Group Buying Website "Integrity Qualification Authentication" Five Suspicions

However, under the background of the number of group buying websites, the media have gradually exposed the news of Internet users' fraud, quality assurance and information leakage, which directly triggered the "credit crisis" of group buying websites.

Based on this background, recently, an organization called "China international e-commerce center" of Ministry of Commerce has conducted the first batch of credit certification for domestic group buying websites, which has aroused wide attention between the group buying industry and the news media.

In October 29th,

Reporters learned that the adoption of the integrity of the group buying website, the need to pay the cost of 45 thousand yuan.

The high cost and whether the China international e-commerce center has the qualification to certify honesty and trustworthiness has aroused a lot of doubts in the industry.

In the interview, the China Electronic Commerce Research Center believes that the original intention of promoting the integrity certification service is good, which is conducive to the integrity system construction of the group buying industry and the sustained and healthy development of the industry.

Fang Yingzhi, an analyst with the China Electronic Commerce Research Center, said that there were some doubts about the certification of group buying enterprises in the sample survey of some group buying enterprises in China.

Question 1: attribute: is the certification body a commercial enterprise or a government department?

According to public reports, the institution that provides credit certification is the Ministry of Commerce's China International Electronic Commerce Center.

The reporter learned from his official website that his full name is "China International Electronic Commerce Center (company)". The name of the company does not contain the Ministry of Commerce, and there are two words at the back of the center.

Public information display, the China International Electronic Commerce Center, is the Ministry of commerce information construction executive organization and technical support unit, was founded in 1996, early by Alibaba's Ma Yun and others jointly founded.

It can be seen that as a technical support unit under the Ministry of Commerce, it does not represent the Ministry of Commerce and mandatory government actions.

In particular, the two word "company" behind its full name indicates its nature and attribute, and it should be a profitable commercial company.

Cao Lei, an e-commerce researcher, told reporters that the current certification service mainly consists of state functional departments, trade associations and professional third party certification companies, and there is no precedent for a profitable commercial company to make certification.

[query two: function] does the company have the national "certification" function?

According to the reporter, China international e-commerce center is controlled by China International Agel Ecommerce Ltd.

The company operates an interactive digital information service system in the business field, a state-level third party commerce and trade service platform, and the three party disaster backup and information security service base, providing the full service of e-commerce.

It can be seen that it is a profitable company that provides "business continuity protection services such as full process e-commerce services and investment promotion services, and disaster recovery and backup services", rather than a non-profit certification body with credibility.

Therefore, whether it has the function of "national certification" is questionable and pondering.

[question three: profit making] 45 thousand certification fee has earned "huge profits" suspicion?

In the group buying certification service launched by China International Electronic Commerce Center, the group buying enterprises participating in certification must pay a high fee of 45 thousand yuan.

A group buying website official said that the current group buying industry is more confusing, and standardizing the market through authentication is a good thing in itself, but the cost of tens of thousands of yuan is too high.

After several consultations, the company has to give up certification.

According to media reports, the 45 thousand yuan fee of China International Electronic Commerce Center includes three parts: group buying certification fee, developing integrity business fees and publicity fees.

After obtaining the credentials of the group buying website, they can also award the nameplates of "honest businessmen" to the merchants they develop. The authorized units are the "China International Electronic Commerce Center", rather than the Ministry of Commerce.

In this regard, the China Electronic Commerce Research Center has verified to many enterprises that have joined the certification and to the enterprises that have not joined the certification. The 45 thousand yuan certification fee is true, and all of them think that the cost is obviously high.

There are no quota restrictions on the accreditation of credentials. If the cost is forty thousand or fifty thousand, the first 20 enterprises will be 900 thousand yuan. If there are one hundred or two hundred enterprises in the future to pass the certification, and once every year there is a good faith qualification, it will undoubtedly be a huge sum of money.

As a matter of fact, the group buying industry in China is just beginning. Every enterprise even has a small profit, and there is not much money left in its hands. In order to help the group buying industry develop healthfully, it is necessary to reduce the unnecessary burden on enterprises while conducting market regulations.

Experts believe that this kind of "certification" behavior is very difficult to get rid of.

[query four: condition] does certification threshold condition deny most websites?

The China International Electronic Commerce Center's credit authentication for group buying websites is mainly reflected in setting the threshold of funds.

The first examination standard of group buying website's first examination and approval is that the registered capital of a website business enterprise is not less than 500 thousand yuan, so it is eligible to be recognized by good faith.

In the interview, the reporter learned that the head of the group buying website reflected to the China Electronic Commerce Research Center, "our website has only 3 people, starting from scratch and simply can't reach the threshold of 500 thousand yuan of registered capital."

The person in charge believes that the credit authentication system lacks fairness and rationality. Although it is not mandatory for anyone who can buy a group, no one can do it or even force a bad website to quit, but no doubt the group buying network will be forced to reshuffle.

