Wang Xing took risks? The US group's takeaway is caught in the "two choices one" controversy

From the platform war between 20 10 Dangdang, Suning Appliance and JD.COM, "choose one from two" has become a necessary drama in the platform competition every year. A few years later, the drama of "choose one from two" was staged again, and it became more and more intense.

As a crab in Qiantang River, I should be glad that there are storms in the rivers and lakes.

165438+1October 6, Radar Finance quoted Wang Hai, the "first professional counterfeiter in China", as saying that "Meituan Takeaway" competed for market share with Hungry Platform, abused its dominant market position, and used unfair means to compete, forcing merchants to bid for Hungry. If the merchants don't perform well, they will close the stores and force the merchants to bid, which will harm the interests of the merchants.

Wang Hai believed that the US group's take-out violated the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, so he reported it to the Haidian District Market Supervision Administration of Beijing. It is worth mentioning that the Anti-monopoly Bureau of the State Administration of Market Supervision 165438+ convened a meeting of several Internet giants in Hangzhou on10.5, making it clear that "the' two-choice' behavior in the Internet field is suspected of violating the Anti-monopoly Law.

Niudao Finance was informed that before Meituan take-out had forced merchants to "choose one from two" in second-and third-tier cities, otherwise they would be forced to go offline and close the background. In fact, in the face of the rigid requirement of "choose one from two" on the platform side, it is in an obvious weak position in the game with the platform and does not have the right to speak. Both normal operation and traffic are directly affected by the platform.

Forcing businesses to submit?

Ding Daoshi, an Internet analyst, said in an interview with the media that forcing merchants to "choose one from the other" has been an abnormal competition mode on the Internet for nearly two years, and it has become an unspoken rule in the industry. Throughout the country, cases of being punished for forcing merchants to "choose one from two" take-out platforms are frequently seen in newspapers.

Recently, Mr. Zhang, a former operator of Meituan City, broke the news to Niudao Finance, saying that Meituan take-out has a variety of routines for merchants, customers, competitors, food delivery staff and agents.

Among them, in terms of controlling merchants to enter other competitions, Meituan takeaway forces merchants to choose one.

Niudao Finance learned that Meituan used its own market advantages to cooperate with merchants, requiring all merchants to sign a "cooperation commitment letter" when entering Meituan for take-out.

Its contents include: merchants who have settled in the US Mission. Com can only be operated exclusively through Meituan takeaway. Businesses that violate their promises have to pay liquidated damages. Although they will not really force merchants to pay, it is not uncommon to threaten them.

When the merchants are hungry, the platform will unilaterally close the merchants in the Meituan store, forcing the merchants to submit. "For example, narrowing the distribution scope of merchants, making some customers unable to order food, reducing the sales volume of merchants or charging distribution fees, making the distribution fees of merchants higher than other merchants, or finding a merchant of the same category to engage in preferential activities, resulting in a decline in sales of merchants. Ask them, or unilaterally increase the commission for the merchants and squeeze the profit margin of the merchants. "

Mr. Chang, the agent of Zhengzhou Meituan, told Niudao Finance that he had been in the company for more than a year and signed the exclusive agent of Meituan. Mr. Chang heard that the exclusive agent of Meituan was forbidden to sign other take-out platforms, otherwise the backstage would be closed. "The business of our store has been growing, and we want to broaden another channel. I don't know if the US Mission agrees, otherwise I will lose a lot by forcibly closing the background without the consent of the US Mission. "

"Quitting the platform means the loss of customers; Not quitting the platform means that you can only accept the constraints of the platform, otherwise you will shut down the background system. " Mr. Wang, a takeaway merchant of Meituan, said.

Debate on "Choose One from Two"

According to public reports, as early as the second half of 20 16, in order to promote online services, Meituan.com forcibly shut down its merchants who cooperated with take-away platforms such as Hungry, Baidu Takeaway, and stopped the interface service of Meituan Takeaway to these merchants. If they want to resume their services, these businesses must stop cooperating with other platforms.

If the merchant violates the relevant agreement, Meituan will raise the charging standard. "Generally, under the leadership of a company or company, it is required to close non-specialty stores. In short, it is to use traffic to threaten. " Mr. Zhang told Niudao Finance.

In addition, the actual fee charged by Meituan is commission, and the consumer's consumption money goes directly to Meituan's account, from which the commission is deducted, which is about 18%, and the rest will be automatically called to the merchant.

A Meituan merchant in Xinmi, Henan Province told Niudao Finance, "Meituan takeaway actually hides the store directly and tells it that it must be taken off the shelf. Are you hungry? If it is not exclusive, it will receive a commission of 25 to 30 points. "

It is worth mentioning that, according to the Spring City Evening News, Mr. Zheng, who owns more than 10 restaurants in Kunming Meituan's takeaway business, signed a one-year cooperation agreement with Meituan's online takeaway ordering platform at the end of last year. Around 20 17 12 15, he also included another takeaway platform in the scope of cooperation.

Just three days after working with another takeaway platform, Mr. Zheng received a phone call from the US Mission, warning them that they could only cooperate exclusively with the US Mission. If another online take-out ordering platform is not closed in time, Meituan will take their products offline.

