The Internet Society in China: A 2016 Report 9811382360, 9789811382369

Table of contents :
Foreword......Page 6
Contents......Page 9
List of Figures......Page 13
1.1 Introduction......Page 14
The New Era of the Science and Technology Revolution......Page 17
Evolution of the Ways to Acquire Information......Page 18
Existing Issues in Chinese Industrial Structure......Page 21
A Social Structure Where the “Three Waves” Co-exist......Page 23
1.2 Analysis of the Main Connotation of the Internet Economy......Page 25
Integration of the Internet and Production......Page 26
Integration of the Internet and Distribution......Page 28
Integration of the Internet and Consumption......Page 29
Internet Economy and Netizen Structure......Page 31
Gap Between the Urban and Rural Network Development......Page 33
“People’s Conditions” in the Internet Society......Page 34
Institutions and Policies......Page 37
Influence of the Internet Economy on People’s Life......Page 38
The Internet Economy and the Transformation of Government Functions......Page 39
Digital Divide......Page 41
1.5 Social Spatio-temporal of the Internet Economy: With “Online Takeaway” as an Instance......Page 45
Emergence of Online Takeaway......Page 46
Combination of Online and Offline Processes of Online Takeaway......Page 49
Spatio-temporal Effect of Online Takeaway......Page 51
Spreading of Online Takeaway......Page 54
1.6 Social Reflections on the Internet Economy: Analysis of Online Shopping......Page 55
Online Shopping: Rise of a Way of Life......Page 56
Temptation and Consumer Behavior......Page 57
Prominence of “Thing” and Withdrawal of “People”......Page 60
Distance, Satisfaction and Tiredness......Page 63
1.7 Conclusion......Page 66
References......Page 67
2.1 Introduction......Page 69
Commercial Value of Moments......Page 71
Commercialization and Variation of the Moments......Page 74
Reintegration of the Moments and Business......Page 76
2.3 Decentralization and Hierarchy of Mobile E-commerce......Page 77
Decentralization......Page 78
Feminization and Sentimentality......Page 80
Hierarchical Structure......Page 82
2.4 Combination of Community and Platform......Page 84
2.5 Conclusion......Page 89
References......Page 90
3.1 Introduction......Page 92
3.2 Brief Review of David Harvey’s Theory “Compression of Time and Space”......Page 93
3.3 Space Compression in Rural E-commerce......Page 96
Rise of E-commerce in Bainiu Village......Page 97
E-commerce Platform: The Means and Situations of Space Compression......Page 100
Disembedding and Adjustment of the Spatial Relation......Page 103
3.4 Category of Space Values in Space Compression......Page 105
Regional Value: Countermeasures Against Space Worthless and the Restrictions......Page 106
Values of Space Compression......Page 108
The Spatial Agglomeration Value of E-commerce Platform......Page 110
Characteristics of Space Compression......Page 112
Value Appreciation Accompanied by the Characteristics of Space Compression......Page 113
3.6 Conclusion......Page 115
References......Page 117
4.1 Introduction......Page 118
E-commerce Battles in the Prologue to the Singles Day Carnival......Page 121
Diversified Marketing Strategies Before the Singles Day......Page 125
Marketing Chaos During the Singles Day Period......Page 128
4.3 The Constructed Heat: Analysis of the Innate Characters of the Singles Day......Page 131
The Profit Issue Despite the High Sales Volume......Page 132
Transaction Traps Behind the Shopping Carnival......Page 134
Increasingly Rational Online Consumers......Page 135
4.4 Dilemma of E-commerce Transformation: Problems and Challenges......Page 137
The Market Development Path Seeking Quick Success and Instant Benefits......Page 138
Innovative or Shortsighted: Entertainment-oriented Marketing Strategy......Page 141
Lack of Development Rules......Page 142
Rise of Network Society: Market Transformation Driven by Social Changes......Page 144
Normative Development of Internet Business: The Inevitable Trend of E-commerce Transformation......Page 146
The E-commerce Economic Mode Embedded with the Core of the Internet......Page 148
4.6 Conclusion......Page 150
References......Page 151
5.1 Introduction......Page 154
5.2 Spatial Turn of Network Information Consumption......Page 158
Production of Space in Information Consumption......Page 159
Where to Find Information Without the Space?......Page 161
Consumption Space and Space Consumption......Page 162
Economic License for Space Entry......Page 164
Economic Backroom Deals Behind the Space Discourse Power......Page 166
Economic-oriented Space Ownership......Page 168
Big Data Versus Personal Information......Page 170
Right to Not Know......Page 172
Cyberspace: Social Values Based on Publicity......Page 174
Limited Publicity Based on Economic Logic......Page 175
Weakening Driving Force for the Development of Space Publicity......Page 177
From the Cyberspace to the Network Community......Page 179
Social Values of Cohesion......Page 181
The Risk of Dissolution of Network Communities......Page 182
5.7 Conclusion......Page 184
References......Page 185
6.1 Introduction......Page 187
6.2 The Traditional Red Envelop Culture and the Rise of the Electronic Red Envelope......Page 189
6.3 Social Embeddedness of Economic Behaviors: Relationship Marketing of the Electronic Red Envelope......Page 190
6.4 Economic Embeddedness of Social Relations: Rebuild the Interest Structure......Page 195
Personified Trust in Traditional Society......Page 199
Economic Behaviors Embedded in Social Relations......Page 201
Embedded Trust in Network Society......Page 203
6.6 Conclusion......Page 206
References......Page 207
7.1 Introduction......Page 209
The Crisis of Official Charity......Page 212
The Rise of Online Crowdfunding......Page 214
Differences in Implementation of Projects......Page 215
7.3 “Qingsongchou” Platform Project: Case Analysis......Page 216
7.4 Differences in Crowdfunding Effect and Its Realistic Basis......Page 223
Reasons for the Difference in Donations......Page 224
The Realistic Basis of “WeChat Moments”......Page 225
New Features of “WeChat Moments”......Page 230
Why Trust “Strangers”......Page 232
The Extension of “The Differential Mode of Association” in Network Space......Page 233
The Significance of “Crowdfunding”......Page 234
The Significance of Micro-Charity......Page 235
Limitations of Micro-Charity......Page 237
References......Page 239
8.1 Introduction......Page 241
8.2 Public Welfare 2.0 in the Tianjin Explosion Event......Page 242
The Explosion Shocked the WeChat Moments......Page 243
Movement Inspired Public Welfare Actions: Public Welfare Effect Inspired by Posts About Firefighters......Page 245
Micro Public Welfare 2.0 Originated from WeChat Moments......Page 247
Network Power: Presented as Power of Flows of the Relational Network......Page 249
Micro Public Welfare 2.0: The Upgraded Version of Micro Public Welfare Containing Network Power......Page 253
8.4 The Power Construction Strategy in the Micro Public Welfare 2.0......Page 255
Stimulation of Identity Originating from Emotional Resonance......Page 256
Construction of Relations Based on the Circles of Acquaintances......Page 258
Interactive Strategies for Realizing Power Influence......Page 260
Improvement of Network Consensus in Interaction......Page 261
Transplantation of Power Influence......Page 263
8.5 Maintenance of the Real Effect and Influence of Network Power......Page 264
8.6 Conclusion......Page 267
References......Page 268
9.1 Introduction......Page 271
Abduction: Taking Risks for Profit......Page 273
Selling: Criminal Organizations with Complex Structure......Page 276
Buying: Misinterpretation and Misguidance of “Local Knowledge”......Page 279
9.3 The Problem of Abduction and Trafficking in Children in Network Expression......Page 281
Outbreak: Social Pain Points in Perceptual Experience......Page 282
Rendering: Identification of Truth in Rational Disputes......Page 283
End: Lonely Activists After the Topic Ended......Page 286
Repetition: Coming Back After a Makeover......Page 287
9.4 Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression......Page 289
The Fitting Points Between Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression......Page 290
The Violation Points Between Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression......Page 292
9.5 “Appropriate” Network Expression of Social Problems......Page 295
9.6 Conclusion......Page 298
References......Page 299
Tmall “Double Eleven” Sales Nearly 100 Billion......Page 301
An Incident on the “Ten-word Letter of Resignation” by a Female Teacher......Page 302
An Incident on the “Strictest Tobacco Control Order” in Beijing......Page 303
An Incident on Qingdao Prawn......Page 304
An Incident on the Suicide of Left-behind Children in Bijie......Page 305
An Incident on the Investigation of Haze by Chai Jing......Page 306
An Incident on Unlocking the Second Child in an All-round Way......Page 307
An Incident on Yunnan Tour Guide Abusing Tourists......Page 308
An Incident on Chengdu Man Beating Female Driver......Page 309
An Incident on Gunfire at Qingan Railway Station in Heilongjiang Province......Page 311
An Incident on 12306 CAPTCHA......Page 312
The Legality of Online Ride-hailing Industry Causing Disputes......Page 313
A Video on Sanya City Manager Bullying a Director-General......Page 314
Wuzhen Summit of World Internet Conference......Page 315
An Incident on MERS Virus Event......Page 316
An Incident on Shampoo Advertisements by Jackie Chan Being Pranked......Page 317
An Incident on Bi Fujian’s Improper Speech......Page 318
An Incident on Blue, Black, White and Golden Skirt......Page 319
An Incident on the Terrorist Attacks in Paris......Page 320
Tu Youyou Winning the Nobel Prize Attracts Attention......Page 321
An Incident on the Explosion in Tianjin Binhai New Area......Page 322
An Incident on the Capsizing of the “Oriental Star” Tourist Passenger Ship......Page 323
An Incident on the Stock Market Crash in June 2015......Page 324
An Incident on Petrochemical Explosion in Zhangzhou, Fujian......Page 325
An Incident on Warehouse Fire in Harbin......Page 326
An Incident on Freeloading He Jiong......Page 327
Postscript......Page 329

Citation preview

SOCIOLOGY, MEDIA AND JOURNALISM IN CHINA

Edited by Shaojie Liu · Jianmin Wang

The Internet Society in China A 2016 Report

Sociology, Media and Journalism in China

This series provides an interdisciplinary and cutting edge approach to the key areas of media, journalism and communication in China. Offering titles cutting across these areas, Sociology, Journalism and Communication in China addresses the rapid changes affecting how news is disseminated in China, how people communicate in daily life, and how mobile technologies are affecting contemporary human interaction in sociological and commercial settings. This series also examines major sociological trends in China and how these are developing, as well as rapid changes in how communication is affecting and being affected by China’s growing population and internal migration. Providing a vital comparative approach, notably with western nations, this series considers the development of Chinese media, ­journalistic cultures and histories and sociological development on a global scale. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16016

Shaojie Liu  •  Jianmin Wang Editors

The Internet Society in China A 2016 Report

Editors Shaojie Liu Renmin University of China Beijing, China

Jianmin Wang Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing, China

Based on a translation from the Chinese language edition: 中国网络社会研究报告 (2016) by Liu, Shaojie and Wang, Jianmin. Copyright © China Renmin University Press, 2016. All Rights Reserved. The print edition is not for sale in China Mainland. Customers from China Mainland please order the print book from: China Renmin University Press. ISBN of the China Mainland edition: 9787300235349 Supported by fund for building world-class universities (disciplines) of Renmin University of China. Sociology, Media and Journalism in China ISBN 978-981-13-8236-9    ISBN 978-981-13-8237-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6 © China Renmin University Press 2020 Jointly published with China Renmin University Press This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and ­transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the ­publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and ­institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: eStudiio Calamar This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-­01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Foreword

Currently, varieties of research reports are constantly emerging in China, presenting different writing styles and seeing fierce competition. After meticulously sorting out these reports, Renmin University of China (RUC) has cooperated with its scholars to design, compile and release the “Research Report Series”, which mainly focuses on the applied countermeasure-­ oriented research reports. This Series is published to confront major social issues, conduct dynamic analysis, evaluation and prediction and offer political and academic advices. The “Research Report Series” of Renmin University of China adheres to “advanced academics, original content, focus on current affairs and political and business support” as its basic orientation and function. Being a carrier of scientific research achievements, the research report bears the academic responsibilities and social care of RUC scholars to construct the innovationoriented academic highland and advisory think tank; being a kind of research mode, the research report aims to evaluate the current status, predict the future and promote the application of achievements in humanities and social sciences research based on the indicators and statistics of relevant sectors; and, in addition, as an academic brand, it always concentrates on the hot issues, focus questions and major strategies related to the economic and social development; assists the Party, government and enterprises in drawing up plans and making decisions with the research results; supports the studies in specialized fields and wins the readers’ recognition and attention with the specialized, periodical and authentic content. The “Research Report Series” released by Renmin University of China is characterized by its own academic accumulation and academic thinking. v

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FOREWORD

The RUC has always been noted for its studies in humanities and social sciences and has attached great importance to the role of academic research in providing consultancy in policy-making, educating people and serving the community. For this purpose, it has published several research reports of great influence. For example, its interdisciplinary research group has compiled the Research Report on the Economic Development in China, the Research Report on the Social Development in China and the Research Report on the Humanities and Social Sciences Development in China since 2002, which practically revealed the major realistic issues in the development of economy, society and humanities and social sciences in China; and, in addition, it has published the Research Report on Laws in China in recent years, which together with the above three were collectively known as the “four major reports”. Moreover, some special research reports on different disciplines have also been released for consecutive years, exerting certain influence in the academia and society. Observing, analyzing, evaluating and predicting the major issues in politics, economy, society and culture, these research reports present not only objective data and facts but also in-depth analysis and strategic forecasting and show great empirical, forward-looking and academic significance. We hereby integrate these research reports, combine the published resources of the RUC, design the overall structure and select the excellent works, and finally complete this “Research Report Series”, thus expanding their influence and serve the community. As an open-ended series, it may be exposed to adding or subtracting in the future according to the situation and thus realizes a dynamic growth. This Series also plays a positive role in concerning discipline building, strengthening education and promoting collaborative innovation. As serial publications, these research reports can be utilized as a platform for scholars to present and exchange their academic achievements. As concentrated efforts and sincere cooperation are needed to compile an excellent research report, the partners working on the report will become a steady team, which enhances the strength of the discipline. Students are often mobilized to collect the rich materials for these research reports; and, in this way, they can enhance their abilities through the academic training during their systematic research. Furthermore, to write a social practice-oriented research report, it is necessary to maintain close contact with the government and enterprises, pay attention to the social conditions and demands, and initiate the in-depth cooperation between the university and the enterprises, government, academia and foreign scientific research institutions, which produces the effect of “collaborative innovation”.

 FOREWORD 

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Adapting to the informational, digital and networking development, the “Research Report Series” of Renmin University of China is released not only in paper form but also through the document database, where rich digital resources are provided and information relevancy and data mining based on the knowledge management tool are achieved. It brings convenience for network query and interdisciplinary retrieval and renders value-added services to readers. This “Research Report Series” is a new attempt of the RUC to integrate the strengths in scientific research and promote the transformation of achievements. We will follow the trend of the times, subtly discover the hot issues and focus questions in economic and social development, spare no effort to build each research report and the whole series into excellent works that meet the readers’ demands, construct a high-quality academic brand and core academic values, and provide better academic services to the community. Beijing, China

Chen Yulu

Contents

1 Social Dimensions of the Internet Economy  1 Jianmin Wang and Chunjin Wang 1.1 Introduction  1 1.2 Analysis of the Main Connotation of the Internet Economy 12 1.3 Social Foundations for the Development of the Internet Economy 18 1.4 Social Influence of the Internet Economy 25 1.5 Social Spatio-temporal of the Internet Economy: With “Online Takeaway” as an Instance 32 1.6 Social Reflections on the Internet Economy: Analysis of Online Shopping 42 1.7 Conclusion 53 References 54 2 The Big Time for WeChat Business: “Moments” and “Wealth Dream” 57 Shiqiang Cheng 2.1 Introduction 57 2.2 Commercialization of Social Connections: From Moments to Business 59 2.3 Decentralization and Hierarchy of Mobile E-commerce 65 2.4 Combination of Community and Platform 72 2.5 Conclusion 77 References 78 ix

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3 Space Compression of E-commerce in Rural Areas and Its Value: Case Study 81 Zhanpeng Shao 3.1 Introduction 81 3.2 Brief Review of David Harvey’s Theory “Compression of Time and Space” 82 3.3 Space Compression in Rural E-commerce 85 3.4 Category of Space Values in Space Compression 94 3.5 Characteristics and Values of Space Compression101 3.6 Conclusion104 References106 4 Marketing Chaos and Development Transformation of E-commerce Market: Reflections After the Bustling “Singles Day”107 Jun Zhang 4.1 Introduction107 4.2 Entertainment Marketing Strategies in the Farce110 4.3 The Constructed Heat: Analysis of the Innate Characters of the Singles Day120 4.4 Dilemma of E-commerce Transformation: Problems and Challenges126 4.5 Between Deconstruction and Shaping: E-commerce Market Transformation at the Crossroads133 4.6 Conclusion139 References140 5 Spatial Turn of Network Information Consumption and Its Social Risks: Case Study of “the Sale of Baidu Hemophilia Post Bar”143 Rong Zhang 5.1 Introduction143 5.2 Spatial Turn of Network Information Consumption147 5.3 Economic Dimension of Cyberspace153 5.4 Information Risk in Cyberspace Consumption159 5.5 Weakening Publicity of the Cyberspace163 5.6 Risk of the Dissolution of the Network Communities168 5.7 Conclusion173 References174

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6 Two-Way Embedding: A National Carnival of Electronic Red Envelopes177 Dongmei Wang and Jiachi Zhuang 6.1 Introduction177 6.2 The Traditional Red Envelop Culture and the Rise of the Electronic Red Envelope179 6.3 Social Embeddedness of Economic Behaviors: Relationship Marketing of the Electronic Red Envelope180 6.4 Economic Embeddedness of Social Relations: Rebuild the Interest Structure185 6.5 Embedded Trust: The National Carnival of Red Envelopes189 6.6 Conclusion196 References197 7 “The Differential Mode of Association” in Cyberspace: Sociological Research on “Crowdfunding”199 Jinhao Song 7.1 Introduction199 7.2 The Predicament of Traditional Charity and the Rise of Online Crowdfunding202 7.3 “Qingsongchou” Platform Project: Case Analysis206 7.4 Differences in Crowdfunding Effect and Its Realistic Basis213 7.5 Looking at the Prospect of Micro-charity from the Perspective of Conformity Raising224 7.6 Conclusion229 References229 8 Network Power Construction in Micro Public Welfare 2.0: A Case Study of Tianjin Explosion231 Chenting Song and Fei Sun 8.1 Introduction231 8.2 Public Welfare 2.0 in the Tianjin Explosion Event232 8.3 Micro Public Welfare 2.0 Model Based on Network Power239 8.4 The Power Construction Strategy in the Micro Public Welfare 2.0245 8.5 Maintenance of the Real Effect and Influence of Network Power254 8.6 Conclusion257 References258

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Contents

9 Network Expression of Social Problems: A Case Study of Forwarding “Death Penalty for Human Traffickers”261 Xiuxiu Liu 9.1 Introduction261 9.2 Treat Abduction and Trafficking of Children as a Difficult Social Problem263 9.3 The Problem of Abduction and Trafficking in Children in Network Expression271 9.4 Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression279 9.5 “Appropriate” Network Expression of Social Problems285 9.6 Conclusion288 References289 Appendix: Important Network Incidents from 2014 to 2015291 Postscript319

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 The number of netizens and the penetration rate of the Internet in China. (Source: China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, see in http://cnnic.cn, 20160122) Fig. 1.2 Reasons for non-netizens not to get on the Internet Fig. 1.3 The total urban-rural digital divide index from 2002 to 2012. (Source: “Chinese digital divide research” group of the State Information Center, 2013 Report on Chinese Digital Divide, http://www.sic.gov.cn/News/287/2782.htm, 20,140,520) Fig. 6.1 Circumstances of users’ “first” use of the Internet Red Envelope. (Data source: Penguin Intelligence research) Fig. 6.2 Scenes and feelings of sending or receiving Internet Red Envelopes. (Data source: Penguin Intelligence research) Fig. 6.3 The diagram of the generation of the network trust relationship Fig. 9.1 The organizational structure of the “networked” crime groups abducting and trafficking in women and children

19 29

30 184 184 195 267

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CHAPTER 1

Social Dimensions of the Internet Economy Jianmin Wang and Chunjin Wang

1.1   Introduction First of all, we would like to introduce the significant place of the Internet in the economic development in China as well as the great importance attached to the development of the Internet by the government through three important conferences. From November 19 to 21, 2014, the first World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen, attracting more than 1000 network elites from approximately 100 countries and regions. This was the first Internet conference of the largest scale and the highest level in China, and also an unprecedentedly grand summit meeting worldwide in the Internet sector. Held by the government of the People’s Republic of China, the World Internet Conference aims to build the international platform for the interconnection between China and the world and the Chinese platform for the co-sharing and co-governing with the international Internet, where all countries seek the consensus in disputes, establish cooperation based on the consensus and achieve the win-win situation

J. Wang (*) School of Society and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China C. Wang Jilin Bank Changchun Pearl River Branch, Changchun, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_1

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through cooperation. It is jointly organized by China Internet Networking Information Office and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and is held once a year, with Wuzhen as its permanent site. In the first World Internet Conference, Ma Kai, the Vice Premier of the State Council, delivered an address which indicated that China would make better use of the Internet to strengthen and perfect public services including education, medical care, traffic and hygiene and so on and bring convenience to the masses and practically support and improve people’s livelihood. According to Ma Kai, the Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of the Internet, and, in the following two decades, China will actively integrate into the worldwide tide of the Internet development, promote the Internet development in China in an innovative manner, formulate the strategies for national information development, implement the policy of “Broadband China”, plan for the development of the third and fourth generations of mobile communication, carry out “triple-network integration” across the country, actively develop the Internet of Things, big data and cloud computing, facilitate the Internet applications such as the e-commerce, e-government and Smart City, and vigorously advance information consumption and so on. The second important meeting is the Third Session of the 12th National People’s Congress, which was inaugurated in the Great Hall of the People on March 5, 2015. Li Keqiang, the Premier of the State Council, had made a report on the work of the government in this session and proposed to draw up the Internet+ action plan. Li stated that Emerging industries and new types of businesses are areas of intense competition. We will launch major projects to develop high-end equipment, information networks, integrated circuits, new energy, new materials, biomedicines, aero engines, and gas turbines, helping a number of emerging industries to become leading ones. We will develop the ‘Internet Plus’ action plan to integrate the mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, and to guide Internet-based companies to increase their presence in the international market. In addition to the 40 billion Yuan government fund already in place for investment in China’s emerging industries, more funds need to be raised for promoting business development and innovation.1 1  Li Keqiang, Report on the Work of the Government – Delivered at the Third Session of the 12th National People’s Congress on March 5, 2015, “Leisure Agriculture and Beautiful Countryside”, 2015 (4).

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Apparently, the strategy for the Internet development is quite an important one that involves several economic sectors and concerns the overall social and economic development. The third important meeting is the second World Internet Conference held between December 16 and 18  in 2015, with the theme of “Connectivity & Sharing  – Jointly Constructing a Community with a Shared Future for the Cyberspace”. In the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping made the keynote speech. He pointed out that the rapid advancement of information technology represented by the Internet today had brought about new ways of social production, created new space for people’s life, opened new horizons of state governance and enhanced people’s ability to understand and shape the world. He also stated that China would attach great importance to the development of the Internet, observe the principle of active utilization, scientific development, rule of law and safety guarantee, advance the construction of information infrastructure, develop the network economy and bring benefits to the people. According to Xi Jinping, while the current world was going through the hardships and setbacks in the process of economic recovery, the Chinese economy also faced the pressure of economic downturn. The key to solve these questions lies in adhering to innovation-driven development. China was carrying out the Internet+ action plan, advancing the construction of “Digital China”, developing the sharing economy, supporting the Internetbased innovations and improving the quality and effect of the development. The vigorous growth of the Internet in China had provided a broad market for enterprises and entrepreneurs from all different countries. China would constantly maintain the policy of Opening Up, continue to make use of foreign capital, always safeguard the legitimate rights and benefits of foreign-capital enterprises and persist in providing better services to foreign enterprises investing in China. China warmly welcomed enterprises and entrepreneurs from all countries to invest and run businesses in China as long as they observed the laws, and China would like to strengthen cooperation with all countries to promote the development of investment and trade worldwide and advance the development of global digital economy by developing the cross-border e-commerce and constructing the information economy demonstration area.2

2  Xi Jinping, Jointly Constructing a Community with a Shared Future for the Cyberspace, “Communication and Ideological and Cultural Work in Inner Mongolia”, 2015 (12).

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China initiated and organized the World Internet Conference and the state leaders personally attended the conference and delivered important speeches, which exactly reflected the high attention paid to the development of the Internet by the Party and the government. According to the lecture given by Xi Jinping in the second World Internet Conference, in addition to being the traditional communication media and the virtual space, the Internet also plays an important role in promoting the economic development and social governance in both China and the world. Exposed to an all-round influence exerted by the Internet, the society has ushered in the real “Internet age”. It has become a part of the national strategy of China to drive the economic growth and advance the comprehensive development of society through the Internet, which can be summarized as the strategy of Internet+. With regard to the relation between economy and society, economic development constitutes the foundation for social development, while the economy requires certain social foundation for development; and, at the same time, economic development also shows certain social influence. Therefore, the rise of the Internet economy shall be analyzed from the perspective of society or sociology. This chapter mainly analyzes the connection between the Internet economy and society based on the background and social foundation of the rise of the Internet economy and its influence on social development; and theoretically analyzes and reflects on the social implications behind the Internet economy by combining some specific phenomena of the Internet economy, such as “the online shopping lifestyle” and “the rise of online takeaway”. Background to the Rise of the Internet Economy As an inevitable outcome of the development of science and technology, the rise of the Internet economy marks the beginning of a new era of the development of human civilization. As to Chinese society, the rise of the Internet economy is not only driven by the worldwide science development and the globalization trend, but also closely related to the stage of social development and the social structure of China. The New Era of the Science and Technology Revolution In the 1980s, Alvin Toffler, the famous American futurist, proposed a shocking idea in his book The Third Wave: Agricultural civilization was the first civilization wave human beings experienced; industrial civilization was

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the second wave; and the new technological revolution represented by information technology and biotechnology that had begun to take shape at that time is the third civilization wave human beings are going through.3 Instead of being temporally successive, the three waves may co-exist at the same time, but each of them may dominate different countries or regions. According to Alvin Toffler, the future society, where the production field, the social field and the political field exert mutual effect on each other, is characterized by non-popularity. In his opinion, the second wave abided by the laws of standardization, centralization, concentration, synchronization and the fascination in bigness and so on. Industrial civilization corresponded to the collective communication, the centralized political system, the market-oriented economic system and the linear time-­ space view and gender separation and so on in the ideological system. With the approach of the third wave, the producer and the consumer are merged into one “prosumer”; all social sectors are exposed to corresponding changes; the renewable bioenergy gradually becomes the focus of the energy sector; the communication shows the non-popularity trend; the transnational corporation will replace the nation state as the basic political unit; and families will turn to be more electronic. Moreover, education, social attitudes and organizations will see corresponding changes. Alvin Toffler believes that the rise of the Internet technology constitutes the third wave. Compared to new technologies such as biotechnology, what’s unique about the Internet technology is that it turns a large number of “offline” actions to “online” activities and significantly improves the convenience and efficiency of social intercourse and communication. Under these circumstances, economic subjects’ economic activities such as production, exchange, distribution and consumption as well as economic behaviors of financial institutions and governmental departments and so on are increasingly relying on the Internet in this era of the Internet economy, as they have to depend on the Internet to acquire a great deal of information, to make predictions and decisions, and to directly conduct transactions online. Evolution of the Ways to Acquire Information In the traditional agricultural society, the quantity and speed for people to acquire information was directly proportional to the time of contact with others. In other words, when people were contacting each other more frequently and for a longer time, they would be more acquainted with 3

 [US] Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1984.

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each other and therefore could obtain a greater deal of information more quickly. For this reason, in the traditional agricultural society, the elderly had more information and experiences and thus enjoyed the higher social authority. In this case, time was not the calendar year or the clock time in modern sense, but it represented experiences and events. The acquisition and understanding of information featured the spatial dependence. To put it simply, the spatial dependence of information acquisition means that a person in the traditional agricultural society mainly acquired information in the limited and fixed space. Only in the limited space can verbal communication be convenient and efficient; and only in the fixed space can information be easily spread and the consensus be reached. In regard to the village community where “though hearing each other’s cocks crow and dogs bark, people are completely isolated from each other all their lives”, each village had their own “local knowledge”. A knowledge might not be recognized outside the community, and customs might vary within a short distance. As a saying goes, give a dog a bad name and hang him, which takes place only in a relatively enclosed and stable environment. Only in such an environment the information can be spread rapidly, giving rise to the group pressure in a very short time. Due to the temporal and spatial restrictions, “hearsay” had become the main way for peasants to acquire and spread information. “Hearsay” consisted of at least four factors: the speaker, the hearer, verbal communication and the place of interaction and was an information communication mode that happened at a specific time and a specific place. Therefore, people acquired information through daily questions and answers, so information could not or could hardly be acquired or spread without frequent daily contact and verbal communication. In the limited time and space, “hearsay” provided all information necessary for people’s daily life, and the writing was not that important. While “hearsay” constituted the main way for information acquisition in the traditional agricultural society, in the industrial society where the mass media dominated, “you say I listen” (such as radio) and “you play I watch” (such as film or TV) had become the new forms of information acquisition. Along with the development of science and technology, labor division and urbanization in the industrial society, people had a wider range of activities and conducted temporary, anonymous and one-off social exchanges more than ever. Decreasingly relying on time and space, people could acquire information leaping over space and time through the communication media such as radio, TV and film. The revolution of the

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communication media had greatly changed the scope, quantity and nature of the information people acquire and widely expanded people’s field of vision, hearing and touch. In this sense, Marshall McLuhan considered “the media is the message” and regarded the media as the “extensions of man”.4 In the developed industrial society, people acquired much more information from “you say I listen” and “you play I watch” than that from “hearsay”. However, by comparison, the “hearsay” is a kind of interpersonal communication, a way not only to acquire information but also to express feelings and build consensus; while with “you say I listen” and “you play I watch”, the mass media is instilling information unidirectionally with few or even no interaction or emotional communication. Along with the rise of network society, “reprint and search” has become an important approach to acquire information and understand society, in addition to “hearsay” and “you say I listen” and “you play I watch”.5 Distinguished from “hearsay”, “reprint and search” does not make a sound or directly talk to a man but only needs a computer (or other tools) connected to the Internet. People can acquire endless information instantly by merely tapping the keyboard, clicking the mouse or touching the screen. Compared to “you say I listen” and “you play I watch”, “reprint and search” realizes the “two-way selection”. On the one hand, “information selects the audience”, and people passively accepts the information unidirectionally delivered and, on the other hand, when accepting the information, the audience actively selects the information acquired, further publishes, revises or deletes the information, and judges the information from others. Furthermore, the content of “reprint and search” is no longer confined to the text, but includes the picture, voice, video and ­symbols. The rich contents and forms make it incomparable to “hearsay” and “you say I listen” and “you play I watch”. In network society, the brand new features and trends can be seen in information acquisition in temporal and spatial sense. Firstly, the information acquisition decreasingly depends on the time and space, since the communication of network information can be completed instantly without any space constraint. For example, the two nuclear accidents, the 4  [Ca] Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Page 33, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2000. 5  Wang Jianmin, From “Hearsay” to “Reprint and Search” – the Temporal-Spatial Sociology Analysis of the Evolution of Approaches to Acquire Information, “Jianghuai Tribune”, 2011 (5).

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Chernobyl incident in 1986 and the Fukushima nuclear power station incident in Japan in 2011, showed great differences in information communication. The latter one had soon been known to the whole world through the Internet and caused vigilance and even a panic in countries and regions neighboring to Japan. Due to the rapid and wide spreading of information, the world has become a “global room” in network society. Two men never seeing each other can exchange what they need; and two men distant from each other can meet anytime they want. In the network, the different time and different space can be easily connected together and exchanged. The rise of the Internet economy evidently embodies the significance of information acquisition and transmission. Existing Issues in Chinese Industrial Structure The Internet economy, particularly the strategy of Internet+, is formulated and implemented considering the current industrial structure in China. Reversely, the existing issues in the industrial structure, which mainly consist of the following four aspects, define the opportunity and direction for the development of the Internet economy. Firstly, the three industries in China are exposed to structural imbalance, where the secondary industry occupies a too high proportion and the tertiary industry is underdeveloped. As China is in the middle and later stages of industrialization, the secondary industry still plays the dominating part in economic development. Since the Reform and Opening Up, the secondary industry has maintained a proportion above 40% and industry has stayed above 37% in the three-industry structure, far exceeding the proportion in middle-income countries in the world. In China, the manufacturing sector reaches a proportion as high as 56.5%, compared to 25–35% in developed countries; and the retail and wholesale trade and other service sectors account for a small part, respectively equal to only one-half and one-fifth of that in developed countries. In 2013, the proportion of the tertiary industry surpassed the secondary industry for the first time, but still saw a large gap to other middle-income countries in the world. According to the statistics released by the World Bank, the primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry respectively account for 12%, 38% and 50% in middle-income countries on average. The ratio between light industry and heavy industry in the secondary industry is irrational. Light industry took up 43.1% of industry in 1978, which dropped to 28.7% in 2008 and has maintained around 28% since

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then; and heavy industry increased from 56.9% in 1978 to 71.3% in 2008 and has kept a proportion about 72% since then. The heavy industry in China, occupying the vast majority of industry, is mainly made up of high-­ pollution and high-emission sectors; while the main sectors in industry also produce high carbon emission and severe pollution. The modern service industry takes a small proportion despite its rapid growth, and so is the productive service industry, such as traffic and transportation, warehousing and post, wholesale and retail and banking. The proportion of traffic and transportation, warehousing and post dropped from 20.9% in 1978 to 10.7% in 2011; the wholesale and retail decreased from 27.8% to 21.2% in the same period; and the banking industry increased only by 4.4%, from 7.8% to 12.2%, in more than three decades since the Reform and Opening Up.6 The irrational development among the three industries and within the sectors of the three industries has led to the slow development of the whole industrial structure in China. Secondly, the traditional manufacturing industry suffers from excess capacity problem. As indicated in The Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Resolving the Severe Excess Capacity (State Council [2013] No. 41 Document), some sectors in China see an excess of supply over demand, and the traditional manufacturing industry generally suffers from excess capacity, particularly the high-consumption and high-emission sectors such as steel, cement and electrolytic aluminum. By the end of 2012, the rate of capacity utilization of steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, flat glass and vessels was only 72%, 73.7%, 71.9%, 73.1% and 75% respectively, evidently lower than the average international standard. As the profit sharply declines in the steel, electrolytic aluminum and vessel industry, most enterprises in these sectors have operating difficulties. At the same time, a large number of projects are still under construction or to be constructed in the industries exposed to excess capacity, which may aggravate the situation. Without effective and timely adjustments, the vicious competition would be intensified, leading to the greater loss of these industries, unemployment of enterprise employees, increase of non-performing assets of banks, severe energy and resource problems and ecological and environmental deterioration and so on, which would directly imperil the healthy development of these industries and even influence national well-­ being and the people’s livelihood. 6  Zhao Lichang, The Internet Economy and the Industrial Transformation and Upgrading in China, “Contemporary Economic Management”, 2015 (12).

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Thirdly, the manufacturing industry is in the low end of the industrial value chain and faces the industrial safety issue. As is known to all, the manufacturing industry of China has been long confined to the processing and manufacturing segment at the lower end of the value chain, featuring the short industrial chain and concentrating on the labor, capital- and technology-intensive section of low added value and little technical content. In the industry, the four manufacturing sectors of the greatest verticality are: office supplies and computer, radio, television and communication equipment, electrical machinery and equipment, and medical and optical precision instruments. The vertical specializing degrees of the four sectors were all 0.2 in 1995, which respectively rose to 0.5, 0.4, 0.3 and 0.3 by 2005. With a slow growth, these figures were still lower than those in foreign countries.7 It suggests that the industrial chain of the manufacturing industry in China is considerably incomplete and the industrial development greatly depends on the import of intermediate products, so the whole industry is in the lower end due to technical constraints and subject to the industrial safety issue as the key products are controlled by other countries. Finally, China is also exposed to the weak capability of independent innovation, low-level manufacturing and the lack of the core competitiveness of industries. Some studies pointed out that, in 2005, the productivity of the independent industries in China was only 20%, and more than 99% of the enterprises had no independent core technologies; while the added value of hi-tech industries took up smaller than 15% in the total gross national product (GNP) and lower than 20% in the manufacturing industry.8 The export of hi-tech products of China is rising and occupies a proportion in the export of manufactured goods higher than the world average level, but these hi-tech products are mostly produced and exported by the Chinese branches of multinational companies instead of being produced based on the independent innovation of Chinese enterprises. A Social Structure Where the “Three Waves” Co-exist Differing from the historical evolution of modernization of western developed countries, the Chinese society is seeing the co-existence of the “three waves” as mentioned by Alvin Toffler. To be specific, the characteristics of 7  Xu Jianwei, External Influence on Current Upgrading of the Industrial Structure in China and the Corresponding Countermeasures, “Economic Review”, 2014 (6). 8   Chen Jiagui, Adjusting and Optimizing the Industrial Structure to Promote the Sustainable Economic Development, “Journal of Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences”, 2011 (2).

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the third civilization wave are embodied in Zhongguancun in Beijing and the hi-tech development zones and science and technology parks in many big cities in China as well as the terms of “network”, “gene” and “software” and so on heard everywhere, where people always find the dazzling street advertisements, “the neo-generation” wearing fancy clothes, a great variety of fashion products, different styles of rock and roll and “ninety-­ second news inserted by thirty-second advertisement, half a song, a headline, a cartoon, an abstract pasteup, a short message or computer prints”,9 the typical post-modernity features. At the same time, the chimneys standing high, the machines roaring, the polluted environment and the rising unemployment rate constitute the characteristics of the second wave. Also, in the vast rural areas and remote areas, the low productivity, the single operating mode, the high cost of duplication of production and the low efficiency demonstrate the existence of the first wave here. The co-­ existence of the three waves is summarized as “fractured society” by Professor Sun Liping, where “different ages co-exist in the society at the same time but show no favorable connection among each other”.10 From the perspective of social theory, this situation can be defined as the conflicting symbiosis of pre-modernity, modernity and post-modernity.11 With China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the developed cities or regions of China have established an increasingly closed relation to international society, but the relatively “backward” regions, particularly the remote rural areas, lagged far behind in this ­process. In addition to the urban-rural relation, the fractured society is also reflected by the hierarchical relationship. Take the unemployed as an example. Those with an older age, a lower educational level and a single and obsolete skill have no chance to join leading industries or return to the stable employment system, and also see no opportunity in promising industries. If without abundant social security, this unemployed group will be beset with difficulties in medical care, children education and housing and so on.12 9  [US] Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, Page 242, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1984. 10  Sun Liping, Fracture  – the Chinese Society since the 1990s, Page 14, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2003. 11  Wang Jianmin, Conflicting Symbiosis of Modernity and Post-modernity in Chinese Society, “Social Science Review”, 2007 (2). 12  Sun Liping, Transformation and Fracture – the Evolution of Social Structure in China since the Reform, Page 110–111, Beijing, Tsinghua University Press, 2004.

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To summarize, the rise of the Internet economy in China differs from that in western developed countries, mainly reflected by the imbalance of the overall social development, the bottlenecks encountered by traditional industries, the industrial structure waiting for adjustments and the large and increasing number of netizens in China and so on. This background will exert an influence on the features and direction of the development of the Internet economy in China.

1.2   Analysis of the Main Connotation of the Internet Economy Generally, the Internet economy refers to the sum of economic activities initiated based on the Internet, which consists of five major types in the current stage of development, that is, e-commerce, Internet finance (ITFIN), instant messaging, search engine and online games. As a new economic phenomenon brought into being in the age of information network, the Internet economy presents the great economic vitality and wealth effect, creating the new development space for the industrial structure of China, and it will also boost the economic and social development by integrating the emerging information industries, Internet technologies and traditional industries. The development of the Internet economy in the new age is mainly embodied by the introduction and implementation of the Internet+ strategy. The Internet+ action plan was firstly put forward in the report on the work of the government in the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in 2015. In April 2015, the executive meeting of the State Council had drawn up the plan for developing emerging service industries including e-commerce, implementing the Internet+ action and facilitating the integration and development of traditional and emerging industries. The Internet+ refers to the expansion and application of a whole set of information technologies centering on the Internet (including the mobile Internet, cloud computing and big data technology, etc.) in all economic and social sectors. Being open, extensible and scalable, it has exerted and will continue to exert an all-round profound influence on the economic system, people’s life and governance. From the aspect of Internet+, the connotation of the Internet economy is mainly embodied in the close integration between the Internet and enterprise development and between the Internet and production, distribution, exchange (trade) and consumption.

