On the evening of March 30, Douban announced that it had sued Sina Weibo on the grounds of unfair competition, demanding that it immediately stop the recruitment of the "Super Talk Nova Program" and claim 1 yuan.
Subsequently, Sina Weibo responded that the "Supernova Plan" is not aimed at a certain platform, belongs to the scope of normal business operations, and there is no unfair competition and plagiarism.
According to the Nandu reporter, this matter originated from the "Super Talk Rising Star Program" announced by @Chao Talk Community on March 29. According to the recruitment requirements, the applicants need to have the relevant community administrator identity of Douban group leader, Tieba bar owner, etc., and have certain influence or management ability; the management of community members is more than 500 people, and the age needs to meet the age of 18.
The plan will also provide many official support such as host incentive plans, 100 million-level matrix official blog recommendations, fast certification channels, noodle hot recommendations, hot searches, banners, information flows, and other resource boosts.
According to the Douban complaint, Douban said that Sina Weibo, as a competitor in the same industry, used multiple Douban group names without authorization, and at the same time recruited people with Douban group management experience to the Weibo platform to establish a "super talk community" similar to the nature of the "Douban group".
Nandu reporter noted that sina weibo "super talk nova plan" picture propaganda materials appear "fool learning", "work this thing", "today's consumption downgraded", "quarrel did not play well" and other text expressions, and the douban platform users more active group name is similar.
In addition, Douban also said that Sina Weibo allowed its platform users to use a large amount of Douban group data information, allowed its platform users to use the Douban trademark, and did not take relevant measures after receiving the Douban notice.
Therefore, Douban believes that the above-mentioned acts of Sina Weibo disrupt the order of market competition, infringe on Douban's trademark rights, and seriously violate the principle of good faith and recognized business ethics, constituting unfair competition, and filed a lawsuit with the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing.
At 22:00 that night, @Weibo spokesperson stated on this matter that the supernova plan carried out by Weibo Super Talk is not aimed at a certain platform, belongs to the normal business operation category, and there is no unfair competition and plagiarism at all. On the contrary, Weibo has issued several announcements before, strictly prohibiting users and MCN agencies from carrying undesirable content such as false confrontations from a certain platform.
"Since the birth of the Internet, openness and freedom have been its background. Good birds choose trees to live, and users migrate and flow between different platforms based on interests and wishes is a normal and legitimate phenomenon, and it is not worth hyping up or distorting into unfair competition. @Weibo spokesperson wrote.
In addition, this response blog post is accompanied by links to multiple announcements previously posted on Weibo. This includes the investigation and cleanup of false content and rumors that Weibo users move from third-party platforms such as Douban, as well as the rules that MUST be observed when creating, hosting and participating in topic discussions of MCN institutional accounts.
Written by: Nandu reporter Huang Liling