Reporter | Zhao Xiaojuan Wei Xianghui
Edit | Xu Yue
1
Nana panicked.
Nana's real name is Aona. On December 31, 2021, she quietly changed the background of the circle of friends, replaced her photo with Zhang Ting, her and Lin Ruiyang, and also erased the introduction of her titles such as "chairman of Jiangxi Yichun Yulin E-commerce Co., Ltd., a model of entrepreneurship after the 80s, and the first company in the country to activate the number of people", but changed to the background of only her son's life photos.
TST founder-level agent, circle of friends background before and after comparison.
But when asked by a customer or offline agent, she threw out a screenshot, this screenshot came from a WeChat group of more than 460 people, one of the TST employees named Haiyan said that the company's operation is normal, "I believe that the big brother will communicate well with the government, deal with the current problems, normal interaction, normal operation is the best reply... Believe in big brother, the crisis is also a turning point."
The eldest brother is Lin Ruiyang, who and his wife Zhang Ting, who is also a film and television actor, founded the micro-business brand "TST Court Secret" (TIN'SECRET) in 2013, the products are mainly skin care products such as masks and water milk, in addition to food products such as collagen drinks.
Ao Na is one of the earlier founders, the founder in TST refers to a certain level of agency, around 2016, the domestic micro-business environment has matured, through the form of circle of friends shopping although it is disliked by some people, but by another part of the audience acceptance.
Zhang Yun came into contact with TST products at this time.
In 2016, because the child had attended the same early education class, Zhang Yun, a Zhejiang native, added Ao Na's WeChat through a friend, and the friend was the agent of Ao Na's development. After opening the membership, the friend encouraged Zhang Yun to be a TST agent and taught her how to use the system, account for wages and other skills that newcomers need.
Comparison of new and old versions of TST sales discount rebate model
Zhang Yun did not refuse, because "the star is also in use, do not have to spend a penny, if the sale will have a rebate, the more sales the higher the rebate." But she tried to send a period of time in the circle of friends, and embarrassed to take turns to disturb relatives and friends, at the same time found that the friends who called her to join TST are also similar situations, and she did not lack money, she found that this kind of 0 investment business is not easy to make money, and then quickly gave up and quit the group, the products in her hands were basically used, but she often saw Ao Na send a circle of friends, either to Macau or take a cruise, but also to interact with Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang in the video, Zhang Yun guessed that she "should make money."
But Zhang Yun was wrong. "As long as you buy 20,000 yuan of goods, you can go to Macau, but you have to pay for the way and stay." Li Lin, who has been to Macau, is also at the founder level, and she told Interface News that not every founder can make money non-stop.
Li Lin, who began to do TST court secrets in 2016, gave up this "cause" in 2020. Star founders and high rebate models are the driving force for everyone to join TST, as long as they complete the sales task of 100,000 yuan per month, they can always roll the snowball down, but it is also the root cause of eventually letting them give up.
"One life two, two births three, three births of all things." Li Lin told Interface News that her more than 3,000 agents have developed in this way.
In the early days, he did not make money, and was told by the online that only the founder could earn tens of thousands of yuan a month. To this end, she spent 2 months frantically opening a card (the development of the downline is to open a card), and even fictitious transfer records to attract new agents, open to 100 people members can be the founder, but this is not enough, the need for sales performance of 100,000 yuan, but at that time she did 20,000 yuan, online suggestions to hoard goods, the founder can also "hereditary", but also can get the original shares of the company. It took 4 months to hoard more than 300,000 yuan of goods, and through the approval of the level, Li Lin finally got the founder qualification.
In order to maintain the performance of selling 100,000 yuan per month, Li Lin also queued up until two o'clock in the morning to take a photo with the boss when participating in offline activities. Li Lin told Interface News that the threshold for taking a photo with Lin Ruiyang is relatively low, you can buy 20,000 yuan of goods, and take a photo with Zhang Ting, which requires millions of yuan of performance. In order to give potential agents a sense that "people who often take pictures with their bosses must be of a higher rank", founders must create momentum. Because this logic is that the development of new members "can not make money by retail exhaustion, desperately pulling talents is fundamental."
Founders like Li Lin Have grown to several thousand people in 2020, and WeChat is divided into 3 large groups of "Chuang 1", "Chuang 2" and "Chuang 3", in addition to millions and tens of millions of founder groups. In this group, you can see the boss lady (Zhang Ting) WeChat. The daily life of the founder group is to post orders, share performance, and punch in products.
But her hoarded goods often can not be sold, on the circle of friends or Pinduoduo and other platforms at low prices, TST online does not care about how she handles the goods, the way to assess is only sales. By 2020, she finally couldn't hold on and gave up her founderhood.
This does not sound very different from ordinary micro-business, but the blessing of the star founder and the star aura makes TST Court secretly survive longer and develop more than other micro-business companies.
