Preface: We are a socialist country and will not tolerate insatiable greed, so e-commerce platforms should not sell ‘ropes that hang themselves’.
01
The current mobile Internet platform seems to be trapped in a strange circle of algorithms.
If you click on it and take a glance, you’ll find someone selling alcohol, books, or benches
That’s it, the platform will go crazy and push you live streams like this, so many that you want to curse.
The anchors are all eloquent, highly provocative and infectious, so enthusiastic that even if you don’t buy, you feel embarrassed.
The things in the live broadcast room are so cheap that people doubt their lives. Knowing that ‘cheap goods are not good’, based on my several purchasing experiences, I have basically verified that suspicion is right.
Online shopping is normal, but you get what you pay for. Why not go to the flagship store and buy products with quality assurance?
Live streaming sales are not a problem. As an article writer, I occasionally post advertisements. Who doesn’t want to make money to support their family? No one should stand on the moral high ground and criticize advertisers. Why hasn’t anyone criticized CCTV for advertising?
The problem is not to sell counterfeit and inferior products under the guise of low prices and subsidies!
Why is the number of people watching live broadcasts decreasing now?
A large part of the reason is that people have become tired of the “price war”, and the sacrifice of low prices must be quality.
Ten years ago, which of these things wasn’t a low-quality counterfeit product?
The experience of live online shopping is mostly unpleasant, and many people gradually understand it, even having a sense of immersion in factory and supply chain employees. Many employees, including those on e-commerce platforms, live streaming rooms, and factories, work overtime until they vomit blood, earning meager incomes and selling extremely cheap goods with great enthusiasm, while also dealing with a large number of returns.
In the end of the price war, if you eliminate others and yourself, it will definitely lead to the proliferation of counterfeit and shoddy products, after-sales disputes, and the tearing of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.
Who else makes money besides the platform? If you can’t make money, how can you sustain it? How can the income of enterprise employees increase?
Employees are us, we are employees, and everyone’s income cannot be increased. So what is the meaning of discussing consumption?
Endless overtime, low income, and live streaming rooms, isn’t this a vicious cycle?
What is the picture?
Even if there is capital investment, the capital needs to consider how long it will double its return on investment.
Can the problem of sluggish consumption be solved by selling cheap goods in live streaming rooms?
Another feeling is that the live streaming room sells mostly useless and ineffective products.
So, when it comes to high-quality and affordable Chinese manufacturing, people are no longer proud, but are starting to ask a question: what is the cost?
Thinking back to half a month ago, the country made new regulations on export tax rebates – starting from December 1st, it decisively cancelled export tax rebates for 59 products such as aluminum and copper, and simultaneously lowered the export tax rebate rate for 209 products such as finished oil, stone, photovoltaics, and lithium batteries from 13% to 9%.
Attempting to cool down and reduce pressure on export trade.
Export companies should realize that the benefits of price wars outweigh the drawbacks.
In the first 10 months of 2024, China’s steel exports reached 91.893 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 23.3%, which is a remarkable achievement, isn’t it?
In fact, the cost is extremely heavy, with 70% of steel mills suffering severe losses and the remaining 30% only making meager profits. Only two steel mills have relatively considerable net profits, namely CITIC Special Steel with 1.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.77%, and Baosteel with 1.338 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 64.77%.
The prosperous export scene of the steel industry has resulted in a surge of 32 trade remedy cases involving China, setting a new historical record, not to mention the number of lawsuits in previous years.
According to the China Trade Remedy Information Network, as of now, there have been 165 trade remedy cases initiated against me globally in 2024, including 131 anti-dumping cases, 24 anti subsidy cases, and 10 safeguard measures, which are at the highest level in history.
Why should we subsidize foreigners at a low price? No matter how much we export, we should bear the reputation of dumping products?
If the manufacturing industry doesn’t even have a 10% net profit, it will definitely fall into a vicious cycle until all industries wither.
02
Two days ago, CCTV exposed the serious problem of counterfeit down products. To what extent is it serious?
Beyond everyone’s imagination, behind the two to three hundred down jackets sold in the live broadcast room, there is actually a complete counterfeit industry chain.
The China Down Industry Association has directly confronted consumers and reminded them to “avoid the low price trap”. The association calculated a sum of money:
Referring to this year’s raw material price level, the standard price of 90% white duck down for down clothing is about 420-550 yuan/kg, and the standard price of 95% white goose down for down bedding is about 1000-1400 yuan/kg.
The anchors passionately said, “Today I’m giving money to my family for a wave of benefits. I don’t want 1888 or 988, just 188 yuan, deduct the 888 link
Excuse me, is this true? Even if it’s a real duck down inner liner, would the manufacturer be foolish enough to pay for welfare and send it to bankruptcy? It’s even more unrealistic to expect the anchor to contribute money. Anchors come to make money, not for public welfare.
So, shouldn’t we doubt the quality of products priced below cost? Furthermore, the so-called billion dollar subsidy e-commerce war is even more suspicious of selling counterfeit goods under the guise of price wars and promotions.
This is the consequence of price wars!
At the end of month National People’s Congress, the platform economy was mentioned multiple times. Although the contribution value of online retail sales was acknowledged, this contribution value is problematic and even worse than killing the chicken for the egg. Therefore, the National People’s Congress proposes to standardize the market competition order and promote mutual benefit and win-win among all parties involved.
A shirt priced at 100 yuan can guarantee a profit of 15 yuan, and selling 10000 pieces can earn 150000 yuan. This can stimulate enterprises to have funds and motivation to develop new products, and also ensure employees’ income.
If the platform insists on cutting the price to 88 yuan, what would the enterprise do? What if the live broadcast room sells 100000 pieces? Enterprises will definitely try their best to pass off inferior products as good, reduce production processes, lay off employees, desperately compress costs, and even resort to illegal tax evasion.
Before and after this year’s Singles’ Day, most media no longer pursued it, but questioned whether the low price strategy of some e-commerce platforms accelerated economic deflation?
Have these platforms provided price subsidies to companies worth billions, or have they forced companies to pool the billions of losses?
Looking back at the spirit of the National People’s Congress, it is actually aimed at bringing prices back to normal levels. Fighting a price war is a dead end! The country is advocating for a “moderate rebound”, where prices, production, and income must be transformed into a virtuous cycle in order to drive consumption and promote an internal circular economy.
You e-commerce platforms should take care of yourselves. We are a socialist country, not an insatiable capitalist country. Don’t sell the ropes that hang you, and don’t force the country to introduce relevant policies and laws. Only then will we know that turning back is the right thing to do.
Whether it is domestic consumption or foreign trade exports, price wars are extremely detrimental to China’s industrial upgrading and manufacturing iteration.
Nowadays is not an era of not being able to eat enough or wear warm clothes. It is an era of gradually pursuing quality, and e-commerce platforms can no longer do business with the mindset of a 2-yuan store.
There is no need to advocate spending money, even a 3-year-old child can do it. As income increases, consumption will definitely rise.
I also hope that the anchors can recommend good products down-to-earth and not use sweet words to induce consumers to buy junk, which is not beneficial to anyone.
If there are problems with the distribution of social wealth, there will be problems with social security, so boosting consumption is just empty talk!
More and more people hope to start the price war first.
