Douyin has introduced a tough policy to crack down on online celebrities who sell fake products

The Douyin platform has recently introduced strict new regulations, taking an iron-fisted approach to the sale of counterfeit and substandard goods, in order to crack down on influencers who sell fake goods. This article will explore the underlying reasons behind Douyin's policy and how it affects the platform's business environment and the future trend of live-streaming e-commerce.

TikTok has introduced new regulations to crack down on internet celebrities who sell fake goods, which can be regarded as an explanation for the series of scandals involving top anchors.

Recently, Douyin revised the "Implementation Rules for Creators Sharing Counterfeit/Pirated Goods", which show that if creators share counterfeit/pirated goods and related information when communicating and interacting with users, the platform will impose penalties such as interrupting live broadcasts, removing shopping carts, and self-censoring videos.

At the same time, the platform will take measures such as deleting illegal content, freezing deposits, and permanently banning users depending on the severity of the situation.

Compared with the previous relevant rules, the new rules are very strict: for violations by related entities, new penalties have been added, including permanent closure of the product sharing function, deduction of a penalty of 5,000 yuan, and freezing of all commissions for 90 days; for non-trailer live broadcasts, new penalties have been added, including closure of live broadcast permissions and a complete ban.

▲ Picture/Screenshot of Douyin e-commerce learning center

In September this year, two top Tik Tok anchors, Crazy Little Yang and Northeast Rain, were both "collapsed" due to false advertising. Crazy Little Yang had about 120 million fans at his peak, and Northeast Rain had more than 20 million fans.

Compared with Taobao and Kuaishou, which are led by Li Jiaqi and Simba, the collapse of the two top anchors made Douyin slightly passive during this year's Double 11. Although anchors such as the Guangdong couple and Jia Nailiang also performed well in bringing goods during Double 11, Douyin, which lost Xiao Yangge, has not yet produced a new top anchor who can compete with Li Jiaqi and Simba.

Douyin's drastic measures to crack down on internet celebrities selling counterfeit goods are not only based on the consideration of protecting consumers' rights, but also based on learning lessons and putting a "tight ring" on future top-sellers to ensure product quality.

1. The collapse of the top stream sounded the alarm

On the eve of this year's Double Eleven Shopping Festival, the hottest topic in the live streaming e-commerce circle is the battle between the two top anchors of Douyin and Kuaishou.

The cause of the incident was the price friction caused by Simba and Xiao Yangge selling the same brand of hairy crabs. During the exchange of words between the two sides, the incident in which Xiao Yangge sold lymphatic meat, preserved vegetable braised pork, fake Maotai liquor, hair dryers without any quality certificates and inferior kitchen knives was brought up again.

After that, Xiao Yangge was involved in a false advertising scandal of Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncakes. It was revealed that the mooncakes he promoted in the live broadcast were not produced in Hong Kong at all, and the official investigation was launched.

Therefore, Hefei City established a joint investigation team on September 19 to investigate the problems existing in the live streaming sales of goods by the Three Sheep Company. It was confirmed that the previously introduced Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncakes and Australian Grain-Fed Beef Rolls constituted false and misleading publicity because the promotional words were inconsistent with the actual product quality, and indeed gave rise to relevant concerns about live streaming sales.

On September 26, the Hefei City Joint Investigation Team made public the results of the investigation, stating that it would confiscate their illegal gains and impose fines totaling 68.9491 million yuan.

After the incident, all accounts under the Three Sheep Company stopped broadcasting, and the main account Crazy Xiao Yangge lost tens of millions of followers in a short period of time. The protagonist Xiao Yangge also disappeared after the incident and has not appeared in public since.

Coincidentally, the sweet potato flour sold by another top anchor on the Douyin platform, Dongbei Yujie, was exposed by a fake blogger on September 23 as not real sweet potato flour at all, but mixed with cassava. The relevant departments imposed administrative penalties on Yujie Media, confiscating illegal gains and imposing a fine totaling 1.65 million yuan. In addition, Dongbei Yujie was ordered to suspend operations and make rectifications within a time limit, and bear relevant legal responsibilities.

After the incident, Northeast Yu Jie also suffered the fate of losing fans and being suspended from broadcasting.

The two top anchors were both criticized for false advertising, which caused the market to question the quality of products on the Douyin platform.

During the first Double 11 after Xiao Yangge's silence, Kuaishou's top anchor Simba and Xinxuan Group performed well. Among them, Simba alone created a GMV of over 6.4 billion yuan in the first 14-hour live broadcast after the resumption of broadcasting.

From this point of view, the sales promotion effect of top anchors cannot be underestimated, and the platform also needs top anchors. However, judging from the GMV performance during the Double 11 period, Douyin currently has no anchor who can compete with Simba.

According to Chanmama data, from October 15 to 20, the total GMV of the Guangdong couple's live broadcast reached 909 million yuan, ranking first on the Douyin e-commerce live broadcast sales list. This data is obviously not as good as Simba.

The downfall of the top anchor has had a huge impact on the platform. Douyin is cracking down on the sale of counterfeit goods, and it also does not want to repeat the mistake of the Xiao Yangge incident.

2. Stricter supervision of live e-commerce

In fact, the current live streaming e-commerce industry is gradually bidding farewell to its wild growth stage.

The "Regulations on the Implementation of the Consumer Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" officially came into effect on July 1 this year. The regulations particularly emphasized the transparency requirements for live streaming sales, and clearly stipulated that the anchor must clearly explain to consumers "who is selling the goods" and "whose goods are being sold."

In this context, ensuring product quality is becoming the bottom line for anchors to sell products.

On November 25, Xinxuan Group issued the "Announcement on the Launch of the "Guardian No. 1 Plan" and Related Consumer Rights Protection."

The announcement shows that from September 5, 2024, Xinxuan established a special fund called "Guardian No. 1 Plan" with an investment scale of 100 million yuan to provide advance compensation for consumers who encounter after-sales problems in Xinxuan's live broadcast room.

As one of the parties involved in the Yangge Xiao account collapse incident, Simba has clearly learned a lesson and is putting consumer protection as the top priority. As the Douyin platform has been more affected by the collapse incident, strict governance of the sale of counterfeit/pirated goods is a necessary move under the general trend.

The competition between the top domestic content platforms, Douyin and Kuaishou, has been going on for a long time. From short videos to live e-commerce to local life, the competition between the two giants has become fierce.

The 2023 China Live E-commerce Industry Research Report predicts that China's live e-commerce transaction volume will exceed 5.3 trillion yuan in 2024. The huge market size also indicates that the competition between Douyin and Kuaishou in live e-commerce will only become more intense. Against this background, the platform that can take the lead in creating a good business environment will undoubtedly have a greater advantage.