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The Internet and Enterprise Development The integration of the Internet and enterprises will necessarily bring about changes to production, distribution, exchange (trade) and consumption. Theoretically, in the process of production, the Internet technology and information factors are directly incorporated in production, and the Internet also plays an indirect role by increasing the output values of capital, labor and land and so on; and, practically, the intelligence factors are increasing in production. The Internet economy will reshape the production process and the supply-demand relation, gradually turning the original unified mass production to intelligent production that meets personalized needs better. The integration of the Internet and enterprises will reforge the economic system in an all-round way. The Internet economy will intensify the cross-industry comprehensive competition, more likely break the original market structure and provide the space for technical progress and adjustment of the market status. More importantly, the integration of the Internet and enterprises promotes the exploration capability in unknown areas and provide more opportunities to start new businesses. The “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” emphasized by Premier Li Keqiang for several times exactly matches the demands in the Internet age. Since the Internet economy bears the great wealth effect, its demands on innovative and entrepreneurial talents will be considered as the standards for the cultivation of social talents and therefore reshape the values of talents, which is of fundamental significance for the development of enterprises. Integration of the Internet and Production Becoming the new trend in the development of production, the Internet+ has remodeled the production sector through the Internet agriculture, Internet manufacturing, Internet industry and Internet finance and so on. The integration between the Internet and agriculture will boost the agricultural modernization. In recent years, the whole agricultural industry chain has seen the integration of the Internet and agriculture, mainly embodied in the important and difficult domains of agriculture such as the standardization in safety production of agricultural products, differentiated publicity and construction of the information platform. Firstly, the standardization in safety production of agricultural products, attracting high attention from the market, makes up the key to solve the food safety issue. The standardized monitoring over the whole process

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of agricultural production has been realized based on the network information technology, which directly responds to the food safety issue, shortens the distance between agricultural production and consumers, and consolidates consumers’ confidence in agricultural products. It will gradually become the core strength for the competition among agricultural products. Secondly, the Internet has been utilized as an important platform for the differentiated publicity of agricultural products. Compared to traditional advertising subject to the limited time and high cost, the Internet offers the stage for creative marketing of agricultural products and helps the high-quality products to stand out. Many agricultural products have found their brand advantages through network marketing, and featured agricultural products of comparative advantages have been established in different regions. The creative idea that attracts consumers only lays the foundation for the product sales, while the differentiated publicity enables the product to acquire subsequent competitiveness among the homogenous agricultural products. Thirdly, the building of e-commerce platform for agricultural products constitutes the focal point of the development of Internet agriculture. However, due to the high cost and unknown effect of many local platforms, it is now better to join the large e-commerce platforms. So is the case with the “Taobao Village” discussed in Chap. 3 of this book. This village is only one of the numerous “Taobao Villages”, as a great number of similar villages are rising. Fourthly, the Internet agriculture shall put great efforts in building and perfecting the agricultural comprehensive information service system and agricultural information infrastructure under the leadership of the government, and the government shall accelerate the building of relevant infrastructure and systems. The integration of the Internet and manufacturing will also bring along new changes. The executive meeting of the State Council in 2015 made a decision to advance the implementation of the strategy of “Made in China 2025”, which pointed out the dominating role of the integration of Internet+ and strategic areas (particularly high-end manufacturing), stressed on following the development trend of Internet+, explored the solutions to the difficulties of manufacturing in China and required attaching importance to ten major sectors including the new-generation information technology, high-grade numerical control machines and robots, aeronautical and space equipment, marine engineering equipment and hi-­ tech vessels and so on based on the foundation of the deep integration of

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information and industrialization. Differing from the previous seven strategic emerging industries, the strategy of “Made in China 2025” has actively introduced Internet+ as the main concept for development. Intelligent manufacturing that integrates the Internet and industry is an important approach to adapt to the new round of industrial revolution. It optimizes and upgrades all links from market analysis, production management, processing assembly, product marketing, product maintenance, service and recycling; realizes the four-dimensional integration of people, technology, management and information; combines the material flow with the energy flow, information flow and knowledge flow; and enables the transformation from large-scale industrial production to small-scale personalized manufacturing. The integration of the Internet and finance is vigorously forging ahead. Depending on the bonus from the financial reform, “Internet+ finance” has produced numerous segments of Internet finance, such as the third-­ party payment, mobile payment, online wealth management, e-commerce micro credit, P2P, equity, crowd funding and the credit data and Internet financial service platforms focusing on a certain financial process and so on. The operating modes of the domestic banking sector have been challenged by the development of Internet finance. For example, Internet finance has changed the traditional way of financing. In 2014, network financing in China had achieved a value of approximately 250 billion yuan. Though accounting for only 1% of the total financing amount in this period, it effectively controls the risk based on dynamic information, full data mining and processing, and rapid evaluation of the credit of enterprises, thus releasing the credit-based loan without guarantee or mortgage and achieving a lower cost and a higher efficiency than the mode of traditional banks based on the “information filled in offline”. Meanwhile, Internet finance also evidently shows the long tail effect, awakens the inclusive financial market and plays a significant role in helping the public to enjoy financial services equally. Integration of the Internet and Distribution The integration of the Internet and distribution has been mainly applied to improving the logistics system, lowering the logistics cost and so on. By further integrating the Internet and the logistics industry, it realizes the increasingly flat management on the transactions between the consignor and the carrier, significantly reduces intermediate levels, visualizes the monitoring management, rapidly keeps the front-line information in line with the

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background monitoring and, by integrating the highways, ports and logistics parks, achieves the flat structure of information communication. Currently, many enterprises compete in building the logistics information platform and logistics information mining and so on. Firstly, by building the logistics information platform, they aim to further improve the ecological chain of e-commerce, integrate the logistics information platform in pre-production activities, sales and after-sale services, break the regional barrier for product circulation and improve the competitiveness of the enterprise. Secondly, they are trying to further explore the “treasury” of logistics information. For example, the number of online shoppers in China had reached 360 million by June 2015,13 and their locations, shopping frequencies and preferences can be analyzed and explored from the logistics view. No perfect regulation on information privacy has been established in China by now, but the logistics data mining can be conducted only on the premise of protecting consumers’ information privacy. Integration of the Internet and Exchange (Trade) The rapid development of the Internet in exchange or trade has substantially improved the trade efficiency. In 2014, the online retail sales in China had grown by 49.7% compared to the last year to 2.8 trillion yuan, which was ten times than the figure in 2006. It occupied 10.6% of the total retail sales of consumer goods in this period, having increased by 27 times compared to that in 2006. According to Ali Research, the transaction efficiency of network retail sales was about four times of real-store sales; that is, with 1 yuan invested, the real-store retail will complete a commodity trading volume of 10.9 yuan, compared to 49.6 yuan for network retail sale.14 Integration of the Internet and Consumption The integration of the Internet and consumption is analyzed with the example of online shopping here. Firstly, some data published by China 13  China Internet Network Information Center, Research Report on Online Shopping Market in China in 2014, http://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/dzswbg/201509/ P020150909354828731159.pdf 14  Yu Zhu, Improve the Quality and Efficiency of Economic and Social Development Based on Internet+, “Shanghai Securities News”, 20150507.

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Internet Network Information Center shall be noticed here. By December 2015, the number of netizens in China had reached 688 million, having increased by 39.51 million in 2015. The Internet penetration rate was 50.3%, 2.4% higher than that by the end of 2014, 3.9% higher than the global average level and 10.1% higher than Asian average level. The number of mobile netizens in China attained 620 million, having grown by 63.03 million compared to the end of 2014. The proportion of mobile netizens among all netizens increased from 85.8% in 2014 to 90.1% in 2015. In China 413 million people were shopping online, which had increased by 51.83 million compared to the end of 2014 with a growth rate of 14.3% and suggested the stable development of the online shopping market in China. Meanwhile, the number of mobile shoppers had seen a rapid rise and reached 340 million, with a growth rate of 43.9% compared to the previous year, and the proportion of mobile shoppers developed from 42.4% by the end of 2014 to 54.8% in 2015.15 As indicated by these figures, an increasing number of people are using the Internet, and the Internet is exerting an increasing influence on people’s daily life. The development of the online shopping market is exactly an embodiment of this trend. In addition to these abstract figures, this situation can be demonstrated by all the things happening around us. For example, we can often see couriers and their tricycles for goods delivery in residential areas, or see students looking for their “gifts” in a mountain of packages at the gate of university. The “Singles Day” every year has become a grand carnival recently, while e-commerce tycoons are creating the ceremonies of “nationwide online shopping festival” emerging endlessly. According to statistics, the trading volume of Alibaba had exceeded 71.9 billion yuan by 17:28 on November 11, 2015, and surprisingly reached 91.2 billion yuan by the end of the day, which has exceeded the retail sales of consumer goods per day of China in 2014. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods of China in 2014 was 26.2394 trillion yuan, and the average amount per day was 71.888 billion yuan.16 These phenomena and figures have demonstrated the great strength of the Internet and online shopping. In conclusion, the Internet will continue to integrate into different areas and processes of production, distribution, exchange (trade) and con15  China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, http://cnnic.cn, 20160122. 16  Data comes from http://finance.qq.com/a/20151112/000722.htm, 20151212.

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sumption and show an impact on economic development, enterprise operation and consumers’ daily life in an all-round way. Distinguished from the “made in China” relying on the advantage in the production cost, the Internet economy will turn the visible and tangible “real-store made in China” that produces emission into the intelligence and data-oriented “flexible created in China” with few emissions, though the transformation is evitable and cannot be accomplished at one move due to the complex social realities.

1.3   Social Foundations for the Development of the Internet Economy In view of structural functionalism, the economic, political, social and cultural systems respectively bear their own function and together guarantee the stability and balance of the social structure, which is the same case with the Internet economy. The development of the Internet economy also requires certain social foundations rooted in China, such as the netizen structure, the gap between the network development in urban and rural areas, relevant institutional arrangements and the mode of talent cultivation and so on. Internet Economy and Netizen Structure As the name suggests, the Internet economy refers to the economic activities where the Internet plays as a medium or a foundation, so the development and popularity of the Internet constitutes the premise for the Internet economy. According to the statistics in The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China released by China Internet Network Information Center, by the end of December 2015, the number of netizens in China had reached 688 million, having increased by 39.51 million in 2015. The Internet penetration rate was 50.3%, 2.4% higher than that by the end of 2014 (see Fig. 1.1). The number of mobile netizens in China attained 620 million, having grown by 63.03 million compared to the end of 2014. The proportion of mobile netizens among all netizens increased from 85.8% in 2014 to 90.1% in 2015. The rural netizens took up 28.4% of the whole netizens, reaching a scale of 195 million and having increased by 16.94 million compared to the number by the end of 2014.

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Fig. 1.1  The number of netizens and the penetration rate of the Internet in China. (Source: China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, see in http://cnnic.cn, 20160122)

Furthermore, some more specific data are listed here: 67.6% of Chinese netizens are connected to the Internet through the desktop computer, compared to 38.7% through the laptop; mobile netizens take up 90.1%, having grown by 4.3% compared to the end of 2014; 31.5% of netizens are connected to the Internet through the tablet and 17.9% through TV.  Among the 31.02 million domain names in China, 16.36 million ended with “.CN”, accounting for 52.8%, and 350,000 of them use “. 中 国 (China)”. Among the 4.23 million websites in China, 2.13 million ended with “.CN”. By December 2015, 95.2% of Chinese enterprises use the computer in work, and 89.0% use the Internet, while 86.3% of them are connected to the Internet through the fixed broadband and 23.9% are through the mobile broadband. In addition, the proportion of online sales and online procurement is respectively 32.6% and 31.5%, while the proportion of online marketing based on the Internet is 33.8%.17 These figures show that the adequate population base and the large number of netizens have been equipped as the foundation for the development of the Internet economy. Though not every single netizen will join the Internet economic activities, the large group of netizens connected to the Internet, the rising scale of netizens and the steady rise of the Internet 17  China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, http://cnnic.cn, 20160122.

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penetration rate necessarily render a huge space for the production and consumption of the Internet economy. Previously, the “large population” would remind people of “scarce material resources”, “difficulties in social security”, “lower per-capita income” and “imbalance of regional development” and so on, but in the Internet age, the large population embraces a great potential of economic development. The key lies in how to effectively attract and inspire netizens to join the Internet economic activities. Gap Between the Urban and Rural Network Development The development of network society in China sees the imbalanced regional development, particularly the imbalance between the rural and urban area. By December 2015, 26 out of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central government in China had more than 10 million netizens, while Gansu newly joined the club in 2015; and 14 provinces had the penetration rate of the Internet exceed the national average level, with Hainan Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region newly joining the club in 2015. The penetration rate of the Internet in different provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central government significantly varies from each other and shows the digital divide phenomenon due to their great differences in economic development and the construction of Internet infrastructure. The number of rural netizens has reached 195 million, having increased by 16.94 million compared to the end of 2014, with a growth rate of 9.5%; and the number of urban netizens has reached 493 million, having increased by 22.57 million compared to the end of 2014, with a growth rate of 4.8%. The rural netizens occupy 28.4% of the whole, while urban netizens account for 71.6%. As suggested by the data, the rural netizens are growing twice faster than urban netizens and occupying an increasing proportion, which demonstrates the great achievement in popularization of the Internet in rural areas in 2015.18 However, considering the large difference between the population sizes in urban and rural areas, the development of the Internet in rural areas is relatively slow. In particular, the construction of information infrastructure in rural areas still falls far behind that in urban areas, severely restricting the popularization of the information economy. Moreover, the rise of the penetration rate of the Internet in rural areas only proves the growing proportion of netizens 18  China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, http://cnnic.cn, 20160122.

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among the people, but it still has a long way to go to turn such growth into economic performance. According to some people, The Internet is essentially a great tool to shorten the gap between the urban and rural areas in the long run, as the Internet changes the existing hierarchical market structure into a flat net structure and anyone can become a member of this huge network. The widely-covered Internet provides a virtual space for the communication and interaction of people in both rural and urban areas, where the information, knowledge and technology can flow freely and thus supply the relatively equal opportunities to people in rural areas. For example, the opportunity to purchase financing products was rarely seen in rural areas, but now farmers can get more returns than depositing money by simply binding Alipay or WeChat.

However, this “optimistic” idea fails to figure out the fundamental causes for the gap between the rural and urban development that has existed for a long time. The economic development in rural areas is essentially a systematic project, involving comprehensive factors such as the policy, organizational building, talent cultivation and idea adjustment. Before attempting to shorten the gap between urban and rural development through the Internet, it is necessary to clarify the current conditions and the origin of the gap between urban and rural development. “People’s Conditions” in the Internet Society The Internet society develops only when the basic network order is established, that is, the basic order in network economic activities, network exchange and the release, communication and transmission of information. In addition, basic laws shall be provided in order to maintain the network order. As pointed out by President Xi Jinping in the second World Internet Conference, Like in the real world, freedom and order are both necessary in cyberspace. Freedom is what order is meant for and order is the guarantee for freedom. We should respect Internet users’ right to exchange their ideas and express their minds, and we should also build a good order in cyberspace in accordance with law as it will help protect the legitimate rights and interests of all Internet users. Cyberspace is not a place beyond the rule of law. Cyberspace is virtual, but the players in cyberspace are real. Everyone should abide by

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the law with the rights and obligations of parties concerned clearly defined. Cyberspace must be governed, operated and used in accordance with law so that the Internet can enjoy sound development under the rule of law. In the meantime, greater efforts should be made to strengthen ethical standards and civilized behaviors in cyberspace. We should give full play to the role of moral teachings in guiding the users of the Internet to make sure that the final accomplishment of human civilizations will nourish the growth of cyberspace and help rehabilitate cyber-ecology.19

Chinese network society is developing in a very complicated way due to the short history and fast speed of the Internet development in China, the interactive and complex influence between the cyberspace and real world, and the constant changes of the real society. The fundamental network order is yet to be established. What’s special about the network development in China is that some complicated realistic issues are often embodied in the cyberspace, such as the official corruption, doctor-patient conflict and food safety. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the authentic information from the diversified and mixed network information because of the comments or reprints by netizens. For instance, Shandong Ji’nan Public Security Bureau investigated on an attenuated vaccine case on March 11, 2016, causing a great d ­ isturbance in the whole society. Since 2010, Pang and her daughter Sun who graduated from a medical school had illegally purchased 25 kinds of “Class 2” vaccines for children and adults from personnel of the vaccine wholesale enterprises and other illegal operators and sold to 18 provinces and municipalities nationwide without following the regulations on cold storage and transportation. This case involved a value of 570 million yuan. This piece of news had been extremely rapidly communicated, and, on the day of exposure, major news media including Xinhua Net, CCTV and People’s Daily Online had reported on this case and many local media had released critical reviews. This “attenuated vaccine case” had triggered people’s distrust and panic in the public opinion field. It was reported that the vaccines that were sold without cold storage might have a lower efficacy or no efficacy and lead to “ineffective immunity”. In other words, the vaccine could not protect the vaccinated from relevant diseases.

19  Xi Jinping, Jointly Constructing a Community with a Shared Future for the Cyberspace, “Communication and Ideological and Cultural Work in Inner Mongolia”, 2015 (12).

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The central leaders had been startled by this incident. Premier Li Keqiang had given an important instruction on the case of illegal operation of vaccines. The instruction pointed out that the vaccine incident had aroused extensive attention of society and unveiled many flaws in monitoring. National Medical Products Administration, National Health Commission and Public and the Ministry of Public Security should strengthen the coordination to make a thorough investigation of the flow and use of “attenuated vaccines”, timely respond to social concerns, severely crack down on crime according to law, apply accountability against any dereliction of duty, improve the supervision system, assign the monitoring responsibilities for the production, distribution and inoculation of vaccines, stop all loopholes and protect people’s life and health. According to the announcement of the World Health Organization, the incorrectly stored or expired vaccine barely caused any toxic reaction, but the anger and anxiety in the public opinion had not been rapidly relieved. Several old news about vaccines had been dug out, and the phrases “the disaster of vaccine” or “the chaos of vaccine” and the tragic films on the adverse reactions of the vaccine leading to crippling diseases of children were shown again on numerous webpages. The rational discussion on the safety of vaccines and the necessity of compulsory vaccination had been replaced by the venting of mood and abuse. Many young parents said that they dared not to have their children inoculated any longer. Therefore, “the worst consequence of this case is not about the safety risk caused by the attenuated vaccine itself but lies in how people lose their confidence in vaccines due to the disordered legal and institutional monitoring and suffer from a panic”.20 This incident demonstrates the mutual influence between the real society and the network society. Any social or moral disorder in real world will be reflected in the cyberspace where diversified voices will present. This situation results from the short history and rapid development of the Internet, which constitutes the background for the development of the Internet economy and meanwhile is affected by the economy. Though distinguished from general network behaviors, certain rules have been established for the Internet economy, it is sometimes not that rational and normative, and the rational order needs to be constructed based on practical experiences. The construction of the order of cyberspace is actually the same process of the 20  Peng Yao, Information Disclosure Is the “Vaccine” to Dispel Panic, “Farmers’ Daily”, 20160225.

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construction of the order of Internet economy. This is an inevitable issue that needs to be solved during the rise of the Internet economy. Institutions and Policies Against the rapid development of Internet technology, many new information industries are growing quickly, but the institutional environment that supports the development of information industry is changing relatively slowly. For example, no unified policy has been established on promoting the flow and sharing of information and data in China, and different sectors, regions and departments are subject to severe information segmentation. At present, the government provides limited fiscal support to the Internet industry, decentralized subsidies and inadequate privilege on tax allowance and exemption for emerging Internet+ enterprises, which restricts the development of enterprises at their early stage.21 The competition of the Internet industry expands from one single area to multiple areas, applies diversified measures and adopts complex competitive behaviors, but the corresponding regulatory institutions are still far from perfection. Currently, as to the Internet management, China has no perfect legal system and inadequate measures of law enforcement; it lacks effective means to monitor, investigate and judge the competitive b ­ ehaviors of enterprises and has not established any structured management or supervision method. These institutions and policies are essential factors contributing to the development of the Internet economy. Furthermore, based on the existing education system and structure in China now, the talent cultivation falls behind the demands of the Internet development. The rapidly developing Internet technology needs more innovative talents for its openness and uncertainty, while the Internet+ strategy proposes a higher requirement on talent cultivation. Generally, Chinese education system supplies insufficient application-oriented occupational technology talents, and more professional talents shall be cultivated and the talent structure shall be optimized to adapt to the development of the Internet economy. Multi-level e-commerce talents, mobile Internet talents, Internet finance talents and so on shall be cultivated to satisfy the demands of the diversified Internet economy market.

21  Yu Zhu, Improve the Quality and Efficiency of Economic and Social Development Based on “Internet+”, “Shanghai Securities News”, 20150507.

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1.4   Social Influence of the Internet Economy Along with the development of the Internet in full swing in China, the Internet is currently changing people’s mode of production, work, life and even thinking. The Internet economy will also bring about a series of changes. As people often say, “the Internet has two sides”, which means that the development of the Internet not only benefits people in many ways, but also causes some disturbances. The Internet economy is no exception. Here the positive influences and some concerns of the Internet economy are analyzed from several aspects. Influence of the Internet Economy on People’s Life The Internet economy is favorable for improving people’s living standards. The rapid development of the Internet technology has gradually broken the constraints on time and space in daily life. For example, the commodities produced out-of-town, imported materials and specialties that could hardly be purchased previously can be bought online by simply clicking the mouse now. Residents are enjoying rich choices and choose things from a bigger range thanks to the development of the Internet. The Internet+ is now penetrating into people’s life, which changes people’s original consumption habits, reshapes the consumption process, expands the consumption choices, lowers the trade cost and significantly improves people’s consumption experiences. Meanwhile, the Internet also inspires people’s potential demands on social contact, travel, leisure, medical care and education and so on, and gradually promotes the further improvement of social welfare. With the network sales as an example, the study finds that 39% of network retail sales are newly increased consumptions, the proportion of the newly increased consumptions reaches as high as 57% in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities, and it is predicted that the network retail sales will lead to 7% growth of individual consumptions by 2020. It means that the potential consumption demands of consumers have been satisfied. In this way, the consumption is stimulated and the business cycle is promoted. It is a remarkable fact that the network retail sales in China depend on the platform sales mode more than that in the United States. The network sales platform is

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dominating the network retail market of China, which accounts for 90% of the retail sales market, compared to merely 27% in the United States.22 In view of people’s basic needs, the Internet has exerted an influence over all basic necessities of life including food, clothing, shelter and means of traveling. Online shopping has become an important consumption mode for purchasing clothes. The diversified products and competitive prices of online stores particularly attract the young people. As to the food, catering enterprises make use of the Internet platform to categorize consumers based on their features to meet their personalized demands (see the analysis of “online takeaway” in Part 5 of this chapter). For the accommodation, the mode of the real-store real estate agency has been apparently changed after the Internet information technology is introduced; and the real estate agencies are utilizing the network data to enable consumers to understand and judge the price trend. In regard to traveling, the network information technology represented by the taxi booking app has matched the supply and demand in consideration of saving the space and time cost. Furthermore, the Internet is favorable for promoting personalized education and allocating education resources. The “Internet+ education” introduces the Internet information means to identify personalized features during education, provides personalized education to students, improves the specific teaching tools and thus improves the teaching quality. For example, massive data can be collected when students are answering questions in computer. By analyzing the data with the big data technology, it helps to find whether the difficulty degree of these questions is appropriate and which is the hardest knowledge for students to master. In this way, the laws of the student in studying and answering questions can be summarized, and the strategy for personalized study can be drawn up. The Internet Economy and the Transformation of Government Functions The development of the Internet economy proposes the new requirements on government functions and thus promotes the transformation of its functions. From a macro perspective, the development strategy of 22  Yu Zhu, Improve the Quality and Efficiency of Economic and Social Development Based on “Internet+”, “Shanghai Securities News”, 20150507.

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Internet+ can be implemented only depending on the government’s sensitivity to and deep understanding of the market information. The full-­ scale implementation of the Internet+ strategy will theoretically and practically urge the government to clarify its scope of functions, establish the fundamental market system, improve the service system, strengthen the control of illegal behaviors, protect the legitimate rights and benefits of consumers, and inspire the vigor of the Internet economy in innovative methods. The Internet+ not only impacts the government’s ideas about its functions, but also promotes the government’s governance efficiency. The “Internet+ government” will advance the modernization of the government’s governance capacity. The new phenomena, ideas and modes constantly emerging in the Internet+ age are challenging the traditional management services of the government. As the current laws, regulations and standards cannot match these challenges, a greater requirement has been put forward against the government management, which boosts the transformation of the service and supervision functions of the government and the modernization of its governance system and capability. When the influence of the Internet is expanded offline, the sectors originally enjoying a low threshold will easily embrace the changes, but the sectors subject to strict control will resist these changes with all kinds of excuses. This is because when the sectors subject to strict control are opened to the Internet+, the rent originally created based on the control will be adversely affected, and the institutional rental income of the whole sector may be influenced. The government’s social governance will also change under the context of the Internet+ strategy. The changes involve two aspects: “the g ­ overnance of the network society” and “the social governance through network”. Firstly, the new governance method shall be put forward against the new reality of the network society. For example, the public administration shall attach great importance to information publicity and public opinion guidance for major social incidents. Secondly, the traditional top-­to-­bottom social governance mode shall be changed with the Internet as the approach, platform or mean, such as the “government Weibo”. The difference between the two lies in that “the governance of the network society” is a kind of response to social reality, while “the social governance through network” only treats the Internet as a tool and shows no deep understanding of the new reality. As a result of the confusion about the two, the current governance of the network society only rests on the second idea, that

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is, only considering the network society as “society + network” but failing to expound the new characteristics of the network society, such as “experience communication”, “absence communication” and “identity formation”.23 Essentially, the “governance of the network society” is launched by the government against the new changes and new issues under the background of the rise of the Internet by means of the Internet technologies and tools, aiming to deliver public information, solve social issues, build social consensus and construct social order and so on. The “governance of the network society” combines the “government governance” and “social governance” and integrates the “network society” and “social governance”, creating a new form of social governance against the rise of the Internet.24 The innovative social government system requires improving the method of social governance to be “social participation-based” and “grass root-oriented”. Undoubtedly, it shows a direct relation with the development of the Internet, since a great part of people’s thoughts, views and appeals are expressed through the Internet. Responding to the Internet age, the government bears the important mission to perform social governance through the Internet, which is exactly a good opportunity for the government to transform its functions. Digital Divide The digital divide, also known as “information divide”, is a gap between “the information rich” and “the information poor”, that is, a gap between a person having the tools in the information age and a person who does not have. As a complicated and multi-dimensional phenomenon, digital divide exists in the technology of information equipment and the application of information resources among different countries, regions, industries and social ranks. Having penetrated into people’s economic, political and social life, it has become a prominent social issue in the information age. Essentially, digital divide reflects the social inequality that has come into 23  Liu Shaojie, Evolution of the Social Structure in the Network Age, “Academic Monthly”, 2012 (10). 24  Wang Jianmin, Governance on Chinese Network Society During the Transition Period, Liu Shaojie, “2015 Research Report on Chinese Network Society”, Page 18, Beijing, China Renmin University Press, 2015.

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being along with the Internet and the new media technology and exerts a mutual influence over other inequal factors of the society, that is, the social inequality before the introduction of information technology and during the acquisition of information resources results in digital divide, while digital divide intensifies the inequality in social structure the other way around. According to The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, the lack of the Internet knowledge and applied skills still constitutes the major cause for the digital divide among different groups. The survey shows that, in 2015, 60.0% of people who do not get on the Internet know little about computer/network, 30.8% of them do not get on the Internet because they are too old/young and 9.4% have no device such as computer (Fig. 1.2). The Report also states that the transformation of non-netizens will gradually slow down in China, since the size of people vulnerable to transformation is reducing. According to the investigation, 11.8% of the non-netizens believe they will or may get on the Internet in the future, while 72.9% think they will or may not, which demonstrates the difficulty of the transformation of non-netizens in the future. Whether these non-netizens will get on the Internet is decided by their group characteristics, will to get on the Internet and network knowledge and skills as well as regional information development. In 2005, the State Information Center organized the “Chinese digital divide research” group, established the “synthetic index method of relative gap” and its analysis model, and performed the tracking, calculation

Fig. 1.2  Reasons for non-netizens not to get on the Internet

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and study of the digital divide index (DDI). As suggested by the 2012 report of the center, the digital divide in China is mainly reflected by the gap between the urban and rural areas and among different regions. The total urban-rural digital divide index (urban-rural DDI) is a synthetic index calculated based on five indicators on the relative gap between urban and rural information technology application, reflecting the overall digital divide between the urban and rural areas. Among the five indicators, the Internet, computer and color TV are respectively assigned with a weighting of one-fourth, and the fixed-line telephone and mobile telephone are respectively assigned with one-eighth. The calculation result shows that the total urban-rural digital divide index in 2012 was 0.44 (see Fig. 1.3), which meant that the information technology application in rural areas was approximately 45% lagging behind that in urban areas and revealed the evident digital divide between urban and rural areas. In view of the specific indicators, the urban-rural digital divide was mainly reflected by the computer and Internet, and the gap in the mobile phone and color TV was small, with the fixed-line telephone between the

Fig. 1.3  The total urban-rural digital divide index from 2002 to 2012. (Source: “Chinese digital divide research” group of the State Information Center, 2013 Report on Chinese Digital Divide, http://www.sic.gov.cn/News/287/2782.htm, 20,140,520)

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two. Generally, when a technology product tends to be popularized, the urban-rural gap in this respect will be smaller. As to the variation trend, the urban-rural digital divide had been constantly reduced, with a decline rate of 41% from 2002 to 2012. Among these indicators, the gap of the mobile phone had been reducing the most quickly, with a decline rate of 91%, followed by 73% of the color TV and then by 20% and 31% of the computer and the Internet. The digital divide not only involves the issue of information acquisition, but also affects the use of information. According to some studies, the goal for the access to and use of the Internet is subject to the influence of the regional factor and personal social and economic features. The impact of the regional factor on the goal of network use is smaller than the impact on people’s connection to the Internet. It can be seen that the Internet has somewhat patched up the gap among the hardware resources in different regions. However, people of different incomes and occupational status greatly vary in the goal and level of the network use. In the more developed areas, people tend to make use of the network for entertainment and leisure purposes, while netizens in the less developed areas mostly use the network for study and work. The group with a lower income and occupational status will less likely use the network to promote the personal career development due to their insufficient skills or driving forces, but regard the Internet only as a tool for entertainment and leisure. Digital divide not only reflects the unequal allocation of information resources among different areas, but also reveals the gap between the groups of different economic and social status in a deeper level. For the group with a lower income and occupational status, they should have seized the opportunity to learn knowledge and skills, promote personal development and reduce the inequality through the Internet, but they have no driving force or quality to make full use of the opportunity and, conversely, are seeing a widening gap to the group with higher social and economic status. In this way, the digital divide and the social and economic inequality between the groups of different social and economic status have been intensified. Though the great gap of hardware can be gradually narrowed along with the popularization of technology, people’s differences in the ability and quality to utilize the information technology to promote personal development reflect and even aggravate the structural inequality deeply ingrained in China.25 25  The ideas about the digital divide in this chapter mainly refer to Hao Dahai and Wang Lei, Regional Difference or Social Structural Difference?  – Multi-level Model Analysis of Digital Divide of Chinese Residents, “Academic Forum”, 2014 (12).

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The rise of the Internet economy in China emerges on the condition that the number of netizens is increasing in China and a large rural population is connecting to the Internet through the smartphone. However, it does not necessarily imply that “all people are equal on the Internet”. The “connection” to the Internet does not mean the full participation in the Internet. For example, many farmers, particularly the young, mainly download music or films with the mobile phone or chat through the Internet. In this case, the access to the Internet is essentially the communication and consumption of information instead of creating new values with information. Under the background of the Internet+ strategy, the new economic opportunities and the growth potential are provided based on the traditional industrial base and relevant industrial experiences. It is a daydream to join Internet+ without any practical experiences. In this sense, the age of the Internet economy is actually the age of cities, when the digital divide will continue to exist and even expand between the urban and rural area. The development of the Internet economy not only alters people’s lifestyle but also changes people’s understanding about the social life. Therefore, the academic study shall summarize the new realities and new thoughts combining the professional perspective. In Chaps. 5 and 6, a sociological analysis will be conducted against some aspects of the Internet economy. Section 5 analyzes the social spatio-temporal dimension of the Internet economy with “online takeaway” as an instance and Section 6 attempts to expound the dominant logic of the consumer society implied by online shopping.

1.5   Social Spatio-temporal of the Internet Economy: With “Online Takeaway” as an Instance Along with the rapid development of network e-commerce, the Internet-­ based online consumption has become an emerging trend. People get used to shop online on Taobao, JD and so on where they can purchase daily necessities quickly and conveniently. In pace with the popularization of the mobile phone, the Internet has deeply penetrated into people’s life. Therefore, the online consumption is naturally linked to food and drink, the most essential need of people, leading to the rapid development of the Internet-based takeaway mode.

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Emergence of Online Takeaway Since people’s living standards are constantly improving and the pace of life is speeding up along with the rapid social development, people’s eating habits and dining characteristics are exposed to changes without being noticed. The traditional catering industry inevitably runs into the conflict with people’s new lifestyle and can hardly satisfy people’s new dining demand, thus leaving a space for the development of online takeaway. The traditional catering consumption sees certain spatio-temporal difficulties, as the customers have to overcome the obstruction of time and space before dining and the stores have to pay the high space cost for the traditional dining consumption. Firstly, customers have to overcome the obstruction of time and space before arriving at the restaurant. They have to walk or make use of transport to reach the restaurant that has a certain distance, which will necessarily take a while. If the restaurant is far away or the customers come across a traffic jam, it will take even longer. That is to say, people have to overcome the obstruction of time and space to get to the restaurant in the traditional dining mode, which requires people paying much time and energy in dining and increases the cost. Secondly, the space cost of the traditional catering industry has been constantly rising. In view of the time and space obstruction, the position of the restaurant is the most essential factor that affects the business volume. For example, the stores of the catering industry beside a school or office building feature greater geographical advantages, but the rent of the stores will be higher for these advantages, thus increasing the cost. Moreover, the rent is growing in the whole society, leading to the constantly rising space cost and expenditure of the catering industry. Thirdly, the traditional catering industry also finds it difficult to make full use of the space resources. As people often have meals at the same time, many restaurants (particularly the famous ones) are faced with the same problem: at the dinner time, some of the customers arriving at the restaurant cannot enjoy their meals right away due to the limited number of seats; and in some restaurants, some customers have to wait for an hour or even longer to get their seats. Under these circumstances, the restaurant will sustain the customer loss due to space limitation. However, except the busy hours, most of the seats are unused most of the time. The space resources have not been made full use of. The characteristic of people’s dining demands gives rise to the problem in utilization of the space resources that can hardly be solved.

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The above spatio-temporal restriction has been relieved to some extent after the emergence of online takeaway. “Takeaway”, a word that was rarely used many years ago, has become known to all as a sales mode that brings convenience to people’s life. The “takeaway” we mention today generally refers to the food and drink delivery service of the catering industry. Originally, people ordered the food delivery over the telephone; but now, with the rapid development of the network technology and constant popularization of the mobile phone and computer, online takeaway has become people’s favorite way of food consumption. The mode of online food order originated from Europe and the United States. The catering industry in China has actively introduced this new marketing mode in the wave of the Internet based on the rapid development of O2O e-commerce mode, and the huge market of online takeaway has been produced. As to the Internet-based food delivery, “ele me” and “Meituan Takeaway” dominate the market as the first-tier platforms, and “Baidu Takeaway” and “Koubei Takeaway” constitute the second tier.26 “Ele me” occupies the biggest market share at 47.03%, followed by 42.78% of “Meituan Takeaway”.27 According to the statistics in 2016 Annual Report on Internet-based Food Takeaway in China of Analysys Think Tank, the Chinese online ­takeaway market has reached a total value of 45.78 billion yuan in 2015, having grown by 201.1% compared to the previous year.28 The huge market demand gives birth to takeaway platforms coming out in an unending flow. At present, more than ten third-party takeaway enterprises have won rounds of financing. “Ele me” obtained an investment of 1.25 billion US dollars from Alibaba in December 2015 and increased its own assessed value to 4.5 billion US dollars.29 Some other takeaway projects also acquired an investment of tens of million or even hundreds of million yuan. After the rise of online takeaway, increasing users are ordering food delivery through the Internet, showing a stable growth rate. By January 2015, 26  A Brief Analysis of the Differences among Domestic and Foreign O2O Takeaway Platforms, http://www.tui18.com/a/201506/0190604.shtml, 20150601. 27  Analysys Think Tank, 2016 Annual Report on Internet-based Food Takeaway in China, http://www.useit.com.cn/thread-117050101.html, 20160322. 28  Analysys Think Tank, 2016 Annual Report on Internet-based Food Takeaway in China, http://www.useit.com.cn/thread-117050101.html, 20160322. 29  Touzi Online, Ele Me Won an Investment of 1.25 Billion US Dollars from Alibaba and Reached an Assessed Value of 4.5 Billion US Dollars, https://www.touzi.com/ news/01701844155.html, 20151225.

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15.2211 million people were ordering food delivery through the Internet, which increased to 22.7535 million by December 2015, with an annual growth rate of 49%. According to the data on the market shares of different segments in the Internet food delivery in 2015 published by Analysys Think Tank, school students took up 30.52% of the market shares of online takeaway, and the white-collar workers accounted for 62.99%, compared to 6.49% of the residential community.30 Apparently, students and white-collar workers constitute the major user groups of online takeaway. Depending on the unique characteristics and advantages, online takeaway has achieved a rapid development. As for consumers and sellers, online takeaway enjoys unparalleled superiority in lowering the spatio-­ temporal cost and promoting the information communication. Online takeaway reduces the space cost of the seller. Since the takeaway customers do not need to eat in the restaurant, it saves some space for the seller. As the demand on the store area is reduced, the seller can rent a smaller storefront, save certain space cost, reduce the operating expense, improve the competitiveness and avoid the customer loss incurred by the space restriction. As for the consumers, online takeaway can save their spatio-temporal cost of out-dining. Online takeaway provides the delivery service, so customers only need to wait for the food at the designated place after ordering without personally going to and back from the restaurant, which saves or lowers the time cost for customers to travel. As long as customers can get on the Internet, they can order food anywhere and anytime without any spatio-temporal restriction. Regarding the information communication, sellers and consumers can make use of the online takeaway platforms to release and accept information easily. The catering enterprises can expand their influence relying on the rapid and extensive communication of network information, timely release information on sales promotion and so on, and accurately master consumers’ minds and demands based on their feedback to provide better services. Meanwhile, consumers can get the sellers’ food information in a visual and convenient way through the network platform and easily compare the sellers based on rich information, so that they can make better choices.

30  Analysys Think Tank, 2016 Annual Report on Internet-based Food Takeaway in China, http://www.useit.com.cn/thread-117050101.html, 20160322.

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Combination of Online and Offline Processes of Online Takeaway Online takeaway consists of two interconnected processes: ordering online and food preparation and delivery offline. The online part displays the food information, while the offline delivery overcomes the spatio-­temporal obstruction. Regarding the online part of online takeaway, people can order food by logging in the website of the takeaway platform through computer, using the corresponding takeaway app in the mobile phone or following the official account of the takeaway platforms in WeChat to enter the interface for ordering food. In the food-order interface, customers can see the information on each seller and their pictures of different kinds of food, which are sorted based on certain standards, such as the distance and price. Users only need to follow a certain process to select food and filling the information to complete food ordering. When using the online takeaway platform, customers mainly pay attention to following information: location, time, food and seller. Location is an essential factor for online food ordering. The user firstly uses the function of “self-positioning” to locate himself/herself; and then considers the relative distance with the seller. Generally, the seller has defined a certain scope of delivery. The time needed for delivery varies among different sellers due to the differences in the relative distance between the user and the seller, the traffic condition and transport, and the user can freely choose the time of food delivery. On the online takeaway platform, users can browse all food information of different restaurants, conveniently c­ ompare the information of the same kind of food, comprehensively understand the types and prices of food, and therefore make better choices. They can also taste the food from different restaurants at the same time. In addition, they can see the information about the seller on the platform, such as the category, sales volume, ratings and delivery speed, compare the minimum price for delivery and delivery fee of different sellers, and conveniently acquire the information on promotion activities of the sellers. The online platform of online takeaway realizes the release and communication of information and expands the choices of consumers. However, it is the offline delivery of online takeaway that overcomes the spatio-temporal obstructions and enables the customers to taste all the delicious food at home. The offline process of online takeaway starts when the seller receives the customer’s online order. While the users use the food-ordering interface,

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the sellers use the seller’s client of the online takeaway platform. After the user orders food from a specific seller, the seller will see a corresponding prompt on the seller’s client and print the order out. Having received an order, the seller will decide when to cook the food based on the delivery time required by the user and pack the food with corresponding containers for delivery after cooking. Then the seller will give the packed food to the takeaway delivery man and ensure that the delivery man know well about the time and place of food delivery and the contact method of the customer. On the way of delivery, the sequence of the delivery of different orders, the route of delivery and the traffic condition shall be taken into consideration, to make sure the food can be delivered on time and to save the time of delivery to the maximum. When the food arrives, the customer will check it with the order, sign to acknowledge the receipt of the food and give a rating online after enjoying the food. By then, the whole process of online takeaway is completed. Within its development course, online takeaway has tried several different modes of combination of online and offline processes, including the enterprise self-run mode, light platform mode, heavy platform mode and so on.31 As to the enterprise self-run mode of online takeaway, the catering enterprise cooperates with an Internet platform builder to develop an online takeaway platform based on its practical demands, which presents the unique features of the enterprise and shows all information about the enterprise in details, and the offline stores of the enterprise are responsible for the food delivery. However, the building of the online platform relies on the professional Internet development technology, leading to the high initial development cost; the maintenance cost is high due to the decentralized resources; and the large-range delivery can be realized only upon the high coverage of offline stores. This kind of mode is suited only to the chain catering company of great strength such as KFC.  The unknown catering enterprise of weak strength finds it impossible to apply this mode. The light platform mode of online takeaway means that the third-party online takeaway platform provides a channel for the catering enterprise to show their information so that consumers can easily acquire the information about these enterprises, and the offline delivery is completed by the catering enterprise itself. The original “Meituan Takeaway” and “ele me” 31  Kang Xingtao, A Study of the Development of Internet Food Takeaway, “Industry and Enterprises”, 2016 (3).

