Zhou Wen: WeChat launched the "interconnection" expectation under the broken wall of external links

Author: Zhou Wen, Jiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education, Distinguished Professor of Fudan University, Vice President of the Institute of Marxism

On September 13, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology responded to the recent discussion of "interconnection" in the Internet circle at the press conference of the New Office of the State Council. Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that "safety is the bottom line." Zhao Zhiguo, director of the Information and Communication Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, further said that how to ensure the normal access of legal and compliant websites is the basic need of Internet development. Enterprises are required to pragmatically promote step-by-step and phase-by-stage solutions in accordance with rectification requirements.

Tencent immediately responded: We firmly support the decision of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and implement it in stages and steps under the premise of taking security as the bottom line.

ByteDance responded that it will conscientiously implement the decision of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and called on all Internet platforms to take action, do not make excuses, clarify the timetable, actively implement, and provide users with a safe, reliable and convenient cyberspace;

Alibaba should also say that the Internet is the original intention of the Internet, openness is the foundation of the digital ecosystem, Alibaba will follow the relevant requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with other platforms to formulate the future, in the opposite direction.

Prior to this, Tencent and Alibaba executives have also successively stated that the ecology of the Internet is open, and the Internet is the original intention of the Internet, which will promote the interconnection of the platform. If the two giant platforms can take the lead in promoting "interconnection", this will be another "phoenix nirvana" of the platform economy.

The strategy of "step-by-step and phased" implementation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also reflects the idea of clear direction but cautious promotion.

On the afternoon of September 17, WeChat updated the external link management specifications, supporting external links such as Douyin and Taobao to be opened directly in the WeChat one-on-one chat scene to start "breaking the wall".

The expectation of connectivity

For Chinese Internet users, for the "siege" phenomenon of the platform economy, consumers are constantly complaining and powerless, and can only look at the Network and sigh. Taobao can not use WeChat payment, vibrato can not link to third-party platforms and so on the "non-interconnection", lamenting that it is close but far away, it is like a fish in the throat. Breaking the interconnection "firewall" of the platform economy is not only the need for the further development of the Internet, but also the deep "call" of user and consumer experience.

As an Internet platform company, although it started differently, after years of independent efforts and continuous innovation, it has now grown into a head enterprise that is evenly matched and at the same time competes with each other. Obviously, the times are developing, the times are changing dramatically, and this is not what it used to be. The concept and strategy of platform economic development must also change, and holding on to the shortcomings and carving a boat for the sword can only be a dead end in the development of the platform economy. As the scale of platform enterprises grows larger, the social impact is also increasing, the social attention is getting higher and higher, and the social responsibility to be borne by it is becoming heavier and heavier. The growing scale also means more and more conflict between each other and the intensity of competition. As a result, they are closed to each other and develop separately, and their social negativity will become heavier and heavier.

On the one hand, large Internet platform enterprises occupy a huge market share and have a strong market position, which can easily lead to market manipulation, damage to market structure, and sabotage of efficiency and fair behavior. Platform capital quickly enters various fields with the help of monopoly advantages, compressing the development opportunities of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is not conducive to the benign ecology and diversified development of the industry. On the other hand, platform enterprises that have achieved absolute market superiority use technological advantages and market dominance to inhibit new competitors through exclusive access standards and build an ecological "closed loop" that maximizes their own interests, which may not only stifle many innovative behaviors, but also harm the interests of consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises, and even the historical "curse of large companies" may also be fulfilled in the Internet field.

In this way, the interconnection signal released by the two giants means that the platform economy co-governance and sharing that has been expected for many years is about to start an ice-breaking journey, and the platform economy may usher in a smooth and sunny road.

But is connectivity really that simple?

The natural advantages of China's super-large market size provide a unique development space for the rapid development of the platform economy. However, as the market influence of the platform economy grows, the limitations of allowing its free development are beginning to emerge. With the intensification of competition between platforms, Internet giant enterprises have invested huge amounts of resources to fight for the market and "traffic" in order to lay out a more complete ecosystem, regardless of cost. As the two giants of the Internet, Ali and Tencent have been in a "closed loop" state for a long time. At present, promoting the sustained and healthy development of the Internet platform economy is becoming an important part of the new development pattern, strengthening the domestic cycle of the platform economy, and it is more necessary to open up the information flow between the industrial chains. After strengthening the anti-monopoly supervision of Internet platforms, there has been little controversy about the "two alternatives" and other behaviors that have attacked the platform economy, and then the interconnection of the platform economy has attracted more attention.

