Text | Moment business
The micro-business rivers and lakes that have flourished in the circle of friends have gradually reached the "freezing point".
Even the godfather and godmother of micro-business have fallen hand in hand in 2021, and 2022 seems to have no place for micro-business.
At the end of 2021, a topic of "Zhang Tinglin Ruiyang Company suspected of pyramid schemes was investigated and punished" rushed to the hot search on Sina Weibo, and Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd. was investigated and punished by the regulatory authorities, and the frozen funds for property preservation reached 600 million yuan. The protagonist of the incident is the micro-business brand "TST Court Secret" founded by Zhang Ting, who is regarded as the "godmother of micro-business".
"TST Court Secret" live broadcast celebration, photo /TST Court Secret official Weibo
Shortly before the TST incident, Gong Wenxiang, known as the "first person of micro-business", also released a farewell letter in the "old electrocution club" community that he had operated for 8 years, announcing the company's bankruptcy and withdrawal from the micro-business industry.
In the member letter, Gong Wenxiang explained the reason for the withdrawal: "After receiving the joint investigation and punishment of the special case team such as the Industrial and Commercial Taxation Public Security Court, the company has gone bankrupt, and after the high penalty, the individual has reached the point of being in debt, selling houses and cars, ruining the family, and being penniless. ”
The "top stream" of the micro-business industry is accelerating the avalanche, and every snowflake that rolls down has a trace to follow.
From the third review draft of the "E-commerce Law (Draft)" to include "micro-business" in the scope of e-commerce operations, to the formal implementation of the "E-commerce Law of the People's Republic of China", from the WeChat online group chat folding function to the upcoming launch of the new version of the circle of friends folding pictures new regulations, the micro-business industry has been gradually bound by rules and regulations, and the suspected pyramid schemes, tax evasion and other issues that have been questioned have also been exposed to the public's eyes again because of the "TST incident".
The top streams of micro-business have fallen, and they have not been able to survive 2021, and the small and medium-sized micro-businessmen who once "occupied" the circle of friends of most people have also disappeared.
Product quality problems are not uncommon, killing the game of overdraft credibility, policy supervision layer by layer, micro-business empire of the pyramid scheme case is accelerating the conclusion of the case, a hammer is bound to withdraw from the historical stage, 2022 will no longer have a place for micro-business.
01 The top stream is declining, why are micro-businesses declining?
Luxury cars, yachts, villas... Every story of sudden wealth can happen in the circle of friends of micro-businessmen.
Chicken soup in the morning, push products at noon, show off a fortune in the afternoon, start to post orders and WeChat balances in the evening, exaggerated data and bubble-like traffic, under the exaggerated interpretation and show off the "circle of friends", micro-businessmen use drumming to pass flowers, kill, star endorsement and other various ways of playing, so that countless hot-headed people pay for it.
Speaking of these gameplay, the attributes of micro-business determine that this is a drumming game similar to "pyramid schemes".
Players who want to keep playing the game will have to desperately find the next receiver, and if they can't find it, the products sold by the agent will fall into their hands.
These micro-businesses continue to develop offline, earn their own "agency fees", and frequently wipe the edge of "pyramid schemes". The products they sell deviate seriously from the actual value of the goods themselves, and are basically OEM products that cost much less than the price.
The vast majority of micro-merchants sell "inferior products + the opportunity to get rich overnight", so as to harvest the agents who dream of making a fortune - many of them are at home with babies and have nothing to do.
The biggest resource advantage of Bao Moms is to control the economy of acquaintances in the circle of friends, which is the so-called "killing" game.
As we all know, "killing familiarity" is to use the trust relationship between relatives, friends, acquaintances to trade, especially in the case of false publicity, poor after-sales or even lack of products sold by micro-businessmen, rampant inferior products, agent rolls and other chaos, micro-businessmen still target the next takeover man to the "acquaintances" around them.
Throw the pot to "acquaintances" to make money, overdraft credibility to make money, although drinking to quench thirst, micro-businessmen have a lot of fun. But the game of killing familiarity can only be deceived once or twice, and it cannot be deceived all the time, not to mention that after the circle of acquaintances spreads, it is difficult for micro-businessmen to continue to deceive.
In addition, the star endorsement game is also popular after peeking into the wealth code of the acquaintance economy.