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were the representatives of the light mode. By adopting this mode, the catering enterprise can quickly and conveniently communicate its information through the network to promote itself and attract consumers without bearing the cost for building the platform. This mode satisfies the small catering enterprises’ strong demands on utilizing the network platform resources. However, the delivery service cannot be guaranteed since offline sellers vary greatly in their qualifications, which influences consumers’ experiences to a great extent and shows an adverse impact on consumers’ satisfaction about online takeaway. In the heavy platform mode of online takeaway, the third-party online takeaway platform not only builds the channel to reveal catering enterprises’ information, but also constructs the offline delivery system to deliver food on behalf of the sellers, such as “Baidu Knight” food delivery team organized by “Baidu Takeaway”. The third-party online takeaway platform bears more responsibilities and pays a higher human cost in this mode, but the more professional offline delivery service and the monitoring and management of the service quality effectively improve consumers’ satisfaction. Spatio-temporal Effect of Online Takeaway The online takeaway is a process where the delivery man sends food to consumers and where consumers living around understand the types, prices and delivery time of food through the Internet. This two-way process has reduced the time and space interval of sales and consumption, saved the spatio-temporal cost and improved the efficiency of life and operation. As an embodiment of the Internet+ effect in the catering industry, online takeaway, breaking the traditional operation mode of the industry, realizes the offline delivery and online ordering at the same time and thus relieves the spatio-temporal restriction to a certain degree and obtains the new development space. As mentioned above, the catering operation and consumption face the same restriction, that is, the temporal process and the spatial location. On the one hand, restaurant operators suffer from the difficulty in increasing sales and improving efficiency due to the short meal time and limited space, and the difficulty will even be intensified when the restaurant is more popular. The popular restaurant attracts customers at lunch time and supper time, who come to and leave the restaurant mostly at the same time. In particular, when the restaurant is full of customers, it is exposed

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to insufficient seats, a crowded space and busy work at the reception and kitchen, so the pace of work has to be accelerated suddenly. On the other hand, consumers’ dining time is subject to their schedule and physiological needs, so they have to come to the restaurant with limited space within a certain period like most other consumers do. Considering the cost performance, they likely choose the popular restaurants, which further aggravates the restriction of consumption time and space. When consumers line up before the restaurants downtown or in flourishing areas, particularly around the scenic spots or in the high season, they will suffer from the crowded place and feel anxious about wasting so much time waiting. Online takeaway has changed this predicament of the catering industry. Many network restaurants rise and even some traditional restaurants start to apply online takeaway in large cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen; while the online takeaway market is also lively in some middle- and small-sized cities. At lunch or supper time, delivery men ride the electric bicycle and travel at every corner of the city, sending food to consumers at different places. When the busy delivery men are carrying food in their electric bicycles and traveling, it seems that a new kind of restaurant is emerging, the “Internet+ restaurant” that walks in the street and brings food to thousands of households. The delivery man sends the food to the consumer, having broken the spatial restriction of the restaurant, but it is essentially a kind of marketing in a real space or expanded operation of a real spot. Meanwhile, when the consumer is attracted to the restaurant’s webpage that inspires the consumers’ interest in and consumption desire of the food, the operator and the consumer are absent from this activity. In other words, the online display of the restaurant and the online search and selection of the consumer are both absence activities that both of them do not physically show up. This is a kind of network interaction and information communication in a “virtual space”. The online operation and online consumption are realized through presence behaviors, but the online display and online search make up the premise. Therefore, online takeaway, combining the online and the offline, the real and the virtual and the presence and absence, is a result of the network development and informatization upgrading. Online takeaway features evident spatio-temporal effect. Though the delivery men travel like ants against the buildings of big hotels such as Hilton, Marriott and Shangri-La that tower into the clouds, these trivial

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men beneath the notice of big hotels have shaken the foundation of traditional hotels’ business. They have saved the time and expanded the space, while the traditional businesses are unable to do so. Online takeaway has saved time for both the operator and consumer. The restaurant providing online takeaway service can prepare the food needed by the consumer in advance according to the orders and rapidly deliver it to consumer at the lunch or supper time, which addresses the difficulty that consumers arrive at the restaurant at the same time and cannot find a place to enjoy the meal, increases the volume of business and profit in a unit time, and therefore improves the time efficiency. The effect is even more obvious for consumers. As the delivery man sends food to the consumer, the consumer saves the time to travel between home or office and the restaurant and also the time to line up at the restaurant. The improvement of the time efficiency of operators and consumers achieved by online takeaway exactly matches the idea of compression of time and space explained by David Harvey. According to David Harvey, the compression of time and space is mainly reflected by time acceleration and space concentration. Online takeaway enables the operator and consumer to make better use of time and improve time efficiency, and meanwhile raises the output value of the unit space of restaurant. The preparation and delivery of food shows the effect of space concentration more evidently. The restaurant running online takeaway can prepare hundreds and even a thousand of orders in a limited space and give them to the delivery man in a short time, while the traditional restaurant is never able to do so. Online takeaway also expands the time and space extensively in the catering industry. As online takeaway is completed in both presence and absence space, it only effectively expands the time and space through the Internet. On the one hand, the consumer completes the online selection, online booking and online transaction through the Internet, having a broader vision of food and having more choices in a limited time; and, on the other hand, the operator is free from the restriction of the limited space on the traditional restaurant, but expands the operating space to a scope of hundreds or thousands of meters, much bigger than the operating space of the traditional restaurant. Furthermore, the traditional restaurant never participates in operation activities in the absence space such as online display, online booking and online transaction.

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Spreading of Online Takeaway The vigorous development of online takeaway also brings about some new issues, which not only strongly challenges the restaurants that have no network awareness and stick to the traditional operation mode, but also exerts a greater pressure on the heavy urban traffic. Recently, electric bicycles have been prohibited on the streets, likely because the rapid rise of online takeaway pushes tens of thousands of electric bicycles to go on the streets and adds to the pressure on urban traffic. Despite all these difficulties, online takeaway must be a vital operation mode against the rapid development of information, network and urbanization. In addition to online restaurants, many other network stores such as JD Mall, Amazon and Tmall have also launched the hot service of online takeaway. As a matter of fact, the “online takeaway” outside the catering industry has been launched extensively. For example, online education has become the center of attention. The voice of China, Newsline, reported on March 27, 2016: “With 18,842 yuan for one hour, the teacher of online education earns more than the web celebrity?” Someone posted a list of courses of Wang, a teacher of online tutoring, in WeChat Moments, which revealed that 2617 students had bought a live physics lesson of senior middle school at a unit price of 9 yuan. After 20% of incomes were deducted as a fee for the online platform, teacher Wang’s practical income had reached as high as 18,842 yuan for merely one hour, even higher than the income of the hot camgirl. According to the information from WeChat, the total number of students of the seven lessons provided by Wang had attained 9479, and the total income was approximately 84,000 yuan after 20% were deducted as a fee for the online platform. The “online takeaway” of Wang’s lesson had realized a profit close to the one-year income of a teacher from an ordinary school.32 Inspired by the online takeaway of food and education, many people are starting to consider the online takeaway services of medical care, elderly nursing, tourism and even procedures for going abroad, and some of them have even started. Under the current trend, online takeaway can be performed for any operation that sees great social demands and spatio-­ temporal restrictions and can deliver the goods or services to the doorstep of customers, because the Internet has been connected to the overwhelm32  With 18,842 yuan for one hour, the teacher of online education earns more than the web celebrity, http://www.365qilu.com/news/11show/20160328/133719.html, 20160328.

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ing majority of the people and the large-scale urbanization is intensifying the shortage of time and space in cities. In this new situation, the compression and expansion of space and time are needed for both the operator and the consumer, thus guaranteeing stable benefits and convenient life. Online takeaway will definitely usher in a larger-scale development in diversified forms in many sectors. Being an emerging phenomenon in the age of Internet or the age of information, online takeaway is full of vitality but meanwhile has some problems to be addressed, according to the dialectic principle. Vitality and development constitute the essential characteristics of a new thing, and the problems are the weaknesses to be overcome during the progress and development. Therefore, against the inevitable trend of the large-scale development of online takeaway, we shall support and protect the new things, establish an effective monitoring system, provide regulations on diversified forms of online takeaway and create necessary conditions for their healthy development.

1.6   Social Reflections on the Internet Economy: Analysis of Online Shopping In The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler analyzed how the information technology revolution affected people’s personality and emotional world and, to a certain extent, expounded how the Internet reshaped the individual emotional world. The third wave will give birth to a new social character. In the third-wave civilization, the young will be cultivated in this way: not that obedient to the elder, not that calculating in consumption and not that indulged in enjoyments. They dare to take responsibility, know how to work as a team, bear more tasks, adapt to constantly changing conditions, coordinate with other people, never blindly follow others, have their independent mind, are gifted in many ways and acquire happiness from the integration of production and marketing operations. The third wave, on the one hand, encourages people to adhere to their own characteristics and gives full play to their potentials, and, on the other hand, restores the collective life to address the loneliness aroused by social differences. It has to render people the collective life as well as the life order and life meaning, thus building the perfect emotional life and healthy psychological environment for the future civilization. Here with online shopping as an instance, the influence of the new Internet technology on people’s lifestyle and emotional world is analyzed, particularly the adverse influence.

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Online Shopping: Rise of a Way of Life Online shopping is a process where the consumer searches for commodity information through the Internet (mainly at the seller’s website), makes a shopping request through an electronic order and selects from online payment or cash on delivery, and the seller sends out goods by mail or express to complete the transaction. Online shopping is a new way of consumption based on the increasingly mature Internet technologies, reflecting how science and technology promote the reform of lifestyle. Meanwhile, the extensive popularization of computers and smartphones as well as the easy access to the Internet have created convenient conditions for the rise of online shopping. For the consumer, online shopping provides rich commodity information and the simple and efficient process of shopping, which saves consumers’ energy and vigor. Instead of trying something new, netizens consider online shopping as an important or even essential part of their daily life. Rich varieties of commodities can be found online, such as books, video products, toys, instruments, clocks and watches, jewelry, electronic and digital products, clothes, daily necessities, beverages, home furnishing materials and agricultural products. Each category provides more specific classes, so that consumers can find what they need easily. Moreover, in addition to a consumption behavior, online shopping is also a way of leisure and entertainment, since consumers may view the e-commerce websites without buying something, follow the promotion information to understand “fashion” or just browse the webpages without any purpose to spend their time. Furthermore, online shopping, this new way of shopping and life, attains the great development along with the changes of people’s mind and thinking pattern. In the “online shopping culture”, people no longer “buy things at shops” but “look for things online”, and no longer “go to the market to buy things” but “turn to e-commerce to buy things”. Sometimes, consumers buy things for relaxation but not for consumption. It takes time and energy for people to make choices based on the massive information about commodities online, but consumers always want to know the truth about the commodities by wandering in the cyberspace instead of going to the real stores. They feel like “God” when they wait for the goods delivered by the delivery man and track the express every now and then even they know the approximate time of delivery, seemingly “enjoying” the anxiety of waiting.

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Therefore, the analysis of online shopping shall not only involve the influence of the Internet media from the perspective of technology, but also concern the social implication of its rise. Online shopping brings customers mixed feelings including love and hatred at the same time, which portrays the psychology of the consumer society behind online shopping. Since online shopping exerts such a great influence over individual consumers as a lifestyle for its convenience and efficiency, the dominant logic of the consumer society has not been noticed. As pointed out by French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu, sociology aims to discover the “secret” of the social world and unveil the dominant logic behind. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the “secret” hidden in online shopping and reflect on its “sweet burden” in addition to the enjoyment. Temptation and Consumer Behavior French social theorist Jean Baudrillard described an “abundant” scene of the consumer society in his famous book Consumer Society: Piling-up and abundance are apparently the characteristics that impress people the most. A superb collection of cans, clothes, food and cooking materials in stores can be considered as the beautiful scenery of abundance. Windows displaying commodities on all the streets are shining (lighting makes the store what it looks like now), and the shelves of the butcher’s and all the food and clothes for festivals have attracted all people’s attention.33

The “abundance” described by Jean Baudrillard is a scene that consumers can see when they are personally at a supermarket or mall. In 1970 when this book was published, the consumer life has not been connected to the Internet no matter in western countries or in China. In the current age of online shopping, in addition to seeing the “abundant” scene of commodities in a supermarket or a mall, consumers can quickly browse commodities of all kinds in e-commerce websites, which have more varieties and a greater quantity of commodities than the real stores. By comparison, in real stores, consumers rely on what they see to understand commodities based on their intuitive feelings of the shelves, so they have a comprehensive understanding about “limited” commodities. In e-commerce websites, some commodities that consumers have never 33  [FR] Jean Baudrillard, Consumer Society, Page 13, Nanjing, Nanjing University Press, 2001.

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seen before may come into consumers’ sight, and consumers do not need to view the shelves like they do in real stores to search and choose commodities, but only need to open pages based on the commodity category or type the keywords in the search bar before a great number of results appear. In this way, before seeing the real commodity, consumers will know the detailed description of the commodity (such as the color, shape, weight, size, origin and sales volume) and the ratings of other consumers about the commodity (no matter whether the ratings are objective and true). The e-commerce website looks like the magnificent ocean that attracts countless people, but even the most skilled sailors can hardly master all the secrets of the ocean and may be lost in it. Compared to the commodities in real stores, commodities in e-­commerce websites (particularly the e-commerce tycoons such as JD, Dangdang and Taobao) are more tempting due to the complete information (such as commodity introduction, specification, packing list, commodity ratings, after-sale services guarantee, discount information and time of delivery), the sales volume and consumers’ ratings. The temptation may be derived from the mystery of the commodity when people see the rich and perfect information about the commodity but cannot directly touch it, stimulating people to see it personally, like a guy waiting for a blind date. Holding the beautiful picture of a girl (the picture may be furnished like the picture of the commodity in e-commerce websites) and the comprehensive introduction to her (height, weight, character, hobby, educational background and job, etc.), he cannot see her and can only imagine what she really looks like with curiosity and desire. Compared with that, commodities in real stores are real (except those completely sealed off ) and the introductions are brief, so when consumers have them in hands, they feel like they know everything about them. In other words, these commodities have no “mystery”, like the guy meets the girl without seeing a picture of her in advance. The close contact reduces the space for imagination and makes the commodities less tempting. In this sense, the commodities in e-commerce websites are more likely to inspire consumers’ imagination and desire than those in real stores. Generally, the commodities in e-commerce websites are more tempting due to their lower prices than those in real stores. Consumers who are more sensitive to the price difference will be inclined to buy things in e-commerce websites. Moreover, sellers in e-commerce websites will regularly launch some promotion activities, so some commodities will show special appeal to consumers due to the low prices in that period.

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E-commerce tycoons have their own apps, to “tempt” consumers with the promotion activities through mobile devices such as the mobile phone anytime and anywhere. Sometimes consumers buy things not because they “need” it but because they think these things are “cheaper”. They may feel relatively deprived if they do not buy a thing when it is cheaper though the commodity does not belong to them. Just like a person having won the lottery but missing the deadline to get the money, he/she will “truly” experience the pain of losing a huge sum even though they actually lose nothing. Or, they may think if they do not buy the thing at such a low price, the advantage will be taken by others. This is how the consumer behavior is “produced”. Without doubt, real stores also apply the similar strategy to “stimulate demands” and “produce consumption”, but it is easier for e-commerce websites due to the rapid and convenient information communication. Moreover, consumer behaviors are often conducted based on the consumption experiences of others. Despite the appearance of consumer demands, consumers may not purchase anything. They also rely on other conditions, such as the promotion price within a limited period as mentioned above. The sales volume and the ratings of consumers who have purchased the commodity will further promote the conversion from “demand” to “behavior”. This is why the merchant attaches great importance to consumers’ ratings and give them rewards (such as “JD beans”, the reward of JD Mall, with a certain quantity of “beans” which can be used as cash). The fact that consumers confirm on their own demand based on the demand of others is determined by the logic of online shopping itself rather than by conformity psychology. Consumers are buying things not for “demand” but for the “temptation” produced by the “e-commerce ­system”, that is, the rich information about the commodity, furnished image of the image, affirmed time of delivery and ratings and so on. As to individuals, it is consumption leading to demand instead of demand deciding consumption. While demand is personal, consumption is a structural cultural system. The consumer culture constantly inspires individuals’ demand on and desire for shopping. It will end satisfactorily if consumption is merely a process of use, absorption and consuming. However, people’s consumption desire is rising, which demonstrates that the desire and demand are irrelevant to reality principles. Regarding the psychological result, the true lasting satisfaction is achieved internally, so when the shopping demand and consumer behavior are stimulated by

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external factors, the satisfaction will reduce and shopping will become a boring thing. But the shopping behavior will not be stopped, as another round of “temptation – purchasing – possessing – boring” will start. The shopping behavior driven by external factors will place consumers in a seemingly objective consumption system that leads to the prominence of “thing” and withdrawal of “people”, which makes people feel bored about shopping. Prominence of “Thing” and Withdrawal of “People” Imagine shopping in the traditional fair or supermarket. In a fair, the buyer and seller need the language, facial expressions and gestures to communicate, and sometimes they greet each other. They may be acquainted with each other after long-term communications and then the buyer becomes a “returning customer”. In a supermarket, though consumers are selecting commodities on their own and the seller is no longer an individual, consumers will also run into the shopping guide, cashier and so on. However, as to online shopping, the meeting between the buyer and the seller are becoming abstract, since the seller is the e-commerce website with pictures, texts and videos that display the commodity information but no duty manager, salesman, cashier or cleaner. In the eyes of consumers, the seller is a “thing”, the rich and changing information on the website, instead of a “person”. To a certain extent, online shopping makes the distance between the buyer and the seller vaguer. They complete the transaction “virtually” through the Internet. In this process, the consumer can “freely” express his/her opinion about the commodity. Against the screen of the computer or handheld media, the consumer can judge or even roast the commodity without considering his/her image or whether offending others, because the buyer and seller are “invisible” to each other, interact with each other through the website and have no face-to-face contact. It is the same case with the seller. The consumer is also highly abstract, without specific action, quality or temper. The consumer and the seller will not really “run into” each other in the transaction like they may do in real stores, where they may have a feeling of the personal quality or mood of each other and be influenced. The only true “meeting” in the whole process of online shopping is when the delivery man hands the commodity to the consumer. However, they meet each other only through a “thing”, that is, the commodity. The

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delivery man bears the responsibility to send the commodity to the consumer in time, while the buyer is looking forward for the early arrival of the commodity. They only meet temporarily in a strange and superficial manner who are only passers-by in the rush. In particular, the delivery men in China are mostly from rural areas. They meet buyers shortly for heaps of times in the city, but they have no association with these buyers except when they are in the same chain of online shopping. Their temporary “meeting” actually reflects the gap between urban and rural areas, particularly the social status. The author here names it as “the flowing boundary between urban and rural areas”.34 As another embodiment of withdrawal of “people”, the high efficiency of online shopping practically shortens the “length” of the individual history. This point can be explained by comparing online shopping with buying souvenirs in a travel. People traveling around get used to buying some souvenirs at the scenic spots (except for compulsory purchase) to leave a personal memory and write the pleasant experiences in the individual history. Though times have changed, they can still recollect those experiences or even recall the scene at that time. In this way, the individual “history” is linked to the “presence”, making the personal life more abundant and profound and forming the “sense of individual history”. The experiences of online shopping, including “online purchasing” and “offline delivery”, show no significant difference, regardless of different commodities, so no deep impression can be left compared to choosing commodities on site. Each time of purchasing is simply duplicating the former shopping experience, having no diversified personal experience or memory created, which means the lack of the sense of individual history. Here we will discuss purchasing books as an example. To buy books in the real bookstore, the buyer needs to get to the bookstore by walk or by bus and feels the specific environment and atmosphere of the bookstore. Running into different books, the buyer will have a direct feeling and experience, while the quality of the book can be sensed only by touch instead of by vision. When reading the book, the buyer will clearly feel the paper quality, printing style and publishing details of the book. The reader starts to understand the book when choosing and the book gradually approaches the reader’s heart, so the reader gets along well with and is 34  Wang Jianmin, Symbolic and Dualistic Structure in Social Transformation  – Microanalysis of Power Centering on Migrant Workers, “Society”, 2008 (2); Wang Jianmin, The Flowing Boundary between Urban and Rural Areas, Beijing, Guangming Daily Press, 2012.

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familiar with the book, and even establishes a spiritual link with the book before buying it. The book is free, presents itself to the reader in a real way and earns the reader’s respect; and the buyer is free, who can express the preference when feeling and choosing the book. However, all above steps have been omitted in online purchasing of books. In this case, the book is cold, dull and unfree and comes to the reader’s world as a stranger. There is no truth or privity between the person and the book, like the embarrassment when a couple see each other for the first time in an arranged marriage. Buying a book online seems no different from buying a bag of beef jerky online. The thing loses its character and meaning, while the process of online shopping also loses them. The highly simple process of online shopping brings the highly simple temporal and spatial sensing to the buyer, which results in the simple individual history. In other words, online shopping is deprived of the sense of time and space, and therefore loses the sense of history, since the sense of history is only constructed based on the spatio-temporal sense and memory as well as the interpersonal relationship and communication. In online shopping, the e-commerce websites, commodity information, logistics tracking and delivery speed have seized people’s attention, and the communication between the buyer and the seller, the real and specific “encounter” between the buyer and the commodity and people’s true feeling about the commodity have been ignored, which means that the factor of “people” has been covered by the logic of “thing”. In the course of online shopping, people’s participation and choice have been determined in prior to a certain degree. For example, consumers get used to making choices based on the sales volume and the rating of commodities. The sales volume only affects the consumer’s judgment but cannot help the consumer to understand more about the commodity; and ratings are sometimes untrue, as people often copy some useless information as an evaluation. Therefore, the whole process of shopping has nothing to do with people’s personality or insight, since there is no room to give play to personal characters. Rather than people choosing commodities, the commodities are choosing people. Or we can say that the consumer has become a part of the commodity instead of making choices, and the consumer even makes free advertisement for the commodity. As consumers’ choices are pre-determined, no personalized exploration can be conducted, which will finally give rise to boringness and tiredness of consumers beyond description.

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We can see that a secret dominant logic is actually hiding behind the “free choices” of consumers. This logic is even created by the “conspiracy” between the consumer and the seller. In a sense, this is the “symbolic power” discussed by Pierre Bourdieu, which means that based on the conspiracy of social actors, the power imposed on them will be instilled into all sub-systems, so that people will see the dominant structure as a rational result and therefore accept the structure. These social actors will not understand the violence imposed on them as a kind of violence but recognize it. This phenomenon is also known as “misrecognition”.35 This is the so-called dominant politics derived from the correspondence between the social structure and mental structure. Distance, Satisfaction and Tiredness More than 100 years ago, Georg Simmel, one of the founders of sociology in Germany, once stated the following when analyzing the situation of modern people: “A thing that we consider charming and long for often needs certain cost from us. We have to sacrifice and work hard to win this thing”.36 This is the “Social Geometry” mentioned by Georg Simmel: a thing’s value is decided by its distance with the actor. There is no value or small value if it is close and easily acquired; and it is the same case if it is too distant to be acquired, since people find no driving force or chance to pursue after it. This theory can be applied to analyze online shopping. Online shopping has overwhelmingly shortened the distance between a person and the thing he/she wants, as the person can receive the thing that may come from thousands of miles away without going outside. Unlike traveling by express train or plane, people cannot feel the compression of time and space described by Anthony Giddens37 in this case since they do not move at all. Instead, they only feel the loss of the sense of time and space, which compresses and weakens their consumer experiences. In regard to the relationship between time and space, time is a highly abstract concept. It can only be measured and reflected by the distance, that is, the time for a person to pass through the track; or be measured by the content, 35  [FR] Pierre Bourdieu, [US] Loic Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Page 221-222, Beijing, Central Compilation & Translation Press, 2004. 36  [GER] Georg Simmel, Psychology of Coquettish Behavior, “Money, Gender and Modern Lifestyle”, Shanghai, East China Normal University Press, 2010. 37  [UK] Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Page 18, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2011.

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that is, the feelings of a person about the time when going through certain steps or processes. To a great extent, when people can feel the changes of the time and space more clearly, they are having richer experiences. For example, comparing between a person who stays at home and repeats in eating, drinking and sleeping and a person who goes outside every day, the latter one will sense the materiality of life every day, since his experiences are directly associated with the time and place (space), leaving more impressive memories. In the whole process of online shopping from online search, order confirming to commodity delivery, the time and space have become simpler and more abstract. The length of time cannot be measured by the space, as the buyer does not move at all; and the “content” is not that specific and real since the information search, comparison and evaluation in the cyberspace involves only abstract things, that is, the symbol of a thing instead of the thing itself. Therefore, online shopping leads to the loss of the sense of time and space and makes people’s experiences dull. Being dull, the shopping experience will be short-term, monotonous and bored. The satisfaction and pleasure brought by online shopping will fade away quickly without trace, leading to less satisfaction and more boredom. In other words, online shopping is a pleasant experience, but the satisfaction does not last long and the buyer always feels dull and bored. Zygmunt Bauman said that consumption was an endless race, a solitary behavior, even if it was conducted together with others.38 Considering the tiredness and anxiety as a situation of modern people, they essentially reflect how empty and dull their spiritual world is. That is to say, in a lifestyle similar to online shopping, their spiritual life is poor and life experiences are sliced into fragments. Though each fragment shows some rays of light, all these fragments together fail to make up a long-lasting and bright light beam to warm people’s heart. Under the condition of “liquid modernity”, consumption is a way to fight against uncertainty and anxiety, but the satisfaction brought by consumption is fleeting, resulting in a loop of boredom, tiredness and anxiety. For example, some scholars have discussed about the behavior “super rubbish”39 that has been common in recent years as well as its implication. 38  [UK] Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Page 256, Shanghai, Shanghai Joint Publishing Company, 2002. 39  “Super rubbish” refers to an expensive thing that the buyer does not need and that is left unused or casted aside right after purchasing.

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According to the studies, young white-collar workers in cities obtain their sense of expectation, satisfaction, excitement and surprise by purchasing “super rubbish” online, thus relieving their pressure in work and life, and they adopt this unusual behavior because they have no appropriate way to “release pressure”.40 The problem lies in that online shopping only helps them relieve their pressure or anxiety, but cannot help them to address the root cause for pressure and anxiety. Online shopping is merely a small episode in a modern soul-relaxing song. Like Georg Simmel analyzing the “dialectics” in modern life in a lively and humorous way in Psychology of Coquettish Behavior, a woman playing the coquette often enhances her attraction to men by doing seductive acts, holding a flower in hand and looking sideways or caring about a child; and, on the contrary, the attraction will be reduced if the woman directly stares at men warmly and sincerely. Moreover, the attraction will disappear after it is realized, followed by indifference and boredom. Georg Simmel quoted a famous saying of Plato on love: love is an intermediate state between having and not having. For “not having”, the passion of love cannot be sensed; but for “having”, the passion will turn into boredom. As a profound implication of the Psychology of Coquettish Behavior, the darkest and the most tragic relationship in life is often hidden behind the most fascinating and charming things. Similarly, people enjoy the pleasure of “convenience and availability” and meanwhile experience the “modern tiredness” through online shopping. The “modern tiredness” can be comprehended in this way: in the development course of modernity, the individuals’ satisfaction can hardly last long for the lack of the stable traditions or community and they are often exposed to the alternation between “satisfaction” and “tiredness”, with the satisfaction fleeting and the boredom constantly showing up. As a product of modernity, online shopping is mainly a kind of personalized consumption that repeatedly takes place in personal life. However, the experiences of online shopping are similar each time and show no profound meaning, so freshness and satisfaction cannot be constantly created. The boredom repeats to appear along with online shopping.

40  Ye Heng, Fan Minglin, “Super Rubbish” of Online Shopping: White-collar Youths in Cities Releasing Their Pressure, “China Youth Study”, 2013 (8).

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Reflection on the Sociological Significance of Online Shopping Online shopping not only constitutes a way of consumption, but also reflects the lifestyle and mental outlook of modern people. In the online shopping environment, the e-commerce websites, commodity information and shopping process constantly produce new “temptations” to consumers and inspire their consumer behavior. The individual participation and selection have been largely determined by the logic of the consumer society and the space for personalized exploration is absent, leading to the repeated and superficial process of online shopping. The shorter distance between people and things and the lack of spatio-temporal experiences will give rise to people’s boredom and tiredness. In conclusion, people are enjoying the pleasure of “convenience and availability” while experiencing the “modern tiredness” through online shopping. We have no intention to reject the consumer society or sniff at the lifestyle of online shopping. However, we shall not be intoxicated in the consumer society and online shopping without any reflection, otherwise we will become a package or a part of logistics. In the age and the society exposed to changes, people may suffer from the “anxiety of modernity” when answering to the question of “who am I” or “what is the world”. This kind of anxiety also suggests the possibility of self-­improvement. Only by reflecting on the current situation can people examine themselves and plan for the future. This may be the significance for us to discuss the dominant logic of the consumer society behind online shopping here.

1.7   Conclusion The Internet industry has penetrated into all traditional sectors such as the household electrical appliances, finance, medical care, education and travel and entertainment in an innovative, open and integrated manner and has combined online and offline commercial activities. The flourishing Internet economy has now become the new engine for the green growth of consumption and domestic demand. As predicted in the latest research of McKinsey Global Institute, the Internet economy will account for 22% of the total GDP growth in China by 2025.41 This potential can be achieved in China largely depending on the government’s ability to create 41  The Next Economic Miracle is the Internet Economy, http://www.p5w.net/money/ lczh/201411/t20141121_845123.htm, 20141121.

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the favorable policy environment, the will of enterprises to realize digitalization and the workers’ adaptability. Facing the challenges brought about by the Internet industry against the traditional economic sectors, the state leaders of China are encouraging innovation, optimizing governance and providing strategic support, in order to create a favorable environment for the network economy. For example, in the report on the work of the government for 2015, Premier Li Keqiang required facilitating the healthy development of the Internet finance and improving the financial supervision and coordination system.

References 1. [GER] Georg Simmel, Psychology of Coquettish Behavior, “Money, Gender and Modern Lifestyle”, Shanghai, East China Normal University Press, 2010. 2. [FR] Jean Baudrillard, Consumer Society, Nanjing, Nanjing University Press, 2001. 3. [FR] Pierre Bourdieu, [US] Loic Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Beijing, Central Compilation & Translation Press, 2004. 4. [Ca] Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2000. 5. [US] Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1984. 6. [UK] Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2011. 7. [UK] Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Shanghai, Shanghai Joint Publishing Company, 2002. 8. Chen Jiagui, Adjusting and Optimizing the Industrial Structure to Promote the Sustainable Economic Development, “Journal of Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences”, 2011(2). 9. Hao Dahai and Wang Lei, Regional Difference or Social Structural Difference? – Multi-level Model Analysis of Digital Divide of Chinese Residents, “Academic Forum”, 2014(12). 10. Kang Xingtao, A Study of the Development of Internet Food Takeaway, “Industry and Enterprises”, 2016(3). 11. Li Keqiang, Report on the Work of the Government  – Delivered at the Third Session of the 12th National People’s Congress on March 5, 2015, “Leisure Agriculture and Beautiful Countryside”, 2015(4). 12. Peng Yao, Information Disclosure Is the “Vaccine” to Dispel Panic, “Farmers’ Daily”, 20160225. 13. Sun Liping, Fracture  – the Chinese Society since the 1990s, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2003.

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14. Wang Jianmin, From “Hearsay” to “Reprint and Search” – the Temporal-Spatial Sociology Analysis of the Evolution of Approaches to Acquire Information, “Jianghuai Tribune”, 2011(5). 15. Wang Jianmin, The Flowing Boundary between Urban and Rural Areas, Beijing, Guangming Daily Press, 2012. 16. Wang Jianmin, Symbolic and Dualistic Structure in Social Transformation  – Micro-analysis of Power Centering on Migrant Workers, “Society”, 2008(2). 17. Xi Jinping, Jointly Constructing a Community with a Shared Future for the Cyberspace, “Communication and Ideological and Cultural Work in Inner Mongolia”, 2015(12). 18. Xu Jianwei, External Influence on Current Upgrading of the Industrial Structure in China and the Corresponding Countermeasures, “Economic Review”, 2014(6). 19. Ye Heng, Fan Minglin, “Super Rubbish” of Online Shopping: White-collar Youths in Cities Releasing Their Pressure, “China Youth Study”, 2013(8). 20. Yu Zhu, Improve the Quality and Efficiency of Economic and Social Development Based on “Internet+”, “Shanghai Securities News”, 20150507. 21. Zhao Lichang, The Internet Economy and the Industrial Transformation and Upgrading in China, “Contemporary Economic Management”, 2015(12). 22. A Brief Analysis of the Differences among Domestic and Foreign O2O Takeaway Platforms, [EB/OL], [20150601], http://www.tui18.com/a/201506/ 0190604.shtml. 23. The Next Economic Miracle is the Internet Economy [EB/OL], [20141121], http://www.p5w.net/money/lczh/201411/t20141121_845123.htm. 24. “Chinese digital divide research” group of the State Information Center, 2013 Report on Chinese Digital Divide [EB/OL], [20140520], http://www.sic. gov.cn/News/287/2782.htm. 25. Analysys Think Tank, 2016 Annual Report on Internet-based Food Takeaway in China [EB/OL], [20160322], http://www.useit.com.cn/thread-117050101. html. 26. With 18,842 yuan for one hour, the teacher of online education earns more than the web celebrity [EB/OL], [20160328], http://www.365qilu.com/ news/11show/20160328/133719.html. 27. China Internet Network Information Center, Research Report on Online Shopping Market in China in 2014 [EB/OL], [201606], http://www.cnnic. net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/dzswbg/201509/P020150909354828731159.pdf. 28. China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China [EB/OL], [20160102], http:// cnnic.cn. 29. Touzi Online, Ele Me Won an Investment of 1.25 Billion US Dollars from Alibaba and Reached an Assessed Value of 4.5 Billion US Dollars, [EB/OL], [20151225], https://www.touzi.com/news/01701844155.html.

CHAPTER 2

The Big Time for WeChat Business: “Moments” and “Wealth Dream” Shiqiang Cheng

2.1   Introduction The WeChat business is a kind of new e-commerce mode that carries out diversified marketing activities by means of mobile communication network tools such as WeChat. Formerly, Weibo was utilized to conduct fans marketing, while now the rise of WeChat promotes the emergence of Moments marketing. Distinguished from Weibo where the fans marketing strategy mainly depends on the “verified” influential account, the WeChat Moments marketing is penetrating into the grassroot. Along with the rapid development of WeChat, some sellers take advantage of the low cost, active communication interaction and extensive social relations of WeChat to expand the business. As they set a great model, many individuals and enterprises gradually discover this brand new business mode. As early as in 2011, some people engaged in overseas purchasing had led others to find the treasured place of WeChat, with no-cost promotion, easy communication and combination of pictures and texts. They rapidly

S. Cheng (*) School of Society and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_2

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transferred their focus from Taobao to WeChat. WeChat released its payment function on July 9, 2013, giving rise to the wave of facial mask sales in WeChat Moments in 2014.1 The year 2014 is considered as the first year of WeChat Business. At that time, the Moments was full of all kinds of advertisements. Since the threshold for the business was extremely low and money could be earned by simply using the Moments in fragmented time, the whole people were mad about it. A “wealth myth” had been popular in the circle of WeChat Business, and the group was rapidly growing. However, the development of WeChat Business has suffered a sudden turn for the worse since the latter half of 2015. Following too many people and having the Moments spammed by others, many WeChat Users feel repulsion for this situation increasingly and choose to block or defriend anyone releasing the kind of information. There is a popular saying “you have no friend if running the WeChat Business” that exactly portrays the reality. Moreover, many products sold through the WeChat Business have no quality guarantee, while the spurious is mixed with the genuine and the seconds are sold at best quality prices. For example, the facial masks in vogue in those days were actually inferior-brand products, and their profits reached dozens of times of the cost, hiding the severe potential safety hazards and causing several safety incidents.2 As the number of people in the Moments based on social acquaintance is limited, not to mention the real customers, the WeChat Business applies the marketing mode of “multi-level distribution” to pursue the short-­ term profits, that is, establishing a WeChat group, making the group active with red packets, brainwashing the group members with the wonderful dream of “earning a thousand a day” and stimulating them to order the goods. Many group members are unable to know the supply and the demand and overstock a large quantity of goods. They find the commodities are not sold as well as what they were told, so they followed the set pattern to establish a group for distribution. Therefore, several levels of distribution, maximum to nine, are established. The Moments are full of the information on selling goods and flaunting wealth.3 In this way, 1  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9). 2  The Story Behind the Top Sales of Facial Masks of WeChat Businesses, http://news.cntv. cn/2015/04/10/VIDE1428635547931740.shtml, 20150410. 3  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9).

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WeChat Business starts to earn profits by developing the lower-level agents and having them overstock the goods instead of by selling commodities. The higher-level agents show no concern about whether the goods are delivered to consumers but only attempt to release the goods to the lower-­ level agents to make money. This mode is similar to pyramid sales, which adversely influence the image of WeChat Business and almost break the law.4 More importantly, in this mode, commodities are overstocked at the lower-level agents, and no real commodity transaction is completed in this malformed agency chain. As is known to all, the social media such as WeChat and Weibo are the tools for interpersonal communication and interaction, as well as the “noisy” platforms of public opinions. In addition, they are of greater sociological significance when their users are diligently pursuing after their wealth dreams. Through the phenomenon of WeChat Business, we can reflect on the relationship between economy and society in the network age and the opportunities and challenges to the market brought by the new development of Internet technologies.

2.2   Commercialization of Social Connections: From Moments to Business Rising in WeChat Moments, WeChat Business carries out marketing activities depending on the trust of acquaintances. With rich commercial values, the Moments is essentially a social field for communication, so its commercialization must be restricted to a certain degree. The success and the failure of WeChat Business in 2014 and 2015 were all related to the Moments. How to correctly deal with the relationship between Moments and business constitutes the key to the favorable development of the new economic form of WeChat Business. Commercial Value of Moments According to 2015 WeChat User Data Report released by Tencent, by the first quarter of 2015, WeChat had covered over 90% of smartphones in China and had 549 million monthly active users from more than 200 countries and using over 20 languages. Moreover, it had more than 8 million WeChat official accounts, connected to over 85,000 mobile apps and 4

 WeChat: Bubbles or Future? “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20151224.

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provided WeChat payment services to about 400 million people. The huge number of users suggests the huge business opportunities. More importantly than the quantity, the active degree of WeChat was very high that 25% of WeChat users opened WeChat for more than 30 times and 55.2% of them used it more than 10 times. Approximately half of active users had more than 100 WeChat friends, and 57.3% users got to know new friends or contacted old friends who had no message for years through WeChat.5 In the WeChat, the Moments, WeChat groups and official accounts enjoy a great traffic of users, which may have the chance to become the traffic of customers. Characterized by sharing, interaction and community, it is a social communication tool of high adhesiveness and activity. The relatively close acquaintance relation brings convenience to one-to-one precise communication, casting off the traditional PC e-commerce mode such as Taobao where competition is launched based on the huge traffic. Furthermore, the sales channel of WeChat features zero cost and rapid efficiency, making it an appropriate way for small-sized sellers to start an undertaking.6 Compared to the traditional e-commerce code depending on huge-­ traffic basin irrigation, the WeChat Business relying on the social connections is more like the precise drip irrigation. Though seemingly rough and stiff, the combination of social communication and e-commerce largely improves the efficiency of transaction and resources allocation. Yu Lijuan, the Deputy Leader of WeChat Business Working Group of the Internet Society of China, summarized the four values of WeChat Business as follows: (1) This is a type of decentralized commercial pattern that brings the seller closer to the consumer. Setting the sales channel at a lower level, the WeChat Business enables the merchant to directly connect with the consumer, understand the consumer’s demand and improve the customer relationship management more precisely. (2) As a We-media economy, WeChat Business saves the promotion fee of the medium- and small-sized merchant paid to the platform and is therefore the new opportunity for them. The low 5  2015 WeChat User Data Report: 549 Million Monthly Active Users and about 400 Million Payment Users, http://money.163.com/15/0601/14/AR1GC7UQ00253B0H.html, 20150601. 6  Mei Hebin, Why Can’t You Run WeChat Business Well Based on the Dividend from WeChat Traffic? http://bbs.paidai.com/topic/457267, 20151203.

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cost and high return are attracting more merchants to join the WeChat Business. (3) Users do not need to look for commodities through the search engine but purchase some commodities based on trust, making it more direct and convenient. (4) WeChat Business provides more flexible jobs and more start-up opportunities. With no requirement on time or office location as well as low cost at the initial stage, WeChat Business is particularly appropriate for undergraduates, housewives and so on.7 In the age of PC Internet e-commerce, users can only get on the Internet and do shopping at the designated places; but in the age of mobile Internet, users can make full use of their fragmented time to do shopping anytime and anywhere. The utilization of the fragmented time has promoted the vigorous rise of mobile shopping and meanwhile brings the opportunities to WeChat Business. WeChat Business takes advantage of the mobile social communication platform, optimizes users’ shopping experiences and establishes the mutual trust and dependence with users.8 More essentially, WeChat Business achieves trust endorsement through the communication within a group sharing the same interests or hobbies, and thus completes the exchange of commercial values. According to Qin, a founder of WeChat Business brand of fruits, WeChat Business is actually a sector of conscience that needs long-term accumulation, including the long-term cultivation of the Moments. His first batch of consumes came from his Moments.9 The new economic sociology believes that the economic behavior is embedded in the social relation network.10 However, the embeddability is established on the premise of the binary separation between the economic behavior and the social network. As a structural background, the social network only affects the economic behavior in an indirect manner. In the WeChat Business mode, the acquaintance network, represented by the Moments, enjoys more direct commercial values and links the commercial behavior to the social network and daily life more closely. 7  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9); Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 8  Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 9  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9). 10  Fu Ping, Embeddability: Two Kinds of Orientations and Their Divergences, “Sociological Studies”, 2009(5).

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Commercialization and Variation of the Moments Jürgen Habermas had pointed out in his theory “colonization of lifeworld” that the evolution of the social formation was a dynamic development process where the system and the lifeworld depend on and advance each other. However, the system was severely divorced from the lifeworld during the modernization. Furthermore, the system that has obtained a relatively independent status depends on the control function of the system media, that is, currency and power, gives full play to the advantage of instrumental reason, penetrates into the core areas of the lifeworld based on its rational development and partially replaces the rationality of the lifeworld. In this case, the relationship that was originally of communication rationality in daily life has been dominated by the principle of instrumental reason followed by the system, resulting in colonization where the system invades lifeworld.11 The close connection between commercial behavior and social network in WeChat Business, on the one hand, advances decentralization of the economic system and makes it more emotional and closer to life, and, on the other hand, has the economic system involve in lifeworld more extensively and intensifies the variation and colonization of lifeworld. The social network is a lifeworld for communication. If the WeChat Business continues to observe the system logic of instrumental reason, it will necessarily lead to the deep division between the economic system and lifeworld and even trigger the conflicts and contradictions between the two. “Many people praise my good skin recently. I would like to share you a secret that it is because of this facial mask. Purely made with plants without any additive, it is widely used by many celebrities at home and abroad. I have the exclusive source of goods. If you are interested in it, contact me as soon as possible.” These texts are often accompanied by several pictures of tender skin, large boxes of goods and good ratings. Since 2014, the Moments of many users had been occupied by the facial mask, including all brands known or unknown. For years, the dominated products in Moments include Thailand amulets, citrus zinger, weight-reducing medicine, facial masks, skin-care products and so on. “Many friends of mine have started to run their WeChat businesses. I have blocked those spamming my screen to go back to peace.” Some netizens directly express their 11  Wang Huijue, A Review of the Invasion into Cyberspace Based on the Theory of Colonization of lifeworld of Jürgen Habermas, “Marxism & Reality”, 2012(4).

