At present, a new online shopping model has emerged on the Internet, consumers can obtain random goods as long as they recharge and open the blind box, and it is possible to open valuable brand goods. Recently, Nandu reporters investigated this "electronic blind box" platform and found that the blind box platform uses the psychology of small and broad, to put it bluntly, it is a lottery, but the probability of winning the lottery is not transparent, and even suspected of background manipulation. On the Internet, many netizens have reported that they have recharged many times but failed to draw the desired goods, and even the money spent is often higher than the price of the goods. Some legal sources believe that if the "electronic blind box" platform emphasizes the small and broad, and manipulates the probability of winning the lottery, the behavior may be suspected of fraud or even disguised gambling.
Consumer Complaints:
Someone spends thousands of dollars just to get cheap headphones
The so-called "blind box" means that consumers cannot know the specific product style in advance, and can only be determined if the box is finally opened. Nowadays, some people have copied this set of offline to the online and developed a blind box platform.
This kind of electronic blind box platform can be described as a flood on the Internet, as long as the recharge is exchanged for tokens, you can buy the blind box, the platform claims that it is expected to open a valuable commodity, and some even give the probability of winning the lottery directly. But with that came the same number of complaints. Some people even complained that the recharge of 6800 yuan kept opening the blind box, and finally only got a cheap headset and razor, and their demand for a refund was suspended by the platform.
After sorting out the Nandu reporter, it was found that consumer complaints about the blind box platform were mainly based on "inducing consumption" and "opaque lottery process", and some netizens questioned the platform's suspected false propaganda and even disguised gambling.
There are many software companies on the Internet that develop blind box systems for sale.
Reporter Investigation:
Opening the blind box is actually a lottery, and the winning probability platform has the final say
Nandu reporter found that such blind box platforms range from web pages, mini programs to Apps, and are uneven. But the pattern is much the same: consumers can buy blind boxes on the platform by recharging into tokens. Blind boxes are divided into different categories, such as platforms with "digital blind boxes", "beauty blind boxes", and even different brands of blind boxes, such as "Apple blind boxes" and "Xiaomi blind boxes". Some platforms are blunt, calling the blind boxes of each category different "prize pools", and directly showing the probability of the lottery on the page.
Many platforms have set up prize recycling, consumers after the lottery if they are not satisfied with the prize, they can use gold coins and points on the platform to recover at a discount, but gold coins and points usually cannot be withdrawn. If a prize worth 30 yuan can only get 25 gold coins after recycling, consumers need to continue to recharge in order to use this gold coin. In this way, the gold coins cannot be cleared, and there will always be a little surplus to attract consumers to continue to recharge and continue to "open the blind box".
The reporter entered a blind box platform called "Magic Selection" for actual testing. The platform has launched a number of categories of blind boxes, the price of each blind box ranges from 19.9 yuan to 129 yuan, and the prize pool items at each price point are also different.
In addition to popular electronic products such as Apple's mobile phone, the platform claims that there is also a chance to draw brand-name bags, high-end cameras, and brand-name skin care products from the blind box, which are far higher than the price of the blind box. If you don't want to receive a prize, you can also replace it with points, exchange points for other prizes, and even play the slogan of "one piece in the box, probability visualization". In addition to platforms such as "Magic Choice", the reporter found that there are also many blind box Apps in the mobile application mall, and "treasure hunting" and "surprise" are the high-frequency words promoted by these platforms.
A blind box platform plays out slogans such as "open the box must earn" and "100% of the grand prize is successful".
After experiencing multiple online blind box platforms, the reporter noticed that although the platform basically announced the probability of winning the lottery in the blind box prize pool, the probability of winning similar prizes on different platforms was very different. For example, an Apple mobile phone with the same style, the opening fee on different platforms is from 49 yuan to 218 yuan, the winning rate is different on different platforms, some are 3%, some are 0.8%-1.9%, and the opening cost and winning probability of the blind box platform are basically decided by the platform.
The reporter measured multiple platforms at the same time and found that the lottery mechanism of these blind box platforms generally does not have third-party supervision, which undoubtedly provides a lot of space for black box operations.
Personal experience advertorial promotion
The loopholes were punctured by netizens
Nandu reporters investigated and found that such blind box platforms are generally distributed and promoted through social networking sites, and are keen to publish "soft text" of personal experience. Reporters entered the keyword "blind box" on some social platforms and searched for a large number of so-called "blind box posting" articles. The content of these articles is similar, and they are all the author's "appearance", describing the operation of individuals to achieve low cost and high return through online blind boxes. At the end of each article, without exception, the address of the blind box link is attached.
In an article, the author claimed that a friend told him that a blind box platform was testing drainage and would adjust the probability of high school awards, so it was very suitable for "Xue Wool" at this time, and he only drew the blind box three times on the platform, and he hit a latest Apple mobile phone. However, not long after the article was issued, it was recognized by some sharp-eyed netizens. Some netizens pointed out that the author claimed to be a man in previous articles, but the Apple mobile phone selfie posted in the blind box posting article was a lady, and the search found that the selfie was "carried" from other platforms.
Software Developer:
"Blockchain technology" is a gimmick, and the probability of winning the lottery is adjustable backstage
On the Internet, many software development companies are also selling electronic blind box software platforms. The reporter contacted a software company as a buyer, and the other party sent a blind box platform demo link, similar to other electronic blind box pages after opening, and even "blockchain technology" to emphasize the fairness of blind boxes.
But in the subsequent exchange, the sales staff of the software company told reporters that the so-called "blockchain technology" is just a fake gimmick, and all parameters on the platform can be controlled autonomously, including the probability of winning the lottery, the broadcast content of the winning lottery and the content of the posting. "You can specify who wins what goods, the system sells to you, and you can control the background." She also stressed to reporters that the blind box has been super hot recently, and if you want to do it, you can still earn a handful of it years ago.
What the lawyer says:
Or constitute consumer fraud, or even suspected of gambling in disguise
Zhu Guanghui, a lawyer at Beijing Jingtian Gongcheng (Guangzhou) Law Firm, believes that the content of the prize pool, the probability of winning the prize, the lottery process and the distribution of prizes in the "electronic blind box" are basically controlled by the operator, and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers such as the right to know cannot be guaranteed. If the operator of the "electronic blind box" has manipulative behavior in the activity of opening the blind box, it is suspected of constituting consumer fraud, and in severe cases, it is even suspected of fraud.
In Zhu Guanghui's view, "electronic blind boxes" are essentially a kind of consumption behavior of "small and broad", and should be supervised by departments such as industry and commerce, industry and information technology. "As consumers, we must have the concept of 'value equality', do not have a fluke mentality, think that spending small money can make a lot of money, and do not indulge in these activities." In addition to achieving the purpose of profit, businesses must also understand what social responsibilities they should bear. ”
Zhu Guanghui said that according to the blind box rule, consumers will definitely get random goods after opening the box, although this is not a simple concept of losing and winning, but if the price difference between the goods is too large, it also has the nature of gambling, which is a disguised gambling behavior.
Written by: Nandu, N Video Reporter Wei Zhixin Chen Jiesheng Intern Zhou Yalin Li Xinyue