeking help from MCN agencies without success, he asked Tencent customer service again before he finally wrote off.
"Rashomon"
MCN institutions broke the news that Tencent's "recommendation pool" closed plan
In this controversy, it is necessary to mention the MCN agency, which is also criticized by the up owners.
As early as the launch of the "Dawn Plan", Tencent intends to use the mature MCN institutional strength to expand creator resources as soon as possible. At that time, Tencent required that there were no less than 1,000 actual control talents under the MCN institutions participating in the plan, all of whom were directly signed by the institutions; they had tencent's experience in the operation of the content open platform and were familiar with the platform operation model; and they had mature experience in such activities and had an independent team to support the introduction of foreign website authors.
Sun Lei, a partner at Beijing Yuanhe Law Firm and the owner of the game up at Station B, told Nandu reporters that most platforms will encourage the management of up owners through MCN institutions in order to facilitate management, and pay directly to MCN institutions. At the same time, MCN institutions can also apply for various resources and traffic to the platform according to their own advantages, and then distribute them to their UP owners; for example, the up owners backed by MCN institutions can generally withdraw unlimited cash, and the golden file is not limited to flow.
However, in the actual recruitment process, MCN agencies have many problems. For example, whether the MCN institution meets the requirements of Tencent's "under the umbrella of the organization directly signed" is doubtful. Many of the respondents mentioned that there was no agreement with the MCN agency; and the agreement signed by the up owner did not contain a clause clarifying the relationship between the MCN institution and the creator.
In addition, there are successive up owners who suspect that MCN institutions can get 2,000 yuan per head fee from the Tencent platform for every head pulled, but only one-tenth of the head fee paid to the up owner is directly not issued for knitting. Moreover, in the "complaint removal" problem that the owner of the up is very disgusted with, the MCN agency also has a lot of suspicions.
Doubts abounded, and the MCN agency also began to sit still and take the initiative to expose the news to the up master. On November 14, the owner of Station B, "The Wonderful Life of two dogs", released a breaking news video, the content originated from a self-proclaimed MCN staff.
According to the video, the head fee given by the platform to the MCN agency is not a uniform 2000 / person, the more the number, the higher the unit price of the head fee. In fact, the settled up owner needs to publish a certain number of videos within the time limit, and the platform will determine the success of the settlement and then issue the head fee; if it does not meet the standard, it will not send money, which is also the reason why some up owners cannot receive the settlement fee.
In addition, the platform requires MCN institutions to follow the standard of 200 yuan of settlement fees and 73 proportional shares, if MCN institutions violate the rules, once found, they will be deducted points, cancel the cooperation of the month and even withdrawn.
Regarding the problem that the video revenue is too low, according to the explanation of the breaking news, the penguin mainly plays the port in Tencent' viewing point, but the MCN agency's crazy pulling mode has led to some video quality not being able to keep up, and the video quality synchronized to Tencent's point of view is even more worrying, so Tencent point of view directly closed the recommendation pool of the "Dawn Plan".
However, nandu reporter noted that Tencent insiders said in an interview on the Economic Observer Network that Tencent did not restrict the flow of Penguin, and the video was distributed on multiple platforms.
At this point, this "Dawn Project" storm is like a Rashomon.
"Dawn"
Tencent apologized to the creators and announced the termination of the plan
On November 17, the "Dawn Project" storm is finally expected to bid farewell to "darkness" and usher in "dawn".
On the same day, Tencent's content open platform released the "Explanation of Apologies on terminating the "Dawn Project" project". Tencent said that the poor management of the plan in the implementation process, coupled with the imperfect design of some products, caused many problems, and was willing to accept all criticism and apologize to the creators.
According to the statement, the creators who have settled in can log out by canceling their accounts, and the personal information and all works under the account will be emptied; and the proceeds before the cancellation can be settled normally, without handling the MCN agency. If creators want to continue to operate, Tencent will continue to provide services. In response to the problem that the account cannot be cancelled, the cancellation channel has been opened on November 9.
Regarding the statement that "Penguin uses video content to complain about originality to other platforms, and even cracks down on the creator's original external platform account", Tencent directly denied it, and said that the creator's authorization is non-exclusive and will not make original complaints about the outside site. If the creator encounters a malicious complaint from MCN, he can report it to customer service, and Tencent will also verify and deal with it.
On the issue of copyright, Tencent particularly emphasizes that the intellectual property rights of any content uploaded or published by creators when participating in the "Dawn Project" belong to the creator or the original copyright owner.
Recalling the Penguin Matrix Authorization and Undertaking, which stipulates that "from the date of signing of these Rules, you have irrevocably authorized to the Tencent Company the rights of permanent information network dissemination, reproduction, translation, compilation and adaptation rights of the content you create or enjoy intellectual property rights published under your account, as well as the rights to protect the rights of the above rights and related sub-licensing rights." ”
After browsing the full text of the relevant agreement, Luo Xiangjing, a partner at Beijing Jiadong Law Firm, told Nandu reporters that no restrictions such as "exclusive" and "exclusive" were found. And according to strict understanding, the above provisions cannot mean that Tencent has exclusive, exclusive and exclusive copyrights to the content created and published by creators.
Sun Lei believes that the text of the electronic agreement seen on the Internet at present does not clearly reflect the exclusive restrictions, and even does not have the restrictions on the right to make the first offering. According to his understanding, the general video platform will not limit the transmission channels, because many up owners operate multiple platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Douyin, and B station at the same time. Therefore, video platforms often care about the right to launch, such as requiring the first launch of the platform within 12 hours.
However, Luo Xiangjing also mentioned that in the "right to information network ... under the expression that such rights and the rights to protect the rights of the above rights and the related sub-authorization rights are irrevocably granted to the Tencent Company", if Tencent requires other platforms to remove content from the shelves, other platforms must have the author's authorization documents, otherwise it is difficult to provide effective defenses.
"Before you confirm any of the terms, you must read them in their entirety." Up the main "engineering plastic jun" in the video while browsing the content of the agreement sighed.
It is worth noting that Tencent also mentioned that if the published content involves infringement of the copyright of other content, there may be a risk of being protected by the copyright owner. This may mean that the reason for the removal of some of the main videos is "two-creation" infringement.
Weibo blogger @Scissors Spit Bot told Nandu reporters that he had previously encountered up owners who said that they had been complained about because of the "Dawn Plan", but they could not confirm the real reason behind it. "Tencent can indeed use film and television copyright to remove videos, the voice of the small ups is too small, and the information on both sides is not equal." In his view, Tencent's response is also to use the "two innovations" copyright issue to knock up the owners.
In addition, Tencent said it received many questions about the operation of MCN institutions, including the promise that the settlement fee was not fulfilled, MCN maliciously reported the account, or was asked for the creator's account and password on the third-party platform when moving in. Tencent said that after the termination of the project, it will continue to follow up on all related issues.
@Scissorsman spit bot frankly, "I hope that capital does not always think of squeezing the value generated by fans and creators for love, this is a process of trust breakdown, perhaps in the future creators will lose confidence in the platform, directly 'lightning protection' of the entire goose system (Tencent) products, which is also not worth the loss for goose (Tencent). ”
Producer: Nandu Anti-Monopoly Research Group
Written by: Nandu reporter Huang Liling Huang Huishi