However, for the Internet industry, "interconnection" and "interconnection" have different levels of meaning. Unhindered data sharing is more likely to be the first step in connectivity. Because interconnection does not mean that the follow-up operations based on user data can also be truly smooth - for example, if Taobao "opens" WeChat Pay, the unimpeded form may cover up more invisible obstacles, such as data security risks, who will bear the main responsibility, or each set various procedural gates with safe excuses.

Therefore, opening up the interconnection is only the first step, and how to promote interconnection is a higher realm. On the one hand, the rapid accumulation of social wealth by platform monopolies has widened the distribution gap. On the other hand, consumer and producer welfare has the potential to be plundered by platforms. Normally speaking, consumers and producers can enjoy the convenience of science and technology and social welfare in the digital economy era, but if they encounter "big data killing", e-commerce platforms using monopoly positions to require merchants to "choose one of the two", the part of the newly created social surplus that should have been obtained by consumers and producers is plundered by the platform, which is equivalent to the social welfare growth brought about by scientific and technological innovation is ultimately exclusive to the platform. Therefore, in an ideal state, if the "interconnection" between Internet platform enterprises, not only the user experience will be more convenient, but also the industrial prosperity will have the opportunity to further expand, and the ecology of Internet development will be better, thereby eliminating the "grass under the tree", which is more conducive to the emergence of rising stars in the platform economy.

However, the ideal belongs to the ideal, and the reality returns to reality. As a new economy and a new format, the platform economy still has many unknown and variable factors, and the boundaries and conceptual ambiguities of supervision still need to be carefully moved forward in exploration, and there are inevitably growing pains. Under the pressure of anti-monopoly supervision, interconnection is set as a new issue, whether it is a new traffic dispute, or a new direction for the development of the platform economy, it remains to be further observed.

Obviously, interconnection is not poetry and distant places, let alone a "trip" that can be walked away.

The Monopoly Risk of Limited Interconnection and the "Entanglement" of Innovation

The essence of the platform economy is interconnection. In recent years, with the development of the platform economy, Ali and Tencent are not imaginary "well water does not violate the river water", because they are well aware that building a "moat" is not conducive to long-term development, so the Internet is not the focus of contradiction between the two. In particular, Taobao and WeChat, the two most core products of Alibaba and Tencent, have not really interrupted their interconnection in the process of development.

Further, the more likely deep-seated question is that if connectivity only stays in a few leading enterprises, because of common interests, will mutual interest transmission move towards "collusion" and form a new monopoly effect? That's what we need to observe and think about.

The early anti-monopoly policy of the platform economy may reconstruct the industrial layout and trigger more "mikno" effects. The transition from the mutual construction platform "wall" to the platform "greening" of the platform that opens up the "wall" may also be the beginning of major changes in the entire Internet world. But there are two sides to everything, and so is connectivity. On the one hand, the benefit of openness lies in the fact that users can use it more conveniently, stimulate the innovation of open objects, and bring better consumption experience to users; on the other hand, openness may also destroy the use experience of the platform itself, reducing the innovation incentive and investment enthusiasm of the platform itself.

Connectivity not only has the risk of monopoly, but also the "moral hazard" of innovation. The platform economy market in which technological innovation plays a decisive role is different from the traditional anti-monopoly theory, which only focuses on the maximum static efficiency of consumer surplus and producer surplus, and should pay more attention to the dynamic efficiency of innovation and research and development incentives. Because when the return on capital is asymmetrical with the cost, and there is externalization of the income, it is more likely that the incentive of capital is insufficient.

Under the new pattern of interconnection, how to overcome the "traffic" of "rubbing" innovation and the phenomenon of free riding with innovation will be a new challenge. When the head platform realizes that cultivating its own field, but the fertilizer water falls into the world of outsiders, the huge amount of sunken investment may be to make a wedding dress for others, which will inevitably reduce the motivation for the construction of the platform, and the consequence is the collective irrational ending. Obviously, this has the potential to have a negative impact on innovation. In reality, many platforms are not interconnected and not interoperable, not because cooperation will not bring benefits, but because they are caught in a kind of "cooperation dilemma".

In addition, interconnection should be the interconnection of the entire Internet industry, not limited to the field of instant communication. Look forward to the full opening up of e-commerce, short video, and electronic payment fields.

At the same time, the development of the platform economy itself is a practice ahead of theory, and the lag of supervision is inevitable. Therefore, the role of the government should not be strongly engaged in "one-size-fits-all". Otherwise, excessive or advanced supervision will also lead to platform enterprises at a loss, thus suffocating the vitality of platform economic development, curbing the space for platform economic development, and good intentions do not necessarily bring good results. We have seen that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed "step by step, phased" is to pass on a scientific way of governance.

Let the ideal and the reality be better docked, and the society will continue to move forward and usher in greater progress. Interconnection and interconnection make the Internet ecology better, this is just around the corner.