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feelings. It is the operation mode of Merchant Business at the early stage that they start to sell something, add numerous friends and post many advertisements to promote the sales volume. These advertisements are frequently posted with vulgar pictures but no high-quality content. These barbaric marketing measures often applied by WeChat Business have pushed their friends in the Moments far away. The product marketing in the Moments mostly depends on “acquaintance economy”, but the WeChat Business applying these barbaric means has adversely affected WeChat users’ normal social experiences and may also directly damage the sincere communication in lifeworld due to the sales of fake and shoddy commodities. There are definitely conscientious sellers in the Moments, but increasing people lose their confidence in the sales in the Moments due to the constantly emerging negative information about the inferior quality and high price and fake products. As far as we know, the screenshots of the sellers’ show and the transfer record can be automatically generated with a special tool, so it is hard to tell the true from the fake. Most facial masks have their brands artificially labeled on. WeChat users are disappointed about the WeChat Business and feel that even the acquaintances do not deserve trust, which damages the development environment for the whole WeChat Business industry. When the WeChat Moments, as a lifeworld, has its basic environment damaged, its commercial values are naturally gone. Since the latter half of 2015, people selling facial masks are decreasing and the mystery of sudden wealth gradually collapses. “The goods are still stocked here and they are not sold as well as we imagined.” Quite a lot of people have stored goods in a large quantity. Some sellers get the commodities from the highest-­ level agents. Since they cannot sell the commodities out, they choose to develop the lower-level agents with the price difference as the profit, while the lower-level agents do the same thing after buying the commodities. Ultimately, many WeChat businessmen hope to earn profits through the multi-level distribution. However, this profit model cannot last long, as the commodities are not sold but overstocked in the channel. When the “game” collapses, the “player” at the lowest level will be the sacrificial lamb.12

12  Chen Xuening, The Pattern of ‘Earning Money from Acquaintances’ Is Found to Be Unsustainable, and the Sudden Wealth of WeChat Business Is Just a Dream, “Beijing Daily”, 20151209.

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Reintegration of the Moments and Business The WeChat Business shows the natural affinity to the lifeworld based on its characteristics of decentralization and community. The only road for WeChat Business, the new e-commerce mode, to get out of the trouble is to coordinate the relation between the economic system and the lifeworld and reintegrate the Moments and business. Jürgen Habermas believed that the lifeworld observed communication rationality, consisting of both purpose rationality and value rationality. Despite the tensile force between the two, they are not always opposite to each other but are sometimes coordinated during the rationalization of lifeworld. In Jürgen Habermas’s view, the system is originally a part of lifeworld, and the lifeworld makes the premise of the existence of the system. The system only stands out and is explained rationally under the background of lifeworld, because the rationalization of the system is incorporated in the process of lifeworld rationalization.13 Alfred Schutz expressly pointed out that the lifeworld is the world of supreme reality, while the value of the supreme reality lies in the primary value that determines the value of other sectors, which is the matrix to the specific values in any professional or differential area. No matter what kinds of values have been realized in any professional or systematic area, if the values are inconsistent with the primary value of lifeworld, people will suffer from the loss of meaning or home and so on.14 In like manner, the lifeworld WeChat Moments is established on the premise of the commercial value of WeChat Business, so the business circle shall not absorb the Moments to realize the integration of the two. Contrarily, the business circle is only a part of the Moments. Therefore, WeChat Business shall observe the lifeworld logic of the Moments and integrate into the Moments with its unique features. For example, Zhang, a merchant of WeChat Business, now has five groups, with 500 people in each group. His information on commodities are disseminated among the 2500 people like nuclear fission. In shortly 15 days in May 2015, he reached a sales volume of 10 million, and was a minor celebrity in this circle. Before running WeChat Business, Zhang had been engaged in e-commerce and had opened stores in Taobao, JD and 13  Wang Huijue, A Review of the Invasion into Cyberspace Based on the Theory of Colonization of lifeworld of Jürgen Habermas, “Marxism & Reality”, 2012(4). 14  Liu Shaojie, The Essence and Loss of Social Transformation in Contemporary China, “Study & Exploration”, 2014(9).

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Tmall. He felt that he was set free when doing WeChat Business. Previously, he connected with consumers through the store, but now he is doing businesses personally. In his opinion, since he has been engaged in WeChat Business, he has to post the information that shows his “soul” and “personal charm” in the Moments; in his WeChat group, he is active and good at talking and joking, and everyone thinks he is interesting; and in the Moments, though he posts some information related to goods delivery and the latest commodities, he interacts and talks with people for most of time.15 It is alright to construct WeChat Business as a business mode. As mentioned above, it helps the merchant to go down to the grassroot for sales and the huge number of individual WeChat businessmen will carry a great sales volume. However, for the end sellers who sell goods in their Moments, WeChat Business shall only be considered as a lifestyle instead of the way to making fortune. Individual WeChat businessmen must cast away their dream of “sudden wealth” and run WeChat Business as an interest and the communication with friends. It will be better if they follow the line of “tiny but beautiful”. This is the line chosen by Ling, who is engaged in overseas purchasing of Japanese cosmeceuticals. “I have only twenty or thirty frequent customers”, she said. Since she is doing business with her friends, she will try everything before she sells it and never asks for a high price. “I earn no more than 10 yuan for each product, so I have to sell 100 products to earn 1,000 yuan, which is only my pin money considering my number of customers.” The cliff fall that happens to some WeChat Business brands has no influence on the “slow-money” businesses with acquaintances.16

2.3   Decentralization and Hierarchy of Mobile E-commerce Thanks to e-commerce in the Internet age, consumers can complete shopping and payment online without going outside, which significantly saves consumers’ time and space and provides the seller a low-cost and high-­ efficiency business mode. Though the threshold for start-ups is lowered 15  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9). 16  Liao Feng, Famous Brands Join WeChat and the Businesses in Moments Start to Polarize, “Beijing Times”, 20150824.

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due to the existence of the Internet, the Internet is never a homogenized space. Against the information explosion, the e-commerce polarizes due to the attention economy and the competition focusing on attention. In the meantime, WeChat Business finds a new path and constructs a decentralized community-oriented business mode centering on individuals’ Moments. However, behind the prosperity of mass entrepreneurship, WeChat Business has a hierarchical structure. Decentralization Looking back on the development of WeChat Business, the first batch of merchants were small sellers from Taobao. Small sellers in traditional PC-end e-commerce platforms are seeing increasingly severe living conditions. For example, on the day of “Singles Day” of 2014, most small sellers had no transaction completed, compared to the total transaction volume of 57.1 billion yuan of Taobao and Tmall. According to the data from Chinese E-commerce Research Center, among the 9.5 million sellers opening stores in Taobao, over 3 million have been shut down, closed or not updated; while among the survived, more than 80% suffer from a loss, about 10% of them just cover their cost and only a few percent earn money. As the traffic means everything in Taobao, these small merchants must seek a new position for survival.17 Traditional PC-end e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD are subject to severe polarization. The direct cause is the search and sorting technology of traditional e-commerce platforms. Generally, users search the keywords to find the commodities they want when shopping in Taobao and JD, and these websites present the results in an order of sales volume, rating and attention rate of the commodities. Since each keyword covers tens of thousands of commodities, whether the commodity is displayed in the first page or in the front constitutes the most important factor contributing to the sales volume of a store. The commodities ranking top 3 may reach a sales volume of several thousand or tens of thousands, while the commodities not in the first page have no visitor at all. Therefore, the seller that starts business late and has a weak strength is subject to a vicious cycle of “low sales volume – low ranking – low sales volume”. This explains why numerous small-sized sellers see zero transaction against the hot “Singles Day”. 17  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9).

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Considering the importance of the commodity and store sorting, sellers exhaust all mental efforts to improve their ranks, leading to the phenomenon of click farming that is against the rules. Click farming here refers to raising the sales volume and ranking of the Taobao store by falsely purchasing things. Online stores win the sales volume and good ratings by click farming to attract customers and pay a commission to click farmers based on the price and quantity of commodities. Click farming is a shortcut for the rapid development of online stores, which is often applied by stores to enter Top 3 or maintain a product in vogue.18 Though it violates laws and regulations, click farming is a necessary phenomenon against the polarization of PC e-commerce. Fundamentally, the polarization and click farming are derived from the phenomenon “winners take all” in the attention economy. The “attention economy” means to attract customer’s attention with the minimum cost, cultivate potential consumer groups and attain the greatest invisible capital in the future by allocating the existing materials of the enterprise, that is, an economic mode that operates consumers’ attention. Its most outstanding characteristic lies in the excessive products and information and scarce attention. In the information age, digit and information have become a great part of life. As information is duplicated and spread in the Internet-­ based virtual space and digital economy at nearly zero cost, the attention paid to the information has become an important commercial resource. Herbert Alexander Simon had once concluded the attention economy with one incisive sentence: the abundance of information leads to the lack of attention. The attention economy is essentially a “winners take all” economy. In the new business era of scarce attention resources, people have limited energy and memory and have to selectively remember and accumulate knowledge and information. The best is the No. 1. Characterized by low cost and community orientation, WeChat Business has kept away from the attention competition in the mass consumption mode. Each individual is able to open the “niche market” in their Moments. Though WeChat Business is still a kind of attention economy, distinguished from the sorting game that catches the eye, it is the updated version 2.0 attention economy based on the significance. The version 1.0 of attention economy refers to the one-way communication 18  Unveil the Secret of E-commerce Click Farming: Earn 5 Yuan in 9  Minutes with Undergraduates as the Main Force, http://xian.qq.com/a/20150407/017644.htm, 20150407.

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from the seller to the user applying speculation technology, which regards the click rate as the goal but ignores the users’ intention behind the attention. By comparison, the version 2.0 of attention economy does not consider attention acquisition as the ultimate goal or attract consumers through speculation, but aims to discover what consumers really like. Consumers only pay attention to what they desire for, while the attention is only an embodiment of their desire.19 As to the version 2.0 of attention economy, WeChat businessmen are distributed in different communities formed upon the same interest or daily communication. These communities are relatively separated to each other, while the meaningful, direct and precise communication can be conducted within these communities. Therefore, instead of a pattern of “winners take all”, WeChat Business is a kind of differentiated and decentralized situation. Feminization and Sentimentality Women take up the majority of WeChat Business, accounting for 57.9%.20 In the commercial world dominated by men, women find the new opportunities along with the rise of the Internet economy such as WeChat Business. It has been apparent that women are showing a greater importance and the Internet economy is playing up to women since the PC e-commerce age. There is a popular funny saying that “every successful man is backed by a great woman, except Ma Yun who is backed by millions of women”. It is true indeed. Fifty-five percent of Alibaba sellers are women, while the proportion of women in buyers is even higher, which demonstrates the importance of women resources in Alibaba’s undertakings.21 In the current days of the highly advanced Internet, online shopping has become a fashion. Women have accounted for the larger part among these consumers. As the Internet circle agrees on “getting the world by getting the woman”, e-commerce needs to understand and play up to ­women’s shopping habits and psychological features. The way of act and thinking of women exerts a great influence over the operation logic of 19  Jiang Qiping, Significance-based Attention Economy – Version 2.0 of Attention Economy, “Internet Weekly”, 2005(20). 20  Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 21  We All Are the Women Behind Ma Yun, http://www.51sole.com/b2b/flde6444.html, 20141112.

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e-commerce and even the whole Internet space. Theoretically, female consumers can be divided into several types based on their characteristics. Firstly, the fanatical. Those women are irrational when buying things and can be inspired to buy something merely by a hot topic. They buy things simply based on their intuitive feelings and feel excited when seeing a thing they like without considering whether they need it. Secondly, the comparing. They may not need so many things, but they are born to compare with people around to avoid being neglected. Thirdly, the trendy. They will just do shopping after hearing someone’s suggestion.22 If the attention is paid to the superficial level and to women themselves, we can see that women prefer social communication and shopping online. However, more essentially, the whole Internet, including men and women users, presents feminine features, called the feminism of the Internet by Jiang Qiping. The weapon technology in the steam engine age symbolizes paternalism, while the computer and network technology in the Internet age suggests feminism. Some qualities that were originally considered as feminine features are now becoming the ideological characteristics of mankind by means of the Internet.23 The first is the experience orientation of the Internet. The experience economy is rising along with the development of the Internet. Women may be more suitable for the experience economy, since men are good at rational thinking and women are more perceptual and excel in experiencing. When men start to join the experience economy, human’s ideological thinking transforms from the rational to the perceptual. The second is the emotional thinking of the Internet. Being emotional is a widely recognized feature of women. In the traditional business world, only those cold-blooded people like Eugenie Grandet succeed at the end. However, the Internet changes people’s ideological qualities again. The emotional thinking pattern of feminism has become the common advantage of new women and new men in the network age. Moreover, women always prevail in those highly emotional sectors. According to the data in Why Women Rule the Internet by Aileen Lee, women have become the major users of social networking websites, as they spend 30% more time on these websites than men do; and 55% of mobile social networking users are women, demonstrating that women have occupied the largest business field in the Internet. 22  Women behind Ma Yun, http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/201409/24/c_127026077. htm, 20140924. 23  Jiang Qiping, Feminism of the Internet, “Internet Weekly”, 2012(7).

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The final point is the decentralized thinking of the Internet. Centralized thinking is considered as one of the major ideological qualities of men. Centralization is a feature of all mechanical systems, while decentralization is a feature of all life systems. The real connection between women and decentralization originates from being excluded from the mechanical system activities led by men and being closely linked to life system activities such as having children. Conversely, decentralization, this feminine feature of the Internet, is reflected by the Internet developing toward a social ecological system, which more evidently shows the feature of self-­ organization and self-coordination between different nodes.24 Being an emotional and decentralized business mode based on the minor group, WeChat Business fully reflects the feminine characteristics of the Internet, or, in a broader sense, the perceptual trend of network society. Liu Shaojie pointed out that the perceptual trend of network society had been apparently embodied in the representative thinking focusing on the concrete, symbolic pursuit showing forth the differences and the network group continuing the traditions. As a marketing mode posting information in the Moments, the most distinctive feature of WeChat Business lies in the importance attached to image expression and image attention. The network language used by WeChat Business is concrete, vivid and direct. No longer depending on the principle of scale merit and rational calculation in the industrial age, a successful WeChat Business will affirm the personalized special consciousness and underline its presence and value through certain behaviors, manifesting the differentiated symbolic value and social logic. WeChat Business is rooted in network communities. These different network communities have no regulation, guideline or leadership, but share their intersecting group boundaries, conventional agreements and opinion leaders. Distinguished from some kind of rational organization constructed upon certain rational principles and institutions, the network community is an emotional group where many social members are connected to each other spontaneously. Hierarchical Structure Though characterized by the low threshold, decentralization and sentimentality, WeChat Business is not an arena of full equality. This new e-commerce mode is also established on a hierarchical structure. In the  Jiang Qiping, Feminism of the Internet, “Internet Weekly”, 2012(7).

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WeChat Business industry, in addition to the small-sized sellers who sell products by posting massive information in their Moments (C2C), some large brands and merchants have entered the WeChat Business (B2C) and the large third-party platform supplying the intermediate service for the seller and buyer similar to Taobao also emerges. Even the sellers are exposed to the hierarchical unequal relationship. In the wave of the rapid development of WeChat Business, the hierarchical agency chain is growing even faster than the increase rate of the transaction volume. These so-called successful WeChat businessmen actually earn hundreds of thousand yuan and even above a million yuan by developing the lower-level agents and expanding the agent team in a short period instead of selling goods. The lower-level agents need to pay the participation fee to the higher level before joining in. The agents at the higher level get goods at a lower price, and earn more from the price difference and commission. Some agents may have developed a thousand of lower-level agents and transfer their operation risk to the agents at the lowest level.25 The agents at the lowest level often tie themselves into the sales dilemma and become the “final sacrificial lamb”.26 Within the hierarchical agent structure, the producer is the origin of the chain, from which the products are distributed downward by level. Three-no products (with no labeling of name of the manufacturer, or date of production, or warranty) had dominated WeChat in early 2014, when the products could be sold regardless of their publicity and quality.27 In 2015, the issues of WeChat Business industry including the hierarchical exploitation agent system, overstocking, price chaos and product qualities that worth serious consideration have gradually become the driving force for the reform of this industry. Increasing traditional famous brands and e-commerce platforms start to do businesses in the Moments and seek to build a regular force by cooperating with individual WeChat businessmen. “Traditional brand + individual WeChat businessman” will become an important mode of WeChat Business. These merchants enjoy advantages in the competition of similar products depending on their brand influence and powerful strength. The 25  Liao Feng, Famous Brands Join WeChat and the Businesses in Moments Start to Polarize, “Beijing Times”, 20150824. 26  Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9). 27  Jin Zhe, Decline of Hierarchical Marketing Mode: Half Disappeared and Half Turning to Selling Agricultural Products, “National Business Daily”, 20141214.

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brand-oriented WeChat Business is divided into two forms. Firstly, create the new self-owned brand and quickly communicate the brand in social networking platforms through the specific target group. Secondly, have the original offline brand turn into the WeChat Business and build the WeChat Business channel rapidly based on the accumulated influence.28 This mode applies a flatter structure. The brand is fully responsible for goods delivery and after-sale services, while the WeChat businessman will earn commission after facilitating each transaction without worrying about the overstock of goods. Currently, the brands advancing to WeChat Business include cosmetic brands such as Proya, Kans and Hanhoo, traditional household electrical appliance manufacturers such as Haier and Midea and even Amway, the “founder of direct selling” that has been always cautious about e-commerce.29 In the future, these “big players” will play an increasingly important role in WeChat Business area.

2.4   Combination of Community and Platform As a realization of the commercial value of the Moments, WeChat Business’s essence is not about operation, but about group. With the network constantly penetrating into social life, the community, one of the basic organizations of human activities, is also exposed to major changes, giving rise to the new social interaction mode—network community. The network community refers to a collective that forms based on the Internet interaction where people are connected by certain social relations and perform common activities. The network community presents social organization features such as the open interaction beyond the time and space, the virtual reproduction in the action space, the equal and independent social relations, flat and decentralized order, network-based community bond, highly heterogeneous members and fuzzy group boundaries.30 Both Moments and WeChat groups are a new form of network community. As a new “social networking mean” for the mobile Internet end, WeChat evidently shows the characteristics of network community mentioned above. WeChat is characterized by the mass communication infor28  Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 29  Liao Feng, Famous Brands Join WeChat and the Businesses in Moments Start to Polarize, “Beijing Times”, 20150824. 30  Zhang Wenhong, Organizational Features of the Network Community and Its Social Influence, “Journal of Jiangsu Administration Institute”, 2011(4).

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mation, rapid information communication, low cost, extensive operating systems and strong interaction and so on.31 The development of WeChat Business is indispensable from the community. In the We-media age, WeChat Business is essentially a kind of trust economy realized based on mobile social networking, and the community is established upon the common interest and emotional resonance.32 A practitioner of WeChat Business has described the community in his view as follows: Today, let me talk about the community in my view. This is a calm and peaceful world, no cry, no sorrow. People in this world trust, respect, depend on and support each other. I had a dream before, to withdraw from society, live in a distant place and open a café bookstore that relieves friends’ anxiety and earns no money. Later, I have thought about the embryo of community: the college roommate A says: I bought a pair of trousers online but it is too small. Anybody wants it? I haven’t worn them yet and I can sell it to you. Then, roommate B purchases the trousers as she trusts A and likes the product (maybe through WeChat Payment). The other day, roommate B buys too many jujubes and cannot eat them all, so she asks whether anybody wants them. C next door says she wants it as she is in the period. There is no WeChat businessman in the community, or everyone is WeChat businessman, since it is natural and comfortable to be a WeChat businessman here. In this community, they can share and communicate, unlike what people are doing in the Moments.33

Despite the repeated information and multi-level distribution, WeChat Business is essentially a kind of community based on the minor group, distinguished from the space value production mode based on the ample traffic like Taobao. Therefore, it has been established as a new e-commerce mode. Against the information explosion, WeChat Business brings the business closer to people’s daily life and real needs. The audience has been “flooded” by information when the big data concept is extensively applied, so the “small data” based on the minor group undoubtedly enjoys a higher commercial value. For example, “Miaozhuan” app, a precision advertisement distribution platform launched in April 2014, had attained a transac31  Zheng Chunlei, Liu Jing, Shen Yameng, Psychological Analysis of WeChat Consumer Groups, “China Business & Trade”, 2014(16). 32  Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 33  Shuang Xueyuan, On the Community and Moments in My View, http://blog.sina.com. cn/s/blog_71edfc780102ve47.html, 20150122.

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tion amount over 2 billion yuan eight months after operation. One of its marketing secrets lies in making use of the Moments.34 “We haven’t spent a penny for promotion, to get the 4 million users.” Miaozhuan CEO Ma Zhaode introduced that Miaozhuan did not communicate itself through the promotion software, but adopted the channel of “user exchange for user”. Consumers can recommend Miaozhuan app they are using to their friends through social networking groups such as WeChat and Weibo. If their friends choose to download and use Miaozhuan App to watch advertisements, they can get some rewards for “thanks”. Ma Zhaode stated: “Every common user has his/her own value, i.e. the minor groups behind, such as QQ group, WeChat Moments and Weibo fans et cetera. Users are just friends to each other, but are resources to the merchants. Proved by the fact, the information communicated within minor groups is more credible than that communicated in the large group.”35 Davdian is a WeChat Business platform for maternal and child products that with community maintenance as the ultimate goal instead of goods sale. Wu Fanghua, the founder of Davdian, believed that the entrepreneurs in the future would put greater efforts in operating communities and fans. In his opinion, a good community shall be organized and grow independently, and “they will give full play to values much greater than what we can imagine”. Therefore, Davdian is positioned not only as a WeChat Business platform, but also as the social networking circle of mothers, that is, the community: We provide different trainings online where the experts and editors as well as mothers themselves share their experiences. Many mother activities have been held offline in more than 40 cities nationwide, all by themselves. What we can do is to create a good ecological circle for mothers and give full play to their strengths. We have established many QQ groups, and these mothers will spontaneously make a schedule for the maintenance and management of these groups. They will give full play to values much greater than what we can imagine. It only takes a short time for our mother members to grow from 10,000 to 100,000, because when you have one mother member, she will bring ten more here. For another example, the goods we sell on our platform now are actually selected by them. They will propose 10 candidate 34  Shen Zhe, Community Marketing Makes Great Profits through Realization of the Moments, http://www.zgswcn.com/2015/0127/577791.shtml, 20150127. 35  Shen Zhe, Community Marketing Makes Great Profits through Realization of the Moments, http://www.zgswcn.com/2015/0127/577791.shtml, 20150127.

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commodities in the group and vote for the Top 3, which will be put on our shelves. Since these commodities are on based on their votes, they will have a sense of achievement, so they will buy and even mobilize people around them to buy these things.36

WeChat Business has become one of the primary choices for many entrepreneurs for its low threshold, small risk and fast money. However, WeChat Business also features fragmented teams and products due to its community orientation and decentralization, so the production, sale and service can hardly be controlled, severely impeding the normative development of WeChat Business. Therefore, WeChat Business has been exposed to many anomie phenomena during its constant development, such as the confusion between WeChat Business and pyramid sales, then the phenomenon of “earning money from acquaintances” and being gradually far away from the Moments and the difficulty for consumers to safeguard their rights when having bought some fake or low-quality commodities.37 After the undisciplined posting of massive information in the Moments, professional WeChat platforms start to rise.38 This kind of platform provides a third-party transaction platform for the buyer and the seller, providing guarantee to consumers based on normative management and improving the credibility of sellers. Moreover, it is a kind of complete socialized distribution system that links the manufacturer, individual WeChat businessman and Moments together. The manufacturer supplies the goods for the platform, the individual WeChat businessmen transfers the product information to their WeChat store or Moments, and the consumer and WeChat businessman complete the transaction in a system of the platform. In the meantime, it effectively solves the issue of commodity overstock for individual WeChat businessmen by the service of “delivery of even only one commodity”, so individual WeChat businessmen do not need to stock the goods any longer and only need to copy and transfer the advertisements made by the platform to their Moments.

36  The Rising Star of WeChat Business: You Do the Moments, I Do the Community, http:// www.ebrun.com/20150228/125353.shtml, 20150228. 37  Ji Miao, Wang Mingyu, Analysis Report on WeChat Business, “China Journal of Commerce”, 2015(2). 38  Ji Miao, Wang Mingyu, Analysis Report on WeChat Business, “China Journal of Commerce”, 2015(2).

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The rise of the third-party platform indicates that the business forces of a greater strength and a higher credibility are advancing to the WeChat Business area, which will promote the standardization of this industry. Developed by Beijing Koudai Fashion Technology Co., Ltd., “Weidian” is a software to help the seller open a store with the mobile phone. Everyone can open a store through Weidian platform with merely a mobile phone number and share the store in social networking media such as WeChat for promotion. Distinguished from Taobao, Weidian is characterized by a lower threshold and simpler procedures. Compared to early individual WeChat businessmen posting massive information in Moments, Weidian platform provides following functions: (1) Commodity management: Add and edit commodities easily and share the information to WeChat groups, WeChat Moments, Sina Weibo, QQ Space and so on with only one touch. (2) Order management: Include automatic information push for new orders, free SMS notice and scanning of QR code to enter the courier number. (3) Sales management: It supports to view the sales data in 30  days, including the daily statistics of orders, transaction amount and visitors. (4) Customer management: It enables to check the delivered information and historical purchasing data of customers, analyzes the customers’ interests and conducts targeted marketing. (5) Rich promotion forms: Combine several promotion methods to bring more traffic to the store and improve the sales volume.39 The third-party platform arranges the work for WeChat Business, establishes the complete socialized distribution system and integrates the downstream resources. With the standard and mature online transaction system, the platform is able to provide the complete socialized customer relation management system for individual WeChat businessmen. This kind of powerful and normative third-party platform also guarantees and endorses the credibility of WeChat stores and supplies a perfect rights ­protection mechanism for consumers. Being an independent operator, it also manages the WeChat businessmen joining the platform and controls the fake and low-quality products.40 Though WeChat Business seems like a mobile Taobao in view of its form and presents the effect of spatial agglomeration like a traditional PC-end e-commerce platform in terms of its function, it shall never be 39  Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 40  iiMedia Research, 2014–2015 Research Report on the WeChat Business Industry in China (Internal Edition), http://www.iimedia.cn/1436327873823431i3.pdf.

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constructed to be a mobile Taobao or JD. WeChat Business is displaying its vitality in decentralization, and its will definitely combine the normative platform and community orientation in the future. At present, the WeChat Business platforms have been simply connected to mobile social networking media such as WeChat, while individual WeChat businessmen can transfer their commodity information in the platform to their WeChat groups and Moments. However, there are still many issues left to be addressed, including how to deepen the cooperation between the platform and individual WeChat businessmen, how the platform makes use of the community resources of individual businessmen and how the platform helps individuals to better operate the community.

2.5   Conclusion Countless individual WeChat businessmen will be necessarily subject to the industry reshuffle. The third-party platform will play an increasingly important role in the WeChat Business industry in the future. WeChat Business platforms and PC e-commerce platforms share several similarities and meanwhile show great differences. If PC e-commerce platform was referred to as “the shopping mall mode”, the WeChat Business platform based on community should be “the fair mode”. The shopping mall mode, essentially a kind of commercial real estate mode, mainly attracts the customer flow with the position and reputation and provides commodities and services through the store. The shopping mall is a highly normative commercial organization. However, the relation between the customer and the store or the mall may still be indifferent no matter how many times the customers visit here. On the contrary, a fair is a decentralized organization. More importantly, according to G. William Skinner, the fair is not only the place for commodity transaction but also the space for social communication.41 In this case, a fair is a comprehensive social and economic system. The development from the “shopping mall mode” to the “fair mode” indicates the return to the essence of social life, but not a degeneration of the commercial form. Individuals running WeChat Business shall therefore change their concepts when operating fans and Moments and believe in “being a dignified and hardworking person” before being a good 41  [US] G. William Skinner, The Market and Social Structure of Chinese Rural Areas, Page 40–47, Beijing, China Social Sciences Press, 1998.

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WeChat businessman. As advocated in the Proposal on the Healthy Growth of WeChat Business, individuals engaged in WeChat Business shall fulfill the following five principles: (1) not selling the fake or low-quality product; (2) patiently telling those who have a misunderstanding about WeChat Business that WeChat Business is not the pyramid sale and does not make profits from developing the lower-level channels; (3) pursuing and sharing the high-quality life before recommending a product; (4) believing high-­ quality friends, being a high-quality man and acquiring the trust of others; (5) and treasuring the friendship, sharing in a dignified and temperate way and never regarding sales guiding as everything.42

References 1. Chen Xuening, The Pattern of ‘Earning Money from Acquaintances’ Is Found to Be Unsustainable, and the Sudden Wealth of WeChat Business Is Just a Dream, “Beijing Daily”, 20151209. 2. Guo Juan, Despite the Bubbles, the WeChat Business Reshapes the E-commerce Structure in China, “Commercial Values”, 2015(9). 3. Fu Ping, Embeddability: Two Kinds of Orientations and Their Divergences, “Sociological Studies”, 2009(5). 4. WeChat: Bubbles or Future? “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20151224. 5. Ji Miao, Wang Mingyu, Analysis Report on WeChat Business, “China Journal of Commerce”, 2015(2). 6. Jiang Qiping, Feminism of the Internet, “Internet Weekly”, 2012(7). 7. Jiang Qiping, Significance-based Attention Economy – Version 2.0 of Attention Economy, “Internet Weekly”, 2005(20). 8. Jin Zhe, Decline of Hierarchical Marketing Mode: Half Disappeared and Half Turning to Selling Agricultural Products, “National Business Daily”, 20141214. 9. Liao Feng, Famous Brands Join WeChat and the Businesses in Moments Start to Polarize, “Beijing Times”, 20150824. 10. Liu Shaojie, The Essence and Loss of Social Transformation in Contemporary China, “Study & Exploration”, 2014(9). 11. [US] G. William Skinner, The Market and Social Structure of Chinese Rural Areas, Beijing, China Social Sciences Press, 1998. 12. Wang Huijue, A Review of the Invasion into Cyberspace Based on the Theory of Colonization of lifeworld of Jürgen Habermas, “Marxism & Reality”, 2012(4).

42  “Five Principles for WeChat Business” Proposed when WeChat Business Spokesman Launches the “Detoxifying Facial Masks”, http://www.chinanews.com/life/2015/0522/7295727. shtml, 20150522.

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13. Zhang Wenhong, Organizational Features of the Network Community and Its Social Influence, “Journal of Jiangsu Administration Institute”, 2011(4). 14. Analysys Think Tank, Special Research Report on Chinese WeChat Business Market, 20150616. 15. Zheng Chunlei, Liu Jing, Shen Yameng, Psychological Analysis of WeChat Consumer Groups, “China Business & Trade”, 2014(16). 16. 2015 WeChat User Data Report: 549 Million Monthly Active Users and about 400 Million Payment Users [EB/OL], [20150601], http://money.163. com/15/0601/14/AR1GC7UQ00253B0H.html. 17. Shen Zhe, Community Marketing Makes Great Profits through Realization of the Moments [EB/OL], [20150127], http://www.zgswcn.com/2015/0127/ 577791.shtml. 18. Mei Hebin, Why Can’t You Run WeChat Business Well Based on the Dividend from WeChat Traffic? [EB/OL], [20151203], http://bbs.paidai.com/ topic/457267. 19. Unveil the Secret of E-commerce Click Farming: Earn 5 Yuan in 9 Minutes with Undergraduates as the Main Force, [EB/OL], [20150407], http://xian. qq.com/a/20150407/017644.htm. 20. Women behind Ma Yun, [EB/OL]. [20140924], http://news.xinhuanet. com/fortune/201409/24/c_127026077.htm. 21. The Story Behind the Top Sales of Facial Masks of WeChat Businesses, [EB/OL]. [20150410], http://news.cntv.cn/2015/04/10/VIDE1428635547931740. shtml. 22. Shuang Xueyuan, On the Community and Moments in My View, [EB/OL]. [20150122], http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_71edfc780102ve47.html. 23. We All Are the Women Behind Ma Yun, [EB/OL]. [20141112], http:// www.51sole.com/b2b/flde6444.html. 24. The Rising Star of WeChat Business: You Do the Moments, I Do the Community, [EB/OL]. [20150228], http://www.ebrun.com/20150228/125353.shtml. 25. “Five Principles for WeChat Business” Proposed when WeChat Business Spokesman Launches the “Detoxifying Facial Masks”, [EB/OL]. [20150522], http:// www.chinanews.com/life/2015/0522/7295727.shtml.

CHAPTER 3

Space Compression of E-commerce in Rural Areas and Its Value: Case Study Zhanpeng Shao

3.1   Introduction In the recent decade, e-commerce has been developing rapidly in China and has grown to be a commercial mode combining information, network and business. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total online retail sales volume reached 2789.8 billion yuan in 2014, having risen by 49.7% compared to the previous year; and it accounted for 10.6% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, exceeding 10% for the first time.1 With Tmall as an example, the total transaction volume on the “Singles Day” from 2012 to 2015 was respectively 19.1 billion, 35.019 billion, 57.1 billion and 91.217 billion yuan,2 showing a significant  Ali Research, Research Report on Online Consumption in Rural Areas (2015), http://i. aliresearch.com/file/20150716/20150716133856.pdf. 2  The Sales Volume of Ten Major E-commerce Platforms May Exceed 80 Billion in “Singles Day”, “Economic Information Daily”, 20131112; Cheng Jie, The Transaction Volume of E-commerce in Singles Day Reaches 91.2 Billion, with the Maximum Record of 85.900 Transactions per Second, “Beijing Youth Daily”, 20151112. 1

Z. Shao (*) Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_3

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growth. Though the e-commerce in China still centers on urban online retail sales, the e-commerce in rural areas is rising fast. As shown in statistics from China Internet Network Information Center, the number of online shoppers in rural areas have attained 77.14 million by December 2014, with an annual growth rate as high as 40.6%. By the end of June 2015, the Rural Taobao launched by Ali group had covered 17 provinces of China and established 63 county service centers and 1803 village service stations.3 Being an important economic phenomenon in the age of network, e-commerce links the producer, seller and consumer visually and collects the commodities of different categories from different places together by means of the information network, which compresses time and space more effectively and profoundly compared to globalization and modernization. It embraces the values in space compression and spatial agglomeration and reflects the evolution of the network economy. The rural e-commerce is of great theoretical significance in the urban-rural dual structure in China. By analyzing the characteristics in people’s communication and transaction in rural e-commerce, it helps to understand the effect of space compression and spatial agglomeration from the perspective of geographical position and explore the conflicts and contradictions among different regions and different platforms and in the unlimited appreciation of information under the information and network-oriented background. This chapter will analyze the space compression and the value of rural e-­commerce with Bainiu Village, Lin’an of Zhejiang Province as a case.

3.2   Brief Review of David Harvey’s Theory “Compression of Time and Space” Space has always been deemed as a factor impeding the development of capitalism. As pointed out in Vol. 2 of Capital by Karl Marx, the flow of the commodity in space is realized by transport. On the one hand, the transport industry makes an independent production department accepting the special investment of production capital; and, on the other hand, it is distinguished from other production departments for the fact that the transport industry, established for the circulation, guarantees the internal

3  Ali Research, Research Report on Online Consumption in Rural Areas (2015), http://i. aliresearch.com/file/20150716/20150716133856.pdf.

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continuity of the circulation process of production.4 In real life, the poor transport has often caused the commodities piled up high and agricultural products detained in the place of origin. The obstacle of space must be overcome in capitalist production and sales. Affected by Karl Marx and Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey had demonstrated the modern deduction of Marxism in his book The Limits to Capital, and answered some key questions about “spatial configurations” and “spatial economics of modern capitalism” that he was interested in.5 Some scholars believe that David Harvey started to deviate from the major tradition of location and geography theory and landed on the most radical theory of capitalist society after he began concerning the spatial structure. The context of “structured spatial form” has become his major “preoccupation”.6 In the current world, the spatial structure has been incorporated in the motivation factors to the production structure. David Harvey not only saw “time shrinks space” but also discovered how the collapse of the space obstacle affected our understanding about the world. “The collapse of the space obstacle does not mean the declining significance of space … The trivial differences contained in space are becoming increasingly meaningful in terms of labor force supply, resources and infrastructure et cetera.”7 This idea is consistent with what David Harvey described in Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference: Capitalism is constantly creating the spatial differences to promote capital circulation, while these spatial differences play as the new space obstacle conversely, which is the “limits to capital”. In recent years, more and more scholars, such as Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey and Edward W. Soja, have realized that the spatial dimension has been ignored and the time variable has been overstressed in social theory and started to make a point about the theory of “time shrinks space”. David Harvey proposed the concept of “time-space compression”. He stated that “the word ‘compression’ is used here as I can propose examples as strong evidences: the history of capitalism is a history of accelerated life  [GER] Karl Marx, Capital (Chinese Edition), Page 138, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2014.  Richard D.  Wolff, “Review: The Limits to Capital. By David Harvey. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982,” Economic Geography, 1984, 60 (1), pp. 8185. 6  Gordon L. Clark, “Review: The Limits to Capital. David Harvey. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. xi and 478 pp,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1983,73 (3), pp. 447–449. 7  [US] David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change: Page 367–368, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2013. 4 5

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pace that overcomes various spatial obstacles, so it sometimes seems that the world collapses inherently towards us”.8 David Harvey’s “time-space compression” concept involves both time and space, the core of which is the space obstacle, collapse of the space obstacle and culturality of space compression and the manifestation of which is the split and compressed space displaying inherently in front of us. The capitalist political and economic system and the power behind the system can never expand without “time-space compression” of geographic expansion, space reorganization, unbalanced geographical development and time shrinking space. In view of this point, David Harvey agreed with Henri Lefebvre. Some scholars criticized that “Though David Harvey also emphasized the social production of space and the impossibility to understand space without action like what Henri Lefebvre did, his idea of time-­ space compression was grounded on regarding space as a material basis. So, it was queer that David Harvey considered all kinds of spaces as the products of social actions.”9 David Harvey thought about the spatial configurations and space compression under the capitalist political and economic system. In his book The Condition of Postmodernity, the space practices, space languages and space occupation are analyzed by putting “space” under the context of “control”, that is, the “space” is a controlled object instead of the product of “production”. David Harvey’s theory of spatial configurations failed to assign a theoretical position to “practice” and “production” like Henri Lefebvre’s theory. Compared to Henri Lefebvre who concerned more about the practices in daily life, David Harvey did not explore n this way but fell into the relative chaos among space, structure and production. Finally, his theory of spatial configurations only explored to the level of “spatial justice” which he had already pointed out in his early works. When recently discussing David Harvey, E. Mingione said that Harvey emphasized too much on explaining the built environment, that is, spatial pattern, but ignored the result of general production mode or the complicated production mode on the condition of capitalist relations in the later

8  [US] David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change: Page 300, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2013. 9  Löw, Martina, “The Constitution of Space the Structuration of Spaces Through the Simultaneity of Effect and Perception,” European Journal of Social Theory, 2008, 11 (1), pp. 2549.

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stage.10 M. Gottdiener also pointed out the problems in Harvey’s space theory that Harvey only regarded space as a material form in the built environment. In his capital accumulation mode, he only proposed one form, the space, presenting as the means of production.11 Therefore, the “spatial configurations” theory of David Harvey is more like a functional explanation of the space value with hindsight. This is because that David Harvey failed to incorporate the production of space in the complicated production mode on the condition of capitalist relations in the later stage and incorporate space in the production theory system. David Harvey had foreseen the influence of globalization, modernization and particularly postmodernity on time-space compression, pointed out the contradiction between time-space compression (time-space commercialization and cultural change) and personal experiences, identified the tension of personal experiences due to time-space compression and indicated the necessity to often cope with the strange, new and transient situations.12 However, Harvey did not pay enough attention to the influence of network on time-space compression. In the network age, the tension between time-space compression and personal experiences is even more intensified. As to e-commerce, people nationwide and even worldwide are rushing into the same e-commerce platforms for interaction based on the unlimited appreciation of information, instant space display and dissolution of the space distance, which is constantly producing the network space.

3.3   Space Compression in Rural E-commerce The rise of e-commerce in Bainiu Village has altered the original scale of space, compressed the space, expanded villagers’ exposure to space, divided the online store owners from common villagers in the spatial relation and incorporated the rural area and some farmers in marketization.

10  Quoted from [US] Mark Gottdiener, Social Production in Urban Space (2nd Edition), Page 98, Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 2014. 11  Quoted from [US] Mark Gottdiener, Social Production in Urban Space (2nd Edition), Page 193–194, Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 2014. 12  [US] David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change: Page 354–358, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2013.

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Rise of E-commerce in Bainiu Village Located at the west of Changhua Town, Lin’an, Zhejiang Province, Bainiu Village sits beside the Provincial Road 02, 4 kilometers to Changhua Town, east to Lianmeng Village and west to Jiulong Village. Lin’an, the municipality governing Bainiu Village, is situated at the west of Zhejiang Province, east to Hangzhou and west to Huangshan, which is the nearest hilly city to Shanghai and Hangzhou. Bainiu Village, originally the seat of government of Bainiu Township, consists of three natural villages—Bainiu, Gaoli (south to Bainiu) and Lixi (north to Bainiu)—covering a total land area of 535.14 hectares. In view of its geographical position, Bainiu Village has no outstanding location advantage, since it is relatively far from Lin’an downtown and between Changhua and Longgang Town. It is a typical representative of rural area. We have been mainly engaged in the business of roasted nuts, including macadamia nuts and pecan nuts and so on in addition to the traditional walnuts. We have already established a complete industrial chain here. Lin’an is known as a large gathering place of these products in China (Xu, the President of Bainiu Village E-commerce Association, the owner of Wenwen Walnut Store, 20150625).13 Several stores in Changhua Town are also run by Bainiu people, because the express is much more convenient in the town than in the village. They rent a place in Changhua Town to run business. Some of them are living in the mountains in Bainiu Village, and the delivery men sometimes cannot find them (Binge, Henghe Food Store, 20150627). Compared to villages outside Lin’an, Bainiu Village enjoys the location advantage of being close to the producing area of agricultural products, including bamboo shoots and walnuts; and compared to villages inside Lin’an, Bainiu Village also has its local advantage of sitting beside the Provincial Road 02. However, these are only relative advantages, as most areas have their featured agricultural products and specialties. Even among the villages inside Lin’an, Bainiu Village’s traffic condition is inferior to the villages neighboring to Lin’an downtown. As to the distribution of e-commerce in Bainiu Village, only a few are distributed in the former Lixi Village (only several stores in the high 13  The real names of the interviewees are not revealed in this article to protect their privacy. The figure “20150625” in the parentheses represents the time of interview, that is, June 25, 2015, in this case. The same below.

