Recently, Zhang Mao, director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, mentioned in an exclusive interview with Phoenix TV that on the issue of counterfeiting, he has repeatedly emphasized to Jack Ma, "You are not outside the law; the primary responsibility is yours." "Because those small shops are not registered, and they sell things on your website, you have to bear responsibility." Back then, Alibaba was also summoned by the Administration for Industry and Commerce for internal talks. The incident was triggered by a targeted monitoring result of online transaction goods published by the Administration, which showed that in the second half of 2014, the genuine product rate for online transactions was 58.7%, with Alibaba's shopping websites having the largest number of samples but the lowest genuine product rate at only 37.25%. Now that time has passed, Zhang Mao responded to the situation for the first time during his interview with Phoenix TV. Zhang Mao, director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said: "If Jack Ma continues to develop like this, he simply won't make it. If he doesn't solve it himself, having such a large scale indeed brings many contradictions that he cannot overcome on his own. I also admit that objectively speaking, he has made great efforts in fighting counterfeits. But there are still many problems unresolved. Furthermore, regarding third-party platforms, I have repeatedly emphasized to Jack Ma that you are not outside the law; the primary responsibility is yours. Because those small shops are not registered, and they sell things on your website, you have to bear responsibility. Additionally, we must strengthen government spot checks and supervision, and protect consumers' rights and interests." Zhang Mao's words were directed at Jack Ma, but they apply equally to other internet platforms. Especially Baidu, which has been plagued by scandals over the past year, should be more vigilant. At the end of last month, Baidu released its first financial report after the Wei Zexi incident. Total revenue growth was about to fall below double digits to 10.2%, and net profit plummeted by 34.1%, unprecedented! This is the lowest point in Baidu's history of revenue growth. However, just recently, "Major Case Team 37" exposed Baidu Waimai, pushing it back into the spotlight. Washing vegetables in the toilet, mixing rice with scissors: Baidu exposed again A shocking incident has befallen Baidu again: Baidu Waimai has been placed on file for investigation. After a two-month investigation, "Major Case Team 37" found that Baidu Waimai has a large number of illegal food workshops, with issues such as waiters washing vegetables in the toilet, using expired food ingredients, substandard hygiene, and employees violating operating procedures all exposed at once. What is even more shocking is that the problematic stores were not franchise merchants, but Baidu's own employees, operating under the banner of "ecological kitchens" with self-management and self-production and sales! There are 16 such stores in Beijing, without catering service permits, violating multiple provisions of the Food Safety Law. They are uniformly delivered by Baidu, with special vehicles transporting goods late at night, and each store has monthly sales often reaching tens of thousands of orders. Currently, Baidu has fired the employees who handled food with hands and mixed rice with scissors. It has also taken all 16 "ecological kitchens" offline, promising that if any violations are found, they will be rectified immediately and will not go online until rectification is complete. Although the attitude after the incident is good, if it had not been exposed by the investigation team, how many people would still be eating these dirty but seemingly clean things every day, and how many unscrupulous people would continue to profit? Baidu is consuming the trust built up over sixteen years of hard work! "If we lose the trust of the public, Baidu is only 30 days away from bankruptcy!" These are the exact words of Baidu CEO Robin Li. When hospitals are no longer hospitals, becoming a dedicated channel for "Putian"! When search is no longer search, becoming a criminal accomplice for casinos! When quality takeout is no longer quality, becoming a money tree for illegal workshops! Can the "third-party" platform that personally wove this huge network escape responsibility? Of course not! Not just Baidu, but all three major takeout platforms have been placed on file for investigation! This morning, the Beijing Food and Drug Administration's Online Monitoring Center investigated unlicensed catering merchants on the three major platforms, publishing 60 of them to the public, and will place Baidu, Meituan, and Ele.me on file for investigation. According to the city's Food and Drug Administration report this morning, in the first half of this year, the city's Food and Drug Administration complaint and reporting center received a total of 228 complaints about the three major ordering platforms: Baidu Waimai, Ele.me, and Meituan. Among them, 92 complaints were about Meituan, 77 about Ele.me, and 59 about Baidu Waimai. Due to continuous regulatory crackdowns, the three major ordering platforms have successively