Actor Hu Jun, the stall is in trouble.
On July 29, "screen tough guy" Hu Jun suddenly appeared on the hot search, not because of the new drama nor because of the award, but because the P2P endorsement once caused a storm.
Originally, the "Wukong Wealth Management" endorsed by Hu Jun for many years overturned, and the dealer Jiufu behind it was suspected of running away, and 36 of its branches were cancelled. To this end, many lenders of Wukong Financial Management ran to Hu Jun's Weibo to ask him for help, but the national first-class actor, who had served as the chief experience officer of Jiufu, did not appear and speak out for a long time.
"In order to make money, any endorsement is accepted, too irresponsible!" Hu Jun has been condemned by tens of thousands of netizens, and as of now, there are more than 12,000 complaints about "Wukong Financial Management". It is reported that the relevant thunder wealth management products are suspected of affecting 340,000 people, involving an amount of up to 39 billion yuan.
Nearly 4 days after the fermentation of public opinion, just now, Hu Jun responded.
1 Hu Jun's endorsement overturned again
It is suspected of affecting 340,000 people and 39 billion
On July 29, actor Hu Jun's Weibo comment area suddenly poured in a large number of comments. Netizens mainly reflect that the "Wukong Wealth Management" product endorsed by Hu Jun is suspected of fraud, and its parent company Jiufu Group is suspected of running away, and its 36 branches are hanged and cancelled.
For a time, Hu Jun was pushed to the cusp of the storm, and was shouted by investors to stand up and repay the money. Topics such as "Hu Jun" and "Wukong Financial Spokesperson Hu Jun's Weibo was blown up" have been listed on the hot search lists of major mainstream online platforms such as Weibo, Baidu, and NetEase.
Just this past weekend, the matter continued to ferment on the Internet, causing more netizens and media attention. Perhaps implicated by this matter, Hu Jun, who was expected to win the best male supporting actor at this year's Hundred Flowers Award, regrettably broke out.
According to the news, "Wukong Wealth Management" is suspected of involving 340,000 victims, a total of 39 billion yuan.
Public information shows that Hu Jun served as the spokesperson and chief experience officer of Jiufu Group in September 2018, because at that time, the domestic P2P platform has begun to have a continuous wave of thunder, so Hu Jun's "going up against the current" is very eye-catching and weird. There is a saying on the Internet that the reason why Hu Jun accepted endorsements is mainly because Jiufu paid Hu Jun a generous endorsement fee, as much as 70 million yuan.
However, the good times did not last long, and Hu Jun soon rolled over because of Jiufu's endorsement. Since July 2020, some investors have said that their financial management that has been due one after another has not been refunded, and the wealth management products that should have matured in August have not received payment until mid-September.
Not only Wukong Wealth Management, Jiufu Wallet and Jiufu Puhui under Jiufu have also begun to overdue, and the project that could have been repaid in 1-3 working days is now far away.
The business information disclosed on the official website of Jiufu was also abruptly stopped in July 2020. According to the data, as of July 31, 2020, the balance of 9 rich inclusive loans was 31.9 billion yuan, and the number of lenders exceeded 340,000.
Hearing that jiufu has difficulties in redemption, more and more investors are beginning to worry that the platform will be like other P2P companies, and some even come to jiufu building to defend their rights and try to make the platform private exchange.
However, in the face of the investors who flocked to it at that time, Jiufu insisted that it had no problem, on the grounds that "from July 2020, the three major APP upgrades and integrations, jiufu wallet and Wukong's preferred online loan diversion function will be further integrated into jiufu puhui." ”
The implication is that the group has merged its operating P2P platform, and the previous "three lanes" have become "one lane", which is equivalent to the system being upgraded. Since the system is upgraded, short-term payment may be slowed down.
Such words, it is difficult not to make people wonder, this year's explosion of several Henan village and town banks, is not to learn the Jiufu Group, encounter the problem of redemption first throw the pot system upgrade?
Seeing that the platform is difficult to pay, the spokesperson Hu Jun is naturally besieged by investors. But just like this condemnation, Hu Jun was silent at first, preferring to cover up the public opinion storm in a quiet way rather than stand up for investors.
In December 2020, Jiufu Group finally gave the so-called exit plan in full view of everyone:
First, convert the claim into a coupon for your own mall.
Second, the bonds are sold at a discount, where the bonds are purchased by competing buyers.
Third, the debt is acquired by a non-performing asset management institution and repaid in steps within 3 years.
The three schemes, which seem sincere, are actually likely to leave the lender with no return, so they are basically strongly opposed by the lender.
For example, in the second scheme, the discount is not determined by the lender, but unilaterally determined by the bidder, and for the identity of the bidder and the bid, Jiufu is likely to operate in a black box. For example, in the third aspect, Jiufu has never announced the name of the non-performing asset management institution, and how the other party can revitalize bad debts and how to pay off on schedule has always been a mystery.
Since the latter two schemes do not work for the time being, Jiufu forced the first method.
Deep Blue Finance found on the black cat complaint platform that there are currently 12322 complaints about "Wukong Wealth Management", and the content of the complaints is that in addition to the platform "cannot be cashed", there is also a part of the complaint that the platform forcibly converts the principal invested by investors into golden beans or gift cards, which can only be purchased in the mall under the platform, and compared with the outside, the price of the products in the mall is extremely high.
A netizen complained that the 28,000 yuan of principal he deposited in Wukong Wealth Management was converted into golden beans from when, and the things in the golden bean mall were particularly expensive, "two barrels of oil 1588 yuan, a pillow 519 yuan ..."