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s­ eason), a few in former Gaoli Village, while the most are in former Bainiu Village. It demonstrates the great influence of location. The small number of stores in Gaoli and Lixi were actually opened following other successful stores opened earlier. This distribution does not reflect the locational influence of the place of origin or traffic, but represents the influence of the human factor during the emergence and development of e-commerce. However, this inconspicuous village has now become the well-known “Taobao Village” in China. The online stores here mainly sell local specialties mainly including walnuts and some other nuts. Bainiu Village had been awarded with the honor of “Taobao Village” of China by Ali Research and the Institute of Information Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for two consecutive years, in 2013 and 2014. It shall be noted that there were only 14 villages listed in the first batch of “Taobao Village” in China in 2013. E-commerce in Bainiu Village started in 2006. As affected by the environment, increasing online stores have been opened by Bainiu villagers. These store owners, who originally lived on farming, knew nothing about computer or commodity marketing, but they had made hard efforts to study these new things and gradually learned the knowledge about use of the computer, e-commerce operation and online marketing skills. These farmers who led the village to run online stores at the earliest time have achieved the highest annual sales volume in Bainiu Village. The total annual sales volume of e-commerce in Bainiu Village has been rising year by year. According to the investigation of Ali Research, the annual sales volume of the village was 73 million yuan in 2012, which grew to 150 million yuan in 2013 and 200 million yuan in 2014. On the very “Singles Day” in 2014, its sales volume attained 12 million yuan.14 The information and network-oriented e-commerce platforms have broken the original development imbalance (particularly between urban and rural area and among different villages and towns), and, taking advantage of this, the village has created a miracle of realizing an annual sales volume over 200 million by development of e-commerce. But now, they are faced with two challenges: the fierce competition with peers who also bear the symbol of “achieving prosperity by means of e-commerce” and the space restriction of the village.

14  Summary of Bainiu Village E-commerce in 2014, provided by Bainiu Village E-commerce Association.

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Developing e-commerce in the village practically enjoys two advantages. Firstly, they can do business at home and all family members can involve in, perfectly combining life and work. Secondly, they make use of their own house for storage, packaging and goods consignment, and do not need to pay a rent. However, these advantages gradually become their inferior strengths along with the rapid development and increasingly fierce competition of e-commerce. In the high season of sales, many online store owners find no enough space for storage and packaging, so many of them rent the neighbor’s house or spare house in the village. At present, the raw material storage, product packaging and the order reception and customer service at the computer are all completed in one room, so the space shortage will impose a restriction on expanding the operation scale, realizing professional labor of division and improving professional service quality. Some sellers may be unable to stock enough quantity of walnuts due to insufficient space for storage (and insufficient fund) and therefore have no enough goods to serve. Then they will have to buy from other sellers or the wholesalers, when the cost will rise. In addition, e-commerce of Bainiu Village mainly relies on local walnuts (similar to agricultural products) since other nuts and snacks are not sold well online. The sales volume of walnuts takes up over 63% of the total sales volume. Bainiu Village has not made any breakthrough since 2013. By comparison, approximately 200 new Taobao Villages had emerged in China in 2014 (212 villages according to statistics of Ali Research excluding the 14 villages incorporated in the list in 2013), and 19 Taobao Towns newly appeared. As indicated by data, commodities of the highest sales volume of online stores of Taobao Village fall into clothes, furniture, shoes and so on, and the agricultural product was not in the Top 10 list.15 It can be seen that Bainiu Village’s status among all Taobao villages in China is declining. The e-commerce development of agricultural products is subject to more difficulties compared to other commodities, because unlike industrial products, agricultural products are vulnerable to the influence of natural conditions (leading to the high season and off season as well as the fluctuation of product quality) and people’s demands on agricultural demands are limited and mainly concentrate in a certain period.

15  Ali Research, Research Report on Taobao Villages in China (2014), http://i.aliresearch. com/img/20141223/20141223163126.pdf.

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The development of rural e-commerce depends on the express industry. As a result, the express industry starts to put down roots in rural areas. “With the accelerated construction of the express network in rural areas, the express enterprises are playing an increasingly important role in rural logistics economy and help address the difficulties in circulation of agricultural products and increase of farmers’ income.”16 It is the rapid development of express businesses that makes the development of rural e-commerce possible, expands the scope of business of e-commerce and compresses the vast rural area into the space of e-commerce. The express industry expands quickly in the wave of e-commerce. The express businesses, originally seen in only urban areas, have established their bases in towns by now, and the express can even be directly delivered to villages in the areas of advanced e-commerce. Some large e-commerce companies have released the plan to develop rural e-commerce, such as the “thousand counties and tens of thousand villages” plan of Ali Group and the plan of county service centers of JD Group. Moreover, some express companies are also exploring the rural e-commerce market. By August 2014, the online stores of SF-Express were able to reach 13,000 villages and towns, about 40% of all villages and towns of China. China Post advances to rural areas mainly relying on its mode of “village post office station + Ule.com”; and by May 2015, Ule had established 70,000 service stations in 25 provinces in China.17 How the express industry compresses space is demonstrated by the expansion of the scope of delivery, convenience brought by rural e-commerce transactions and the exploration plans of e-commerce platforms and express companies in rural areas. Even the farmers are involved in the wave of network and information development. The space between people and between the seller and the consumer has been significantly shortened. E-commerce Platform: The Means and Situations of Space Compression Space compression is an extremely evident effect of e-commerce, which overcomes the space obstacle in commodity display and collects all ­commodities of the same category in one e-commerce platform for selec16  Liu Yan, Xia Yu, The Mode for Express Enterprises to Participate in Circulation of Agricultural Products in China, “China Business and Market”, 2015 (10). 17  Ali Research, Research Report on Online Consumption in Rural Areas (2015), http://i. aliresearch.com/file/20150716/20150716133856.pdf.

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tion, free from the original restriction by the space of shelves. From the consumer’s perspective, e-commerce provides a compression space that gathers all kinds of commodities from all around the world and enables diversified choices. From the online store owner’s perspective, e-­commerce presents a compression space that gathers consumers from every part of the country and even the world. Space compression is often accompanied by the expansion of the area for sales, and nearly all people from all places have been included in the market space of e-commerce. Space compression can be realized only upon the technical support of e-commerce, particularly the spatial agglomeration ability of the e-­commerce platform. However, technology is not enough to exchange the value of space compression. The e-commerce platform must sustain its operation to acquire the endless traffic, thus proving the value of the platform. “Spatial agglomeration” is a very important concept in spatial economics. Fundamentally, spatial economics or new economic geography aims to explain the agglomeration in economic activities in a geographical space, and the focus is placed on the increasing returns to scale.18 Spatial economics concerns only the agglomeration in economic activities in space but neglects the possibility of space compression. The e-commerce platform reveals the evident effect of spatial agglomeration by compressing space, gathering sellers and consumers, and collecting commodities of different kinds in one platform. Technology is not enough to realize the value of space agglomeration. Instead of assembling sellers and commodities in one space, the e-­commerce platform focuses on gathering sellers together, keeping the sellers adhesive to the platform and thus promoting popularity and selling the traffic. The traffic constitutes the basis for the existence of the platform and the store. After having acquired abundant traffic, the e-commerce platform will sell the traffic by rent-seeking. Experts in website measurement standards use the word “traffic” to represent the visitors to the website. In the early stage of the Internet age, most websites are measured by the click. However, by the end of 1990s, the click 18  Liang Qi, Spatial Economics: Past, Present and Future, referring to [JP] Fujita Masahisa, [US] Paul Krugman, [UK] Anthony Venables, The Spatial Economy, Beijing, China Renmin University Press, 2012.

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rate did not make sense any longer, since nearly all webpages comprised a mix of massive texts and images.19

Though the complicated methods are needed to measure the traffic in specific websites, stores and webpages, the e-commerce background programs provide the real-time traffic data, including the number of visitors, page views, traffic from PC and wireless traffic and so on. The traffic can be divided into three levels: the platform traffic, store traffic and commodity traffic. The e-commerce platform mainly builds a framework to attract a great number of merchants and it means nothing if no merchant settles in the platform, just like that the department stores with excellent infrastructure make no sense if without any merchant. The consumer constitutes the traffic, while the merchant functions as an entity to support the conversion of the traffic. When the e-commerce platform achieves ample traffic, online store owners will choose to settle here; and, if no abundant traffic, the online store owners will have difficulties in survival. The traffic lays the foundation for the platform and store. The e-­commerce platform having earned adequate traffic will sell the traffic by rent-seeking. Some local governments tried to build their independent e-commerce platforms, and some companies also released their own platforms, but most of them failed due to the difficulty in acquiring the traffic. The idea of establishing the new e-commerce platform is great, since it is able to provide a platform where consumers can do shopping, thus freeing from the traffic rent-seeking by large e-commerce platforms, shorten the distance between sellers and consumers, and bring benefits to consumers. However, the construction of the e-commerce platform is not the purpose. Without a great investment on promotion in the early stage, the consumers can hardly know about this platform. Even if consumers find this new platform, they have no trust in this place and will not buy the commodity displayed on the platform. Moreover, some companies have their own sales channel in their official websites, but the sales volume realized through this way is quite low. They have to depend on the large e-commerce platforms and attempt to strive for ample effective traffic there. It can be seen that the e-commerce platforms are not born with the 19  [US] Mike Moran, Bill Hunt, Search Engine Marketing – Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Page 135–136, Beijing, Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2007.

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traffic, and they are attracting an increasing number of visitors relying on advertisements, promotion and kinds of events. Though Bainiu Village is known as the “Taobao Village”, it is not confined to Taobao and Tmall, but also operates in JD platform. Some bigger online stores have their operation department divided into two parts: “Taobao operation” and “non-Taobao operation”. Online stores enjoy the right to choose the platform. In other words, e-commerce platforms are competing with each other. Essentially, the competition centers on the traffic. The one enjoying ample traffic will attract more merchants and earn more from traffic rent-seeking. The battle among e-commerce platforms never stops, with the commercial war constantly rising one after another. Maybe one day, several e-commerce platforms cooperate to suppress the development of another platform; and another day, all these e-commerce platforms may go together to disrupt the shopping festival created by another platform. They try every trick to attract the traffic, including advertising, sensationalization and war of words and so on. In addition to the large e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall and JD, new e-commerce platforms are endlessly emerging, particularly in a specific category (such as the supermarket, clothes, books and cosmetics), giving rise to increasingly fierce competition among these platforms. On the “Singles Day” in 2015, nearly all e-commerce platforms had launched their own activities to attract users. As long as users paid attention to or viewed the website, the e-commerce platform had won the traffic and improved the popularity. Disembedding and Adjustment of the Spatial Relation Different places, different groups and different commodities are displayed to people through space compression, which is a kind of space experience brought by the information and network development in e-commerce. In the meantime, space compression also alters the social relation and social structure. Anthony Giddens pointed out in The Consequences of Modernity that “The approaching modernity breeds other factors of ‘absence’ and increasingly lifts space out of the location … Time-space separation means a lot to the extreme motive mechanism of modernity.”20 In Modernity and Self-­ 20  [UK] Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Page 16–17, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2011.

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identity, Anthony Giddens further proposed the “disembedding mechanism”, that is, “the ‘lifting out’ of social relations from local contexts of interaction and their restructuring across indefinite spans of time-space”.21 The development of e-commerce in Bainiu Village, which, originally, was only a small village far away from modern cities and the national and global retail sale market, has brought about spatial changes here. Farmers engaged in e-commerce get in touch with different places and different groups of people, enhance their own awareness of peer competition and realize spatial exploration in terms of logistics and delivery, raw material purchasing, e-commerce operation and store decoration and so on. At present, Bainiu Village is closely connected to the national and global market. We just started cross-border e-commerce this May. I am a shareholder and the producer, and bear the responsibility of goods supply. I cooperate with another sales company. We, including four or five people, contributed a total of 3 million yuan and registered “Hangzhou ‘Songha’ (meaning the walnut in  local dialect) Technology Co., Ltd. South Korea market is our major target. But we are under great pressure as we just start and have no experience at all.” (Qiangge, the manager of Bainiu Village Linzhiyuan Food Plant, 20151112)

“Disembedding” has been embodied in many aspects of daily life of Bainiu Village online store owners. Their original regional concept of space and time, lifestyle, marketing ideas and interpersonal relations has been gradually lifted out from local “contexts”. Only a small part of villagers are doing e-commerce. They are busy all day by the computer, arrange for their schedules based on the timetable of consumers visiting their stores and therefore stay beside the computer from 9:00 am to midnight. With less contact to other villagers, their offline friends are reducing. Anthony Giddens believes that the time-space separation derived from modernity leads to the embedding of social systems (a phenomenon closely connected to the factors included in time-space separation).22 Apparently, the “disembedding” discussed by Anthony Giddens stresses on how social systems and social relations are lifted out from local contexts instead of emphasizing the disembedding of people. 21  [UK] Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-identity, Page 19, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1998. 22  [UK] Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Page 14, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2011.

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As a matter of fact, the disembedding of people is the result of the disembedding of social relations. Exactly because the production mode, sales mode and working mode of e-commerce are exposed to the influence of networking, marketization, commercialization and even globalization, local farmers are gradually lifted out from the dependence on original village relations, leading to the disembedding of people. In this sense, the disembedding of farmers based on e-commerce is inevitably accompanied by the changes to farmers’ views about the space, market, interpersonal relations and values. In the process where farmers are involved in the market and business competition as well as globalization, farmers achieve prosperity, while the commercial culture and commercial relations have penetrated into farmers’ ideas and behaviors, creating a broader development space for commercial distribution and the supply and consumption market. It is certainly good if farmers can benefit from this process. However, no one can win the commercial competition forever. Many online stores opened by people from Bainiu Village and neighboring villages have been shut down and re-opened for several times, and some store owners are complaining about how hard running business is. Through e-commerce, the online store owners have been lifted from the local context of original rural social relations and join commercial society full of competition and uncertainties. As more and more local people want to get in on the act, it provides a great deal of potential labor forces (store owners, not workers) for the prosperity of e-commerce. This is the value of space disembedding. As an effect of the space disembedding relative to the village, e-commerce has changed the original social relations and life concepts here. The influence of “opening Taobao stores to make life better” has been expanded, and numerous farmers develop to be the reserve force for e-commerce development. In this way, a large number of medium- and small-sized online stores will be constructed as the stepping stone of large companies and improve the popularity of e-commerce platforms.

3.4   Category of Space Values in Space Compression Space compression mainly gives rise to space values in three aspects, firstly, the regional value in the geographical sense; secondly, the space compression value based on the characteristics of e-commerce; and, thirdly, the e-commerce platform value in terms of spatial agglomeration. The latter two constitute the fundamental values.

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Regional Value: Countermeasures Against Space Worthless and the Restrictions We can see the possibility of developing e-commerce in rural areas from the rise of e-commerce in Bainiu Village. While rural e-commerce reflects a kind of regional value itself, it is also closely associated with the theory of imbalance of regional development. Before the government puts forward the new urbanization and urban-­ rural integration, China was exposed to serious urban-rural divide, which led to migrant workers, shell villages, left-behind children, left-behind elderly and some other social phenomena. From the perspective of space value, the rural area has become a typical “space worthless”. “Space worthless” does not suggest this region has no value at all, but means that this region is insignificant in people’s view from which people would like to get away. Objectively, rural areas, farmers and agriculture have made great contributions to the development of urbanization and industrialization of China and therefore demonstrate their values. However, these values are recognized from the point of view of the urban space. If considering from the perspective of the rural area, it is indeed “space worthless”, directly reflected by the valueless rural area, valueless farmer, valueless agriculture and no one willing to stay in the rural area. The rise of e-commerce in Bainiu Village has rendered a favorable turn to “space worthless”. Farmers and the local government surprisingly discover that money can be made by sitting at home. But such consciousness arose gradually when they actually reaped the benefits. As e-commerce is developing prosperously in Bainiu Village, some university graduates who walked out from the village give up their jobs in urban areas and return to the village to open online stores. Despite the small number of them, they have made the village more energetic. This situation manifests counter-urbanization to some extent. Neighboring villages also imitate the e-commerce development of Bainiu Village and significantly increase the farmers’ incomes. Previously, these farmers ­ plucked walnuts in the mountain every day and had to sell walnuts at a lower price to the middleman. Currently, the great demand for walnuts on local online stores help raise the price of farmers’ walnuts, which reduces the middleman’s profits but increases farmers’ returns. In this way, Bainiu Village becomes valuable due to the rise of e-­commerce here. In addition to walnuts, e-commerce here also drives the development of other agricultural products such as bamboo shoots and tea leaves there. The development of rural e-commerce features certain

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social effects. Firstly, it increases farmers’ incomes by leading the agricultural products that were previously hard to be sold in physical stores to the path of online sales. Secondly, it also benefits local farmers who have not been engaged in e-commerce yet, such as the farmers cultivating walnuts, bamboo shoots and tea leaves. The walnut of Bainiu Village is only one among the numerous channels and creative ideas of rural e-commerce. It still sees a great potential. In 2010, Lin’an Lingxi Sweet Potato Cooperative had respectively registered several Taobao stores online including “Nanxiang Delicacy” and “Lezui Food” and so on to try to sell Tianmu Sweet Potatoes. In 2013, the Cooperative had sold more than 25,000 kilograms of products in only three days through Juhuasuan group-buying of Taobao. In 2015, it had seen an explosive growth of the online sales volume; and by the end of September, Tianmu Sweet Potatoes had attracted more than 200 farmer households, sold over 675 tons online and reached a sales amount exceeding 10 million yuan, having grown by over 50% compared to 2014. As to the product base covering more than 1500 mu (mu, a traditional Chinese area unit, with 1 mu approximately equal to 666.67 square meters), the output value per mu runs up to 6500 Yuan. The income per household has increased by 26,000 yuan for the whole year.23 It is almost impossible for Lin’an farmers to live on arable land due to the small per-capita are of cultivated land. In this case, the arable land will necessarily lie waste if the agricultural output value is low. Fortunately, rural e-commerce has introduced the convenient sales channel, which expands the scale of agriculture, advances the professional standards and thus improves farmers’ incomes. The fact that farmers can earn money by sitting at home through e-commerce has caused an extremely significant social change. Some farmers return to the village to start their own business and meanwhile be a farmer. With the change of their mind and improvement of market consciousness, they actively take art in e-commerce operation. (For instance, Dai Yunhong, a local farmer aged 55, has now increased his annual sales volume of the online store to approximately 10 million yuan.) This is of great significance to solve the three rural issues (agricultural, rural areas and farmers) and improve the rural values. In a manner of speaking, rural 23  Lin’an Agriculture and Rural Area Affairs Office, Special Work Report: Lin’an Rural E-commerce Integrates the Distinctive Industry and Realizes “Five New Breakthroughs”, 20151022.

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e-commerce shows a greater social effect than economic effect. Rural areas in China shall no longer be the appendage to urban areas. The fundamental solution to the three rural issues lies in making rural areas more valuable and relieving and solving the “space worthless” problem of rural areas. Despite all these hopes brought by rural e-commerce, only a few succeed in practices. The locational equilibrium that has been formed is now weakened due to the development of e-commerce in Bainiu Village, imitation by neighboring villages and rise of larger online-store companies in Lin’an. Three Squirrels is only a sales company, while its walnuts are all produced here in Lin’an. It has its production base in Lin’an. Products are made by Dongsheng, Yulingguan Food Company and so on, which provide the finished products with or without package. The details about the Three Squirrels commodities also prove this (Chen, the Director of Lin’an Agriculture Office, 20151113). Therefore, sitting beside the producing area of walnuts, Bainiu Village enjoys only a relative location advantage. Based on the advanced logistics industry nowadays, many companies can follow the mode of Three Squirrels which runs e-commerce in Anhui and has products processed in and supplied from Lin’an. This situation lowers the locational value brought about by e-commerce. It still has a long way to go to get rural areas out of the “space worthless” dilemma. Values of Space Compression The e-commerce in Bainiu Village produces the offline space value, fundamentally, the value of space compression. As the space turns from an obstacle into a boost to a transaction, the space compression and expansion exactly create the sales market for Bainiu Village e-commerce. Though David Harvey proposed the concept of “time-space compression” originally for the purpose of explaining the transformation of capitalist culture from modernity to postmodernity, this concept inspires us to understand the time-space relation and the space structure in the modernity process. The presence of the stitched, segmented and compressed space not only constitutes a cultural shock, but also indicates the production of values. The space compression now in the age of information and network has excessed that in the globalization age discussed by David Harvey. By means of e-commerce, consumers can perceive, view and compare com-

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modities on webpages intuitively, and online store owners can present all information to consumers including the images, films, ratings, sales volume and after-sale services of commodities. The physical things can be displayed here, overcoming the regional or spatial obstacle. The rise of e-commerce has weakened the middleman in offline transactions. Instead of seeing the presence of a commodity before price mark-­ ups by many middlemen, the consumer can rapidly find the commodity through e-commerce platform (though it is still a middleman) and avoid price mark-ups by means of the express industry. Rather than adding any space obstacle, the service provider supplies the service to realize space presence. Space compression has become the key to the sales of commodities. Only the compressed space can draw the consumers’ attention, and only the more information and more complete presence of information can attract heavy e-commerce traffic. On the contrary, the sporadic space agglomeration can no longer fulfill consumers’ demands on comparison and no space obstacle. The development of e-commerce depends on space compression, while the space compression effectively connects the producer, seller and consumer and enables the development of e-commerce. This is the value of space compression. Space is no longer an obstacle, but has become a driving force for commercial development based on the characteristics of space compression in e-commerce. Peer competition always exists in commerce, but is fiercer under the background of space compression. Previously, the peer competition is subject to the regional restriction due to the space obstacle, so peers in the same region compete with each other, while competitors outside the place hardly find a way to get in, since peers within the region cooperate to fight against the outsider. Therefore, in the society without or with little space compression, the peer competition is restricted for the space obstacle. However, this restriction is broken. Peer competition is fierce no matter within the region or among different regions. With the constant development of Taobao, the number of online stores booms. However, exposed to limited product types, local development mode and insufficient innovation of online stores, the Taobao Village cannot develop new products in a short period but has to follow the trend and copy others. In this case, the products are quite similar in the same Taobao Village and even in the same county, and there may be over a hundred online stores that sell the same type of product and even exactly the same product.

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Space compression for commodity display in e-commerce has overcome the space obstacle and collected commodities of the same category together, so that consumers can compare and select commodities in this space. In the meantime, it gives rise to a more intense vicious competition. All stores rack their brains to employ tricks on the price, activity, quality, service and warranty and so on, in order to attract users to buy their commodities out from the ocean of repeated and diversified commodities. The vicious peer competition is inevitable and is constantly creating values. Since consumers cannot directly compare the commodities of the same type among different stores, they have to make the comparison by logging in, browsing and searching the e-commerce platform, so the online stores exposed to peer competition have to conduct marketing centering on the e-commerce platform. They have to observe the regulations, promotion methods and profit-making modes provided by the e-­commerce platform. Therefore, a quite large portion of money spent on vicious peer competition is earned by the e-commerce platform. In a word, the vicious peer competition brings sufferings to online store owners and companies and brings benefits to the e-commerce platform. This situation is hard to change, as the e-commerce platform is holding the dominant right of space compression and making rules. As an additional value created by space compression, who owns the ability of space compression has the right to control the source of the production of space value. The Spatial Agglomeration Value of E-commerce Platform The e-commerce platform needs abundant traffic to support the operation of numerous stores on the platform, and meanwhile to exchange it for rent-seeking. Like the competition among stores, the competition among e-commerce platforms also focuses on the opportunity of space display. On the one hand, they hold a large number of promotion activities to attract more users with their selling points, features and tonality; and, on the other hand, they adhere to consistent shopping quality, habits and style to accumulate old customers and achieve word-of-mouth marketing. With the goal of outperforming other e-commerce platforms, they spare no effort to attract consumers to do shopping or even kill time at theirs. In addition to the value of space display, the space value of the e-­commerce platform can also be seen from the influence of the platform rules, styles and development goals. Different rules, styles and development goals reveal different modes of creation of the space value.

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A platform that sets no threshold and gathers a huge number of sellers will bear heavy traffic and undoubtedly see the vicious competition among these sellers for the traffic and opportunity of space display. In this case, the e-commerce platform enjoys a great space value. It owns the ability to assemble and sell the traffic and has the countless sellers contribute their benefit points and constantly compete with each other when it sells the traffic. Therefore, the value of traffic is constantly increased. On the contrary, an e-commerce platform that internally sets an access threshold against sellers, despite the same constant competition among sellers, controls the competition with rules. Sellers here do not beat their brains on “how to win the opportunity to display”, so the click farming such as the wash sale is not a common phenomenon. Under the circumstances, since the internal competition of the e-commerce platform is not intense enough, the platform has a relatively lower ability to increase the value of the traffic sold. Being a window to display commodities, e-commerce is living on traffic. Without sufficient traffic, the e-commerce platform can hardly sell any commodity no matter how good it is. Since e-commerce runs against the masses through retail sale, the space value of the e-commerce platform is limited. The operating mode of e-commerce can be generally divided into three major types: firstly, the platform, such as Taobao, Tmall, Paipai and QQ Mall; secondly, the transaction, such as JD, Yixun and Amazon China; and, thirdly, the commission agent, such as VIPS.24 At present, the “transaction” mode has partially transformed to the platform mode. For example, JD starts to invite the third-party merchants in. The platform mode is now the dominant mode of e-commerce in China, where numerous middle- and small-sized store owners can have a finger in this pie. Most online store owners and even many large companies are incompetent to gather more traffic, so they have to depend on the commodity display window of e-commerce platforms. Essentially, the space value of the platform is formed by gathering together the traffic which is originally worthless alone and thus constructing the commercial status indispensable of the platform. This commercial status is practically associated to the ability to gather the traffic. Since the rise of e-commerce, the traffic is heavy at any time any day. The traffic may 24  Huang Ruo, E-commerce Review, Page 7–15, Beijing, Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2014.

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flow to any platform, so the e-commerce platform is tested by the rate and quality of traffic. To be specific, if consumers’ shopping habits change, the space value of the platform may be gone. The space value of the traffic and platform further reveals the value of space compression. Space compression only gathers sellers, consumers and commodities together, changes the space form and status of e-commerce and realizes the space competition and consumers’ comparison. It is the traffic that truly builds up the huge commercial value of space compression. Without the customer’s constant attention and shopping behavior, space compression or platform value is out of the question.

3.5   Characteristics and Values of Space Compression The compression of spatial scale results in the change of spatial distribution and spatial relationship, and further leads to the locational value and space agglomeration value. It can be seen that all these values are essentially the values of space compression. The spatial scale, spatial distribution and spatial relationship reveal the characteristics and values of space compression. Characteristics of Space Compression When explaining the concept of “time-space compression”, David Harvey said “it (the world) sometimes seems that the world collapses inherently towards us”.25 This saying is very close to Jean Baudrillard’s concept of “implosion”. According to Jean Baudrillard, in simulative society, “symbols” that refer to nothing and is ontological void are seen all around, and the symbols no longer follow the commodity laws of values in the production era but present a process of “implosion” of “self-duplication and infinite appreciation of information” with the exchange value of symbols as a cover.26 “The excess of truth puts an end to the truth, like the excess of information puts an end to information”, as stated by Jean Baudrillard.27 25  [US] David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change: Page 300, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2013. 26  Quoted from Zhang Yibing, Against Jean Baudrillard – Collapse Order of a Postmodernity Academic Myth, Page 424, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2009. 27  Baudrillard, Jean, The Vital Illusion, Ed. Julia Witwer, New York, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 6566.

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Space compression emerging upon e-commerce also shows certain qualities of “implosion”. (1) The space display of e-commerce is actually a symbol of practical commodity, but the symbol and the practical commodity show some inconsistencies. (2) As excessive information is collected due to space compression of e-commerce, online store companies put great efforts in commodity promotion and space display to outperform other information, leading to the final result of “self-duplication and infinite appreciation of information”. “Self-duplication” here means that the images, pictures and all information about the same type of commodities are imitating and copying one another. (3) By space compression, e-­commerce presents massive information in front consumers and constantly update the information to repeatedly inspire consumers (such as the endless buy limit, flash sale, discount and promotion activities), resulting in the collapse of the certainty of causality and the trend toward the “implosion of meaning” – the starting point of simulation.28 The space “implosion” of e-commerce has compressed the infinite space and has different spaces (such as the place of origin, store, e-­commerce platform, operation company, seller and express company offline and the booth, sequence, activity, promotion, interaction and association online) huddle together and influence each other. A light move in one part may affect the situation as a whole. For example, if a store lowers the price, other stores of the same type of commodities will correspond to it timely, leading to peer competition. The “implosion” process of the huddling, rejection, interweaving, influencing, copying, competition and conflict of spaces makes the space value more complicated. Ultimately, space ­practices of e-commerce significantly change the existence of space, reflected by information overload, space overfull and frequent interweaving. Value Appreciation Accompanied by the Characteristics of Space Compression Space compression is actually a consequence of commercialization, and it is full of commercial competition due to the space “implosion” of e-­commerce. Not only judging people’s perceptions, cultural connotations and information excess in a humanistic way, it also reveals an evident quality of commercial operation. The massive information, multiple 28  Arva, Eugene L., “Writing the Vanishing Real: Hyperreality and Magical Realism,” Journal of Narrative Theory, 2008, 38 (1).

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spaces, remote abutment and peer comparison further intensify the commercial competition, and consumers have more choices. As the e-­commerce gathers a great number of repeated online stores and companies showing subtle differences, people start to concern about the long time taken in the choice and the reliability of these differences. The “implosion” of space full of commercial value has made the commercial business more urgent, instant and uncertain based on the flow of space. Merchants never stop the competition for greater profits. The e-commerce explores the space and eliminates the space obstacle to a certain extent, having introduced increasing producers, merchants, consumers and middlemen into the space of “implosion”. Despite the unlimited business opportunities, it seems, there actually exists a limit to development. In the book The Limits to Capital, David Harvey proposed two pairs of contradictions: “break of the space obstacle” and “production of geographical disparity”, “the fixing of spatial configurations” and “the crisis in space reorganization”. It can be seen that the changes of space attributed arisen from e-commerce can be considered as the “crisis in space reorganization” in some ways. As the e-commerce space is implosive and flowing, the constant turbulence constitutes the attribute of spatial configurations, and the risk is hidden in constant reorganizations and industry shuffle. Nevertheless, the limit to value appreciation is the logic revealed by Jean Baudrillard’s theory of consumer society, rather than that of David Harvey. The consumption has built up the spatial structure of e-commerce and set the limit to space implosion, which means that the implosive space always focuses on consumption and develops for the sake of consumption practices. Therefore, it involves the issue of how to outperform others among the excessive information and constant competition, as well as the “production of geographical disparity” mentioned by David Harvey. In virtue of space compression of e-commerce, the space contention, peer competition and information flow make up an endless process of creation of space value. The excess space serves as a foil to the scarce space value and the peer competition sets off the transparent space value contention by contrast. As to the flowing power, the data asymmetry constitutes the source of power domination that who has the ability to make rules and master data will occupy the value of space compression. Though the basic attributes (extensiveness, three-dimensionality, range, corporality and sociality) of space have not been changed during the variation of the space status, their presence forms have changed. The e-commerce compresses

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the space, breaks the space obstacle for offline transactions to a certain degree, expands the spaces and condenses these spaces in several e-­commerce platforms, creating a compressed, interweaved and overfull spatial relationship. The values of space compression reveal the space value produced during the configuration, emergence and evolution of the space compression. The process of configuration of space compression is essentially a practical process to build the spatial relationship and spatial form, make use of the alteration of the space status and finally achieve the space value. The value of space compression is mainly reflected by the use value of space. This is a use value intentionally produced by the e-commerce platform instead of the natural value of the space or the added value produced by the space. The e-commerce platform cultivates the status of space compression and spatial agglomeration, transforms the space value with a series of methods, expands the business scope through space compression, intensifies peer competition, realizes appreciation of the space value and ultimately has all online store owners and massive consumers pay the bill for the value of space compression. At the same time, online store owners are constructing space compression and spatial agglomeration depending on e-commerce and trying to sell their commodities. Though focusing on the commodity value, the space status of e-commerce renders the indispensable use value of space. Without space compression and agglomeration, online store owners will lose the platform to display and the channel to sell commodities.

3.6   Conclusion E-commerce compresses the trans-regional, trans-industry and trans-­ group spaces and has them huddle together and influence each other, and shortens the distance among producers, sellers and consumers. This effect of space compression is even more obvious in rural e-commerce. Rural e-commerce has broken the previous space obstacles to a certain degree depending on the information network technology, creating the new location value of rural areas. Compared to urban residents, farmers have fewer opportunities to get in touch with the information network technology and are therefore more strongly shocked by the space compression in e-commerce. As increasing farmers start to run business of online retail sale of agricultural products in e-commerce platforms, the space compression has led to the competition of spaces of the same kind. The e-­commerce platform controls the rules, traffic distribution and space agglomeration

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ability ultimately. The primary beneficiary of the space compression value turns out to be the e-commerce platform, which realizes the space agglomeration value by providing technical and operating support to space compression. Characterized by the constant updating and unlimited appreciation of information and space, the space compression has become a process to constantly produce the space value. In terms of e-commerce, the tension among spaces and information repetition have intensified the competition among peers and laid the material foundation for the production of and fight for the value of space order and representative space. David Harvey’s spatial configurations theory regards the spatial imbalance, spatial variability and spatial reorganization as the exterior form and built environment for space, but fails to incorporate the space concept in his production theory system. Considered as the space utility, the tension among spaces, repetition and fierce competition of information and centralized space display are essentially a kind of “use value”. Only based on space compression can the space status of “implosion” and “flow” can the centralized display, competition and focus be possible. The change to the space status brought about by e-commerce makes the centralized display of commodities possible. It is the material and technology foundation for production and sale of space value as well as the space compression status designed by the merchants. Along with the rise of network society, network space has become an indispensable space form in people’s daily life. Compared to the traditional modern production tools and modes (such as steam locomotive, telephone and transnational corporation), the development of information and network has significantly compressed the reality space. More and more people, events and things are involved in a limited number of focus issues, represented by e-commerce. Space compression is a product of the merchants for sake of earning the space value, instead of an incidental product of information and network development. The spatial imbalance, spatial configurations and spatial variability mentioned by David Harvey are all derived from the differentiated space compression. As the space has become a product, a commodity with values, it deserves careful discussion to analyze the production process and mechanism of the value of space compression in the discourse system of production and criticize the unnecessary production consumption and contention for value.

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References 1. [US] David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2013. 2. Huang Ruo, E-commerce Review, Beijing, Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2014. 3. [UK] Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2011. 4. [UK] Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-identity, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1998. 5. Liang Qi, Spatial Economics: Past, Present and Future, referring to [JP] Fujita Masahisa, [US] Paul Krugman, [UK] Anthony Venables, The Spatial Economy, Beijing, China Renmin University Press, 2012. 6. Liu Yan, Xia Yu, The Mode for Express Enterprises to Participate in Circulation of Agricultural Products in China, “China Business and Market”, 2015(10). 7. [US] Mark Gottdiener, Social Production in Urban Space (2nd Edition), Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 2014. 8. [GER] Karl Marx, Capital (Chinese Edition), Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2014. 9. [US] Mike Moran, Bill Hunt, Search Engine Marketing  – Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Beijing, Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2007. 10. Zhang Yibing, Against Jean Baudrillard – Collapse Order of a Postmodernity Academic Myth, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2009. 11. Ali Research, Research Report on Online Consumption in Rural Areas (2015), [EB/OL], http://i.aliresearch.com/file/20150716/20150716133856.pdf. 12. Ali Research, Research Report on Taobao Villages in China (2014) [EB/OL], http://i.aliresearch.com/img/20141223/20141223163126.pdf. 13. Arva, Eugene L.  Writing the Vanishing Real: Hyperreality and Magical Realism. Journal of Narrative Theory, 2008, 38(1). 14. Baudrillard, Jean. The Vital Illusion. Ed. Julia Witwer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. 15. Gordon L. Clark. Review: The Limits to Capital. David Harvey. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. xi and 478 pp. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1983, 73(3). 16. Löw, Martina. The Constitution of Space the Structuration of Spaces Through the Simultaneity of Effect and Perception. European Journal of Social Theory, 2008, 11(1). 17. Richard D. Wolff. Review: The Limits to Capital. By David Harvey. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. Economic Geography, 1984, 60(1).

CHAPTER 4

Marketing Chaos and Development Transformation of E-commerce Market: Reflections After the Bustling “Singles Day” Jun Zhang

4.1   Introduction Since 1997, the e-commerce in China has grown out of nothing and finally achieved the prosperity by now. In May 1999, the first “B2C”1 e-commerce website in China, “8848”, was released; and the first “C2C”2 e-commerce website “Yiqu Net” started operation in August of the same year. In less than two decades, the e-commerce market in China has begun to take shape and exert a huge influence nationwide and even worldwide, having been regarded as a miracle in the world e-commerce market history. Diversified e-commerce platforms co-exist in China, including B2C e-commerce platforms represented by Tmall, Suning, Yixun, JD Mall and 1  B2C, that is, the business to customer e-commerce, applied by online shopping websites such as Tmall, JD and Suning. 2  C2C, that is, customer to customer e-commerce. The largest C2C website of the world is eBay, and the most representative C2C websites in China include eBay and Taobao.

J. Zhang (*) School of Society and Politics, Anhui University, Hefei, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_4

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so on, C2C e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and eBay, and tens of thousands of small-sized operators who have just started up their businesses based on the mature PC Internet technology or emerging mobile Internet technology. With the diversified development pattern, the e-­commerce market in China is exposed to rapid updating and uneven development. The general public had barely any idea about the concept “e-­commerce” ten years ago, but now people are quite familiar about it and nearly everyone has personally experienced online shopping. In 2015, the transaction volume in Chinese e-commerce market has notched up 16.2 trillion yuan.3 Though with a short history of over a decade, e-commerce economy has become an important part of economy in China and maintains a high growth rate. With Alibaba Group as an instance, its transaction volume in 2015 has exceeded that of international well-known e-commerce companies including eBay and Amazon and leaped to the first worldwide, making it the largest e-commerce enterprise of the world. Growing out of nothing and constantly expanding, the e-commerce market in China has become an important force in the market economy and profoundly altered the economic structure in China. It has driven the development of new economic forms and meanwhile facilitated the changes to the economic industrial structure. Types of e-commerce enterprises have sprung up all over China, and the e-commerce market in China is growing wildly. The competition in the e-commerce industry becomes increasingly intense, particularly reflected by the “Singles Day”. Before 2009, November 11 was still a real funny “Singles Day” as its name implies. However, Taobao Mall (current Tmall) paid attention to the gap period for consumption between the National Day holiday and the Christmas, made use of the special entertaining “Singles Day”, artificially produced this consumption carnival and thus created the new marketing opportunity. Due to the success of the “Singles Day” marketing strategy, many e-commerce enterprises take a part in it to take a share, including the C2C platform Taobao also under Alibaba Group as well as B2C e-commerce tycoons such as JD, Dangdang and Suning.

3  Iresearch, E-commerce Market in China Reaches a Value of 16 Trillion Yuan, with the Proportion of B2C Exceeding that of C2C for the First Time, http://www.admin5.com/article/20151231/640453.shtml, 20151231.

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The competition of e-commerce enterprises on the Singles Day had reached its peak in 2015. November 11, 2015, is a magnificent milestone in the history of Singles Day development. When the bell rang at 00:00 on November 11, 2015, all e-commerce platforms initiated their promotion activities on time, officially unveiling the curtain of the Singles Day shopping carnival. In 2015, the Singles Day had expanded from Tmall to the whole China. No longer being a marketing day of a single e-commerce platform, it had become the day of large-margin promotion of e-­commerce of whole China and the day of shopping carnival for all online consumers. It even expanded the influence to the world, while Alibaba attracted 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands in this activity. This global exploration has driven significant changes to the development of e-­commerce in China. Till 24:00 November 11, 2015, the transaction volume of Tmall Singles Day global carnival had hit a historical high of 91.2 billion yuan.4 In the meantime, Suning, Gome, JD and so on also notched up a high business volume on this day. The Singles Day has accompanied people for seven days since 2009. Can this artificial Internet shopping carnival continue for “100 years” as Ma Yun predicted?5 After the hustle and bustle of the Singles Day, we shall reflect on its significance for merchants and consumers. The great popularity and the huge business volume do not necessarily mean the success. As the role of Internet enlightenment of the Singles Day gradually disappeared and the explosive dividend of Internet population has been fully consumed, the popular Singles Day has concealed marketing chaos emerging in different forms and the e-commerce market is now faced with difficulties in development. As to the marketing chaos in the carnival period, e-commerce tycoons are blindly stretching their reach, diversified entertainment marketing is applied, e-commerce platforms launched a flame war on the Singles Day, and many stores falsely lower the price, sell seconds at best quality prices and so on. While the e-commerce market in China is exposed to irrational wild growth, Chinese online consumers are becoming more and more rational instead of being a blind big spender. Online consumers  Baidu Baike, “2015 Singles Day Shopping Carnival”, https://baike.baidu.com/item/2 015%E5%8F%8C%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%80%E8%B4%AD%E7%89%A9%E7%8B%82%E6%AC %A2%E8%8A%82/18738080?fr=aladdin. 5  Ma Yuan: Ali Hopes to Continue the Singles Day for 100  Years, http://tech.163. com/15/1111/12/B851ERFQ000915BF.html, 20151111. 4

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meticulously compared the price and verified the quality, leading to an unprecedented wave of goods return after the Singles Day. The development dilemma of e-commerce in China can be seen in the Singles Day marketing activity in 2015. The development transformation has become one of the major research topics about the transition of network society from the economic perspective. How to promote the healthy development of the Internet economy and build the favorable Internet financial order? This is a severe problem that e-commerce must face and an important issue that Chinese network society governance must address.