Many micro-businessmen are not satisfied with the small-scale circle of friends business, began to make the former low-cost products into brand goods, and even stars joined in, Zhang Ting and her husband Lin Ruiyang created the micro-business empire "TST secret" is the hot epitome of star endorsement.
"TST Court Secret" star endorsement, photo /TST Court Secret official Weibo
Under the star aura of Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting, TST quickly stood out from many micro-businessmen, took advantage of the star effect and prestige, and also invited celebrity friends to stand for them, such as Tao Hong and Xu Zheng, Ming Dao, Lin Zhiling, Jiang Yiyi, Cao Ge and his wife, Wang Dongcheng, etc.
In addition, Liu Tao, Fan Bingbing, Xu Zheng, Zhao Wei, Zhang Xinyu, Qian Feng and others have also posted photos of the use of TST products on social platforms to help them.
Unfortunately, whether it is drumming flowers or killing, or star endorsement, the product quality is not qualified, and no matter how high the commercial play can not support the micro-business to continue to move forward.
Drumming flowers are no longer easy for people to take over, in this huge system, there are constantly people quitting, but also constantly people joining, the monthly task of agents at all levels is to pull people's heads, the biggest source of profit is also the cost of offline entry, not the sales of products. And these so-called products go around, more between agents at all levels.
Moreover, since celebrities joined the live stream with goods, consumers have long looked down on the endorsement of celebrities, and this "big killer" of micro-business has also lost its powerful effect in the past.
All the ways to play have failed, and the micro-business industry has naturally fallen into the freezing point.
02 The new rules of the circle of friends no longer welcome micro-business
When the micro-business of the screen brush meets the folded circle of friends, the micro-business will usher in the darkest moment.
According to 36Kr, recently, WeChat is currently testing a new feature in grayscale - circle of friends folding.
This content folding algorithm will fold part of the content and pictures of the circle of friends, and multiple ads released by the same person will also be folded in a collection page, and displayed in the relevant information currently exposed, this function does not require the user to take the initiative to operate, but WeChat will judge itself through the algorithm.
In short, if you post multiple pieces of content similar to the past in the circle of friends in a short period of time, the system may fold these contents uniformly, and the subsequent content will no longer be repeated, but only "wait for X pieces of content".
However, at present, the function is still in a small range of grayscale tests, and it has not yet been fully opened.
This new feature of WeChat is an upgrade of the filtering algorithm of the circle of friends, so that the circle of friends that has been criticized as dazzling like an advertising wall returns to purity, or for the consideration and optimization of WeChat's own function.
However, WeChat, the function of folding content in the circle of friends, may become the last straw to "overwhelm" micro-business.
The circle of friends is the main battlefield for micro-businessmen to sell products and services, and it is also the façade for micro-businessmen to kill.
Micro-business in the circle of friends to brush the screen, in order to occupy the consumer's mind, attract more attention, pave a larger market, once the released content is blocked too frequently, can not continue to brush the screen, will make the micro-business in the circle of friends advertising effect greatly reduced.
On Zhang Ting's "Court Secret" App, there was once a set of tutorials specifically for teaching members to send circles of friends, releasing some good-looking selfies, clothes, bags, etc., showing personal taste, and when communicating with WeChat friends, they should also take the initiative to say hello, take the initiative to praise, etc., after establishing a stable circle of friends relationship, and then start to do agents to sell products, relying on the circle of friends to come naturally.
Losing the circle of friends, micro-business is almost equivalent to losing the core propaganda position and "shelf", unable to appear, which is equivalent to not being able to do business, which is a fatal blow to micro-business.
In fact, this is not the first time that WeChat officials have restricted Micro-business.
Previously, WeChat would also fold some of the content in the circle of friends, but the form was full text/collapse, and only for large paragraphs of text content, and pictures could also be displayed. Now the picture is also included in the folding category, which is almost equivalent to expelling the micro-business from the circle of friends and no longer welcoming the micro-business.
At the end of September last year, WeChat also launched the group chat folding function, and the folded group will be fixed in a fixed position in the chat list, rather than being "topned" by the new message moment.
In November last year, WeChat also added a new item on the user complaint page " fan bottomless star chasing behavior", through which users can complain about personal accounts and group chat members, which also indirectly hit micro-businesses.
