In mid-May 2023, news spread within the industry that "Nuomi Welfare Club" was arrested for selling counterfeit goods. Previous promotional materials showed that Nuomi Welfare Club had cumulative sales of 15.24 million items and sales revenue of nearly 800 million yuan. As one of the top five group leaders on Kuaituantuan, the account ban not only sparked reflection on private domain selling but also served as a wake-up call for the Kuaituantuan platform. Speaking of Kuaituantuan, many may be unfamiliar, but Pinduoduo is well-known. Kuaituantuan is a mini-program under Pinduoduo focused on community group buying, and is considered by Pinduoduo as a powerful tool to enter the local life services market. After suppliers and group leaders agree on a commission rate, group leaders use their private domain traffic to complete sales on Kuaituantuan. Similar to Pinduoduo's "tricks," Kuaituantuan also emphasizes a low-price strategy, leveraging group buying to lower prices. Attracted by low prices and Pinduoduo's typical WeChat ecosystem virality, more and more consumers are drawn to Kuaituantuan, and its daily active users and transaction volume have risen accordingly. Market data shows that in 2021, sales through Kuaituantuan exceeded 60 billion yuan, and in 2022, it was expected to double to over 120 billion yuan. However, rapid development has also planted many landmines. Some consumers have reported buying counterfeit goods and facing difficulties in refunds and rights protection, while many group leaders have complained about funds being frozen without reason. The downfall of Nuomi Welfare Club has exposed Kuaituantuan's hidden dangers. Rapid Rise Founded in 2020, Kuaituantuan is Pinduoduo's private domain e-commerce platform, aiming to "solve all WeChat selling problems" and implement the concept of "everything can be grouped." According to Kuaituantuan's official website, it covers over 90 industries, including fresh fruits, mother and baby products, and digital appliances. "Kuaituantuan is a mini-program, just a selling tool," Zhang Min, a group leader, told The豹变. Compared to other platforms, Kuaituantuan is not difficult to use. Unlike the asset-heavy self-operated models of Duoduo Maicai and Meituan Youxuan, Kuaituantuan itself does not provide goods but serves as a tool, providing a trading venue for suppliers, group leaders, and consumers, with a relatively simple transaction chain. Supply group leaders and reselling group leaders are the most important roles in Kuaituantuan. Those with supply chain resources can become supply group leaders, acting as both suppliers and group leaders. To accelerate viral growth, supply group leaders also develop reselling group leaders to spread product links more quickly. After successful sales, reselling group leaders receive a commission. For example, Nuomi Welfare Club previously claimed to have over 100,000 members and cumulative commissions paid exceeding 176 million yuan. In the transaction process, participants often play multiple roles; consumers can also become reselling group leaders to earn commissions, and reselling group leaders with access to goods can apply to become supply group leaders. Official data shows that Kuaituantuan has over 1 million group leaders. Why has Kuaituantuan grown so rapidly? What is the secret behind its massive traffic? Behind the attraction of a huge number of group leaders is Kuaituantuan's almost free usage cost. Kuaituantuan's service account shows that all functions are free, and after a successful transaction, group leaders only need to pay a 0.6% transaction service fee, which is reduced to 0.3% after a 0.3% subsidy from Kuaituantuan. Compared to other platforms that charge annual fees ranging from thousands to tens of thousands and 10% platform deductions, Kuaituantuan's usage cost is lower. Faced with such a significant cost difference, many group leaders have voted with their feet and switched to Kuaituantuan. As the "main artery" of the sales system, the influx of group leaders brings diverse supply sources and their own private domain traffic. Combined with WeChat as a super traffic platform, Kuaituantuan's traffic has surged. What attracts consumers is lower prices. Similar to Pinduoduo's "cut a knife," the same product can be offered at a lower price when group buying activities are initiated on Kuaituantuan. The pandemic also fueled Kuaituantuan's growth, especially in the spring of last year when most Shanghai residents were confined at home, leading to a sharp rise in community group buying demand. Kuaituantuan seized this opportunity. According to Shanghai WOW, a local lifestyle public account, during the Shanghai lockdown, 60% of nearly 780,000 group leaders chose to use "Kuaituantuan" to initiate group buying. Massive traffic and low-priced products have driven Kuaituantuan's transaction volume to soar, with market data showing GMV exceeded 60 billion yuan in 2021 and over 120 billion yuan in 2022. However, as traffic and transaction volume rapidly increase, the platform's responsibilities also grow. Counterfeit Goods Rampant? After selling counterfeits, the brand owner reported it to the police, and Nuomi Welfare Club got into trouble, exposing Kuaituantuan's most serious problem. "Products on Kuaituantuan are mixed and of poor quality. The group leader presents them well, but the actual goods differ. I bought four times and returned all," consumer Wang Lin told The豹变. She had purchased clothes, red wine, and other products on Kuaituantuan but was dissatisfied with the quality, feeling deceived by the photos, and ultimately chose to return them. However, the cumbersome return process made her even more annoyed. "The longest return took nearly seven or eight days." Besides the delayed after-sales service, Wang Lin also expressed dissatisfaction with the group leader's negative attitude in handling after-sales issues. When asked why she chose to shop on Kuaituantuan, Wang Lin said that compared to other platforms, some products on Kuaituantuan are indeed cheaper. At the same time, the product introductions in group buying look appealing and can easily tempt consumers. But after seeing the actual product, she felt that "the discount here is low quality at low prices; a real discount should be the same quality at a lower price." Unlike Wang Lin's luck in getting a refund, Zhang Meng told The豹变 that her group-bought items were not