Regarding this, Cao Lei, a researcher at the China Electronic Commerce Research Center, believes that the threshold of 500 thousand registered capital may stifle many small and medium sized group buying websites with potential for development, and also deprive a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities. Credit is not entirely supported by funds.

At the same time, what is worrying is that the 300 group buying websites that have been submitted to the certification application are only a small part of the industry. Most of the group buying websites do not even have the qualifications to submit applications.

[question five: divulge] the possibility of disclosing trade secrets is required.

In the process of integrity certification of the group buying website, several rounds of large group purchase websites were invited to the conference room of the Ministry of Commerce. After the meeting, an electronic commerce credit application form was distributed to the key group buying website.

From the "e-business credit certification application form", we can see that the materials submitted by the group buying website are very detailed, including: the size of the website (the number of registered users, the length of business, the average daily paction amount in the past six months, etc.); the photocopy of the relevant system of the website (including marketing system, human resources management, executive incentive and restraint mechanism, etc.); the current credit management system (manual), process and related documents of the website; the company's plans and plans for mergers, acquisitions, asset restructuring, etc., all involve the core secrets of the group buying enterprise.

Is there any need for such a detailed application form? There are some group buying enterprises that indicate that the contents of the application form involve many core secrets of group buying enterprises, and the behavior of obtaining such materials is not proper.

The person in charge of a group buying company said that such a behavior had the possibility of disclosing trade secrets.

[industry regulation and self-discipline]

The brutal growth of domestic group buying websites is one aspect of e-commerce development in recent years.

In the current market threshold is too low, the industry is not standardized, there are indeed a lot of group buying sites rely on information fraud to attract consumers "hooked", earn a ticket to leave, resulting in the group buying industry to a certain extent, the credibility of poor, lack of credibility.

Therefore, it is in line with the trend of e-commerce development to integrate them into the industry supervision.

In the interview, some experts said that the website credit certification should be based on the website's registered capital, service quality and credit degree as the basis for comprehensive assessment, rather than just from the perspective of capital.

At present, there are still quite a number of group buying websites without corresponding qualifications and credit rating, but their service quality and identity in the hearts of users have been recognized.

The urgent need to regulate the group buying network in the chaos of the thousand regiment war is an unavoidable fact, but the regulatory system still needs to be built on the basis of fairness, efficiency and rationality.

At present, some organizations are playing the role of standardizing the market and protecting the interests of consumers. In essence, they are calculating abuses for their needs and joint profits.

Such a loophole can be drilled. In fact, it is still a lack of market supervision. Only by improving the certification system and strengthening market supervision can we plug such loopholes.

In this regard, Cao Lei said, group buying enterprises to healthy development, the most important thing is to strengthen the industry's own self-discipline.

First, enhance the integrity of the industry.

"Online group buying" has quietly become a fashionable new mode of Internet consumption, and the consequent growth of complaints is the growth of complaints.

Like online shopping, group buying is also prone to the moral hazard of asymmetric information. In addition, because the online group buying industry in China is still in a fast "grassy root", the integrity and service level of the group buying website are in good condition.

At present, many problems that the group buying industry exposes, the most important thing is to rely on the group buying industry to strengthen the industry's own constraints and the conscientious integrity of the group buying enterprises.

Recently, a high level seminar called "2010 China online group buying industry" and the launching ceremony of the "China integrity online group buying alliance" were held in Hangzhou. The summit held a positive discussion on the integrity crisis in the group buying industry.

Second, authoritative regulatory measures need to be introduced.

For the group buying industry exposed problems, in addition to requiring industry self-discipline, experts also called on the relevant authoritative ministries and commissions of the state to introduce regulatory measures as early as possible.

There is no doubt that the release of regulatory measures with credibility plays an important role in the standardization of group buying industry.

Prior to that, the relevant ministries and commissions of the state have issued some regulatory measures, such as the State Administration for Industry and commerce, formulating the Interim Measures for the management of Internet commodity pactions and related services, and stipulate that online shopkeepers should be authenticated in real name from July 1, 2010. Sellers with conditions should register business registration in accordance with the law, and the paction records should be kept for less than two years.

In June 21, 2010, the people's Bank of China also issued the "non-financial institutions payment services management regulations", stipulates that, from September 1st this year, without the approval of the people's Bank of China, any non-financial institution and individual shall not engage in or disguise the payment business.

Third, group buying enterprises voluntarily provide perfect services.

In the problem of group buying industry, service is the first to bear the brunt.

The industry appeals to large group buying enterprises to provide consumers with a comprehensive pre sale, sale and after-sales service.

According to the reporter, at present, the relevant ministries and commissions of the state are also planning to introduce relevant regulatory measures. The group buying market is under the guidance of multi pronged policies and has become the trend of the times.