Why has Simba repeatedly been embroiled in the dispute over the sale of counterfeits?

Produced by Radar Finance and Economics, | Meng Shuai, editor| Deep Sea

"Quick brother" Simba overturned again?

Recently, Simba and Simba apprentice egg promoted and sold a product called "YPL sunscreen cool pants" during the live broadcast, which was suspected by consumers of selling counterfeits.

Since then, Australian Health Industry Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Australian Health") has spoken out through the Weibo "YPL Sports Trend Products", saying that it is not authorized. Subsequently, Xin Xuan's official Weibo also issued a statement, allowing the incident to fall into the "Rashomon". On the evening of April 24, YPL Sports Tide Products posted on Weibo that the incident had a greater impact on both sides, and has reached a settlement with Xin Xuan.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Simba has been involved in the sale of fakes. In November 2020, Simba's "bird's nest incident" received widespread attention from the outside world, and Simba Kuaishou account was once banned for 60 days.

Simba, who has nearly 100 million fans in Kuaishou, has repeatedly fallen into the storm of selling fakes.

Simba is caught in the "fake sale storm" again

On April 18, Simba appeared with his apprentice Egg Egg in the egg live broadcast room to carry the goods. During the live broadcast on the same day, a product called "YPL Sunscreen Cool Pants" was put on the shelves in the live broadcast room. It is reported that the "YPL sunscreen cool pants" product on the live broadcast room on the same day is divided into two styles for adults and children, the price is 63 yuan and 50 yuan respectively, and the number of orders placed through the live broadcast room on the same day exceeds 100,000 pieces, and the sales exceed 6 million yuan.

But then some consumers reported that they did not find the product in the official products of the YPL brand, and Simba was once again involved in the suspicion of "selling fakes". Subsequently, with the response of many parties, the incident also evolved into "Rashomon" for a time.

On April 22, Australia Health said through the Weibo "YPL Sports Fashion Products" that the product named "YPL Sunscreen Cool Pants" was confirmed to be not under the YPL brand without official authorization. The company also said that considering the huge number and amount of sales of the product, it will pursue the responsibility of the product distribution company and production company in accordance with the law, and has the right to simultaneously pursue the responsibility of the relevant product links, stores, anchors, etc. sold online.

In the evening of the same day, Xin Xuan responded to the matter through Weibo, saying that the brand holder, Harbin Aoshengyuan Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Harbin Aoshengyuan"),has provided authorization links and related written materials, and Xin Xuan is still conducting further strict verification of these materials.

According to the information provided by Xin Xuan to the media, it is Harbin Aoshengyuan that provides it with authorization to produce and sell "YPL" brand customized products, not the Australian Health that "denounces" it from the aforementioned blog, and the trademark is the authorization provided by Australian Health to Harbin Aoshengyuan, and the authorization period is from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2026, and the license is transferable.

In the early morning of the 23rd, the Weibo account "YPL Sports Fashion Products" posted an explanation that the ownership of the YPL trademark of the counterfeit products belonged to its company, and on April 6, the relevant trademark was transferred to Australia YPL Co., Ltd. The trademark registered by "a company in Harbin" is a self-created graphic mark, which is very different from the products sold.

Subsequently, Xin Xuan responded that after verification, the incident was caused by a dispute before and after the transfer of the trademark of the trademark holder and was not a fake. Xin Xuan also said that if it brings a bad experience to consumers, you can contact Xin Xuan customer service for a full refund.

Later, the Weibo account "YPL Sports Tide Products" issued another statement, saying that the company had never had any business cooperation with Harbin Aoshengyuan and did not have any trademark licensing behavior.

On the evening of April 23, the incident finally came to an end. Weibo account "YPL Sports Fashion Products" issued a statement saying that the trademark licensing dispute involved in this time has been properly resolved, and apologized for the impact it has caused to relevant companies, the majority of netizens and Simba.

Subsequently, Xin Xuan forwarded the "YPL Sports Trend Products" statement, saying that it will continue to stand with the majority of users as always, and continue to uphold the highest principle of "adhering to the highest principle of "adhering to the priority of quality and the priority of consumer rights and interests", and sparing no effort to bring you the ultimate cost-effective products and services.

