Forward a few times, invite friends to log in to the Mini Program, you can get a cash reward of 10 yuan, it seems that the finger of the thing, but it is not easy to achieve.
With the peak of the traffic dividend of Internet platforms, many platforms intend to pull new or promotional through social fission and personalized pricing. However, before the withdrawal of layers of sills, pulling people's heads to help bargain the final "knife" of the total price difference, loyal old users were discriminated against by the price of the platform, consumers stepped into the repeated heart machine and algorithm step by step, and the technology that should serve people has also become a "sharp blade" that damages the user experience.
Into the set: forward 22 times only to make up 2 yuan
Ms. Yuan, a citizen, recalled to reporters the bad experience a few days ago.
On March 14, Ms. Yuan purchased a set of children's books on a book e-commerce platform. After the payment is completed, a striking reminder pops up on the page: "10 yuan is about to withdraw", and all she has to do is link this boost to the group chat.
With the idea that "sharing it can buy more books for children", Ms. Yuan will link to a chat group, but the page has changed its "face", indicating that she needs to continue to link to another different group chat. After the two sharing, the system displays "Get cash accumulation of 8 yuan", and reminds that if you want to withdraw cash, you need to continue to invite friends to help, and make up the remaining 2 yuan within 24 hours.
"Just 2 yuan, and according to the rules, new users can be 4 times the speed, and it is enough to pull seven or eight people to help." Imagining that she could "fight a quick decision", Ms. Yuan began to invite WeChat friends to help. However, 0.25 yuan, 0.11 yuan, 0.08 yuan, 0.04 yuan, 0.01 yuan... The numbers on the phone's screen grew smaller and smaller, and it wasn't until her 22nd friend finished helping that she finally saw the long-awaited words —"Congratulations on the $10 cash gift." In other words, in order to make up the 10 yuan cash prize, Ms. Yuan forwarded a total of 24 times, especially the next 22 forwards, just to make up 2 yuan.
"It's finally done!" Ms. Yuan clicked the "Withdraw Now" button expectantly, who knew that the page once again "changed its face", prompting her that she needed to successfully order the transaction before she could withdraw. "I've already paid it, is this not a successful transaction?" Wondering, Ms. Yuan found the platform's explanation in the "activity rules" with a small font on the top left of the page, saying that she needed to confirm the receipt of the goods 15 days before she could withdraw the 10 yuan. "15 days after the order was confirmed, I forgot about it 80% of the time."
"Pulled 22 people, only to get enough 2 yuan to help, together to pull a person less than 1 cent." Knowing that it was so complicated, I didn't want to make this hilarious. Ms. Yuan was helpless.
Compared with Ms. Yuan, Aunt Zhou, who will send help and bargain links in the family group and classmate group every day, is tireless in this kind of activity. "Anyway, idle is idle, moving your fingers to forward can earn money, what is difficult?" For positive responders such as Aunt Zhou, the system has intensified to continuously push links such as cash for it, and Aunt Zhou spends a lot of time every day to share and invite "homework".
Whether it is Ms. Yuan or Aunt Zhou, they have unconsciously become the low-cost "ground pushers" of these platforms. "E-commerce platforms currently have a high cost of customer acquisition, and if real people promote offline, directly register to send gifts and send cash subsidies, the average cost of customer acquisition per person may be as high as tens of yuan." Through these social fission activities with unclear rules, the cost of customer acquisition on the platform can be greatly reduced. Gao Jun, who provides drainage services for small and medium-sized e-commerce platforms, told reporters.
Game: The last "knife" that can't be taken
Consumers spend energy pulling people's heads to pull traffic, and platforms pay a certain amount of money as rewards and subsidies – even under such a seemingly tacit "unspoken rule", some platforms often do not play their cards according to the rules.
"I have been reminded that I can successfully withdraw 600 yuan by inviting one more person, and I have invited one after another, a total of dozens of people have been invited, but I still continue to say that I am one person behind." Ms. Qin, a citizen, told reporters about her personal experience on a certain platform.
At the beginning, the platform reminded her that there was still a difference of 1 yuan from the successful withdrawal, and then it became a difference of 0.1 yuan and 0.01 yuan, and as the number of people pulled increased, the amount of the difference from the successful withdrawal gradually became 0.1 gold coins, 0.01 gold coins, 0.1 diamonds, and 0.01 diamonds. But for how much 0.01 gold coins and 0.01 diamonds represent, even the official customer service staff can't explain. "Ring by ring, not only the number of digits after the decimal point has changed, but the unit of measurement has also changed, that is, you are not allowed to withdraw cash, which is obviously a deception." Ms. Qin questioned.
