New rules for Douyin: prohibiting holding orders and live streaming of exams

Recently, Douyin issued two new regulations, but for some merchants and anchors, it is not good news. This article analyzes these two new regulations and discusses the impact behind them.

Douyin recently released two new regulations, which are not good news for some merchants and anchors.

This adjustment may lead to a significant reduction in profits. Today we will talk about two new regulations that have been recently issued.

01 Douyin has banned the practice of holding orders

On August 31, 2023, the Douyin e-commerce team released the "Illegal Behavior: Implementation Rules for Holding Orders", which clearly stated that strict control will be exercised over the illegal behavior of holding orders in live broadcast rooms. Those with serious circumstances will have their Douyin accounts permanently banned.

1. What is holding orders?

Douyin officials also gave a clear definition, referring to the use of welfare products or attractive products as gimmicks to attract users to stay and interact in the live broadcast room for a long time, but the relevant information of the activity is not clearly conveyed to users.

For example, product discount prices, shelf time, inventory levels, etc., which lead to behaviors that damage the user's purchasing experience.

Case 1: The host puts a bottle of Moutai in the live broadcast room with a sign on it saying 1499 or 1699, or a certain product is priced at 9.9 yuan, but it is never put on the shelves from the start to the end of the broadcast.

Case 2: The live broadcast room said that 1,000 lipsticks would be given away today, but only a dozen were given away in an hour, and the number was held back until the end of the live broadcast.

Case 3: Sisters, our factory is having a promotion today and we are clearing out all the stock. We will stock as many baby buckles as you want, and we will deliver a wave to you every hour.

This not only involves holding back orders, but also involves false marketing, and the concept of not being able to clear inventory in the live broadcast room.

2. Related penalties

Since the new regulations were issued on August 31, Douyin e-commerce will take the following measures to deal with illegal order holding behaviors depending on the severity of the violation:

1. Deduction of credit points

2. Temporarily or permanently close the product sharing function (including but not limited to window permissions, shopping cart permissions and live product sharing function permissions)

3. Deduction of penalty

4. Temporary or permanent ban of TikTok account

5. Freeze part or all of the account deposit

6. Increase the amount of security deposit payable

7. You are not allowed to withdraw part or all of the unsettled/unwithdrawn product sharing commission

3. Can’t hold back on orders anymore?

The detailed rules on holding back orders have, in a sense, suppressed a large group of people, from a group of influencers with tens of millions of fans, to players who simply pay to invest and reap the benefits.

But it doesn’t mean that you can’t hold orders anymore. The platform only limits 10 or 20 forms of holding orders. In fact, there are still hundreds of ways to hold orders.

Just like the platform does not allow you to say you are giving benefits, it does not allow you to say it is free, it does not allow you to say it is for sensitive skin, etc., you can always find alternative ways.

But one thing is certain, the requirements for the anchor's speech skills, stage control ability, content ability and product selection ability are higher.

02 Douyin Health Score is here

On September 7, 2023, Douyin Live released the "Health Score Trial Operation Announcement" with the aim of further regulating the live broadcast behavior of platform users in the live broadcast room.

1. Health score

1. All new anchors have a health score of 100 points
2. For high-quality anchors, the upper limit of the score is 110 points.
3. For professional anchors, the maximum score is 120 points.

The health score is divided into 7 levels, and different restrictive measures will be taken starting from below 70.

If the score is zero, the account will be banned from live streaming and the host will also be prohibited from broadcasting.

2. Anchor level

The anchor levels are L1, L2, and L3. Each level is mainly based on the number of fans and the average peak number of viewers in the anchor's live broadcast room in the past 7 days.

The deduction of health points is related to the host’s current violations and the host’s level.

3. Health points recovery

Of course, the platform also has channels to add points for behaviors that have been deducted points.

For example, there are no violations in subsequent live broadcasts, participation in learning, appeals, etc. In short, there are strict management measures, and the one-size-fits-all penalties for violations in the previous live broadcast room are avoided.

03 It is possible to work with a certificate

Whether it is a host or a merchant, whether they are dancing or selling goods during the live broadcast, in essence, they are still spreading the information in the form of content in the live broadcast room.

Because the platform's coverage area is so wide, and the threshold for anchors to engage in entertainment and sell goods is relatively low, it is easy to cause various negative impacts.

This includes holding back orders, an act that is essentially a deception of consumers. When the platform reaches a certain stage, it still needs to restrict this.

1. The management method of health points and anchor levels is not only exclusive to Douyin. It is expected that Kuaishou, Bilibili, Video Account, Xiaohongshu, etc. will also adopt similar methods in the future.

2. There have been rumors for a long time that live streaming hosts must be certified before they can work, and I think it is not impossible in the future.

With the release of relevant notices on self-media management at the national level, it is very likely that anchors of at least certain categories will need relevant certificates in the future.

To keep it simple, just take the platform’s entry exam.

If it's a little more complicated, for example, if you're engaged in entertainment performance activities, you might need a performance certificate, which is not impossible.

3. Overall, live streaming and creation on any content platform such as Douyin are becoming more and more standardized, and it has become more difficult for ordinary people to make money.

Author: Shili Village, WeChat public account: Shili Village