4.2   Entertainment Marketing Strategies in the Farce Increasingly diversified marketing means were adopted on the Singles Day of 2015. In addition to the red envelopes, sales promotion and so on that were applied in previous years, many new entertainment measures showed up in 2015. The headlines have been dominated by entertainment events such as the arguments between e-commerce tycoons and Singles Day evening party, making the commercialized marketing war more aggressive and entertaining. The author will explore the e-commerce marketing strategies and marketing chaos reflected by the fierce competition on the Singles Day behind the farce. E-commerce Battles in the Prologue to the Singles Day Carnival Before the official start of the Singles Day shopping carnival in 2015, e-commerce tycoons were slowly drawing the curtain for the carnival through their fierce battle. In the frontline battlefield, e-commerce platforms were competing for the traffic with lower prices, giving rise to an intense price war. Since the emergence of the Singles Day, an unwritten rule has been existing in the price war, that is, “either-or”. It means that before the Singles Day every year, B2C e-commerce platforms would require the sellers on the platform to make an “either-or” choice so that they could not render the lower price by a same margin on other platforms. Before the Singles Day in 2015, JD had made a public complaint against the “either-or” rule that was adopted in previous years. In the evening of November 3, 2015, JD submitted a real-name report to the State Administration of Industry and

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Commerce on Alibaba Group disrupting the market order.6 Alibaba responded to the report on the same day. As the founder of the Singles Day campaign, Tmall under Alibaba Group angrily stated that JD was “doing everything to attract attention” and also pointed out that “no matter who you reported, the competition only ends with customers’ choice” and “do not change the topic, as you must face the reality during competition”.7 Refusing to admit being inferior, JD published the evidence on how Alibaba forced the merchants to make an “either-or” choice between JD and Alibaba, asked Alibaba to respond to it directly and announced its real-name report through “JD Blackboard Newspaper” on November 4. Then, Tmall replied to JD’s report again. Fang Ya, the spokesman of Tmall “Singles Day” Preparation Committee, stated that Tmall respected the real-name report, but the truth about the report was that “a chicken reported on a duck monopolizing the lake”. It implied that the Singles Day was a product of Alibaba, and it was JD that crossed the line.8 The war among e-commerce platforms had become increasingly intense upon the argument between JD and Tmall. As early as in October 2015, JD and Tencent held a press conference, where they announced the “JD-Tencent Plan” and officially formed an alliance. This is the first case of the world for the alliance between social networking and shopping. Subsequently, Alibaba Group cooperated with Suning to publish the latest Singles Day marketing proposal, which realized shopping interconnection with consumers all over China. The open argument between JD and Alibaba finally resulted in the tangled war between e-commerce alliances. On November 1, 2015, a “netizen” released the picture of Zhang Zetian (the newly wedded wife to JD President Liu Qiangdong) carrying a baby. Soon, Zhang Zetian admitted the pregnancy in her Weibo. “Yes, I am pregnant. This little thing can’t wait to come and surprise us before the wedding ceremony. At the moment when we decided to be together, we knew that we would spend our life together and the child would come sooner or later”. “On Nov. 3, JD maternal and child products will have a 6  Fight on the Singles Day! JD Submits a Real-name Report on Alibaba to the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, http://tech.ifeng.com/a/20151103/41500960_0. shtml, 20151103. 7  Tmall Responds to JD’s Report: Competition Only Ends with Customers’ Choice, http:// finance.cnr.cn/txcj/20151104/t20151104_520385191.shtml, 20151104. 8  Ali Responds to JD’s Claim: A Chicken Reports on a Duck? http://news.sina.com. cn/c/20151105/doc-ifxkniur2870298.shtml, 20151105.

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promotion of 250 off for the order over 499. I decide to store some goods for the baby”. Zhang Zetian made full advantage of herself as the boss wife and banged the drum for JD against Tmall in the Singles Day competition. On November 5, Suning, the ally to Alibaba, had published a large advertisement on all mainstream print media in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and all other places titled “Let the woman be a big spender instead of a publicist”. This was obviously and aggressively directed against JD.  Suning even released a series of posters of “To: XD” in the official WeChat account, which were written, “When the boss is powerful, the boss wife will not be the story of headline” and “No woman shall carry a gun in the man’s battlefield of e-commerce”. A cockroach marked with the prohibition symbol was drawn under the text, implying that JD President Liu Qiangdong was not powerful enough.9 Later, JD fought back against Suning with several posters, which said, “You say women shall not carry a gun, I see that women are all queens”, “I have a boss wife anyway, but you shall ask your Mr. Ma whether he is powerful” and so on. Through these posters, JD was satirizing that Suning only dared to join the price war after Alibaba Group invested 28.3 billion yuan on Suning. Therefore, after the incident of “JD’s real-name report”, the open argument between Suning and JD put these e-commerce tycoons in the headlines again. In the prologue to the Singles Day, the fights among e-commerce tycoons had never stopped. In addition to these two representative battles, the entertainment war among them was even more wonderful. For the Singles Day 2015, Alibaba and Hunan TV co-held the large evening party, “Tmall 2015 Singles Day Gala Night”. Held in Beijing Water Cube, the party was directed by Feng Xiaogang and invited numerous domestic and foreign celebrities including Kevin Spacey, Daniel Craig, Chen Yixun, Zhang Liangyin and others. The party had integrated the variety shows, celebrity games and mobile shopping, while consumers could enjoy a new experience of “consumption + entertainment” combining watching, playing and shopping at the same time through TV, network or mobile phone. According to the statistics from Kuyun, a third-party audience rating monitoring company, the live-broadcasted “Tmall 2015 Singles Day Gala Night” has reached a market share as high as 23.1075%, overwhelmingly ranking No. 1 among all programs 9  When the Boss is Powerful, the Boss Wife Will Not Be the Story of Headline. Good Fight! http://www.weihaotui.com/NewsInfo_766.html, 20151106.

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­roadcasted in the same period. The party lasting several hours had b brought in millions of user interactions, and the number of new registrations is more than 20 times of the figure at ordinary times. JD was also reluctant to show weakness in the entertainment war. The JD promotion campaign in the evening of November 10 had involved the core production team of the Voice of China, the Song of China and the King of Mask Singer under Canxing Production Company, and was live broadcasted worldwide through CCTV3, Tencent Video and other major media, finally realizing the goal of performing Singles Day marketing through a musical feast. This music evening invited the celebrities from the programs mentioned above and divided them into two teams: “Jing team” and “Dong team”. Both teams, wearing masks, competed in their singing skills. Strategically, JD started the party half an hour ahead of Alibaba’s Singles Day evening party. However, according to the statistics from Kuyun, by 23:30 on November 10, “JD Evening  - 2015” aired on CCTV3 occupied only 2.6530% of the market, only one-tenth of “Tmall 2015 Singles Day Gala Night”.10 The battle among e-commerce platforms, particularly among e-­commerce tycoons such as Tmall, JD and Suning, never stops, with the commercial war constantly rising one after another. Maybe one day, several e-commerce platforms may cooperate to suppress the development of another platform; and another day, all these e-commerce platforms may go together to disrupt the shopping festival created by another platform. They try every trick to attract the traffic, including advertising, sensationalization, war of words and so on. The e-commerce battle before the Singles Day in 2015 was even more intense, and even personal attacks could be seen. The competition became more vulgar and wilder. Previously when some e-commerce platforms were carrying out promotion activities or producing a shopping carnival, other platforms would obey some unwritten rules of the industry and not disrupt others. However, this rule has been broken, and the competition among platforms will become even fiercer. Nearly all e-commerce platforms had launched their own activities for the Singles Day to attract users. As long as users paid attention to or viewed the website, the e-commerce platform had won the traffic and improved the popularity. To achieve this goal, e-commerce tycoons were unscrupulous in their efforts and applied vulgar marketing, as demonstrated by the cases of e-commerce battles above. 10  Wang Zhoumengyu, Tmall Won in the PK of Singles Day Evening Party, “Shenzhen Metropolis Daily”, 20151111.

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Diversified Marketing Strategies Before the Singles Day No matter how “bloody” the e-commerce battle might seem before the Singles Day, e-commerce tycoons such as Alibaba, JD and Suning had maintained a tacit agreement. By the “argument”, they had built up the new topics, provided the new focuses for the media, increased their own exposure, attracted new users despite the slow growth rate of online shoppers and thus improved the traffic. However, their Singles Day marketing strategies were not confined to the “entertainment party”, but included diversified marketing strategies before the Day. In addition to the all-round price-lowering policy that had been adopted in all previous Singles Days, Alibaba and Suning jointly published the latest Singles Day marketing strategy before 2015 Singles Day, which aimed to achieve shopping interconnection with consumers based on the new commercial outlook covering the whole world and all channels and the new interaction form of “consumption + entertainment”. The specific marketing proposal was as follows: Since November 1, Tmall would successively release more than 100 million red envelopes with different values (maximum to 1111 yuan, with a total amount of 50 million yuan) as well as coupons of 3 billion yuan (each coupon valued 10 yuan) to users at all platforms in a form of “red envelope rain”.11 In the meantime, Tmall under Alibaba Group announced the Beijing strategy that the main battlefield of the “Singles Day” would be transferred from Hangzhou to Beijing. Tmall would allocate global high-quality resources of the ecological system in Beijing in a centralized way, comprehensively update the supply chain service and invest in Beijing market without an upper limit. Tmall also planned for a splendid bell ringing ceremony in the evening of the Singles Day. At 22:30 on November 11, 2015, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) held a remote bell ringing ceremony for the opening of 2015 Tmall Singles Day Global Carnival at Beijing Water Cube. NYSE President Tom Farley was personally present in Water Cube, and rang the two 11  The campaign of “red envelope rain” of Tmall lasted from November 9 to November 11. The “rain” here suggests the large number of red envelopes. To be specific, these red envelopes were issued at 10:00, 16:00 and 20:00 on November 9, 10:00, 16:00 and 19:00 on November 10 and 14:00 on November 11. Consumers could get the red envelopes once they opened the homepage of Tmall or Taobao. Thanks to the large number of red envelopes, if opening Tmall at the above time, consumers would see the red envelopes constantly falling down from the upper right corner. By clicking these red envelopes, consumers might get the lucky money or coupons.

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groups of 11 bronze chimes produced based on the model of chimes in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period that symbolized the Double 11, that is, the Singles Day, jointly with Ma Yun, the Chairman of the Board of Alibaba Group, and Zhang Yong, the CEO of Alibaba Group. The remote bell ringing ceremony of NYSE was only held in global major activities, and this was the first time that the ceremony was held for a Chinese Internet enterprise.12 JD Mall also designed diversified marketing strategies for 2015 Singles Day. Firstly, on October 17, 2015, JD Group and Tencent Group jointly released the new strategic cooperation program—JD-Tencent Plan—that both parties spared no effort to build an innovative business platform named “Pinshang” with their optimum resources and products. Secondly, JD also incorporated the rural market as one of the key projects in this Singles Day campaign. JD Finance gave full play to its advantages in lower-­ level channels, e-commerce and Internet finance, attempted to cover the financial demands of the whole industry chain of farmers and focused on the consumer life in rural areas.13 Thirdly, JD had already initiated the specific promotion activities when Tmall, Taobao, Suning and so on were still preparing for the Singles Day, in order to earn the advantage in time. On October 26, JD Supermarket officially launched the 13-day promotion campaign; and at the same time, JD Wallet and JD Payment started the red envelope activity for instant rebate where online shoppers could save 100 yuan if they buy products worth over 199 yuan of different types every single day. During the whole campaign, users could randomly receive JD coupons, telephone fare coupons, Private Exchequer bonus and so on every day by logging in JD Wallet. JD Supermarket also released large-­ amount coupons such as 100 off from 199 to users in Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang, while these coupons could be used simultaneously with other preferential. At last, JD brought its superiority in logistics into full play and provided the “free” service of warehousing and distribution for merchants. This subsidy policy was issued mainly for the clothing merchants that met certain conditions during the Singles Day campaign. These merchants would be exempted from the distribution-related fee 12  Wang Shan, Ma Yun’s Speech at the Bell Ringing Ceremony: Tmall Singles Day Rooted in China and Advancing to the World, http://www.ithome.com/html/it/188185.htm, 20151111. 13  Wang Zhen, Gan Miaoling, JD: Cross-border E-commerce and Rural E-commerce Will Become the Growth Points of the Singles Day, http://www.yicai.com/news/2015/10/4698487. html, 20151018.

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from October 25 to November 15 and exempted from the corresponding warehousing fee from October 1 to November 30.14 Besides the two major e-commerce platform alliances adopting diversified marketing strategies, others also put great efforts in marketing during the Singles Day period in 2015. For example, VIPS carried out the same promotion efforts with its anniversary campaign to retain its traffic, placed the focus of promotion on overseas choices, stored enough maternal and child products and cosmetics at the bonded warehouses, prepared many light-luxury products in overseas warehouses and completed the goods preparation for the Singles Day by the end of September. In November, its goods in stock were over three times than those in normal times.15 To seize the advantage in time, Gome had started its 2015 Singles Day campaign early since October 28, which was ended by November 12. It mainly concentrated on the household electrical appliances and put great efforts in creating the “Lucky Draw” activity that all users of Gome could join in for the lucky money. In addition, Gome issued the policy of “compensating the expensive and the late”. According to the policy, from October 28 to November 12, if the actual transaction price of major appliances in Gome online was found to be higher than that of JD and Suning, the first user who discovered it could get a 100-yuan coupon; and any user who had bought the commodity would be compensated for the price difference and a 300-yuan coupon. During the Singles Day campaign, Gome made a promise on “same-day delivery” of major appliances in 15 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and so on. For Beijing users, Gome Online additionally promised “compensating the late”, which meant it would compensate 200 yuan to the consumer for each late delivery.16 Moreover, Gome also adopted the marketing strategy of “online + offline” coupling during the Singles Day period, thus ­involving the physical stores of Gome in this war as a support, and had achieved good performance.

14  JD Provides “Free” Service of Warehousing and Distribution to Merchants during the Singles Day Campaign, http://money.163.com/15/1014/10/B5SNF3C30 0253B0H. html, 20151014. 15  VIPS Even Had a Communication with Customs in Advance for the Singles Day, http:// www.ebrun.com/20151026/153208.shtml, 20151026. 16  Gome Online Prepared for the War of the Singles Day and Announced “Compensating the Expensive and the Late”, http://finance.ifeng.com/a/20151027/14041552_0.shtml, 20151027.

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Marketing Chaos During the Singles Day Period Though all major e-commerce enterprises had made every effort to compete in 2015 Singles Day period and adopted multiple marketing strategies in the hope of having a finger in the pie of the Singles Day, it was undeniable that the leading roles of e-commerce in 2015 Singles Day were still the two alliances of e-commerce tycoons “Alibaba + Suning” and “Tencent + JD”. In the previous year, the merger in Chinese online shopping market has attained a total amount of tens of billions, giving rise to two monopolies of the market: Ali System and Tencent System. This situation had been further intensified by the formation of the two major e-commerce alliances during the 2015 Singles Day period. The competition between both parties was becoming vicious and vulgar and their marketing strategies began to deviate from their original intentions. This had been evidently demonstrated by the marketing chaos in 2015 Singles Day. The e-commerce platform mainly builds a framework to attract a great number of merchants and it means nothing if no merchant settles in the platform, just like that the department stores with excellent infrastructure make no sense and even suffer from loss if without any merchant. The consumer constitutes the traffic, while the merchant functions as an entity to support the conversion of the traffic. E-commerce platforms have their own thoughts about attracting merchants. They will consider the positioning of the platform. For example, with a higher positioning, Tmall is attracting the high-class domestic brands and even international well-­ known brands, to manifest its fashion and globalization. This positioning of Tmall had been highlighted during the 2015 Singles Day period. More than a hundred top brands from Europe and the United States announced their entry to Tmall International right before the Singles Day, indicating that they would all join in this globalized consumption carnival. These famous merchants included the long-standing famous retailers such as Messi Department Store from US, House of Fraser from UK and SUPATURE from Japan, global top supermarket groups such as Costco of US and Metro from Germany, global FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) groups such as Procter& Gamble and Unilever, and duty-free groups such as Laox from Japan and Parislook from France.17 In terms of the traffic, the entry of international famous brands would bring more 17  2015 Tmall Singles Day Global Carnival Was Kicked off, Involving More than 5,000 Famous Brands from 25 Countries, http://hznews.hangzhou.com.cn/jingji/content/201510/14/ content_5946314.htm, 20151014.

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consumers to improve the reputation and underline the high profile of the e-commerce platform, thus attracting more traffic. In this way, the win-­ win effect was achieved. Through these international famous brands, consumers would have a deeper impression about the e-commerce platform. By comparison, Taobao, another important platform and the origin of Alibaba Group and the important representative of C2C websites in China, showed a great difference in positioning and brand strategy with Tmall. It gathers the medium- and small-sized sellers starting their own businesses. A sharp contract can be seen between the two pillar platforms under the same e-commerce group. Alibaba, on the one hand, was attracting global top brands and selling the products from all countries in China, and, on the other hand, was sued by Gucci for selling fake products in Taobao, leading to the awkward position and marketing chaos. However, as the central character of Alibaba, Ma Yun’s response to the lawsuit surprised everybody. As reported by Forbes website on November 6, when talking about Gucci suing Alibaba for infringing its trademark and selling fake commodities, Ma Yun almost jumped up from the sofa and said: “I don’t care if we lose this lawsuit and compensate”, “but we will win the dignity and respect”.18 Though Alibaba Group has started to crack down on fake commodities since its emergence and even established the special working team for this purpose, there is no denying that Taobao has become the paradise of fake commodities worldwide. More than a million of middle- and small-sized sellers are selling fake commodities, so it is impossible to complete the anti-fake task rapidly. Moreover, though the anti-fake action will improve the international image of Alibaba, a large number of small-sized sellers of Taobao will lose their livelihood, thus harming the fundamental interests of Alibaba. It is no wonder that Ma Yun responded to Gucci’s lawsuit in that way, unexpected but reasonable. This is the same case with other e-commerce platforms. For example, JD Mall started to allow the entry of third-party merchants during its expansion, which achieved the scale merit for JD, but meanwhile broke the previous myth of “no fake commodity in JD”. Particularly in the special time of sharp rise of sales volume such as the Singles Day, it has become a common issue encountered by all e-commerce platforms in China on how to sustain the platform popularity while eradicating fake commodities and improving the competitiveness of the platform. 18  Ma Yun Jumped up When Talking about Gucci’s Lawsuit Against Alibaba Selling the Fake and Said They Would Never Reconcile, http://business.sohu.com/20151109/n425683389. shtml, 20151109.

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Besides the fake commodities in wholesales, the marketing chaos in the Singles Day campaign was also embodied in the false “product in vogue” and “click farming” that was conducted to inspire consumers’ impulse buying. Generally, the popular product of a high sales volume, a high rating and a price lower than the cost is the so-called product in vogue. However, as a matter of fact, a large batch of “products in vogue” during the Singles Day period were artificially cultivated. According to e-­commerce insiders, it was just a marketing mean to widely spread the list of “products in vogue” before Singles Day. The consumer could not judge whether the product was in vogue, because the price was only compared to the original price; and in fact, the selling price of the commodity was always lower than the original price, that is, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, even without any promotion activity. The real “products in vogue” could be seen only in the company’s database. The tracking investigation by a journalist of the New Cultural Newspaper had proved the falsity of “products in vogue”. Since November 2, the New Cultural Newspaper journalist followed and tracked the prices of 125 commodities in vogue in Taobao, Tmall and so on, and discovered that only less than 60% of these commodities had their prices lowered compared to the prices before the campaign. It was inconsistent with “the lowest price of a year” that was said in the advertisement of the “product in vogue”. Or, the stores might have the farmers write the positive rating and post buyer’s pictures, or the stores might prepare the positive ratings and buyer’s pictures and send them to the farmers to post on the platform. Many stores had made themselves popular by click farming,19 good rating farming and so on before the Singles Day campaign. Through the low-price attraction of the “products in vogue”, the good ratings accumulated through “click farming” and the special activities during the Singles Day period such as flash sale, gifting and preferential, the stores effectively created the atmosphere to stimulate consumption and inspired online consumers’ impulse buying of some commodities they would hardly use in daily life. 19  Click farming is a marketing strategy that is often used but rarely mentioned in public. It refers to the false transaction adopted by some merchants to get a better search ranking for a product or the store, so as to improve the sales volume of the store or the rank of the store or product. In this way, consumers may more likely visit the store and view commodities. This strategy is often adopted before promoting the product in vogue or carrying out promotion activities, or when advancing the overall reputation of the whole store, or in daily traffic-attracting activities.

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In the Singles Day carnival where all the people were busy buying, common netizens were vulnerable to the influence of the whole environment, then started impulse buying and became a big spender. However, online consumers, though they are still passionate about shopping now, have become more skilled in online shopping. They will shop around to compare the products, buy things based on their own preferences, feelings and the prices, and return the commodities they purchased due to the false rating or false information about the “product in vogue”. 2015 Singles Day was the first online shopping festival after the release of the newly amended Law on the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interests. With the enforcement of provisions like “commodities bought online can be returned for no reason within seven days”, consumers were enjoying the right to regret and found the legal support to safeguard their own interests in online shopping. Therefore, Alibaba had sold 186 million freight insurances on November 11, and about 20% of commodities were turned every day after the festival.20 In addition to above underhanded activities, e-commerce marketing chaos during the Singles Day period in 2015 was also embodied in many other ways. For example, they cheated about the price by raising the price before lowering it; they sold seconds at best quality prices and sold the left-over commodities, overstocked commodities and even defective commodities; they sold commodities by excessively beautifying the pictures with Photoshop technology; e-commerce platforms asked for high-­ amount promotion fee from the merchants during the carnival and so on. As seen from these phenomena, despite the rapid development of the e-commerce market in China, a healthy and favorable Internet market order has not been formed. Therefore, we shall not have the essential problems of the market operation concealed by the bustling and hustling Singles Day.

4.3   The Constructed Heat: Analysis of the Innate Characters of the Singles Day It has been ten years since 2009 when Taobao released the Singles Day marketing strategy and made this very day a national carnival of shopping. Superficially, the Singles Day has been expanding without any stop until 20  Chen Ling, Shi Weiqin, The Wave of Commodities Return after the Singles Day, Twenty Percent Each Day, “Quanzhou Evening News”, 20151117.

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now. However, essentially, the campaign, as a constructed heat, is cooling down and returning to rationality, since consumers are becoming more rational and merchants pay too much attention to sales but ignore the service and commodity quality. The efforts of e-commerce platforms do not necessarily get the high profits as the return, and numerous merchants have to sacrifice profits to boost the popularity. At the same time, e-­commerce platforms are fiercely competing with each other. In this case, though the Singles Day campaign still attracts wide attention, it is no longer one of the best channels for merchants to earn high profits and achieve wild growth. The Profit Issue Despite the High Sales Volume Beyond all doubt, the Singles Day marketing campaign realizes a high sales volume every year. It is still the height among all marketing activities based on festivals in terms of the total transaction amount and the quantity of commodities sold. Compared with the past, some new trends could be seen from the Singles Day marketing campaign in 2015. For example, it seemed that the merchants exerted all their strength and wisdom to attract consumers, adopted all kinds of marketing means including the lower price, commodity advertisement and so on, and launched the endless contention for customers, with the final purpose to win more traffic, maintain consumers’ loyalty and acquire high profits. However, practically, even if the customer bought the product at the store, the loyalty had not been constructed. Most customers would pay little attention to the store after the shopping on the Singles Day. Furthermore, the merchants’ profits would not be too high due to the lower price and the rising return rate. China introduced the Internet more than 20 years ago and ushered in e-commerce over a decade ago. The period of enlightenment for the Internet economy is gone. It is now difficult to make huge economic benefits merely by the marketing measures that grab people’s attention and inspire people’s experiences. The Singles Day marketing campaign with a seven-year history has consumed the population dividend. The marketing goal can hardly be attained by bombarding customers with online marketing measures with the hope of increasing the proportion of online shopping and improving the profits. Merchants need not only to enhance the sales, but also to retain customers and build a profit-making sales mode. In the meantime, the Internet carrier has been transformed from the fixed equipment such as the computer to the mobile device such as mobile

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phone. Along with the rise of the Internet economy, human society has stepped from the traditional Internet age to the mobile Internet age.21 The smartphone enables the more convenient access to the Internet and advances the transition of the Internet economic mode. In the traditional Internet age, online marketing was designed more depending on traffic distribution; and in the mobile Internet age, online sales mostly rely on mobile social networking platforms such as WeChat and QQ and the word-of-mouth communication on commodity quality, service and price, and also attach importance to the timely and convenient interaction and users’ personal experiences. On this basis, the rush marketing mode focusing on quantity accumulation will find difficulties in adapting to the online marketing platforms mainly based on the mobile Internet. E-commerce platforms and their stores pay much attention to the Singles Day marketing campaign and even launch promotion activities with the price similar to or even lower than the cost, but this aggressive marketing strategy may not end up with profits. In particular, the merchants of the e-commerce platforms have seen the significant rise of the sales volume and user quantity in years of Singles Day promotion campaigns, but may not earn high profits and even lose money. E-commerce platforms have won the reputation and status as the leading character of the campaign, while tens of thousands of ordinary merchants pay the bill. The platform exerts strict restrictions on merchants. For example, a brand can only sell at the lowest price at the certain platform and this price cannot be applied in other platforms. Though no profit can be made, the merchants cannot reject the Singles Day promotion campaign. In addition to the platform’s expectation and requirement, the merchants also have their own reasons to make this decision. If a merchant refuses to involve in the campaign, it may be exposed to the legitimation crisis22 in the customer or the public’s view, and has to bear the invisible conformity pressure. Though the attractive sales record and massive good ratings will bring in potential customers for the merchant, there is no substantive meaning to certain degree since these records and ratings, as well as the rank of commodities, can be manipulated under21  Chen Yaqi, Exploration and Analysis of the Development Laws and Path of E-commerce in the Age of the Internet, “Hebei Academic Journal”, 2015 (5). 22  Meyer described the convergence requirement of the formal institutional structure and the corresponding legitimation dilemma in details; see Meyer, John W., and Brian Rowan, “Institutional Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony”, American Journal of Sociology, 1977(83), pp. 340–363.

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handedly and even be artificially set with money. In a word, from the perspective of actual profits, the Singles Day marketing campaign has become the “chicken rib”, tasteless to eat but wasteful to discard. Transaction Traps Behind the Shopping Carnival During the Singles Day marketing campaign, ordinary netizens will experience kinds of transaction traps when shopping. Aiming to increase the sales volume and earn profits, the merchants spare no effort to perform Singles Day marketing. However, it is quite difficult for them to make profits without setting some sales traps due to the fierce competition, cruel environment, constantly lowering commodity price that is even lower than the cost, other fees such as the express cost, human cost and coordination expense, and the fee submitted to the platform. Transaction traps are gradually produced based on the diversified marketing means and underhanded trick in product supply of the merchant, which can hardly be recognized and avoided by consumers. The marketing chaos mentioned above lays the foundation for the transaction traps set up by the merchant. As to the merchant, the profit from selling ten genuine products cannot be compared to the profit from selling one fake product in the Singles Day promotion campaign. Therefore, many merchants buy some delicate knockoffs, pass the knockoffs for the genuine products and directly send to the consumers. Similar transaction traps also include selling overstocked, defective or reworked commodities to customers and so on. In this kind of transactions, though customers have bought the commodities at an extremely low price, they will feel unpleasant owing to the old-fashioned style and low quality of commodities. The merchants set another transaction trap in the promotion of “products in vogue”. The merchants often make a commodity of leading sales volume and good ratings of the star product of the Singles Day marketing and claim that the lowest price is offered. However, the truth is that they raise the price in prior to lowering the price, so that the final price is similar to that in normal times. Customers may fall into this trap if they do not pay much attention to the commodity at ordinary times and believe that the price of the commodity must be the lowest during the Singles Day period. Therefore, they buy the commodities without the least hesitation. If these customers view their purchased commodities after the campaign

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and find that the campaign price is no much lower than that at ordinary times, their enthusiasm for shopping on the Singles Day will be dispelled. The Singles Day transaction traps can be easily set up based on the “good ratings” of commodities and the reputation grade of stores, which can be artificially achieved by means of “click farming” and so on. Moreover, they can employ paid supporters to produce false sales information and good ratings; cooperate with the platform to delete the negative comments background; pay to the platform to escalate the reputation grade and so on. The only goal of all these means lies in attracting consumers’ attention and making them pay in Singles Day marketing campaign. Unaware of the truth, many customers have fallen into the transaction traps set by the platform and merchants. These sales traps are too many to be listed here. Some of them are set up independently by the merchant, while some are established jointly by the merchant and the platform. Even those independently set up by the merchant have mostly acquired tacit permission of the platform. At present, the merchants and platforms frequently benefit from these transaction traps since customers can hardly avoid them. However, as the Internet economy is getting mature, this kind of fraudulent transactions will be controlled by the government and boycotted by consumers in the future, and finally exert an adverse influence on the platforms and merchants. Increasingly Rational Online Consumers A great number of customers have fallen into consumption traps and been tricked in the Singles Day marketing campaigns throughout all these years. However, as the Law on the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interests presented the concern of and support to online shopping, consumers are no longer the “silent lamb” trampled upon at will and become ­increasingly rational with increased awareness of rights. Rather than suppressing their indignation, they reported to and played the game with the merchant and platform and safeguarded their own interests by returning the goods or other means. Right after the emergence of the Internet economy, consumers had few experiences on online shopping, so they felt curious about it and might easily be irrational in shopping, bringing high profits to the merchants. Circumstances change with the passage of time. With the development of the Internet economy, consumers nowadays regard online shopping as a normal consumer behavior like doing shopping in physical stores instead

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of novel experiences. To be specific, online shoppers are becoming more rational in ideas and behaviors, while their awareness of game playing and computing in online consumption are supported by the increasingly perfect regulations. At the conceptual level, consumers’ points of view about online shopping become more rational. They will not be attracted only by the beautiful pictures of commodities or tempted by the good ratings of products, but they will combine online shopping with physical-store shopping and do shopping rationally. As online shopping has become a part of consumers’ life for years, consumers now are viewing online platforms as a channel of consumption, rather than pursuing the perfect and pleasant shopping experiences previously. In their eyes, online shopping may not be the optimum choice no matter how convenient it is, as physical stores also provide unique experiences. In addition to consumers’ increasingly rational attitude toward online shopping, they are more mathematical in practice. When shopping in e-commerce platforms, consumers are no longer attracted to the beautiful pictures and low prices, but they will compare the commodities that they really need in different online stores and even in physical stores before they decide to buy. Some consumers are even more rational. Free from the influence of online store advertisements, they directly experience the commodities in physical stores, later search for relevant commodities online, compare the prices, examine the reputation grade of stores, judge the commodity quality and finally make a decision. Faced with diversified marketing strategies of all e-commerce platforms during the Singles Day period, many consumers are cool headed, reject the constantly emerging marketing chaos, are on guard against the transaction traps and buy things they need at a cheap price, instead of being a blind big spender. In the meantime, as the Internet economy was getting mature, the government was concerned about the marketing chaos and transaction traps designed by Internet e-commerce platforms and amended the Law on the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interests before 2015 Singles Day, which allowed consumers to return the commodities for no reason within seven days. This provision renders consumers the “right to regret” in terms of online shopping and supports their rational consumption. Besides the support by the formal regulations, some insurance units have also designed relevant systems to protect consumers’ rights and benefits online. When paying for commodities online, consumers can purchase the freight insurance by paying a few cents, and then the insurance company

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will bear the freight for the return of goods. Many rational consumers often purchase the freight insurance if they cannot assure the quality of the commodity they purchase. In other words, they are considering about the possibility of goods return when they are shopping. According to statistics, the return rate of commodities at many e-commerce platforms after the Singles Day approached to 20%. This situation fully reflects that online consumers are becoming increasingly rational and are more mature in shopping. In a word, though the 2015 Singles Day marketing campaign seemed still popular, presenting a high sales volume and a large scale, essentially, the online sales activity had varied from the past. It was actually the heat intentionally constructed by the merchants and platforms. The platforms aimed to draw more attention and attract more users through the hustling and bustling event, while the merchants often sacrificed profits to boost the popularity due to the fierce competition despite the high transaction volume. To make the best profits, the merchants cooperated with the platforms to set up different types of traps in the cyberspace. However, the population dividend of the Internet had been consumed, online shoppers became increasingly rational and regulations on these fraudulent transactions had been issued. The merchants and platforms could hardly gain great profits or substantial interests merely depending on the extensive marketing strategies and the vicious and vulgar competition.

4.4   Dilemma of E-commerce Transformation: Problems and Challenges Since the emergence of Internet economy in China, from the rapid but wild growth at the early stage to the current fierce competition, the e-commerce market is getting mature now and is meanwhile exposed to the increasingly tough environment. In the past, the government blindly encouraged the development of e-commerce while, at present, the supervision and control in this area have been strengthened. The Internet population bonus has been gradually consumed. The original development path of e-commerce seeking quick success and instant benefits no longer adapts to the current market environment, and the weaknesses of the e-commerce market operation are becoming more evident.

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The Market Development Path Seeking Quick Success and Instant Benefits Chinese e-commerce market had learned many foreign experiences at the initial stage of development after the Internet economy emerged. However, its development path also presents unique Chinese characteristics due to the large differences in the institutional, cultural and social structure with the west. The social environment had greatly contributed to the huge success of Internet e-commerce groups represented by Alibaba in China. Currently, though remarkable achievements have been made in the market economy in China after the three-decade development, some obvious defects can be seen in the market system due to its inconsistencies with the existing social structure, history and culture, living habits and moral ideas. The first defect lies in the ambiguous definition of property rights, leading to the too high organizational cost and meanwhile bringing in special business opportunities for e-commerce groups. Ronald Coase pointed out there was a transaction cost in the market,23 and, as an important foundation, the enterprise could lower the transaction cost in the market. However, the enterprise also bears the corresponding organizational cost. Considering the current institutional environment, it is difficult to lower the transaction cost through business mergers and reorganizations in Chinese market. The fact that the enterprise scale in China has not expanded to a certain degree in recent years demonstrates that the enterprise cannot replace the market due to the ambiguous definition of property rights and most merchants still solve the problems through the market. Therefore, after the Internet economy showed up in China, the emergence of the e-commerce market that was actively supported by the government with little supervision had significantly reduced the transaction cost. Under the circumstances, many merchants have attained a high popularity and comparative advantages right after joining the e-­commerce platform. Secondly, another important defect of the market operation embodies in the monopoly of the retail market caused by the monopoly of physical stores. The physical stores have established their own channels for stocking of goods, thus resulting in the monopoly. Quite a few factors have contributed to the generation of closed channels, including the artificial market segmentation based on local protection, the too small scale of  R.H. Coase, “The Nature of the Firm”, Economica, New Series, 1937 (16), pp. 386–405.

23

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manufacturing enterprises to pay the fixed expense for sales and so on. The monopoly of physical stores such as Suning and Gome is derived from the monopoly of channels for stocking of goods. The high entry cost of physical stores resulting from the Market monopoly has, to some extent, expedited the emergence of the e-commerce platform. The cost to enter the e-commerce platform was low at the early stage, making it a lively sales channel for middle- and small-sized enterprises and merchants. Thirdly, with the law and the contract as the foundation, the market economy stresses on rationality, pursues interests and is required to treat every consumer on an equal footing. However, the market operators in China, subject to traditional ethical principles and existing customs, are exposed to dual personalities and dual trading in market transactions, that is, they often adopt completely different transaction behaviors against acquaintances and strangers,24 which runs counter to the market spirit and hinders the generation of a healthy and stable market order. The Internet embraces the core values of equality, freedom and openness. Therefore, the e-commerce platform built upon the Internet also treats each consumer equally in daily operation, reflects the core values of equality, freedom and openness, and solves the differentiation of the transaction mode against different customers in the physical market to some degree. Finally, to assure the national financial safety, Chinese government has imposed strict supervision and restriction on the financial industry, which promotes the financial stability but at the same time prevents the free access to the financial industry. The Internet finance has achieved rapid development and led a new trend in China due to its novelty and no supervision or restriction. It brings energy to the development of Chinese financial market, but also poses severe challenges against the traditional financial industry. The Internet finance shows evident superficial characteristics of financial innovation, but further discussion and study on its essence are needed: is it an institutional innovation, or an evasion of supervision or institutional arbitrage? Despite all these remarkable achievements made until know, the e-­ commerce market still has numerous institutional defects, largely depends on the flexible utilization of existing institutional rules and seeks quick success and instant benefits that acts contrary to the market spirit and Chinese traditional business defects. The wild development of the e-commerce economy was greatly related to the government’s support  Zhang Jun, Differentiation and Integration of Transaction Modes Based on the Market Order, “Study and Exploration”, 2015 (12). 24

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and little supervision. This is because the e-commerce market is the new economic growth point and no relevant supervision regulation has been established. Along with the growth and development of the e-commerce market, frauds are becoming increasingly common and demands on market supervision become strident. One of the focuses and difficulties for the subsequent market construction is to establish and further improve the market supervision system against the e-commerce market. The entry threshold for manufacturers and merchants to the e-­commerce platform was low at the early stage. However, as the Internet development is getting mature, the threshold is becoming higher, and the channel monopoly of physical stores inclines to appear in this sector. The burden of enterprises and merchants increases, while the comparative advantages of the e-commerce platform to the physical store are weakening. Most e-commerce platforms often advertise for themselves and carry out promotional activities genuinely at the beginning of their establishment. The high-quality and low-cost products and thoughtful services help them acquire favorable comments from consumers. However, after having expanded to a large scale, many e-commerce platforms start to seek quick success and instant benefits and have fake commodities and frauds commonly seen. When meeting with frauds, consumers often find no channel of complaint against the large-scale platform, so the e-commerce platforms leave customers a bad impression of “big stores bullying customers”. Chinese traditional business culture features diversified forms and is divided into different local business cultures represented by Anhui Merchants and Shanxi Merchants. However, the universal qualities can be found in different business cultures, that is, merchants must adhere to honesty, good faith and benevolence to survive and develop. When examining the development process of the e-commerce platform, it can be seen that quite a lot of operators are holding values contrary to Chinese traditional business culture, and the false marketing, fake commodities, defective services and valuing the interests above credibility are widespread. In conclusion, though e-commerce platforms in China have attained rapid development and remarkable achievements, many platforms have made use of the institutional defects and regulatory holes in market operation, started to seek quick success and instant benefits, violated general laws of market development and discarded the essence of Chinese traditional business culture in terms of commercial values. The current development path of e-commerce will face severe challenges once the market supervision system is established and improved.

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Innovative or Shortsighted: Entertainment-oriented Marketing Strategy Publicity and marketing lay an important foundation for e-commerce. In view of the Singles Day marketing campaign, the market promotion and publicity of e-commerce are becoming less innovative but more vulgar. Though it can catch customers’ eyes, the publicity and marketing lacking imagination will exert a restriction on the long-term development of e-commerce. The eye-catching marketing campaign that consumes the Internet population dividend had realized impressive effects at the beginning of the Internet economy. Take the Singles Day marketing campaign as an instance: e-commerce had turned an insignificant day into an important shopping day, proving the huge success of e-commerce marketing. However, as the Internet economy is getting mature, consumers are becoming more rational and online consumption turns from a fresh experience to normal rational purchasing experience, this entertainment-­ oriented marketing strategy shows little effect and exerts certain adverse influence on e-commerce. In order to attract more consumers to follow the Singles Day with interest and do shopping, e-commerce platforms have designed diversified marketing strategies while merchants also launch fierce competitions in marketing. The e-commerce platforms even spend heavily to invite famous stars to draw customers’ attention and incorporate the marketing activities in entertainment programs to attract the young, in the hope that the young people will lead the social public to more deeply involve in online consumption. However, most young people have no interest in the entertainment activity, let alone lead others. It turns out the platforms and merchants have paid a lot of money but produced very little effect, sacrificing profits to boost the popularity. The competition among e-commerce platforms has transformed from the original mild and equal competition to a farce where they deceive or blackmail each other, start public arguments, get personal and compete vulgarly. This is not the focus of this report that whether they are truly engaged in a life-and-death struggle or conducting entertainment-oriented marketing means to attract people’s attention or both. The author is concerned only about what these farces of vulgar competition mean to the e-commerce market. The vulgar and fierce competitions among e-commerce platforms not only imply the development dilemma of the e-commerce market, but also reflect the urgent demands of market transformation. These fierce competi-

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tions violate the core spirit of fair competition and rational calculation of the market, run counter to Chinese traditional business culture that stresses on honesty and even cause legal disputes. This chaotic market order is the consequence of e-commerce platforms snatching customers and seeking popularity as well as the constantly decreasing sales profits and rising subsistence crisis. After a short period of wild growth, the weaknesses of e-commerce platform’s development mode seeking quick success and instant benefits are becoming increasingly apparent. The entertainment-­ oriented marketing strategy that seems bustling actually reflects the ineffectiveness of the publicity strategies of online merchants. The e-commerce platforms must consider their future under the background of clearer regulations, a sounder legal system, a more mature market and more rational customers. Lack of Development Rules The online economic mode based on the Internet technology is undoubted an emerging industry. Therefore, the government has not formulated any clearly defined rule, but, instead, has regarded it as a fruit of Internet technology innovation and industry upgrading and encouraged its development particularly in the context of “Internet+”. As to the operation process of the e-commerce platform, the platform builds a convenient interactive platform between online consumers and merchants based on the Internet, realizes the seamless connection between suppliers and demanders, and cuts down on many intermediate links. The in-depth interaction between suppliers and demanders has constituted the process of consumption and distribution. In the meantime, the e-commerce platform depending on the Internet technology makes the consumers’ personalized “customization” possible.25 Making use of no development rule and institutional loopholes, e-­commerce platforms had accumulated capital and improved popularity at the early stage and reached a large scale. Along with the further development of the e-commerce market, the marketing chaos and fraudulent transactions are intensified and constantly expand in the cyberspace due to the increasingly fierce competition, leading to severe disorder of the e-commerce market. Due to the loopholes of supervision and the lack of development rules, consumers can hardly safeguard their interests through 25  Yang Jirui et al., Thoughts about the Transformation of Consumption Mode in the Context of “Internet +”, “Consumer Economics”, 2015 (12).

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regular means when they are deceived in online shopping. They have no other choice than bargaining with the store owners and proposing their claims for rights. The majority often choose to make concessions to avoid trouble and accept the bad results. However, being a relatively mature market, the Internet economy will not allow the constant threat of fraudulent transactions or the lack of regulations on rational development. The functional departments of government and the social public have noticed the chaos of the Internet market and have adopted the compulsory and flexible countermeasures to regulate on the anomie of transaction behaviors in the market system. Relevant governmental departments start to precisely position the chaos of the Internet economy, make use of the “effect of the late comer” of the Internet economy, draw lessons from developed countries, design the normative systems, improves relevant laws, construct the laws on rational development and thus regulate on the disorder of market transactions. Aiming at the e-commerce market full of fake commodities, the government has improved some specific provisions in the Law on the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interests, which protect customers by safeguarding their right to return goods and effectively punish the merchants selling fake commodities. No longer being indifferent to the widespread knock-off products, the government not only perfects relevant laws but also indirectly punishes relevant merchants through the platform. Moreover, some governmental departments are developing the Internet market supervision system. For example, relevant institutional regulations are issued against a popular Internet finance business, to assure the financial safety and the stability of the real financial industry and gradually form a normative system of the Internet financial market. In conclusion, the government has supported the emergence and growth of the Internet economy with an open mind, but this attitude will not last forever. As the e-commerce market is now exposed to the chaos of marketing and widespread fraudulent transactions that violate the market spirit of honesty, the market manager bears a compelling obligation to design the rules on rational development and construct a sound supervision system. Once the strict supervision system and rational development rules are formulated, the existing development path and pattern of the e-commerce market will be encountered with severe challenges. E-commerce platforms and merchants must address the problem: how to transform the development pattern and adapt to the new institutional environment appropriately.