"When you are one step away from succeeding, the platform likes this routine." People with good luck are swallowed less, and they can get it by finding more people to help; people with bad luck have been swallowed, so how to pull people cannot succeed. The head of a team that provides paid assistance services told reporters.
In order to complete the task of assisting more quickly, some consumers will choose to ask someone to help in the mutual aid group. The so-called "swallowing knife" is a kind of "black words" in the assistance activity, which means that the helper has clicked on the help, but it has been erased by the platform. For example, if a new person who has never been registered is invited, the system recognizes it as an "old user"; 5 users are invited to successfully register, but the system feedbacks that only 2 have completed the valid registration. "Generally, at the beginning and middle of the activity, there will be no 'swallowing knife' situation, and it will be more common in the later stage." The above-mentioned person in charge revealed.
The reporter found that the feedback system maliciously "swallows the knife" of consumers is very common. Netizen "Lunjia is not a demon mother-in-law" said that after successfully inviting 110 users to help, his mobile phone page showed only 30 users to help, and more than half of the successfully invited users were not recognized by the system.
Under the appeal of many consumers for explanation, the platform has come up with its mysterious algorithm "black box" response. In March 2021, Shanghai lawyer Liu Mou participated in the "bargaining free take" activity of an e-commerce platform at that time and received a "super free single card", but after inviting multiple people to bargain, his bargaining progress was always "0.9%". Liu launched a lawsuit against the platform, which said that because the page displayed a limited percentage of digits, it was only displayed as "0.09", and the following number was omitted.
For such a response, many people do not buy it. Some consumers have proposed that the "pot" cannot be pushed to the algorithm, and if there is frequent bad feedback from consumers, the platform needs to think about whether its algorithm has gone in the wrong direction of harming consumers.
Pulling: The stubborn disease of "killing cooked" still exists
Some consumers who have experienced pulling new and helping, after becoming old users or even paying users, find that they have not escaped from the nested algorithms, but have entered the new algorithm "curse".
"Why do I have 168 yuan to open a monthly card, but my friend only needs 25.9 yuan?" The difference is also outrageous. As a veteran user of a tide brand e-commerce platform, Mr. You has recently felt very cold. But for his questions, the customer service staff did not give any effective explanation.
Another consumer, who is also an old user of the platform, reported that he opened a platform account for nearly 1 year, purchased hundreds of goods, but has not been able to receive coupons, and often cannot participate in preferential activities open to other users. "There are differences between different users, and the specific activity is based on the page actually displayed." The customer service staff's reply made him deeply dissatisfied.
The same product, the old user order is more expensive than the new user, and even the paid VIP member order is more expensive than the ordinary user, these scenes that sound strange in the traditional business era have happened repeatedly at the moment.
Although the relevant departments on the mainland have repeatedly spoken out about the problem of "killing", the erratic algorithm mechanisms of various platforms still make users feel "slaughtered". According to the results of the survey on the "killing" of Internet consumption big data released by the Beijing Consumer Association on March 1, 82.37% of the respondents believe that the problem of "killing" internet consumption big data is widespread; among the 32 simulated consumer experience samples conducted on 16 platforms, 14 samples of new and old accounts have inconsistent prices.
Recommendation: Platforms should disclose algorithm details in a simplified manner
In March this year, the Provisions on the Administration of Recommendation of Internet Information Service Algorithms came into effect, requiring Internet platforms to improve transparency in algorithm recommendations. But in a short period of time, the distrust that comes with abusing algorithms and other behaviors seems to be difficult to dissipate. According to the China Great Security Perception Report (2021), 70% of respondents feel that they are being "calculated" by algorithms.
In this regard, Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of the International United Business School of Zhejiang University, suggested that the responsibility and responsibility of the e-commerce platform should be strengthened. First of all, it is necessary to strengthen the transparency of the algorithm rules of the e-commerce platform, in addition to filing the algorithm, it is also necessary to disclose the details of the algorithm to the user, and the platform can inform the user of the details of its algorithm in a simplified way. At the same time, it is also necessary to emphasize the user's authorization of the algorithm, to clarify the user's right to know, the right to consent, and also to give the user the right to refuse and delete.
Pan and Lin also suggested that the relevant departments should open up user complaint channels, if users have reasonable doubts about the recommendation algorithm, there must be a department that can complain, and this department needs to have the necessary technical ability to parse the algorithm and respond to users. (Reporter Sun Qiru Intern Wang Xinxin)