taken down unlicensed and unregistered merchants. According to statistics, the three platforms have taken down a total of more than 12,000 unlicensed and unregistered merchants. Problems such as unlicensed restaurants and poor kitchen hygiene persist. Is it all due to the difficulty of internet regulation? With the nationwide promotion of the "Internet+" model, online food and online catering have also jumped onto the internet. Their operations have characteristics different from physical food transactions, such as accurate information, fast transactions, and cross-regional transactions. At the same time, online food safety, as a new thing, is a regulatory challenge worldwide, including many business entities, wide geographical coverage, high technical level, complex laws, insufficient regulatory capacity, and unclear procedures for investigating and punishing online food safety violations. Undoubtedly, online takeout, as a derivative of the new O2O business format, has no original sin itself. But in China, some unscrupulous workshops take advantage of the situation, viewing takeout without storefronts and hard to detect as grasping the "Internet+" trend, which is tantamount to smearing the new economy. Relevant persons in charge of takeout platforms such as Baidu, Meituan, and Ele.me said on site that the current online ordering platform is a new business format, with deficiencies in technology and management, and inadequate supervision, and they will rectify and adjust as soon as possible. Difficulty in internet regulation is not an excuse. The louder the slogans were at the beginning, the harder the slap in the face now! These catering merchants that are extremely popular on takeout platforms are mostly skilled at internet marketing. They pay attention to naming and packaging to cater to the tastes of white-collar workers. They use various soft articles for internet marketing, invite celebrities to endorse them, and vigorously sell sentiment. Recall that Baidu Waimai's external slogan was: "Only provide quality takeout." However, the actual situation is a serious slap in the face. A sentiment card lacking basic food safety supervision and guarantees is full of hypocrisy and deception, and even involves false advertising. In the case of food safety failure, such sentiment is worthless. In fact, the rise of the internet should provide better solutions for food safety issues, not the opposite. For example, using information technology and big data, through the Internet of Things and chip technology, establish a food circulation traceability system, achieving "know where it comes from above, know where it goes below," so that food on the table can find its source and data; it can achieve more refined management of various stores, and control the quality of food processing, production, and delivery through information. These are not impossible with internet technology; the key is whether enterprises are sincere. "The internet seems virtual, but in reality, it has entities. Manage the entities well, manage people well, and you can manage the internet well," said a food safety expert. Online ordering cannot be canceled, but the government must come up with effective regulatory measures to regulate this new business format. Even if it is called a new business format, it must comply with the new Food Safety Law. The most important things for catering are the safety of practitioners, the safety of ingredient procurement, and processing safety. Online ordering also has a delivery safety link. Online ordering is just a platform; in essence, it is catering. "The major online ordering platforms are all using a human wave tactic. In fact, you cannot fight a human wave tactic. You must combine the economic chain with the responsibility chain. Platforms cannot just collect money and ignore everything else. Administrative supervision should press responsibility onto platforms, and if there are problems, heavily penalize the platforms," the expert said. Whether offline or online, the business format is different, but the standards must be the same, and the intensity of supervision must be the same. The internet is not a place outside the law. After this new business format emerged, policies did not keep up. The current online ordering is two loophole-seekers coming together: the platform and the cooks. Therefore, platforms must bear third-party responsibility and no longer allow platforms to become shelters for unlicensed catering. -END- The best FMCG distributor learning platform in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and actionable tutorials for enterprises and distributors Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Excellent article selection | 002 Distributor market operations | 003 Terminal visit management | 004 Sales supervisor skills | 005 Sales improvement techniques | 006 Channel expansion | 007 Managing distributors | 008 Distributor development | 009 Distributor internal operations management | 010 Team management | 011 Efficient distribution techniques | 012 Sales manager's eighteen skills | 013 KA operation methods and strategies | 014 First lesson for new salespeople | 015 Internet, brands | 016 Distributor B2B transformation | [Long press QR code to follow]