2 Revealing the Harvest of Jiufu:
Crazy marketing + high yield promise + change vests
In fact, as early as the same year that Hu Jun endorsed Jiufu, Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, publicly warned investors:
"For financial products that promise to guarantee the principal, the yield of more than 6% is a question mark, more than 8% is dangerous, and more than 10% is prepared to lose all the principal."
If this is the case, why do more than 340,000 lenders still bravely do the "retrograde" of the times in the years when P2P online loan traps are frequent?
This has to mention the harvesting technique of Jiufu: high yield commitment + crazy marketing + change of vest.
It is understood that tv series such as "Military Division Alliance", "Ode to Joy", "Chu Qiao Biography", "That Year spent a good moon and a full moon" that were fired in previous years have all been implanted with Advertisements for Wukong Financial Management, Jiufu Wallet, and Wukong's Preferred Choice.
In addition to the implantation of soft advertising in popular dramas, Jiufu itself also shoots promotional films, not only high-end style, but also play the sentiment card, if there is no "Jiufu" two words, the audience is very likely to mistakenly think that this is a large state-owned bank, Internet manufacturers financial program advertising.
Through these two methods alone, Jiufu has gained great exposure, and from 2016 to 2018, the group's net income increased from 2.261 billion yuan to 5.557 billion yuan, and net profit jumped from 162 million yuan to 1.975 billion yuan.
Even in the context of the tide of Internet finance failure, on August 15, 2019, US Eastern Time, Jiufu Group also successfully landed on the NASDAQ and was listed.
It is reasonable to say that with the news of Wukong Financial's overdue payment in July 2020 and the normal operation of Jiufu Puhui abruptly stopped, things should usher in a big ending, but it was never expected that Jiufu would continue to harvest through the road of "going to Jiufuhua" and "changing vests".
Public information shows that as of September 2020, a considerable number of companies under the Jiufu department have changed their names and surnames, and many businesses have been classified into the three companies of Zhuhai Wanka Consumption, Wukong Trade and Jinniu Zhixuan, even if they penetrate the shareholders, it is difficult to see the most important commercial entity in the Jiufu system - the figure of Jiufu Digital. The analysis believes that Jiufu's move is to move out the cash loans and installment business that make money, so in principle, the money earned by these companies is not obliged to pay those overdue financial funds.
At about the same time, Wukong Financial Management, which was originally familiar to the public, also quietly changed its name to "Wukong Preferred". But as of now, Wukong Preferred can still search and download on the mobile phone mall, and the official introduction provides fund wealth management business and life services.
In this regard, some netizens questioned whether Wukong Financial Management continued to "cheat" by changing a vest: "Wukong Financial Management hundreds of thousands of people tens of billions of funds are difficult to pay, and now a change of vest continues to attract investors, and it can even be on the shelves, you say magic is not magical? ”
On May 18, 2022, the 2021 financial report released by Jiufu (NASDAQ: JFU) showed that the operating income of Jiufu in 2021 was 761 million yuan, down 39.38% year-on-year, and the net loss attributable to the company was 235 million yuan, a loss narrowed by 89.62% year-on-year; the loan facilitation service fee, which was once the pillar of the group's revenue, has been basically compressed to 0.
3 Whether the star is responsible for the endorsement
The official tone is so set...
Nearly 4 days after the public opinion storm fermented, this afternoon, the spokesperson Hu Jun finally came forward to respond: the endorsement contract between the two sides has officially ended in June 2020. Later, due to relevant requirements, the slow withdrawal of its products in the process of making adjustments and other related problems, we have been actively communicating with the relevant departments and trying to help promote.
"Whether celebrities should be responsible for endorsing products" has always been the focus of controversy in the industry.
According to the incomplete statistics of Deep Blue Finance, since 2014, not only Hu Jun, but also many public figures, including Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Tielin, Zhao Yazhi, Lang Lang, Tang Yan, Wang Baoqiang, Tang Guoqiang, Dong Chengpeng, Wang Han, Pan Xiaoting, etc., have been involved in the public opinion storm because of P2P platform endorsements or propaganda.
Once the endorsement of the P2P platform exploded, these stars could not escape the scolding of investors. For example, Wang Han, the host of Hunan Satellite TV, who once spoke for Ai Qianjin, was shouted out by investors after the love of money exploded, and the slogan "Wang Han please come out and pay back my hard-earned money" was shouted by investors, and many deceived netizens said on various platforms that they watched Wang Han's advertisement at that time, and out of trust in Wang Han, they put money into Ai Qianjin. For this reason, they believe that Wang Han needs to be responsible for this matter.
For the determination of responsibility, Deep Blue Finance found that an announcement previously issued by the Beijing Chaoyang District Financial Dispute Mediation Center had set the tone for the celebrity endorsement P2P online lending institution:
If the advertising spokesperson fails to fulfill the reasonable review obligation and makes false publicity, he is at fault for the occurrence and expansion of the damage result, and has an unshirkable responsibility.
In addition, the final judgment of Pan Xiaoting, the spokesperson of the Zhongjin system, also shows that although the spokesperson has the obligation to review the endorsement brand, the measurement standard of this prudent review obligation cannot be excessively demanding, and "the obligation of review should not be reversed by the results of the criminal case after the fact".
It can be understood that from the legal point of view, the fault of celebrity spokespersons is basically difficult to determine. Investors who want to avoid the black hole that devours wealth must also hope for how long they have snacks. (with limitations)
This article originated from Deep Blue Finance