People's Daily commented that such things can no longer leave a tail, "In recent years, the boom in carrying goods is quite prosperous, but the problem of carrying goods is emerging in an endless stream, and the regulatory authorities have increased governance efforts and formed targeted institutional arrangements." The incident in which Simba was involved is more typical and worth analyzing, and it is recommended that the relevant departments give more accurate institutional precautions after handling it according to law, so as not to let similar problems reappear in the live broadcast room. ”

The Henan Provincial Consumer Association sued for the Eternal Sealing of Simba Kuaishou account

In addition to being involved in the "yoga pants sales storm", Simba's previous stall "troublesome matter" has also made the latest progress.

On April 24, according to the surging news, the Henan Provincial Consumer Association will hold a trial on May 9 for consumer rights infringement cases such as Kuaishou and Xin Youzhi on the "Bird's Nest Incident", including the return of compensation and the yongfeng Xin Youzhi Kuaishou account. It is worth mentioning that according to media reports, the relevant staff of the Zhengzhou Intermediate People's Court said that due to the impact of the epidemic, the case will choose to be heard online, and the trial can be watched through the Internet.

It is understood that this case originated from the sensational "bird's nest incident" in the live e-commerce industry in 2020. In September and October of that year, Simba's apprentice Shi Damei sold "Ming Zhi Bowl Flavor Instant Bird's Nest" in his live broadcast room, and the anchor emphasized the sufficient content and good efficacy of bird's nest as the selling point of the product by virtue of the "selling point card" content provided by Yu Company and personal understanding of the product during the live broadcast, but did not mention the true attributes of its flavored drink.

Subsequently, the product attracted consumer questions. Radar Finance noted that at that time, Simba had repeatedly responded to the incident, Simba first personally demonstrated and showed the product inspection report in the cat sister live broadcast room to prove his innocence, saying that he received extortion and extortion from the video of the price increase, and then issued a lawyer statement again, saying that the bird's nest product was qualified and genuine.

Since November 7, professional counterfeiter Wang Hai has officially joined the team of anti-counterfeiting Simba. At that time, Wang Hai issued a test report, pointing out that the bird's nest product sold by simba's team was a flavored beverage instead of bird's nest, the protein and amino acid content of the product was 0, and the sialic acid, which was one of the important indicators of true bird's nest, contained only 0.014%.

On November 27 of the same year, Simba, who received the information for the test, was "punched in the face" and issued an apology letter. Simba admitted that the bird's nest product is actually a bird's nest flavored beverage, and there was indeed exaggerated publicity when promoting and selling the product in the live broadcast, in addition, Simba also gave consumers a refund of one to three compensation schemes. It is reported that the product involves a total of 57,820 orders, with a total sales volume of more than 15.49 million yuan, and a total of more than 61.98 million yuan needs to be paid first.

A month later, the Guangzhou market supervision department announced the results of the handling of this incident, Simba Company had a misleading commercial publicity behavior in this incident, violating the relevant provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, so Simba was ordered to stop the illegal act and fined 900,000 yuan, and the bird's nest brand side was ordered to stop the illegal behavior and imposed an administrative penalty of a fine of 2 million yuan.

In addition, a more fatal blow to Simba is that his account was banned by the Kuaishou platform for 60 days. It took a few months for Simba to make a comeback.

In addition to attracting the attention of the Guangzhou market supervision department, the incident also attracted the attention of the Henan Provincial Consumer Association. In February last year, the Henan Provincial Consumer Association said at a media briefing that it hoped that kuaishou's punishment for simba's team should not be a 60-day suspension of the account, but should be permanently suspended.

In January this year, the Henan Provincial Consumer Association held a press briefing, mentioning that the demands of the consumer civil public interest lawsuit filed this time were: Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd., Simba (Xin Youzhi), Guangzhou Rongyu Trading Co., Ltd., and Guangzhou Heyi E-commerce Co., Ltd. jointly assumed the responsibility of refunding one for three, with a total refund amount of 79.714156 million yuan.