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4.5   Between Deconstruction and Shaping: E-commerce Market Transformation at the Crossroads Though Chinese Internet economy still embraces a huge potential and the marketing chaos and frauds are currently tolerable due to the temporary institutional loopholes and loose market environment, the environment for e-commerce platforms and Internet merchants will gradually become more normative along with the establishment of development regulations, improvement of the supervision system, formulation of government policies and increasing rationality of consumers. Their rough marketing strategies and development mode of seeking quick success and instant benefits will encounter sever challenges. The demands on development transformation have been stepped up, and it is of great urgency to discuss on the development path in the future. Rise of Network Society: Market Transformation Driven by Social Changes Looking back to the development process, Chinese Internet economy has brought energy to the economic development in China, reset the direction of economic development and contributed greatly to the economic growth. According to Hua Min, the Internet economy has made contributions in three aspects. Firstly, the Internet innovation creates a brand new market for the economic development in China, which, similar to a platform, shows no hierarchical attribute like traditional market units. Secondly, the Internet economy has introduced a new transaction technology to China, the electronic technology, which plays an essential role in economic transactions. Thirdly, the Internet economy is essentially a kind of market innovation that does not create the real social wealth for China.26 Besides, the author also believes that the e-commerce market has brought about many new work types and more jobs to Chinese society. As stated by Tang Kuang and others, the cloud-related work in e-commerce economy has rendered a great number of Internet works, while social members in the Internet age have several new types of work to choose. The e-commerce platform not only creates more jobs in traditional indus26  Hua Min, Alibaba: Whether the Internet Financial Innovation Creates the Real Social Wealth, “Exploration and Free Views”, 2014 (12).

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tries (such as the express industry), but also produces more new employment forms such as online store customer service personnel and online store decorators.27 The rapid rise of the e-commerce market is closely linked with the major changes in current China. In the over-two-decade history of the Internet in China, the network has developed from a privilege of the minority to the material benefits for the masses. According to The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China released by China Internet Network Information Center, by December 2015, the number of netizens in China had reached 688 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 50.3%, suggesting that more than half of Chinese people had been connected to the Internet; and the number of mobile netizens had attained 620 million, indicating that 90.1% of netizens got on the Internet through mobile phone. The data not only reveals the accelerated cyberization in China, but also suggests the fundamental changes of online shopping from the perspective of the e-commerce market. To be specific, customers no longer stare at the computer screen at certain times to search for high-quality and low-price commodities, but follow commodities through the mobile client anytime and anywhere and buy things rationally. Therefore, online shopping has become a kind of customary daily consumption. The huge Internet population dividend, free market environment and loose supervision system at the early stage had contributed to the rapid development of e-commerce platforms and quick growth of numerous Internet financial platforms, creating the miracle of Chinese Internet economic development. The great achievements made by the Internet economic form represented by Alibaba (Tmall and Taobao) in China also largely attribute to the extremely low cost of Chinese logistics industry, especially the P2P logistics (the last kilometer).28 Expressmen riding the electric tricycle can be seen at every corner of China, no matter in the crowded street or the quiet residential community, in a busy city or a leisure town. They are always calling the shoppers with one hand and holding the handlebar with another hand. This is one of the important scenes in our social life. The cheap labor makes inestimable contributions to the prosperity and devel27  Tang Kuang et al., From Regular Employment to Cloud Work, “Journal of Learning”, 2015 (6). 28  Hua Min, Alibaba: Whether the Internet Financial Innovation Creates the Real Social Wealth, “Exploration and Free Views”, 2014 (12).

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opment of e-commerce, which can hardly be attained in western countries of expensive labor.29 The rapid development of the e-commerce platform is closely associated with the changes of the Internet society; and, conversely, the new changes of Chinese network society will exert an influence on the operation and development of e-commerce economy. Currently, the e-­commerce platforms and the merchants on these platforms are standing at the crossroads of market transformation against the drastic changes of the market environment, where the development rules are being formulated, the strict market supervision system is being constructed, the previously blind consumers are becoming rational, the Internet population dividend is decreasing and the low logistics cost is gradually rising. Normative Development of Internet Business: The Inevitable Trend of E-commerce Transformation As the subject of the Internet economy, the e-commerce platforms have achieved great success in China, and have also encountered numerous development difficulties and challenges. Under the background of the superior and unique market environment, a market culture lacking rationality has been cultivated, and the e-commerce in China takes the development path of seeking quick success and instant benefits. In other words, the Internet economy built upon the Internet technology shall inherit the core advantages of the Internet and be deeply embedded in the Internet, creating an innovative economic form perfectively integrating knowledge, technology and information. However, practically, the Internet economy centering on e-commerce in China fails in the profound combination with the Internet, but only produces a business model based on the Internet technology platform; it only utilizes the technology in a superficial way with few technical breakthrough or innovation; and the reckless knock-off and imitation of products and marketing strategies are widely spread, showing no strength in product creation and marketing innovation. More importantly, though rooted in China, Chinese Internet economy actually serves the international market, so the transboundary 29  When staying in the US as a visiting scholar, the author had purchased products from e-commerce platforms. The delivery men there only put the commodities in front of the house according to the delivery note without calling the consumer, which was unsafe for the commodities. It also reflected and proved the great efforts of Chinese delivery men.

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Internet economy is necessarily exposed to the global competition and market regulations. For example, international brands will not remain indifferent to the reckless imitation of their products in Chinese e-­commerce market. The lawsuit filed by Gucci against Taobao is only the start. Along with the increasingly normative market and improved laws, more brands will stand out to safeguard their own interests in the future, to fight against the knock-off and fake products. As the domestic environment for market development is now not as loose as before and the competition is increasingly intensified, the existing development mode of e-commerce in under great pressure; at the same time, along with the rise of the global market, the international market will exert a direct or indirect influence on domestic e-commerce market, bringing in severe challenges against the development of Chinese e-­commerce platforms. For example, though international e-commerce enterprises represented by Amazon from the US had entered the Chinese market early, their development pattern in China was a little different and presented the characteristics of Chinese e-commerce in their operations. However, with the deepening globalization, the development mode of e-commerce all around the world will tend to be consistent, which will enhance the operation efficiency, but meanwhile greatly challenge the existing development of Chinese e-commerce. Domestic e-commerce enterprises will meet with severe subsistence crisis if they fail to correctly cope with the difficulties, transform the development mode appropriately and construct a higher efficient development path of the Internet economy. The existing development mode of e-commerce market violates the market spirit and core values of Chinese traditional business culture, but e-commerce enterprises can still gain rich profits due to the new technology, government’s support and relatively loose market environment. However, the market environment has changed, and the government’s attitude is transforming. The transformation of e-commerce platforms has become an inevitable trend. Far-sighted e-commerce tycoons shall be prepared for danger, learn the advanced experiences from foreign e-commerce enterprises and explore the efficient development path that matches the market spirit, integrates the values of Chinese traditional business culture and has the e-commerce deeply embedded in the Internet technology platform.

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The E-commerce Economic Mode Embedded with the Core of the Internet The Internet economy is essentially the in-depth combination of the Internet and economy. It is a new economic form that perfectly integrates the information creation and delivery, knowledge production and application, technology research, development and innovation, instant interaction and element, and so on. The business mode based on the Internet has subverted the existing business pattern and features following marked characteristics distinguished from the previous. (1) Replacing the technology research and development, the community platform has become the major isolating mechanism of an enterprise; (2) the community is considered as the heterogeneous resources of an enterprise and is playing a decisive role in product design; (3) and crossover collaboration has become the “new normal” in business.30 The logic of community is of great significance to the Internet economy. To be specific, similar to the customer-­ oriented C2B business pattern, the logic of community leads to the change of the relationship between the brand and the consumer: from the one-­ way value delivery to the two-way collaboration. In regard to the two-way value collaboration, customers participate in the process of value creation as a community, while the information communication is also considered as the process of value interaction. Consumers take an active part in the Internet economy for knowledge creation and information communication. For example, among the best sellers of the New York Times since 2006, some books have recorded and explained the “explosion” of the information created by users, such as Wikinomics, Crowdsourcing, The Wisdom of Crowds and Makers.31 In the network society, a great many network grassroots have created their own products independently, giving rise to the magnificent “maker culture”, which is also one of the characteristics of the Internet economy development. The maker culture refers to the phenomenon of the community, comprising the professionals and amateurs dedicated to personal manufacturing, is established and constantly expanding. Their products may be a technical device, open-source hardware or software, fashion, home deco-

30  Luo Min, Li Liangyu, The Innovation of Business Modes in the Internet Age: From the Perspective of Value Creation, “China Industrial Economics Journal”, 2015 (1). 31  Wang Xingquan, Research on Chinese Information Consumption Based on the Unified Internet Platform, “Social Sciences”, 2014 (1).

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rations and all things that can be used in real life.32 These all kinds of creative things can be sold by means of network platforms. In this case, an innovative Internet economic mode is produced. The e-commerce platforms shall not only draw support from the social public’s ability of knowledge and information creation, but also attach importance to technology research, development and innovation. International e-commerce platforms have made many successful attempts in this respect. For instance, though Amazon is mainly engaged in the sales of industrial products, it has always been stressing on technology research and development. The One-Click technology invented by Amazon has successfully acquired the patent. With this function, users can easily purchase things by one-click. The Internet-based e-commerce platform shall also lay emphasis on building and maintaining specialized division and featured projects. Take the current e-commerce competition structure in the US as an example. American e-commerce platforms have agreed on their specialized division and established their own featured projects in the long-term competition based on the perfect market regulations and supervision system. The e-commerce platforms without any physical store, represented by Amazon and eBay, must confirm on their own features, otherwise it will be difficult for them to develop. Without a physical store, Amazon has a clear positioning and scope of sales, focusing on the large-scale industrial products. Moreover, Amazon has especially constructed several platforms for the sales of commodities returned by customers and some second-hand commodities, and the most famous one of which is the “warehouse” that sells worn commodities and is highly recognized by consumers for its good regulation and after-sale services. eBay, similar to Taobao in China, mainly sells featured small items, but has a much higher logistics cost than the platforms in China. In order to satisfy the demands of the development of Internet economy, some physical stores also start building their own websites and setting up their service stations, such as Walmart and Bestbuy. Under the circumstances, the pure online stores are exposed to even fiercer competitions and more severe challenges. In conclusion, though Chinese e-commerce market depends on the Internet, it has not integrated with Internet technologies profoundly. It faces grand challenges brought by the increasingly severe market environ32  Wen Wen, Historical View and Future Path of “Maker Culture”, “Fujian Forum (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition)”, 2015 (8).

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ment, and market transformation is of great urgency currently. Therefore, Chinese e-commerce must learn the advanced development experiences from foreign e-commerce, integrate domestic market advantages, realize the in-depth combination with the Internet platform and construct the new economic form that perfectly integrates information, knowledge, technology and interaction. The e-commerce platforms shall attach importance to the instant interaction with network consumers, give full play to their creativity, absorb the strengths of network grassroots and explore the collective wisdom contained in the Internet; meanwhile pay attention to achieve specialized division and build featured projects, construct their own brand features and strengthen the after-sale service; and lay emphasis on technology creation, forge a research and development team, create the platform-based technical patents and realize the perfect industry-­ university-­research collaboration. Only by the in-depth combination with the Internet and exploration of the values contained in the Internet technologies can Chinese e-commerce build the long-run development path and the vigorous new form of the Internet economy be formed.

4.6   Conclusion It has been 20 years since the emergence of e-commerce in China and 7 years since the birth of the Singles Day marketing campaign. In retrospect, e-commerce in China had embraced the wild growth at the initial stage and the merchants had gained rich profits. However, the market today is no longer what it was. The early development path seeking quick success and instant benefits will necessarily run into difficulties as the rules are formulated, the legal system is improved, the strict supervision is performed, the customers become rational and the e-commerce market is getting mature. Beyond any doubt, the Internet economy in China enjoys its own advantages and strengths compared to the real economy, and is vigorously supported by the low labor and logistics cost, convenient sales channels, the huge sales network, interactive marketing, great customer traffic and so on. E-commerce will maintain its high growth rate and earn high profits in quite a long time in the future. However, what kind of economic form on earth is the e-commerce market in China? What is the innovation of the e-commerce compared to the real economy? Though the development of e-commerce economy in China has made remarkable achievements and caught the attention of the world, this model cannot be copied overseas. It means that the e-­commerce devel-

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opment in China shows typical local characteristics. The e-commerce in China has realized the rapid growth by making use of the institutional defects including the ambiguous definition of property rights, the development restriction of physical stores due to the monopoly of the channels for stocking of goods, the lack of morals in modern market and the high threshold to the financial market as well as the huge and cheap logistics network and the large population base. Compared to the real economy, the e-commerce is essentially the process where quite a few merchants are utilizing the Internet as a sales medium and conducting sales behaviors that show no essential difference with the physical store, so no essential innovation has been achieved. The author holds that as the market is getting mature, the e-commerce must transform its development path though it can still gain profits by now. The far-sighted e-commerce enterprises will be prepared for danger and spare no effort to explore the way of transformation. As we can see from foreign mature e-commerce market, the e-­commerce economy shall not only rely on the internet platform for commodity sales, but also be deeply embedded in the cyberspace, finally creating a new economic form that perfectly integrates information, technology and ­ knowledge. The e-commerce economy shall dive deeper into the Internet technologies and acquire technical patents, thus reflecting the technical advantages of the Internet economy; instead of delivering information to customers, construct an interactive information platform to give full play to the social public’s wisdom and directly involve them in product design and creation; and, in addition to providing commodities and services, build the knowledge-based economic platform that satisfies consumers’ demands on learning relevant knowledge. Information, technology and knowledge, indispensable from each other, are perfectly integrated in the Internet space that cultivates values and provide necessary support to the mature Internet economic form. The transformation of the Internet economy in China must experience a protracted process. However, only with the faith in transformation and the accurate development planning can e-commerce economy usher in a brighter future.

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CHAPTER 5

Spatial Turn of Network Information Consumption and Its Social Risks: Case Study of “the Sale of Baidu Hemophilia Post Bar” Rong Zhang

5.1   Introduction With the advent of the Internet age, cyberspace has become the important platform and space for people’s social communication. When encountered with some troubles and problems in life, particularly private diseases, people are more willing to discuss the treatment plans, share personal experiences, win social support and so on through the Internet, as only fellow patients understand their feelings. The fact that “fellow patients commiserate with each other” has produced the strong cohesive force, so people spontaneously form a large number of network communities divided by the “disease” through the long-term network interaction. Among them, the disease post bars among “Baidu Tieba (Post Bar)” constitute an important platform for network communities. Baidu Post Bar is an Internet application product released by Baidu in December R. Zhang (*) School of Politics and Law, University of Jinan, Jinan, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_5

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2003. After more than 12 years of development, Baidu Post Bar currently owns more than a billion registered users, more than 1900 “themed bars” and 300 million monthly active users. In other words, half of the 600 ­million netizens in China will visit the post bar once every month on average. Baidu Post Bar comprises many and diverse themes and covers every aspect of people’s life, such as food and beverage, networking, entertainment, life, sports, finance and science. Falling into the category of life, the disease post bar is one of the important platforms where fellow patients gather together for communication. According to the report, there are several thousands of post bars about diseases in Baidu, which constitute only a small part of Baidu post bars.1 Before the “sale” incident, “Hemophilia Post Bar” was only an inconspicuous small post bar that assembles more than 5000 members, who are mostly hemophilia patients and their family members. “Shandong Laobalu” and “Mayicai” were respectively the primary and secondary managers. As they both were hemophilia patients themselves, they could truly understand the physical sufferings and life tortures of hemophilia patients and were well aware of the roundabout that most hemophilia patients might lead before they found the effective medical proposals. Therefore, they popularized the general knowledge about hemophilia and shared the correct treatment plans in the bar, and meanwhile protected fellow patients from being deceived by deleting or criticizing the false advertisements posted in the post bar or warning the fellow patients. Upon the joint efforts of the two managers and other members of the bar management, through about ten years of development, the Hemophilia Post Bar had become a pure land free from cheats, the home to thousands of fellow patients and their family members, one of the most famous hemophilia knowledge bases in China and the most popular platform for hemophilia communication. Bar members supported and encouraged each other in this warm homeland. “Thanks to this post bar, the pain seems to be less painful and becomes a kind of experience.” However, in the late December 2015, “Mayicai” and “Shandong Laobalu” suddenly found that their management authority over the post bar had been revoked for no reason and the official bar manager named as “Hemophilia Expert” was added. Subsequently, word came that Baidu was recruiting post bar partners openly and was about to sell the post bars. 1  Wang Chuanhong, Excessive Commercialization: Baidu “Sells” Post Bar, “21st Century Business Herald”, 20160113.

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Under these circumstances, the former bar manager “Shandong Laobalu” left in a rage. “Mayicai” whose management authority had been revoked felt very worried, because he found that he was banned by the bar, and, more importantly, some best topics about relevant treatment plans and the posts unveiling the cheats in Chinese and western medical treatment had been deleted. “Mayicai” began to posting threads all around, and also contacted Guan Tao, the director of Chinese Hemophilia Association, in the hope that the Association could communicate with Baidu. But these efforts were proved to be ineffective. A favorable turn arose on January 10, 2016, 20 days after the transfer of the post bar. On that day, replying to the question “what do you think of Baidu revoking the managers of hemophilia post bar and selling the post bar?” in Zhihu, a network question and answer community, “Mayicai” posted a thread to appeal to Baidu to return the management authority of hemophilia post bar to hemophilia patients who really need help. This thread had been widely spread in Zhihu and even the whole network. According to WeChat data, on January 11, “the total views of 37 articles complaining Baidu exceeded 300,000. The search index of hemophilia had sharply risen to 30,000 on Baidu platform, reaching the peak of hemophilia since the emergence of Baidu index in 2011. In Zhihu, about 30,000 netizens had liked Mayicai’s post”.2 In view of the public opinion constantly questioning Baidu’s commercial behaviors such as “Baidu advertising paid listing” and Baidu’s interest relationship with Putian-system private hospitals, stimulated by Mayicai’s post, there was a groundswell of criticisms on Baidu selling the post bar and choosing “money” instead of “life”. Some netizens stated that they would “never use Baidu again” and “Baidu has developed from robbing to killing”. Gu Xiaobo and Huo Ju, the well-known online We-Media, also wrote articles criticizing Baidu, and Gu Xiaobo’s article “gained more than 100,000 views” on the day of release.3 Considering the increasing complaints, on January 12, Baidu officially announced the termination of commercial cooperation of all disease post bars except the cooperation with the authoritative commonweal organizations. Baidu also took the initiative to contact Guan Tao, the director of 2  Gao Jiajia, Huang Gewei, Mayicai Who Shakes the “Empire” of Post Bar, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160115. 3  Wang Chuanhong, Excessive Commercialization: Baidu “Sells” Post Bar, “21st Century Business Herald”, 20160113.

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Chinese Hemophilia Association one day before, and handed over the hemophilia post bar to the commonweal organization “Home to Hemophilia Patients” for management. Since then, the “Home to Hemophilia Patients” has become the first commonweal organization that involves in the operation and management of disease-themed post bars in China. Though Baidu had responded to the incident of the “sale of post bar” in shortly two days and suspended the commercial cooperation of all disease post bars, some traditional authoritative media had released their judgments. CCTV News 1 + 1 had reported and commented the incident with a title of “What Is the Limit of Baidu?”; People’s Daily indicated that “Post bar is killing the hen for her eggs by attracting investment in this way”4; Guangming Daily commented, “Internet enterprises shall apply their sheer animal strengths appropriately”5; and Xinhua Daily Telegraph pointed out, “Baidu sells the post bar for cooperation or money”.6 Subsequently, National Health Commission responded to the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar” on January 15 and expressed the hope that Baidu should render an authoritative platform on disease diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation information for netizens and professional medical and health institutions should take the initiative to cooperate with some network media such as Baidu.7 The National Internet Information Office also met Baidu directors about the prominent problems of Baidu, also on January 15, including the illegal information and management chaos of the commercial operation of Baidu Post Bar, the lack of objectivity and justice of some search results and Baidu News exaggerating harmful information such as violence and terror.8 Moreover, though the groundswell arising from the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar” gradually subsided due to Baidu’s quick response, this case profoundly reflected the public’s urgent demands 4  Liu Nian, Post Bar is Killing the Hen for Her Eggs by Attracting Investment in this Way, “People’s Daily”, 20160113. 5  Zhou Long, Internet Enterprises Shall Apply Their Sheer Animal Strengths Appropriately, “Guangming Daily”, 20160113. 6  Zheng Shanhai, Baidu Sells the Post Bar for Cooperation or Money, “Xinhua Daily Telegraph”, 20160112. 7  Peng Xiaofei, National Health Commission Responds to “Baidu Post Bar”, “Beijing Youth Daily”, 20160116. 8  Liu Mi, Zhou Dan, National Internet Information Office Met Baidu Directors, “Beijing Youth Daily”, 20160117.

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on the social cyberspace that pursues public goods. In the current Internet age, cyberspace has become an important place for people’s social activities including social networking, information communication and leisure and entertainment. It has become an important part of people’s social life to use the network communication platforms such as Baidu Post Bar. However, from the perspective of economic development, the cyberspace is essentially an online product of Internet enterprises released to seek economic profits and is therefore born to pursue commercial development. Under the circumstances, the conflict and contradiction arise between the social demand and the commercial development of cyberspace. In this case, the contention between Baidu and the bar members including “Mayicai” for the hemophilia post bar embodies the internal contradiction between the commercial and social qualities of the cyberspace in the Internet age. Furthermore, from the perspective of sociology of consumption, the cyberspace will accommodate increasingly diversified social activities of the public along with the development of Internet technologies and the richer functions of the network in social networking, finance, leisure and entertainment. Therefore, simultaneously with information consumption, the public’s consumption demand on the “cyberspace” is rising. People’s network information consumption in the Internet age is turning into space consumption, which is also known as the spatial turn of network information consumption. This is a necessary trend as the Internet economy continues to develop and penetrates into cyberspace. Being one of the social trends emerging along with the development of the Internet age, it profoundly reflects the economic foundation of the cyberspace. However, it shall also be noticed that the spatial turn of network information consumption is also subject to certain social risks, mainly including the information risk, weakening publicity of cyberspace, disintegration of network communities and so on.

5.2   Spatial Turn of Network Information Consumption “Information consumption” is one of the major consumer behaviors in the Internet age. However, with the further development of the Internet age, space consumption also appears in addition to information consumption. The incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar” has reflected

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netizens’ propensity to consume the cyberspace. When the cyberspace gradually acquires the ability to produce information and assembles ­corresponding groups, its consumption value starts to be revealed, and the network information consumption begins to turn into space consumption. Production of Space in Information Consumption “Information” is the most important resource in the Internet space as well as one of the major contents of netizens’ consumption in the Internet age. By viewing news webpages, getting information from the BBS or post bar or publishing personal dynamics through WeChat, people are acquiring, publishing and communicating information and, on this basis, conducting diversified information consumption behaviors in the Internet space. Along with the rapid development of the Internet technology and the increasingly flowing information, more and more information is stored in the Internet space and people’s demands on information are intensified. The development of Internet technologies and information consumption are helping each other forward. However, with the in-depth development of information consumption, the tendency toward space consumption will become more evident. Space consumption will also become one of the important consumer behaviors of social members in the Internet age. Take Baidu Post Bar as an example. It has been over 12  years since Baidu Post Bar emerged in December 2003, which is one of the most important Chinese communities now. Baidu Post Bar covers all aspects of life, consisting of enterprise bars, celebrity bars, university bars, local place bars, life bars, entertainment bars and so on. The disease-themed post bars, falling into the category of life bars, take up only a very small portion of Baidu post bars, but provide a free, private and targeted information communication platform for patients suffering from a same disease and their families. Therefore, this kind of post bars have developed fast and have covered nearly all diseases, such as the hemophilia bar, psoriasis bar, hyperthyroidism bar, hypertension bar and vitiligo bar. Some of them are quite popular based on the meticulous management by managers and embrace a great ability to communicate and product information, and thus have become one of the essential communication spaces in bar members’ daily life, represented by the hemophilia bar. Being a rare disease, hemophilia is a hemorrhagic disease of hereditary coagulation dysfunction. The patient suffering from this disease lacks thrombin and may be exposed to the risk of physical pains and even dis-

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ability incurred by bleeding. As estimated by the commonweal organization “Home to Hemophilia Patients”, there are approximately 100,000 hemophilia patients in China. Hemophilia is listed as a severe hematopathy in China and the patients are ostracized by universities and most enterprises and institutions to a certain extent. Therefore, most hemophilia patients choose to conceal their disease in daily life and grin and bear the physical pains and life troubles. With the advent of the Internet age, cyberspace has become the important platform for the interpersonal interaction and information communication of these patients. Baidu hemophilia post bar has rapidly assembled more than 5000 hemophilia patients and their families with the free and anonymous interaction, communication of massive information and sympathy. They regard Baidu hemophilia post bar as their online home, where they can support and encourage each other and form a social group based on the information communication and emotional support. In addition to being the communication platform and emotional support for fellow patients, Baidu hemophilia post bar also has an extremely strong ability to produce information. Information is mainly produced during the information communication among bar members. When they propose, answer or discuss a question, relevant information will be produced in a form of knowledge. The ability of information production is stronger upon more bar members, more questions and fiercer discussions. Baidu hemophilia post bar has many best topics, which have summarized the important information produced throughout the long-term operation of the post bar and include the knowledge of great significance to bar members. Through these best topics, many patients just diagnosed with hemophilia and their families get a deeper understanding about hemophilia, find much useful information for the specific treatment in the future and learn to identify the means of medical frauds to avoid being deceived. Based on the strong ability of information production, Baidu hemophilia post bar attracts more and more members and is widely known among hemophilia patients. Therefore, with the constantly rising publicity and influence of Baidu hemophilia post bar, its space value is gradually revealed. The bar is like a public teahouse for hemophilia patients and their families. When encountered with any question, they will come to this teahouse to communicate with, encourage and support each other. The bar has become an essential part and an indispensable cyberspace in their daily life.

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Where to Find Information Without the Space? In the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, the former bar manager “Shandong Laobalu” and “Mayicai” suddenly realized the importance of the space when they found their accounts were banned and were revoked with original management authority and witnessed the new bar manager “Hemophilia Expert” newly appointed by Baidu deleting, highlighting and topping posts arbitrarily. The hemophilia post bar had been the home to them, but the home was taken up by others. Under these circumstances, the secondary manager “Mayicai” started to adopt various measures to recapture home with the support of all bar members. The contention for the post bar by “Mayicai” and other bar members reflected the importance of cyberspace. As the network information exists in cyberspace, there will be nowhere to find information if without the space. In the Internet age, information is the important resource of the Internet, while the space constitutes the important platform and foundation to bring information resources into play. Network information can be generally divided into the supplied information and produced information based on the different ways of the generation of information. The supplied information refers to the information provided by the supplier in cyberspace, and the produced information means the information produced during the communication among network users. The massive information in Baidu hemophilia post bar falls into the category of produced information. In this online community organized by hemophilia patients themselves, people gather together to communicate experiences, share the therapy information and encourage each other. Much effective information has been produced in the process of communication, mainly summarized in the “best topics” mentioned by Mayicai in his post of appeal. These best topics provide the information on the skills to identify medical frauds, knowledge about hemophilia, introduction to regular hospitals and encouraging bar members to study and work, which have been considered as the important information source for hemophilia patients’ communication. Since only a few offline activities are held in China, online activities make up the best supporting platform for patients. Baidu hemophilia post bar is exactly the important space for these online activities as well as for information production and communication. Cyberspace has become the important platform for social members to acquire information. Generally, the Internet space consists of the spaces in two different levels. The first level is the Internet space as a whole. Social

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members can be divided into two groups in this sense. The first group of people are those who can access the Internet space anytime to acquire the information they need; and the second group of people cannot connect to the Internet space for various reasons and therefore cannot acquire relevant information. The second level is the countless small spaces in the Internet space. These small spaces contain corresponding information, but the corresponding permission shall be obtained before entering the space. Baidu Post Bar is such a small space in the Internet space. Only those who register as the bar member can enjoy the full access to join the post bar and acquire relevant information. As to the produced information, losing the space means losing the platform for the production and flow of information. Therefore, all bar members were united to offer total resistance after “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”. Due to the particularity of hemophilia, Mayicai had immediately drawn wide attention by releasing a post of appeal in Zhihu and further triggered the public voice of questioning. As stated by Mayicai, after Baidu hemophilia post bar was sold, all information produced was and would be commercial, which would mislead bar members, waste their money and even lead to their disability or death. In this incident, the fight for the right to produce information in the post bar was practically the contention for the space of the post bar. It demonstrated the important value of “cyberspace” in the Internet age and its role as the foundation and platform for information resources. Consumption Space and Space Consumption In the Internet age, cyberspace has become the important space for people’s information consumption. Information consumption is an economic activity with information produces and information services as the direct or indirect consuming object. The development of Internet technologies and increasingly diversified forms of information products and services in cyberspace have inspired people’s information demands and led to increasingly diversified consumer behaviors. In the meantime, as the Internet is developing from Web1.0 to Web2.0 and even Web3.0, the space for people’s information consumption is expanding, from the original news and e-mail, to QQ and BBS and to Weibo and WeChat now. As one of the biggest Internet companies in China, Baidu provides various Internet services and has become one of the important spaces for people’s information consumption. Baidu started from the service of

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information search. Baidu search engine is still now one of the most popular and influential search websites in China as well as the knowledge spreading platform with the broadest coverage. When running into any question in life, most people will choose to search for answers in Baidu. Particularly in the sector of medical care, many patients will “search online” whenever they have healthy issues. According to an investigation, “over 60% of people in China will search for relevant information online before they go to hospitals”.9 Based on the search engine of significant influence, Baidu has a large number of users. On this basis, Baidu Post Bar released in December 2003 has achieved rapid development and accumulated more than a billion registered users by now, making it an important space for online users’ information consumption. The academic study on “space consumption” dates from the 1960s. In a narrow sense, space consumption refers to trading the available capital and resources in real life for the experiences and feelings about and the occupation of space to acquire relevant experiences in the space; and in a broad sense, it means the process and result of mutual influence between man and space through the interaction. From the broad point of view, space consumption consists of both objective consumption behaviors and activities in the space and subjective changes about the sense of space, space discourse and space imagination. The space consumption generally comprises two forms: the material space consumption and the immaterial space consumption. The material space consumption mainly suggests the occupation of and the experience and feeling about the space, while the immaterial refers to other values and connotations of the space consumed. The space value of Baidu Post Bar has been revealed gradually. Since the cyberspace has no boundary, the contention for space was not that fierce at first, and the fight was initiated mainly for people, that is, competing to attract more people. However, after a post bar has assembled a large number of people, the space value is revealed, since only this post bar provides the platform and opportunity for people to communicate information with more people. Essentially, the value of the cyberspace is closely associated with the quality and scale of the people gathering here. The larger population indicates a greater ability in producing information and thus a greater space value.

9  Ma Jianzhong, Baidu Post Bar of Disease Ceased Commercial Cooperation, What Is the Future of the Internet + Hospital Scapler, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160114.

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In view of the number of bar members and the ability of information production, Baidu hemophilia post bar features a great space value. Through a decade of development from March 2006 when the first post was released in the bar, the hemophilia post bar has become a well-known hemophilia communication platform in China upon the great efforts of bar managers including “Shandong Laobalu” and “Mayicai”. The information that is produced and flows in the space exerts huge influence on hemophilia patients. Bar members have established close emotional bonding among each other through the long-term information communication, and some of them have even become good friends in real life. It has become an essential part of their daily life to communicate in this bar. However, though the post bar presents a publicity value for bar members, this space, developed by Baidu, is essentially an online product that is produced to gain more economic interests. Along with the rising space value of post bars including the hemophilia bar, Baidu was seizing the opportunity to commercialize post bars, thus leading to the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”. As revealed by this incident, cyberspace has not only the publicity value but also the economic dimension; and the economic dimension imposes certain restrictions on the publicity value of the cyberspace.

5.3   Economic Dimension of Cyberspace In addition to the publicity, cyberspace also presents the economic dimension, which is mainly influenced by Internet enterprises. The cyberspaces of different functions are the important products of Internet enterprises, so the principles of the enterprises will necessarily affect the functions of cyberspaces. Due to economic considerations, the use of cyberspace is subject to certain restrictions in an economic perspective, so it will greatly impact the freedom of the use of the cyberspace and further influence the role of the cyberspace in public life. Economic License for Space Entry In the Internet age, the virtual world created upon Internet technologies is practically an important space. Certain economic restrictions are imposed on the access to this space. Firstly, the corresponding Internet device must be purchased and the fee on Internet connection must be paid before the entry to the cyberspace. Secondly, the economic license is also required to

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enter each small space in the Internet space, that is, the license from the Internet company that develops the Internet application. The license is acquired by registering as a member and observing relevant regulations of the Internet application and some other forms. Different requirements on space entry are proposed by different Internet companies in view of different economic demands. Generally, when registering as a member, each user must have an account and a password, and sometimes needs to provide private information such as the e-mail box or mobile phone number. At the same time, the user shall agree with the corresponding regulations on the use of the application formulated by the Internet company. By means of the membership system, the Internet company generally controls the online information of all members, so it can prohibit any user who violates regulations from entering the company. Apparently, the use of the Internet space is subject to certain economic restrictions. On the one hand, certain economic foundation is required for entering the cyberspace; and on the other hand, the use of the cyberspace is exposed to the restrictions by the Internet company. In view of the economic considerations of the Internet company, the network user has to accept corresponding economic restrictions on the use of cyberspace, that is, observe certain economic logic in network behaviors. Take Baidu Post Bar as an example. Its use is quite easy. All netizens can visit the webpages of Baidu Post Bar to query information, but only a part of information is available if they are not a member of the post bar. Therefore, the netizens must register as a member if they want to view all information of the post bar and publish relevant information. To be a post bar manager, the member must submit an application and get the approval before acquiring the management authority. However, same with common members, the authority of the bar managers is also entrusted by Baidu, so the manager’s entry to the space and the management authority over the space are subjected to the background operation of Baidu. In this case of the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, Baidu unilaterally transferred the management authority of this post bar by banning the former bar managers “Shandong Laobalu” and “Mayicai” and setting the new bar manager “Hemophilia Expert”. Besides Baidu Post Bar, this is the same case with the popular Internet applications in China such as QQ, Weibo and WeChat. Owned by Internet companies, they show their own logic of economic operation. While enjoying the convenient communication and rich information brought by these network applications, users will also accept the com-

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mercial ­information such as business promotion and advertising from the platform. In other words, though the network space constructed based on Internet technologies is communicating information in a free, equal and rapid way, it also embraces the economic logic for commercialization. To enter and use the cyberspace, users have to follow the economic logic of Internet enterprises. When a certain cyberspace covers the majority of the people and we cannot achieve convenient communication and rich information without it, the influence of the economic logic behind the cyberspace is even greater. Though the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar” was ended with Baidu terminating the commercial operation of disease-­ themed post bars, the economic dimension of the cyberspace will not disappear. For Internet enterprises including Baidu, the fundamental driving force for the long-term development and creation of new network products is always the profits, so commercialization of network products constitutes an inevitable trend of the Internet companies. In this incident, Baidu announced to jointly operate the disease-themed post bars with commonweal institutes and organizations but did not specify the cooperation method. “It was said a cooperation fee of several thousand yuan was required, and it is not clear whether additional fees will be paid in the future.”10 Economic Backroom Deals Behind the Space Discourse Power The space discourse power indicates the discourse influence in the space, and, similarly, the cyberspace discourse power refers to the discourse influence in cyberspace. Along with the further development of the Internet age, the significance of cyberspace consumption is gradually revealed and the importance of the cyberspace discourse power is constantly rising. In view of the economic dimension of cyberspace, the cyberspace discourse power is subject to the influence of economic factors. A series of economic backroom deals are hidden behind the cyberspace discourse power. In the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, the discourse power of the space of hemophilia post bar is mainly controlled by the bar managers, who have the management authority to top important information, delete useless information and so on. By performing the management 10  Ma Jianzhong, Baidu “Medical Care” Business Provoked a Wrath, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160113.

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authority, the bar managers can underline what they think important in the space and give play to their influence on this space. “Shandong Laobalu” and “Mayicai” were former bar managers of the hemophilia post bar, that is, the ones controlling the space discourse power. For quite a long time, relevant information released by them in the space had attracted the special attention and won universal recognition from other bar members. However, in late December 2015, they found their management authority over the post bar was revoked, their accounts were banned and a new official bar manager Hemophilia Expert was added. The revocation of their management authority indicated that former bar managers including Mayicai could no longer exercise their discourse power, and the ban of their accounts meant that they could not even enter the space. At that time, they began to realize that Baidu exerted the most significant influence over the acquisition and use of the space discourse power. Baidu Post Bar is a network product developed by Baidu and is therefore owned by Baidu. In this sense, Baidu is playing an important role in deciding the discourse power in the space of post bar. Firstly, the application of each bar manager must be verified and approved by Baidu, and Baidu finally decides on whether to entrust someone the management authority over a post bar. Secondly, Baidu is entitled to cancel or change the bar manager at any time pursuant to the Bar Manager Agreement. Therefore, though Mayicai’s discourse power in the space was widely recognized by bar members and played a significantly positive role in the development of hemophilia post bar, Baidu could dispel Mayicai’s space discourse power at any time to pursue economic interests. By using the word “dispel” here, instead of the traditional dissolution of the identity legitimacy of the space discourse power in a traditional sense, it means directly removing all conditions for Mayicai to exercise the space discourse power, such as canceling the authority to manage the space information or enter the space to express himself. As driven by economic interests, the discourse power of the post bar can even be purchased as a commodity. The buyer can get the commodity of “discourse power of the post bar” with a certain economic cost. For instance, “the quotation of a local place bar has reached several hundred of thousand or even several million yuan a year, and the price of an industry bar (interest bar) is mostly several hundred of thousand yuan”.11 11  Xie Rui, Ma Jianzhong, Partner Recruitment of Baidu Post Bar Was Terminated, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160115.

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The discourse power of the cyberspace is mainly embodied in the control of the space information. By paying money to acquire the discourse power of the space, the merchants aim to control the space information and then present the information flowing in the space in the order they want, thus influencing the space users. It is reported that the “post deletion business” is popular among Baidu Post Bar, and “previously, the quotation for deleting a post in the black market was 800 to 1,500 yuan.”12 Similar commercialization is also seen in the controversial “Paid Listing” of Baidu in addition to the post bar. The Paid Listing is a commercial strategy against “Baidu Search”. Customers can pay for a few key words to improve the frequency of being seen, while Baidu will charge the fee based on users’ clicks. Moreover, customers can also change the sorting of their information by paying more. Considering the importance of Baidu Search in domestic Internet search engine industry, network users generally consider Baidu Search as a major channel to acquire information. However, the Paid Listing has harmed the objectivity of search results, with the information of the companies that have purchased the “Paid Listing” product showing up at the front rank of search results. In this way, it runs counter to the objectivity of Internet information sorting and increase the time cost for network users to get real information they need. As a matter of fact, the paid transfer of Baidu post bars and the Paid Listing of the search engine were both commercial behaviors of Baidu driven by economic interests, which demonstrates the great influence of the economic force on the cyberspace discourse power. The cyberspace discourse power with information as the medium is subject to the impact of economic operations of Internet enterprises including Baidu. Economic backroom deals can be seen behind the allocation of the cyberspace discourse power. Economic-oriented Space Ownership Essentially, as the Internet enterprise constructs the cyberspace with technology and service, the enterprise shall enjoy the right to own and manage the space. In the meantime, space users also participate in the production of space information and improvement of space values and shall be considered as the main builders of the space. In this sense, both the Internet 12   Tu Chonghang et  al., Post Bar Interest Investigation: Post Deletion Business and Advertisement, “Beijing News”, 20160113.

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enterprise and space users shall have certain rights about this space. Nonetheless, the Internet enterprise has the absolute ownership and management right over the space at present, while users only enjoy the right to use and construct the space. The ownership of the cyberspace still follows the economic-oriented logic. In this case, the gap between the current condition of cyberspace ownership and the social demand will necessarily result in corresponding social contradictions and social conflicts, which can be demonstrated by the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”. An article of Guangming Daily had precisely explained the contradiction between the Internet enterprise and space users on the right to own and manage the space with the metaphor of “a barren mountain”. According to the article, Baidu has no right to dispose of the post bar all at its will though it has provided the platform of the post bar, because the bar managers and netizens have made great contributions to the success of the post bar. It is like a barren mountain owned by Baidu but is open to the public for cultivation. Some years later when this mountain has been covered by lush trees and grass and fragrant flowers and fruits, the owner stands out, claims that the mountain belongs to him/her and even starts gazing. The people who have put great efforts in cultivating the mountain will certainly not agree.13

With the hemophilia post bar as an instance, this post bar is constructed in the space of Baidu Post Bar, a network product developed by Baidu, and, superficially, Baidu enjoys the ownership and management over this bar. However, from another perspective, though the product of Baidu Post Bar is developed by Baidu, the details of the post bar including the name and content are all constructed by post bar users. After the foundation of the post bar, the bar managers including Mayicai had made painstaking efforts to maintain and develop the post bar. They spent a lot of time viewing the information in the bar, sorting out the complex information, topping the high-quality information and deleting the fraudulent or false information, and also regularly released the information to answer the questions proposed by bar members. Therefore, the high-quality post bars such as the hemophilia post bar can only become the famous cyberspace based on the questions and answers proposed by numerous bar members and the management and maintenance by countless bar manag13  Zhou Long, Internet Enterprises Shall Apply Their Sheer Animal Strengths Appropriately, “Guangming Daily”, 20160113.

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ers. In this case, the space value of the post bar is constantly rising due to the strong ability to produce information, the large number of users and the high reputation. In the whole process, Baidu only renders the background technical support, supervision and construction of users’ access, and so on, but the most work of space construction is completed by post bar users. Therefore, when unilaterally deciding on the paid transfer of the hemophilia post bar, Baidu met with fierce opposition by the bar managers and bar members and provoked a wrath. Though the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar” ended up with Baidu terminating the commercialization of all disease-themed post bars, we shall not stop thinking deeply about the issue of space ownership. The attention from all sectors of society shall be drawn to find out an appropriate solution.