After receiving the call, Mr. Zheng is still considering how to solve it. As a result, the restaurant on Meituan was forced to be removed the next day, and the online shop on the client was closed.

"There is no room for discussion. There is no official notice. As soon as we turn on the computer, we can't open the restaurant that we work so hard every day. I am really angry, but I can't find a place to communicate. "

Because of the long cooperation time and many customers, there is no way. Mr. Zheng Can only shut down the online ordering of another takeaway platform.

According to the Legal Daily, Zhejiang Jinhua's Meituan takeaway was fined 526,000 yuan by the local market supervision bureau for restricting competition and other illegal acts.

At the same time, Meituan take-out also requires merchants to choose "only cooperate with Meituan take-out online platform" in the take-out service contract signed with them, otherwise Meituan will not provide Meituan take-out service to merchants and completely cut off the cooperation between merchants and other take-out platforms.

Then, Mr. Zhang, the agent, also told Niudao Finance, "If you are hungry, the merchants will do bigger preferential activities, and the people of the US Mission will go to that merchant, which will cause the merchants to have a meal and rest, wasting the delivery ability of being hungry, so that real customers can't enjoy the benefits."

In terms of merchant subsidies, Meituan's take-away evaluation subsidies are divided into two parts: one is merchant subsidies, and the other is agent subsidies. Agents pay for businesses to do activities, so that the price of Meituan is cheaper than that of competitors.

An agent of Meituan Takeaway, who asked not to be named, told Niudao Finance that Meituan Takeaway asked its agent to pay the fee for the delivery staff who were hungry. In this regard, some industry regulators said that it is unfair competition for Meituan to use its own advantages to hinder and coerce others to conduct normal transactions with competitors.

The sorrow of agency

Niudao Finance understands that Meituan initially entered the market as a direct seller, but after Wang Huiwen took over the take-away business, considering the overweight mode of direct selling, he recruited agents on a large scale.

Previously, according to "265438+20th Century Business Herald", an agent's public information showed that "the agent will take 20%-25% from the merchant's order as the service fee, but sometimes the channel manager will ask the merchant to provide the user with a subsidy of 10%-50%. Merchants do not accept it, and agents can only subsidize themselves in order to avoid punishment. "

Mr. Zhang revealed to Niudao Finance that customers often encounter such a routine: for example, the discount from 20 yuan is reduced to 5 yuan, and they don't enjoy the activity when they actually pay. The money paid for an activity with a big discount is almost even more expensive than that bought in the store, and the amount of takeaway is pitiful.

"The root cause is that the profit margins of catering businesses have been squeezed repeatedly. Only by means of meal fees and prices, meal reduction or online selling prices higher than the admission price, or by using the rules of activities to fool customers, can the profits of merchants and the indicators of business personnel, agents and US delegations be guaranteed. "

In terms of food delivery staff, Mr. Zhang told Niudao Finance that the US Mission has set various fine indicators for food delivery staff: bad reviews, overtime, early delivery and so on.

"The delivery time is repeatedly squeezed, which leads to the phenomenon that the takeaway brother is prone to traffic hazards such as red light and retrograde. Each agent has its own set of models. On the basis of the fine index of the US Mission, it is not without a higher fine system to squeeze out more profitable agents from the takeaway brother. "

Another important assessment indicator for Meituan takeaway agents is the transaction amount indicator. It is understood that the indicators of transaction volume need to be supported by users, merchants, distributors, efficiency, subsidy rate and other indicators, among which the online business of merchants needs to be audited by the headquarters.

"The principle of Meituan is that merchants need to have a complete double certificate, but only one certificate of the merchant can pass or even get away with it during the review process. This is also the reason for the frequent occurrence of black workshops. Only by judging the violation of business personnel or agents can we solve the relative risk liability. " Mr. Zhang told Niudao Finance.

According to the code of conduct of Meituan takeaway agents, every month, agents will have corresponding KPI assessment indicators, with 80 being qualified. Unqualified agents may need to be rectified weekly. If the rectification is not in place twice, it will be severely warned, and the three serious warnings will soon be retired.

Niudao Finance understands that the business team of Meituan agents is managed by Meituan's channels and paid by agents. However, when the US Mission formulates the task, the completion of the task is not necessarily related to the profit of the agent, and even the profit will be lost. But it is directly related to the income of meituan BD. "BD doesn't consider the life and death of the business, but they consider closing down and changing bosses after the loss of business value."

An operator of the Meituan takeaway market who asked for anonymity told Niudao Finance: "Whether agents can make money is not their consideration. If the subsidy index is not up to standard, it will threaten the retirement of agents. If you have the ability, you can post money yourself, but occasionally you will force agents to subsidize. Agents who do not cooperate for several months will really retreat. "

Xiao Zhixing, a professor of management in peking university hsbc school of business, once said: "Some Internet companies are slowly moving from value creation to resource possession, and even to power rent-seeking. The reason is that the Internet in China is not an upward competition in essence, but a downward competition, many of which are to meet the needs of the dark side of human nature. "