Industry insiders: Fan tone and selection of products have led simba to repeatedly fall into the controversy of selling fakes

As of press time, Simba has more than 98 million fans on the Kuaishou platform, and the number of fans is close to 100 million, second only to the Kuaishou small shop account certified by the Kuaishou platform, and the number of fans of Simba's apprentice egg is also approaching 58 million. Excluding non-human accounts such as CCTV News and People's Daily, Simba and Egg Egg occupy the first and second positions in the list of individual human account fans on the Kuaishou platform, respectively.

Why has the Simba family, with such a huge number of fans, repeatedly caught up in the controversy of selling fakes? Wang Feng, an e-commerce practitioner, told Radar Finance that this is mainly related to the characteristics of Simba fans and the selection of products.

According to Wang Feng, Simba rose from Kuaishou, in the early days, the users of the Kuaishou platform were mainly "old iron", and this part of the population did not have high requirements for product quality, chasing cost performance, so in the selection of products, Simba's selection is also inclined to cost-effective products.

"For example, the controversial 'YPL sunscreen cool pants' product is divided into two styles for adults and children, priced at 63 yuan and 50 yuan respectively, which is a difficult thing to want high quality." Wang Feng said that the quality of international big brands is more reliable, but the tone of these products does not match the tone of Simba's fans. Coupled with the price reduction of the Xinxuan platform, the profit margin of the merchant is limited, and many merchants will choose to reduce the quality in order to preserve the profit, which leads to the probability of quality disputes in the products brought by the Simba family being greater than that of Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi.

Wang Feng said that at present, there is no solution to this phenomenon, and in the future, we should see the Products brought by the Simba family into controversy.

Kuaishou no longer favors the Simba family

It is worth mentioning that the honeymoon period of the Simba family and Kuaishou has ended.

In addition to being banned by Kuaishou many times in the live broadcast room, Simba has also called out to Kuaishou more than once in the live broadcast room, saying that his video and live broadcast are restricted by Kuaishou. Simba also revealed that he had spent 25 million yuan on traffic, but after an hour, the number of viewers was only 800,000. The conflict between the two sides also once reached the point of going to court, and in December last year, according to media reports, Simba and his apprentice Shi Damei sued Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd. for an online infringement liability dispute.

The data shows that since the beginning of this year, Simba's own account has only done 5 live broadcasts. At the same time, Simba is interested in supporting his apprentice, and he himself has appeared in the live broadcast room of other anchors under the Simba family many times to divert traffic for him.

Judging from the data, Kuaishou is also gradually getting rid of its dependence on the Simba family.

According to the financial report previously released by Kuaishou, In 2021, Kuaishou recorded a total revenue of 81.082 billion yuan, an increase of 37.9% over the same period in 2020. From the perspective of business segmentation, Kuaishou achieved revenue of 42.665 billion yuan, 30.995 billion yuan and 7.421 billion yuan in online marketing services, live broadcasting and other services last year, respectively, and the revenue of the above three businesses accounted for 52.6%, 38.2% and 9.2% of the total respectively, and the live broadcast business was replaced by online marketing services.

By further splitting off other revenue businesses, the brand has become an important driving force for the rapid development of Kuaishou's e-commerce business. In the fourth quarter of last year, the GMV of Kuaishou's brand goods maintained rapid growth, and the GMV of Kuaishou brand self-broadcast was more than 9 times that of the first quarter.

In 2019, Simba's team announced that its GMV was 13.3 billion, and the total GMV of Kuaishou was 59.6 billion yuan at that time, which calculated that the Simba family accounted for more than 22%; in 2020, the Kuaishou GMV was 381.2 billion, and the cumulative GMV of the 10 anchors of the Simba family was about 6.5 billion in the same year, and the proportion of GMV contributed by the Simba family to the overall GMV was further reduced.

Where will the Simba family live streaming goods go? Radar Finance will continue to pay attention.

Note: This article is the original of Radar Finance (ID: leidacj). Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.