Earlier, WeChat officials also blocked more than 3,000 micro-malls, including 10 domestic tertiary distribution platforms such as Yunzhi, Yunji Mall, Kuaiji Mall, Mingxi Mall, etc., and permanently suspended accounts that implement high cashback and rebate behavior through WeChat public accounts and WeChat Pay.
WeChat circle of friends is crucial for micro-businessmen, is the most frequent battlefield of "killing" gameplay, and this Time WeChat circle of friends folding new rules online, will be directly hit on the seven inches of micro-business, the main publicity channels are banned, micro-business can only be dumb.
03 2022, no micro-business
The game fails, the publicity is limited, the micro-business under the double blow is suffering, and the tight curse of policy supervision is hanging on the head.
In June 2018, the third draft of the E-commerce Law (Draft) included "micro-businessmen" in the scope of e-commerce operations, and by January 1, 2019, the "E-commerce Law of the People's Republic of China" began to be officially implemented, and micro-businessmen who want to continue to operate need to apply for self-employed business licenses or company business licenses.
According to interface news reports, in 2021 alone, there will be more than a dozen micro-business brands cancelled or punished, sanitary napkin micro-business brand "NNA" was fined 500,000 yuan by the Shenzhen Market Supervision Bureau for suspected illegal acts of pyramid schemes; Meishu, a micro-business brand that has launched products such as "spray cream"; Qingdao Shiyan Technology (seegreen brand), which focuses on the research and development and production of skin care makeup and other products, was frozen by the court for suspected pyramid schemes, and the company currently shows that it has been cancelled; because of "children's face spray" Guangzhou Manyu Tianya, a cosmetics company that has become popular in the micro-business district, applied for cancellation.
Under the strict supervision of the policy, the top stream of micro-business has embarked on the end of the road overnight.
At the end of 2021, the "TST court secret" of the "queen of micro-business" Zhang Ting was accused of pyramid schemes, and the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau publicly disclosed the progress of the investigation and punishment of the well-known daily chemical brand "TST Court Secret" operator Darway Company suspected of using the Network to engage in pyramid scheme activities in the form of a "Reply to the Verification Letter".
According to public information, Shanghai Darway is the main operator of the "TST Court Secret", which was founded by Lin Ruiyang and Zhang Ting in 2013, with cosmetics and skin care products as the main categories, and mainly through the online mall "Tint Secret APP" and the O2O method of offline physical stores for product sales.
The core logic that really makes TST performance soar is more in the MLM operation mode of micro-business agents, which is also completely stepped on the red line of policy supervision.
The shadow of entry fees, pulling people's heads, and remuneration methods can be glimpsed in the "TST Court Secrets".
According to the Beijing News, Zhang Ting's "TST court secret" model seems to be only two levels of agents, the actual rebate level has long exceeded 3 levels, and some dealers even declared, "As long as 100 people are pulled, the team performance has reached 100,000 for three consecutive months, and the performance of the children and grandchildren is related to themselves." If this is the case, there is no doubt that the Zhang Ting couple is involved in pyramid schemes.
In addition to the operating model that disrupts the market economic order, the difference in micro-business products has also made policy supervision increasingly stringent.
As early as 2016, consumers have exposed the quality of TST brand products, resulting in "facial allergies and skin ulceration" after use.
"TST Court Secret" Thanksgiving Day event scene, photo /TST Court Secret official Weibo
Consumer reports also pointed out that they received complaints from a number of consumers, saying that they had different degrees of allergies after using TST live yeast products, and had abnormal symptoms such as hard pimples and acne on their faces. In the archives of the State Food and Drug Administration, many of TST's products have also been marked as "not filed" and "ordered to be corrected".
In the strange and chaotic micro-business jianghu, the product quality is worrying, the micro-business industry peddles cosmetics, daily necessities, maternal and infant products and other low-cost, high-priced products, and most of these products are aimed at the female market, drumming flower agents are basically based on groups such as bao moms or full-time mothers.
Nowadays, the combination package of "inferior products + acquaintance sales", after years of development, has long been disliked by mass consumers, and there will be no more people paying for micro-businesses.
In 2022, micro-business will eventually disappear from people's vision.