shipped, and the group leader refused to refund. During Kuaituantuan's rapid development, many consumers have encountered after-sales issues. A search for "Kuaituantuan" on Heimao Complaint Platform shows over 15,000 complaint records, most of which are consumers complaining about product quality and shipping issues. "Compared to other platforms, Kuaituantuan's management is not so strict," another group leader, Wu Jing, expressed the same view. She believes that shopping on Kuaituantuan relies most on encountering a reliable group leader. "If you meet an irresponsible group leader, you place an order, they don't ship, and they run away. When you contact the platform, they just call the group leader. If they can't reach them, they can't do anything." For consumers, low prices are attractive, but if they frequently receive defective goods or even counterfeits, and after-sales service is inadequate, Kuaituantuan's reputation will decline, eventually losing more consumers. In addition to consumers facing counterfeit goods, quality issues, and after-sales problems, many group leaders have also encountered troubles after starting group buying. "After shipping, my funds were frozen. It's been 8 months and it still shows 'funds in settlement'," Liu Xiang started a shoe group last year and successfully sold over 500 orders. Currently, 45,915.02 yuan in payment is frozen. He told The豹变, "The platform didn't say why it was frozen; they just said the account was abnormal." Funds are essential for group leaders to purchase goods. If funds are frozen, it means goods cannot be purchased and orders cannot be shipped. If they advance their own money to purchase and ship, then the frozen funds are the group leader's own payment and profit. After waiting a long time for the funds to be unfrozen, Liu Xiang finally decided to sue Kuaituantuan, but the rights protection process was extremely difficult. "The court required a contract, but we signed a unilateral agreement," and the rights protection eventually hit a dead end. Besides Liu Xiang, group leader Li Wei also encountered the problem of funds being frozen without reason. "After using Kuaituantuan for about two months, my transaction amount was nearly 90,000 yuan, but I couldn't withdraw a single cent. When I contacted official customer service, they just told me to wait patiently." When asked why she used Kuaituantuan, Li Wei said, "Because my customers are on WeChat, and I needed a software to collect payments and ship goods." Due to cash flow difficulties, Li Wei reported the case to the police, but it was dropped. Eventually, she paid someone inside Kuaituantuan to help her withdraw the 90,000 yuan. It is worth noting that in its external promotions, Kuaituantuan has always claimed that withdrawals are "instant," but in practice, many group leaders have encountered difficulties. The agreement stipulates that once a violation is determined, the platform has the right to freeze funds for at least two years. Entering Local Life Services? Now, Pinduoduo is paying more attention to Kuaituantuan. Previously, Pinduoduo's "Qunmaimai" announced it would cease operations on May 31, 2023, and directed its store owners to fully embrace "Kuaituantuan," stating that "Kuaituantuan group leaders can earn up to 30% more in commissions than Qunmaimai store owners." Kuaituantuan, which has always been positioned as a tool, has not been strict in reviewing and controlling sellers on the platform. As traffic increases, the problems arising on the platform are beginning to affect and even erode trust among other parties, which will ultimately undermine the platform's foundation. "Kuaituantuan's review of products for group buying is not strict; they don't even require samples," group leader Liu Xiang told The豹变. The process for selling products on Kuaituantuan is relatively simple, but this has also encouraged some group leaders' fluke mentality, even leading to one-off deals. Liu Xiang also revealed to The豹变 that in the current Kuaituantuan system, group leaders can withdraw the group buying funds before shipping. Because of this "loophole," many consumers have suffered the loss of both money and goods. If this bug is not fixed promptly, more consumers may suffer in the future. At the end of October 2022, the topic "Kuaituantuan allows dishonest person to run away with millions" trended on Weibo. Many victims, unable to contact group leader Li, and after complaints to Kuaituantuan proved ineffective and police refused to file a case, could only launch rights protection activities on Weibo. Despite many hidden dangers, Kuaituantuan continues to advance rapidly. In a recent investment promotion round at the beginning of this year, Kuaituantuan began to focus on the local life services sector, initiating recruitment in areas such as catering, entertainment, beauty, and accommodation. To attract merchants, the promotional materials claimed, "80% of入驻 service providers see GMV growth of 200%, 50% of offline merchants see a 35% increase in store visits, providing 30 million daily active users and trillions of exposures." Competition in the local life services track has intensified in recent years. There are new players like Douyin, which leverages short videos' natural grass-planting advantages, and challengers like Pinduoduo, which joins through the community group buying tool Kuaituantuan. The track long dominated by Meituan and Ele.me has suddenly seen many competitors enter. However, the local life services field sits at the intersection of retail and services. On one hand, it requires abundant local merchant resources; on the other hand, it emphasizes the completion of subsequent order verification and fulfillment. This differs from Kuaituantuan's previous "go big and fast" style that focused only on transactions, and the platform's responsibilities will become increasingly heavy. Therefore, for Pinduoduo, whether it can polish Kuaituantuan into a sharp blade in the local life services field requires continued extension in both directions. This also means that Kuaituantuan urgently needs a more comprehensive system to protect participants' rights and address current contradictions. Otherwise, expansion into local life services and other areas will be constrained, and challenges such as platform reputation and traffic bottlenecks will follow. (At the request of interviewees, names in the article are pseudonyms.)