Lv Benfu: If we can achieve the four macro goals, interconnection will become

Reduce traffic costs, guide Internet giants to the international market, limit the disorderly expansion of platform capital and protect consumer rights and interests

In the context of the Anti-Monopoly Law, there are two main points for the interconnection between Internet platforms: one is the interoperability between platforms, and the other is the portability and transferability of data. The interoperability between platforms, of course, is that the APIs are connected to each other, and there must be technical problems.

To achieve interconnection between platforms, we must first discuss what the purpose is to be achieved.

The first goal is to reduce the cost of traffic in China.

Due to the limitations of the business model, many platform companies in China have developed from the free model, free is to attract traffic, and then traffic harvesting, so now the traffic price has begun to become very expensive, bringing a great burden to later innovators and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Previously, it was cheaper to open an e-commerce store on the Internet than to open a physical store, but now that the situation has begun to change and the cost has become very high, I am afraid it is not appropriate. This is the first macro purpose of the government.

Second, guide the Internet platform giants into a broader global competition system.

Internet platform giants now have their own comfort zone, have their own ecosystem, have this ecology, do not have to innovate technologically, do not have to compete internationally, as long as they harvest the traffic in this platform circle, life can be very good.

After all, China has 1 billion netizens, there is an academic word called "giant country effect", in this region, the law is unified, the culture is unified, the marketing strategy is unified, the traffic is huge, and it is very comfortable for China's Internet platform.

Now, the competent authorities hope to guide these platform giants to the international market, let them leave the comfort zone, go to the international market to deepen cultivation, and carry out international competition. This is the second goal.

The third goal, this anti-monopoly, is not to encourage enterprises to become bigger and stronger, the main restriction is the disorderly expansion of platform capital.

From the perspective of anti-monopoly, the scrutiny of concentration of undertakings is now becoming more and more stringent, and the review of mergers and acquisitions of an enterprise is now becoming more and more stringent.

The fourth macro goal, of course, is to protect the interests of consumers.

There are three different jurisdictions in China, the United States and Europe, china's judicial status has risen relatively fast recently, in international cross-border mergers and acquisitions, China is an independent jurisdiction, and the operation of a multinational company should consider the jurisdiction of the three places of China, the United States and Europe.

Different jurisdictions have different claims. European claims take the interests of consumers first, so european judicial claims are the most stringent. We must protect the interests of users and consumers, but also take into account industrial innovation. There needs to be a balance between industrial innovation and consumer, or user protection.

For some platform companies, for example, in the anti-monopoly review process, there is also a word called "innovation exemption", if you are very innovative, I can give you an exemption, innovation exemption is to maintain a balance in the development of the interests of users and manufacturers.

In short, in this round of interconnection special action, if these four goals can be achieved, then this operation is more perfect.

In addition, it is debatable whether connectivity and security are contradictory.

In a relatively closed ecosystem, for the Internet platform, it is obviously easier to ensure security, in the open and interconnected environment, to do a good job of security, obviously need to do more technical preparations.

However, he stressed that the two things of open interoperability and security are not "either/or", because there is a network security strategy in an open environment and a closed network security strategy in a closed environment.

For example, if a lot of links are opened on the WeChat platform and a lot of advertisements are placed, what should I do, will it disturb users? At this point, the problem can give the choice to the user, the specific way is that the platform operator can have several options, let the user choose whether to receive the commercial link, the choice should be given to the user.

In terms of network security, the platform can divide network security into several levels, absolutely insecure, shielded; safe, but commercial, prompting the user, giving the choice to the user, returning to the consumer. In this way, there is no contradiction between openness and security. (This article is based on the speech of Lü Benfu at the 223rd Digital Forum, vice president of the National Innovation and Development Strategy Research Association, and professor of the School of Economics and Management of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)