TST dealer conference warm-up poster, with the support of stars such as Xinxin and Wang Dongcheng.
Public information shows that Zhang Ting not only endorsed TST himself, but also developed a number of celebrity friends to stand for them, and even invested in the establishment of a joint venture company. In 2014, Fan Bingbing and Liu Tao sent a Weibo to help Zhang Ting publicize the use of pictures of live yeast masks, and in the same year, Xu Zheng and Tao Hong secretly interacted with Zhang Ting and @Ting directly on Weibo, and the two couples have been deeply tied since then.
For example, in recent years, short video and live broadcast platforms have caught fire, and Zhang Ting and Tao Hong often appear together in the form of girlfriends on short videos and live broadcast platforms, shooting girlfriend videos, but also live streaming with goods.
In addition, around 2018, Stars such as Lin Chiling, Luo Zhixiang, Ming Dao, and Wang Dongcheng all stood on the platform of the brand. In 2019, TST also specially sponsored the variety show interface "Extreme Challenge".
Star aura, even if the TST court secret product quality has been controversial, since 2017, there have been consumer complaints about its product "bad face", but the TST court secret in the solution of such customer complaints, are using incomparably strong marketing tactics, so that users believe that this is a "normal detoxification phenomenon", the degree of indisputable degree is comparable to PUA, beauty consultants even asked: the star is no problem to use, the founder and thousands of agents are no problem, you must have a problem in your face.
Li Lin also mentioned this, she told Interface News that people are often allergic, and allergies are detoxification. "We will all say that the cosmetics she used to use are lead-containing mercury and hormones, and our products are to let the skin eliminate the toxins accumulated before." Let you take a bottle of water for two days and then do lotion filling. If there is red blood, it must be refined. The purpose is to accelerate product consumption. ”
In fact, these customers complained one after another, but after a large number of people scolded the scammers, they abandoned TST, and there were still new people who came out and became the next leek. The key is the myth of wealth creation created by celebrity couples.
In 2018, the secret parent company of TST Court, Darway, paid taxes of up to 1.26 billion yuan, so it was also on the hot search.
In addition, he participated in a variety of donation activities, giving Zhang Ting and his wife a cloak of charity. In July this year, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting donated 5 million yuan to Henan for flood relief, which was forwarded by agents on major platforms.
What really makes Zhang Ting and his wife unable to hide is the fact that the TST court is secretly suspected of pyramid schemes.
On December 28, 2021, the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau sent a verification letter to Li Xu's anti-MLM team, which secretly carried out the TST court of Zhang Ting and his wife for "pyramid schemes".
According to the letter of investigation, Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd. (the operator of the "TST Court Secret") was suspected of using the Network to engage in pyramid schemes, and according to the Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes, the Bureau opened an investigation into Dalway's suspected pyramid schemes on June 5, 2021.
In the early morning of December 29, 2021, Ting secretly said through its official microblog "TST" that Shanghai Dalway is a legally operated company that has always followed government guidance since its inception, insisted on legal operation, and paid taxes according to law. "At present, the company's operation is normal, and the company will actively cooperate with the relevant departments."
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told Interface News that TST's sales model seems to be that consumption of 2500 yuan can become an agent, but in fact, this transformation is the process of consumers turning to sales. More critically, the complex rebate and remuneration methods, under the system of hierarchical agents, are not simple rebate methods, and it is likely to cover up the hierarchical relationship with commissions, education funds and other methods.
As far as his analysis is concerned, from the current point of view, the company of Zhang Ting and his wife has been investigated, mainly involving the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes", and once the pyramid schemes are verified, the company's assets will be frozen in accordance with the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes" and they will be severely punished. If serious in nature, it may also involve the crime of organizing and leading pyramid schemes in the criminal law. "Entering the financial audit stage, indicating that the problem is relatively large, the process is to investigate how big the actual transaction amount is, how many personnel and levels are involved, etc. If the investigation finds that the actual sales of products are very small, but the transaction amount is very large, it is likely to be a pyramid scheme." Zhu Wei said that the possibility of them being characterized as pyramid schemes is currently very large, and the next issue may be related to whether they are involved in criminal punishment.
The interaction between Zhang Ting and Tao Hong at last year's TST offline activities.
With the investigation of Zhang Ting's company, the intimate relationship between Tao Hong and Zhang Ting's girlfriends also changed in late November this year, and Tao Hong withdrew from the shareholders of Shanghai Taobuting Culture Media Co., Ltd. The company was founded in July 2020, and Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting are senior management personnel of the company. In July 2021, the company's name was changed from "Tao Buting" to "Tao Buting". However, Tao Hong is still a shareholder of Shanghai Dalway Trading Co., Ltd.
(At the request of the interviewee, Li Lin and Zhang Yun are pseudonyms in the text)