5.4   Information Risk in Cyberspace Consumption The spatial turn of network information consumption has added to consumers’ information risk to a certain degree. The “information risk” here refers to the information-related risks that network information consumers encounter with the advent of the Internet age, including the disclosure of personal information, false information, information fraud, excessive information and so on. Though these information risks have been existing since the Internet age, the spatial turn of network information consumption further aggravates them. Big Data Versus Personal Information The development of Internet technologies has accelerated the approach of the big data age. “Big data” refers to the data about users’ online behaviors generated and accumulated in daily operation of Internet companies. On a huge scale, big data is characterized by massive information, various types, low value density, rapid speed and high time effectiveness. Big data plays an important role in e-commerce, logistics and some other economic areas, and significantly advances the development of Internet enterprises and data-related industries. The important role of data as the resources is even described as the “data wealth” in the age of big data. In the big data age, everyone is using and contributing the data. When a social member is using the Internet, his personal information will be incorporated in the big data system. The personal information generally

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consists of the basic information, device information, account information, privacy information, social relations information and network behaviors information. To be specific, the basic information includes the following: the name, gender, age, family address, marriage status, belief, occupation and so on; the device information includes the information about the mobile phone, computer and so on; the account information includes the online bank account number, social networking account and important e-mail accounts, and so on; the privacy information includes the call log, personal pictures and videos, and so on; the social relations information includes the information on friends, family members and the working unit, and so on; and the network behaviors information includes the record of network behaviors, time and place for getting on the Internet, search record, chat log, network game behaviors and so on. The generation of big data is closely associated with the increasing network behaviors of network users. The larger size of big data indicates the more personal information collected. It is fair to say that since the moment when the network user is connected to the large cyberspace of the Internet, his information has been successively incorporated in the big data. Whenever we type in a key word in Baidu Search, scan a QR code with mobile phone or transfer a message in Weibo or WeChat, our information demands, consumption habits, interests and social networking may all have been captured and collected by the big data analysis tools of Internet companies. When the bar members of Baidu hemophilia post bar are releasing, communicating and acquiring information related to hemophilia, their personal information is gradually collected and they have become the marketing target of Baidu and some medical institutions. At the early stage of the Internet age, “information” has become an important content of consumption for network users. However, along with the increasingly diversified Internet application platforms, a larger number of netizens and the development toward Web2.0 and even Web3.0, the “cyberspace” has gradually become one of the important contents of consumption for netizens. Different cyberspaces of varied functions developed by different Internet companies become the important space and platform for netizens to communicate, acquire and publish information, and the consumption value of the space is gradually revealed. More and more Internet applications are constructed as a “cyberspace” such as Baidu Post Bar, QQ and WeChat of Tencent, and Weibo of Sina. When network users are using these application platforms, they are actually conducting network behaviors in a cyberspace. In this process, the

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cyberspace has its value constantly rising and sees more active consumption behaviors by network users. However, as an increasing number of people are entering the cyberspace for consumption, network users are exposed to a rising risk of the disclosure of personal information. Currently, most Internet application platforms developed by these Internet companies are depending on people’s personal information. For example, after we download a mobile app, a prompt often pops up to ask whether we allow the software to share our communication and location information. If we allow to share, it means that we may be exposed to the risk of information disclosure, but if we refuse to share, it means we cannot enter the platform and enjoy relevant services. In particular, when colleagues, classmates and friends around us are all using this app, we will be driven to use this Internet app for convenient communication with others. As we are using more and more cyberspaces along with the development of the Internet age, it suggests that more and more personal information of ours are disclosed in the Internet. According to a report, about 78.2% of netizens have suffered from the disclosure of personal identity information in 2015, including the name, educational background, family address, identity card number, working unit and so on; 63.4% of netizens have the information on their personal network activities leaked, including the call log, online shopping record, traces of website browsing, IP address, traces of software use, geographical location and so on; and the total loss of netizens incurred by the disclosure of personal information, spam, fraud and so on has reached approximately 80.5 billion yuan.14 Right to Not Know People’s ability to acquire information has been significantly improved in the Internet age. However, a new important issue emerges on how to rapidly find the information they need and avoid the great deal of useless information. The amount of information worldwide is doubling every 12–18 months. Among the massive information accepted, the public have to tolerate the substantial junk information. The useless information exerts a severely adverse influence on people’s work and life. In this case, the massive information in the Internet age not only satisfies the public’s right to know, but also deprives the public of their right to not know. 14  Li Dandan, Annual Loss of Netizens Incurred by Fraud, Leakage and Spam Reached 80.5 Billion, “Beijing News”, 20150724.

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The right to not know is opposite to the right to know. As early as in 1978, Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had noticed the right to not know. When giving a lecture at Harvard University, he pointed out that “in addition to the right to know, people shall also have the right to not know, and the latter one is even more valuable. It means that the noble soul can be free from the nonsense and empty talks. Excessive information is an unnecessary burden for who live a full life”.15 Meanwhile, David Shenk also stated that “when increasing information is accumulated, it develops from the currency to the pollution”, “the data smog occupies the spare time and blocks the necessary thinking”.16 The excessive information necessarily results in “information dyspepsia”, “information overload syndrome”, “information pollution syndrome” and so on. In the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, after the hemophilia post bar was transferred by Baidu, the new bar manager “Hemophilia Expert” deleted many best topics and published quite a lot of advertising information. In the point of view of the former bar manager “Mayicai”, the advertising information contains many false and fraudulent information that shall not be received by hemophilia patients and their families. Therefore, the advertising information released by “Hemophilia Expert” had seriously damaged bar members’ right to not know, since the information had disturbed and misled bar members’ seeking effective information and raised unnecessary burden in the information search. In bar members’ eyes, the high reputation and the information-acquisition value of Baidu hemophilia post bar before its transfer shall be attributed to the efforts of former bar managers Shandong Laobalu and Mayicai to build the bar into a pure land free from excessive or polluted information and respect bar members’ right to know. WeChat has become one of the most popular Internet applications at present, where users make up their own circles of friends and perform social networking beyond the space and time limitation. They often release the information about the child, beautiful sceneries, food and so on in the Moments. But while enjoying the seamless and convenient social networking, they are also beset by excessive information. Especially the WeChat business almost turns the Moments to Advertisements. Some users say that their Moments are full of junks. 15  Quoted from Guo Zihui, Zhang Lan, Who Moved My Right to Not Know in the New Media Age? “China Broadcasts”, 2009 (12). 16  [US] David Shenk, Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, Page 15–16, Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 2001.

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5.5   Weakening Publicity of the Cyberspace The social risk of cyberspace consumption also embodies in the weakening publicity of the cyberspace. Distinguished from the real space, the cyberspace features a greater publicity based on its openness, freedom and equality. In the Internet age, the cyberspace is more like a public space open to all, where all people can enter the space to discuss on public topics and share relevant information at any time. However, as the consumption value of the cyberspace is gradually revealed and the cyberspace is becoming the network commodity, the cyberspace is exposed to the risk of the weakening publicity. Cyberspace: Social Values Based on Publicity By December 2015, the number of netizens in China had reached 688 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 50.3%,17 suggesting that more than half of Chinese people are connected to the Internet. The cyberspace has become one of the important spaces for people’s social networking, information communication and entertainment. Compared to the real space subject to the regional barrier and class consolidation, the cyberspace is born with extremely strong publicity, which is embodied in three aspects, openness, co-ownership and sharedness. Firstly, the openness means that the cyberspace is open to the public and any information here is visible to everyone. Though the cyberspace can be divided into the private space and public space, all cyberspaces are essentially open. Private spaces such as the Friend Circle of QQ and Moments of WeChat and Blog with a password block others without permission from acquiring the information in the space, but the information has been already available to Internet companies including Tencent and Sina once it is released online. Undoubtedly, the public spaces such as Weibo and BBS have their information open to the public, as anyone entering the space will see the information. Secondly, the co-ownership means that the cyberspaces are jointly owned by network users, and they can enter these spaces anytime they want. Moreover, all information in the cyberspace is produced by all network users. In particular, in the spaces with a strong ability to produce information such as the BBS, community and post bar, the information is endlessly produced in the questions, 17  China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, http://cnnic.cn

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answers, discussions and edits by all network users. As it should be, different users are playing different roles in the specific process of information production. For example, media journalists, post bar managers, website editors and opinion leaders develop a greater impact. Thirdly, the sharedness indicates that the cyberspace that is open and co-owned can be used by any network user. To seek the support in terms of information, everyone can query and search for any information they need in the cyberspace. Based on the publicity, the cyberspace has played to its social values in China, including increasing the overall social capital, advancing the development of public welfare undertakings and so on. As to the social capital, everyone can enter the cyberspace at anytime and anywhere to interact with others in the public cyberspace, which deepens and expands people’s social networking, enables the richer content of communication, improves the frequency of group gatherings, brings convenience to the formation of social communities, consolidates social cohesion and thus further increases the overall social capital. Meanwhile, the development of Internet technologies has further promoted the development of public welfare undertakings. Take hemophilia post bar as an example. Hemophilia is a special disease, and the patients are suffering in a way that cannot be comprehended by ordinary people. Currently, there are more than 100,000 patients suffering from this disease, though only 10% of them have been registered. Most of these patients become disabled or poor due to the disease and live in bad conditions. Many patients conceal their diseases in daily life, and patients lack necessary exchanges among each other due to the restrictions on information communication. However, Baidu hemophilia post bar has offered an important space for hemophilia patients and their families to build social connections, exchange medical information and encourage and support each other. Furthermore, the anonymous network communication protects patients’ personal privacy about the disease from being leaked, so they can pour out their hearts, express their worries and win social support. Limited Publicity Based on Economic Logic The Internet in China has developed from the open and free competition a decade ago to a new stage where the market is dominated by monopolists. As the Internet monopolists are seeking economic interests, they start to interfere in the development of the cyberspace with their economic forces, so the publicity of the cyberspace has been undermined to a certain degree.

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Founded in 2000, Baidu is one of the largest Internet companies in China and one of the most popular and influential Chinese websites. It has expanded from originally fewer than 10 employees to currently 50,000 employees. It has produced several network products of great influence including Baidu Search, Baidu Post Bar and so on. As to Baidu Post Bar, it is linked to the keyword search in Baidu Search Engine to attract users to establish a post bar space with the keyword as the theme. Then, other users interested in this keyword will join in and form a community, and will start social networking and information communication in the post bar. The cooperation of Post Bar and Search accurately targets the users’ demands and therefore has attracted a great number of users. Up to now, more than a billion netizens have registered as post bar users, and Baidu Post Bar is now recognized as one of the most popular and the largest cyberspaces in China. However, the liquidity of Baidu Post Bar shall be further developed in Baidu’s point of view. As an Internet company pursuing economic profits, Baidu finds that its market value falls far behind Alibaba and Tencent during the development of mobile Internet and therefore faces increasing capital pressure. After a long time of preparation, Baidu initiated the “Baidu Partner Program” in 2015, that is, assigning some post bars of commercial values to commercial organizations for management in a paid way. It is reported that Baidu mainly sold two types of post bars: interest bars and local place bars. The prices were determined by the values of the management right and operation right of the post bars to be sold, which were calculated by Baidu based on the number of posts, active degree and the number of users in the post bar.18 As a matter of fact, the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar” occurred during the paid transfer of the hemophilia post bar, which was a part of this program. The public voice criticizing Baidu in this incident had pushed Baidu to suspend the commercialization of disease-­ themed post bars and announce these post bars are assigned only to commonweal organizations. Actually, the influence of economic forces on the publicity of the cyberspace has been demonstrated by both the disease-themed post bars assigned only to commonweal organizations and the post bars that have already been sold. The management power over the post bar can only be 18   Tu Chonghang et  al., Post Bar Interest Investigation: Post Deletion Business and Advertisement, “Beijing News”, 20160113.

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acquired and exercised upon the permit by Baidu, and Baidu, as an Internet company, still observes the economic logic and exerts its influence on its network products. For the post bars that have already been “sold”, after they are completely commercialized, the information production in the spaces will observe the economic logic, which means the information is produced based on the economic demands of commercial entities. In this case, the publicity of the post bars will be interfered and dispelled by the economic force. When the publicity of the post bar is dispelled, the public interests will be prejudiced and the negative social influence will be produced. This is the same case with other public spaces such as WeChat, Weibo and BBS. When the economic force dominates these spaces, the openness, co-ownership and sharedness of the cyberspaces will be damaged to a certain extent. Firstly, the access to the space needs the permission and recognition by the economic force in the space; secondly, the information production and flow in this space no longer follows the public demands and the space is only partially co-owned as affected by the economic force; and finally, the use of the space and space information will be limited, and increasing users will no longer use the space due to the too commercialized information here, thus weakening the sharedness of the space. Under these circumstances, Internet enterprises including Baidu are caught in a dilemma between pursuing economic benefits and bearing social responsibilities. On the one hand, they need to seek economic interests as enterprises; and on the other hand, they need to maintain the ­publicity of the cyberspaces. According to international experiences, the traditional profit model of the Internet enterprise mainly depends on traffic advertising, value-added services and profit sharing with the third-party applications, and so on, while the latest model involves the human technology application and the shared economy. Therefore, being a symbol of the development of the age, the Internet enterprises in China shall learn from international experiences and get to understand that they can retain their competitiveness and vitality only by becoming the leader and explorer in the age of technology economy. Weakening Driving Force for the Development of Space Publicity The Internet age enables more convenient information communication among the people and more frequent group gatherings. Different groups hold together in different cyberspaces and initiate social networking

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through information communication. Hence, the cyberspace presents certain publicity. However, along with the further development of the Internet age, the cyberspace will be more like a commodity for consumption under the influence of the economic logic of Internet enterprises. As network users are transforming from space users to consumers, the driving force for the development of cyberspace publicity will also be affected and then gradually weakened. Before the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, hemophilia post bar is a cyberspace characterized by strong publicity. All hemophilia patients and their families can ask questions in the post bar to acquire relevant information, and bar managers including Mayicai and other bar members will answer these questions for free with the information they know to provide information or emotional support to the patients. Mayicai was managing and maintaining the post bar voluntarily without any pay. He “stayed in the post bar all day to read every post, leave comments and ask questions” and “encouraged patients or their families and provided psychological counselling” after obtaining the psychological counseling certificate.19 In a word, bar managers Mayicai and Shandong Laobalu had spent a lot of time and energy in this post bar in the ten years after they joined in. Mayicai, Shandong Laobalu and other bar members voluntarily joined the post bar and spent the time and energy here mainly for their understanding and sympathy of fellow patients and the profound friendship they acquired by interacting with other bar members in quite a long time. Upon their efforts, hemophilia post bar has become one of the famous hemophilia knowledge bases in China. In conclusion, before the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, the post bar was freer and not that commercial. Anyone can establish a post bar, apply to being the bar manager and invite people with the same interest to join the bar. Therefore, the bar managers and bar members voluntarily undertake the work of constructing, managing and operating the bar. In this case, Baidu post bars including the hemophilia post bar shows great publicity. After the incident, the post bar gradually becomes the commodity and is sold by Baidu at a high price; and bar members in post bars transform from users to consumers. According to the consumption logic, the voluntariness and public spirit of post bar consumers will be considerably low19  Gao Jiajia, Huang Gewei, Mayicai Who Shakes the “Empire” of Post Bar, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160115.

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ered, which will affect the driving force for the development of cyberspace publicity. Firstly, users have a decreasing motive force to enter the space. After the cyberspace becomes a commodity, the threshold of cyberspace consumption will restrict a part of users from entering, so the public foundation of the space will be undermined. Secondly, the motive force to manage and maintain the space is declining. The commercialized cyberspace is a commodity for network users, and the consumer behaviors will damage the space subjectivity of network users. Finally, the motive force for information production in the space is insufficient. As a great number of users quit using or constructing the space, the ability of information production of the space will be weakened. Moreover, as “polluted” by commercial information, the information in the space is no longer produced to fulfill public demands, so the publicity of the information produced is also largely reduced.

5.6   Risk of the Dissolution of the Network Communities Numerous network communities have been formed in cyberspaces based on the publicity and equality of cyberspaces and convenient information communication in the spaces. In the Chinese society exposed to in-depth transformation in contemporary times, these network communities are playing an important role in social support. However, along with the ­spatial turn of network information consumption, some network communities are exposed to the risk of dissolution from the perspective of cyberspace consumption. From the Cyberspace to the Network Community In the Internet age, the cyberspace has become an important platform for communities based on convenient information communication technology. In general, the cyberspace can be divided into the transaction space, connection space, knowledge space and entertainment space. The transaction space refers to the cyberspace with online shopping as the major network behavior, represented by the network platforms constructed by famous online shopping companies such as JD, Taobao and 58.com. The connection space refers to the cyberspace with the SNS social networking application as the platform, such as Renren, ChinaRen, QQ, Weibo and

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WeChat. The knowledge space refers to the cyberspace that mainly produces and communicates knowledge, such as Baidu Post Bar, Zhihu, Douban and Tianya. The entertainment space refers to the cyberspace centering on network entertainment that mainly accommodates the entertainment activities including the network video, network music, network literature, network game and so on. The cyberspace is the important space to assemble and form network groups. In different types of cyberspaces with different functions, people gather together and gradually form different network groups through information communication. Some network groups are extending from the cohesive bonds in real society and are therefore relatively stable, such as QQ Friend Circle and WeChat Moments. Some groups are formed directly through the Internet. Depending on the stability of cohesive bonds, some groups are temporary such as the opinion group discussing on certain topic of Weibo and online shopper groups for the Singles Day online shopping; while some are stable, such as the network game groups formed by longterm interaction in the game and the groups of people gathering together for the same topic in Baidu Post Bar. Some of these network groups, where people have stable and long-term relations, connect with each other both online and offline, trust each other and have built profound friendships will gradually develop to be network communities. In this case, the group of members of Baidu hemophilia post bar constitute a network community constructed through the Internet based on their common disease experiences and information demands. Centering on bar managers including Shandong Laobalu, Mayicai and so on, this community has the members support, comfort and warm each other through information communication for over a decade. Many bar members even meet offline and become good friends in real life. Due to the mutual trust and good relationships among bar members, Mayicai signed in and examined the posts every day, fulfilled his management responsibilities over the post bar and safeguarded its smooth operation. As a result of the favorable environment of the post bar and the profound friendships, Baidu hemophilia post bar had expanded from a small place gathering only some dozens of people a decade ago to 5000 members before it was sold. Baidu hemophilia post bar has been an important part of the social support system to hemophilia patients and their families. They have acquired the optimum therapy information and emotional support from other members through information communication. “Pessimism and despair

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happen to everyone. But if someone listens to you and gives you a boost, you will find it is not so hard.”20 These network communities formed in the cyberspaces are playing a role as social support. Take the “hemophilia community” formed upon Baidu hemophilia post bar as an example. As hemophilia is a special disease, the patients suffering from this disease must accept lifelong treatment and therefore have many troubles in daily life. Thanks to Baidu hemophilia post bar, more than 5000 hemophilia patients and their families gather together to communicate medical information, encourage and support each other and hence constitute a tight social support network. This network rooted in the cyberspace renders the important support to hemophilia patients and their families that can never be provided by the real space. In this way, it has eased the medical burden and life troubles of hemophilia patients, reduced the possibility of social issues initiated by this group, enhanced the social cohesion and promoted the favorable operation of social order. Social Values of Cohesion Social cohesion, that is, the strength that brings the social public together, is an important power to build up the social order. It directly affects the stability of social order and constitutes an important force to increase social capital. It is exactly the cohesion of social members that enhances the mutual trust among people and facilitates the generation of the overall social capital network. With the rapid information communication in the Internet age, the people’s cohesion frequency is increased. The fact that people rapidly gathers together in different types of cyberspaces is of great significance in solving the large number of publicity and welfare social issues in China. The cohesion of people constitutes the premise and foundation to solve publicity and welfare social issues. Only upon the cohesion of people can many social public issues be discussed and public opinions be formed, thus solving the issues. The maximum information communication has been achieved between the public welfare provider and the demander and among the demanders and providers through the Internet, making it more convenient to per20  Gao Jiajia, Huang Gewei, Mayicai Who Shakes the “Empire” of Post Bar, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160115.

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form social public welfare. Since the Internet enables instant interaction, goes beyond the space-time limit and enjoys the natural advantages in uniting and assembling individuals in public service activities, the cyberspace is constructing a network platform of a low threshold, a transparent and convenient process and highly effective interactions, where the charity activities that only involve a few enterprises, groups or individuals develop to be the public service activity involving all people. The community of Baidu hemophilia post bar has played an important role in public welfare. Before the approach of the Internet age, government departments, mass organizations and fund organizations functioned as the major subjects of public welfare in China, played an important role in organizational mobilization, information communication and resources allocation, and made great contributions to the development of public welfare undertakings in China. However, the public welfare demanders could not fully match the providers due to the time-space restriction on information communication and complex demands of demanders, leading to the unfulfillment of the demands of minor public welfare demanders and the wastage of public welfare resources. With the advent of the Internet age, the public welfare demanders and suppliers have their information fully matched relying on the information communication platforms in the Internet. The network community of Baidu hemophilia post bar also helps improve social cohesion and stabilize social order. Any bar member can propose any question in a post bar to wait for other bar members’ answers. Answers to these detailed and complex questions can be acquired only through the rapid information communication of the Internet. They may propose questions like “counselling after being diagnosed with the disease”, “doubts on how to deal with bleeding”, “seeking for a job” and so on. Through these questions and answers, bar members have established close relations and acquired important medical information and social support. Therefore, when numerous network communities similar to Baidu hemophilia post bar are formed and scattered social members start to gather together, the social cohesion will be improved and the social order will be further stabilized. The Risk of Dissolution of Network Communities The great number of network communities are gradually formed through information communication based on the bond of interest or social connection and so on. When the cyberspace is sold as a commodity and is

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subject to the interference by the commercial force, the network communities are exposed to the risk of dissolution. In the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, when the former bar manager Shandong Laobalu found that the hemophilia post bar was sold to a commercial organization by Baidu, he immediately exited and refused to come back even when invited by Mayicai and others after Baidu announced the suspension of commercialization of disease-themed post bars. Later, the commonweal organization Beijing Home to Hemophilia Patients took over the hemophilia post bar and became the primary bar manager. Mayicai and others were the junior bar managers. However, some bar members felt that hemophilia post bar was no longer what it had been after the incident. A bar member stated that after the incident of the sale of the post bar and the lawsuit lodged against Mayicai, “I don’t want to come to this bar any more. I believe that many people have the same feeling with me”. Apparently, bar members had a resistance against the bar because the negative group emotion would necessarily rise when the public welfare spirit was restricted by the economic force. Before the incident, the hemophilia post bar had been full of the public welfare spirit such as care and selfless support, but the commercial behavior adopted by Baidu against this bar had significantly reduced the public welfare spirit of bar managers and bar members. Though the incident was rapidly settled, it had exerted certain influence on the community of the post bar, and it took quite a long time to completely restore the original cohesion and community environment. As pointed out by People’s Daily, “The community was formed based on charm, interest and human kindness instead of mandatory restraints. The commercial operations had deprived the community of the charming relationships, and this is indeed killing the hen for her eggs.”21 Moreover, when the commercial force interferes in the development of cyberspaces such as the hemophilia post bar, the information production mechanism of the space will be subject to the influence of the commercial force and the information produced will be no longer objective and public. Then, fewer people will enter the space for information, finally leading to the gradual dissolution of network communities originally formed. In particular, the commercialization of disease-themed post bars such as the 21  Liu Nian, Post Bar is Killing the Hen for Her Eggs by Attracting Investment in this Way, “People’s Daily”, 20160113.

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hemophilia post bar will result in the production of many medical advertisements, which will mislead patients and adversely affect the patients’ treatment. In this case, the information produced by this space has a smaller value to the public, and the attraction of the space will gradually decline. Information is the important bond for network communities. In general, only the information that is derived from the public and meanwhile matches public demands can consolidate the public and form the community in the cyberspace and then gives birth to the group culture through mutual interaction. However, under the influence of the economic force, the information production involves a decreasing number of people and the information no longer meets the public demands, so the information bond of the community will be looser and the community will gradually dissolve.

5.7   Conclusion In the Internet age, the cyberspace, depending on the technology of convenient information dissemination, has become an important space for people’s social networking and information communication. In particular, as to the minority groups, vulnerable groups and marginal groups such as hemophilia patients, the cyberspace is the important place where they can pour out their hearts, help each other and get support, as well as an ­important platform for them to spontaneously construct the social support network and form a network community. Among these cyberspaces of different sizes, different types and different functions, some cyberspaces such as hemophilia post bar embrace a strong ability of information production, and many valuable information is constantly produced during the mutual interaction and information communication among network users. Furthermore, these cyberspaces and the information produced have attracted more people to these spaces, so they will further expand and exert a greater social influence. As an increasing number of people choose to enter the space to acquire useful information, the value of the cyberspace will be gradually revealed. There are many cyberspaces similar to the hemophilia post bar that have become one of the essential networking spaces in space members’ daily life. In the meantime, from the perspective of the Internet enterprise that has the economic ownership over the cyberspace, the cyberspace is only a network product issued by the enterprises based on certain Internet tech-

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nologies. Along with the increasing social influence and value of the product, it will necessarily bring certain economic interests. Under these circumstances, Baidu started to commercialize its product, Baidu Post Bar, thus leading to the incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”. The incident of “the sale of Baidu hemophilia post bar”, on the one hand, reflects the Internet enterprises’ social responsibilities, and, on the other hand, embodies the social risks of cyberspace consumption, which refer to the social risks that may arise during the current spatial turn of network information consumption. These risks include the information risk, weakening publicity of the cyberspace, risk of dissolution of network communities and so on. These risks result from the interference by the economic force in the network society with the further development of the Internet, and it needs the concern of the whole society to solve these issues.

References 1. [US] David Shenk, Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 2001. 2. Gao Jiajia, Huang Gewei, Mayicai Who Shakes the “Empire” of Post Bar, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160115. 3. Guo Zihui, Zhang Lan, Who Moved My Right to Not Know in the New Media Age? “China Broadcasts”, 2009 (12). 4. Li Dandan, Annual Loss of Netizens Incurred by Fraud, Leakage and Spam Reached 80.5 Billion, “Beijing News”, 20150724. 5. Liu Mi, Zhou Dan, National Internet Information Office Met Baidu Directors, “Beijing Youth Daily”, 20160117. 6. Liu Nian, Post Bar is Killing the Hen for Her Eggs by Attracting Investment in this Way, “People’s Daily”, 20160113. 7. Ma Jianzhong, Baidu “Medical Care” Business Provoked a Wrath, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160113. 8. Ma Jianzhong, Baidu Post Bar of Disease Ceased Commercial Cooperation, What Is the Future of the Internet + Hospital Scapler, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160114. 9. Peng Xiaofei, National Health Commission Responds to “Baidu Post Bar”, “Beijing Youth Daily”, 20160116. 10. Tu Chonghang et al., Post Bar Interest Investigation: Post Deletion Business and Advertisement, “Beijing News”, 20160113. 11. Wang Chuanhong, Excessive Commercialization: Baidu “Sells” Post Bar, “21st Century Business Herald”, 20160113.

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12. Xie Rui, Ma Jianzhong, Partner Recruitment of Baidu Post Bar Was Terminated, “Southern Metropolis Daily”, 20160115. 13. Zheng Shanhai, Baidu Sells the Post Bar for Cooperation or Money, “Xinhua Daily Telegraph”, 20160112. 14. Zhou Long, Internet Enterprises Shall Apply Their Sheer Animal Strengths Appropriately, “Guangming Daily”, 20160113. 15. China Internet Network Information Center, The 37th Statistical Report on the Internet Network Development in China, http://cnnic.cn, 20160122.

CHAPTER 6

Two-Way Embedding: A National Carnival of Electronic Red Envelopes Dongmei Wang and Jiachi Zhuang

6.1   Introduction The electronic red envelope has rapidly drawn the attention of the general public and merchants since its emergence and has become the focus topic of all the people in the Spring Festival of 2014 and 2015. In the Spring Festival of 2015, the red envelope war among the enterprises was even intensified. According to the media, In the first decade of the 21st century, on the Spring Festival of each year, there was always a report on the number of SMS sent at the Chinese New Year’s Eve, but no such report was released this year. Instead, the data said the follows: the total number of WeChat red envelopes sent and received on the whole day of Chinese New Year’s Eve reached 1.01 billion; WeChat Swing during the Spring Festival Gala achieved 11 billion times, with a peak of 810 million times/minute; and the blessings have been transmitted to 185 countries by 3 trillion kilometers.

“Alipay of Alibaba was also reluctant to show weakness and presented its trump card Ma Yuan and David Beckham to have the audience guess the

D. Wang (*) • J. Zhuang School of Social Work, Central League School, Beijing, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_6

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password to get the red envelope. It is said that at the Chinese New Year’s Eve, all 8-digit passwords have been used up and it is estimated that the number of red envelopes issued by Alipay reached several hundreds of million this year.”1 In addition to WeChat and Alipay, the two tycoons in red envelopes, Sina Weibo, Tmall and Alipay had cooperated to launch the campaign of “Let Red Envelopes Fly”, and Didi Taxi, China Merchants Bank and Lufax also released red envelopes through WeChat platform. Moreover, many enterprises developed their unique ways. Diversified forms were created including the password red envelope, points red envelope, scanned red envelope and so on. Besides putting cash in the red envelopes, enterprises mostly adopted cash coupons, vouchers, discount coupons and so on, while many industries had been involved such as the retail sale, group-­ buying, taxi, online takeaway and communication. The “Red Envelope War” in the Spring Festival not only produced the upsurge of all people snatching red envelopes, perfectly fit the festival and achieved the win-win effect of brand promotion and user feedback. Since then, the red envelope has become the new star in the Internet age. As shown by the big data analysis of the “WeChat Red Envelope”, this phrase was firstly searched in the Internet in January 2014, and later there was a sharp rise of the number of media reports on “WeChat Red Envelope”, which reached its peak around the Spring Festival of 2014. After that, the WeChat red envelope was always the hot words of media reports in the Spring Festival every year. By January 2016, the accumulated searches of “WeChat Red Envelope” in Internet had attained 636,001, including 27,391 media reports. The popularity of electronic red envelopes suggests the approach of a new trend of lifestyle in the mobile Internet age. The red envelope game in full swing has made WeChat groups livelier and exerted certain influence on social relationships in real life. On one hand, the relationship marketing of the commercial red envelope reflects the social embeddedness of economic behavior, and, on the other hand, the red envelope free from any marketing purpose is rebuilding the interest structures of certain interpersonal relations. Then, here is the question: considering it takes only half a year for people to accept and trustingly use the red envelope, an emerging thing in the mobile Internet age, why is the electronic red envelope so popular? Why do people trust the electronic red envelope? 1  2015 CCTV Spring Festival Gala Became the Evening of Red Envelopes, WeChat Swing Reached 11 Billion Times During the Gala, http://www.guancha.cn/life/2015_02_19_309921. shtml, 20150219.

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6.2   The Traditional Red Envelop Culture and the Rise of the Electronic Red Envelope It has been a traditional custom of China to hand out red envelopes in the Spring Festival, to deliver the elder’s care and wishes to the young. The red envelope in a traditional sense is a piece of red paper wrapping money (the money is also called Yasuiqian) inside that is given by the elder to the child right after zero o’clock of the Spring Festival to express the wishes for health. There is a saying that Yasuiqian will dispel the evil, bring good luck and assure the child to be safe in the New Year. The custom of handing out red envelopes during the Spring Festival can be traced back to a long time ago. According to the textual research, Yasuiqian firstly emerged in the Han Dynasty. At that time, Yasuiqian used the talisman in the shape of a coin instead of the coin in circulation, and some of the coins were inscribed with auspicious words in the front such as “long live” and “dispel the evil” and with various patters in the back such as the dragon, phoenix, turtle or snake. In the Tang Dynasty, it was popular to sow coins in the palace, but it was rarely seen among the people. In the Song Dynasty, the custom of sowing money was transformed to be the elder handing out Yasuiqian to the child. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most coins of Yasuiqian were strung with a red string. Since the Republic of China, Yasuiqian was wrapped by a piece of red paper in most cases. In this period, the red envelope not only referred to Yasuiqian, but also implied the gift money, bonus and even bribery money.2 The traditional red envelope in China embraces several social connotations, including social networking such as visiting relatives and friends, the ceremony feeling of expressing blessings and emotions, and the economic purpose and the function of exchange. By comparison, the electronic red envelope is paid through the mobile Internet. In 2014, WeChat led all others to firstly apply the electronic red envelope. Though this function, WeChat friends could send each other red envelopes and bet wishes and “snatch the red envelope” in WeChat group. The mobile payment interface of WeChat enables users to review the record of sending and receiving red envelopes and the specific amount that everyone snatches and to withdraw the money by bank card. WeChat Red Envelope had been rapidly spread all over China for its convenience,

2

 Baidu Baike, “Red Envelope”, http://baike.so.com/doc/39805684176589.html

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entertainment and popularity. After the expansion, the electronic red envelope is developing toward extensive applications and diversified forms. Not only applied to the commercial goal, the electronic red envelope also becomes a new type of social bond for social networking. With the advent of the network age, the new ways to send New Year greetings come into vogue, represented by sending and snatching red envelopes through WeChat. The traditional Chinese festival customs are now presented with a new form and additional social significance based on the electronic red envelope. Moreover, the red envelopes that were mostly seen in the Spring Festival can be seen at any time in the WeChat group. Despite the small amount, it is bustling with excitement to snatch red envelopes in the groups. This interesting activity has strengthened interpersonal communication and interaction. The heat of the red envelope is demonstrated by the following humorous sentences: This is a message from aliens acquired by Guancha Net: This is a report to the headquarter. The creatures of this planet are strange. There are dozens or hundreds of millions of them are fulfilling a mission named ‘Hong Bao (the Chinese pronunciation for the red envelope)’. This mission consists of two LCD screens, one large and one small, and contains some videos, pictures or figures. They are extremely excited, never stop typing and sometimes laugh loudly. This mission lasts for several hours. We have no idea about the purpose of this mission. We believe that the creatures of this planet have no advanced wisdom that can be compared to us but show a great collectivity. We suggest suspending the attack and continuing to observe.

Compared to the traditional red envelope, the electronic red envelope features a stronger function of social networking due to the participation, entertainment and interest of “snatching red envelopes”. “Anything that can be solved with the red envelope will not be expressed with words.” This sentence has vividly recreated the interpersonal relationships in the age of red envelopes.

6.3   Social Embeddedness of Economic Behaviors: Relationship Marketing of the Electronic Red Envelope The marketing method that embeds the electronic red envelope in the network social relationship is essentially a successful model of the social embeddedness of economic behaviors. The concept of embeddedness was

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firstly proposed by Karl Polanyi, who held that people’s economic activities had been embedded in economic and non-economic institutions and the origins and motives of economic behaviors were made up by numerous non-economic factors. Mark Granovetter believed that the behavior subject in reality could not act independently from the social background and meanwhile did not act in accordance with external social regulations under social restrictions, but pursued after multiple objective sets in the specific and dynamic social relationship system.3 The electronic red envelope can be divided in to the “commercial red envelope” and “popular red envelope” based on different subjects who hand out the electronic red envelope and different goals. The commercial red envelope generally refers to the one released by a merchant or an organization mainly for marketing and promotion. To receive such a red envelope, the user shall firstly share the information on the social networking software platform such as WeChat Moments; and meanwhile, the commercial red envelope that is shared on the social networking platform can also be received by the user’s friends, thus realizing the goal of promotion. By comparison, the “popular red envelope” means the ones handed out by users in the Moments or groups to have fun, make friendly contacts and express congratulations and gratitude, and so on. From the perspective of the merchant, the ultimate goal of the red envelope, the commercial or the popular, is to cultivate users’ habit of online payment. Online payment constitutes an extremely key part of e-commerce, as the e-commerce transaction can be completed only with online payment. To realize online payment, consumers shall bind the capital fund to the Internet. Tencent had completed its goal of bank card binding of countless users with nearly no cost at all. “According to the data from the third-party statistical organization, WeChat had 200 million personal bank cards bound in merely two days, which took Alipay 8 years.”4 The WeChat users who have bound the bank card will become the potential customers for WeChat Financing and help WeChat payment to rapidly expand its influence. Then, some mobile merchants with a sharp commercial nose will look forward to cooperating with WeChat Payment.

3   Huang Zhongwei, Wang Yulu, Review on the Theoretical Researches of the Social Embeddedness of Economic Behaviors, “Foreign Economics & Management”, 2007 (12). 4  “Red Envelope War” of the Spring Festival Ended, WeChat Had 200 Million Bank Cards Bound, http://sh.qq.com/a/20150225/009047.htm, 20150225.

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After that, other major Internet platforms also issued their red envelopes, such as Alipay Red Envelope.5 The success of the electronic red envelope is indispensable from its in-­ depth embeddedness in social relationships. The interaction of red envelopes actually reflects the demands on community interaction and emotional transmission. When designing the new forms of the red envelope, Internet enterprises are placing increasing emphasis on social networking. WeChat shows an evident advantage in social networking; the QQ password red envelope is a kind of community red envelope to satisfy users’ demands on communication and sharing in different scenarios; and Alipay is putting great efforts in its function of social networking and has added the “Life Circle” function in the new version. As a brand new form of community interaction, the electronic red envelope presents its unique role in communication and its great influence. To be specific, the relationship marketing, or the social embeddedness, of the electronic red envelope mainly embodies in the following aspects: Firstly, cultural embeddedness. The electronic red envelope agrees with and inherits the traditional red envelope culture. As mentioned above, the custom of handing out red envelopes has a long history in China. The electronic red envelope can be widely accepted because it perfectly matches the custom of the elder handing out red envelopes to the young during the Spring Festival in Chinese traditional culture. The cultural agreement has significantly improved the popularity of the electronic red envelope. It is as if the red envelope is added with the wings of Internet+, and the electronic red envelope has become the new fashion in the network age. Secondly, social relationship embeddedness. The strong ties of the Moments solve the trust issue. The red envelope culture reflects the demands on the strong-tie networking in Chinese traditional society. However, in the modern society of a highly specialized division of labor, interpersonal relationships are forced to be alienated; and modern people can no longer live a “poetic living” due to busy work and have to find the new emotional sustenance. In the information age dominated by mobile Internet technologies, WeChat suddenly came into the world and has built a strong-tie social networking 5  He Jun, 36 Million WeChat Red Envelopes Have Been Snatched within 10 Minutes, Network Companies Waged the “Commercial War” in the Spring Festival, “Securities Daily”, 20120213.

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platform for modern people. At the same time, the red envelope culture decorated by the Internet has successfully advanced the users’ viscosity to this platform. The red envelope culture perfectly matches the strong-tie characteristics behind WeChat platform, and the two naturally integrated together have triggered the upsurge of red envelopes nationwide. The electronic red envelope has achieved the promotion effect and public praises among the acquaintances in the Moments at an extremely low cost, solving the difficulty of initial trust in Internet marketing. The Internet social networking platforms all feature the sociability, and any content published in the social networking platform will be spread to others. Information makes sense only when it is known to others. Other people can reply to the information by comments, likes or involvements, and the sociability is displayed in the constant interactions. This is the same case with the electronic red envelope. During the Spring Festival of 2016, Penguin Intelligence had published a report on the big data of Internet red envelopes, How do Chinese People Snatch Red Envelopes? Exclusive Disclosure from the Report on Internet Red Envelopes. This report had portrayed the circumstances of Internet red envelopes in China including “red envelope + social networking”, “red envelope + O2O” and so on. “The core of the Internet red envelope lies in the strong ties of social networking products. The strong ties among Internet friends constitute the foundation for the rise of the Internet red envelope. Most users firstly come into touch with the Internet red envelope through social networking platforms. 80.8% of users begin their use of Internet red envelopes by receiving or sending the cash electronic red envelope from or to the people they trust.” See Fig. 6.1. Thirdly, emotional embeddedness. The electronic red envelope has become the new media for interpersonal interaction and emotional communication. In the report of Penguin Intelligence on the Internet red envelope, as shown in the result of the investigation on “the scenes and feelings of sending or receiving Internet red envelopes”, “people’s most important demand on using the Internet red envelope is interaction and having fun. Therefore, according to the scenes and sending or receiving Internet red envelopes and users’ psychological feelings, the Internet red envelope has developed from the preferential or the festive symbol for celebration to the new media for interpersonal interaction and emotional communication. The symbolic meaning of the red envelope has been raised to an even higher level. The amount of the red envelope becomes less important. The

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Fig. 6.1  Circumstances of users’ “first” use of the Internet Red Envelope. (Data source: Penguin Intelligence research)

Fig. 6.2  Scenes and feelings of sending or receiving Internet Red Envelopes. (Data source: Penguin Intelligence research)

Internet red envelope has gradually become the tool to convey humanistic concern and feelings” (see Fig.  6.2). It has become the new media to maintain relationships in modern social networking. Fourthly, entertainment embeddedness. Only an interesting activity enables the long-lasting involvement. In the entertainment atmosphere brought by the electronic red envelope, users are enjoying the red envelope activity. On one hand, users’ curiosity is satisfied by the process of snatching the red envelope. Especially

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with the luck-test red envelope, users have no idea whether they can snatch it and the amount they can get. Due to the uncertainty, the red envelope is like a gift to be opened, and the process of snatching a red envelope is like the process of opening a gift. Therefore, it satisfies users’ curiosity and thus stimulates people to repeatedly experience it and even share and popularize it. On the other hand, the process of “snatching a red envelope” is essentially a kind of interpersonal interaction. The interpersonal distance is shortened when people participate in the same activity. Moreover, people feel like playing a game when snatching the red envelope. Since the results of the red envelope snatching can be seen by everyone, including who has snatched the red envelope and the amount they acquire, users’ sense of participation and presence further adds to the interest of snatching the red envelope. The relationship marketing of the electronic red envelope not only succeeds at present, but also greatly influences the future. Chen Jing, the CEO of Zhong’an Insurance, once stated: The popularity of the Internet red envelope is a necessary result of the development of mobile Internet technologies. By participating in Alipay red envelopes in the Spring Festival Gala, we had accumulated a great many data of new users. Combining the new data with the old data, Zhong’an Insurance will embrace a greater ability of risk control and operation. In the future, we will further analyze the accumulated data from the perspectives of scenes, time and groups et cetera and thus customize and push different insurance products to target groups.6

6.4   Economic Embeddedness of Social Relations: Rebuild the Interest Structure Compared to the traditional red envelope, the economic behavior of receiving and sending the electronic red envelope combining the mobile payment has promoted the transformation of the original social connotations of the red envelope. In view of the form, the symbolic meaning and the issuing subject of the red envelope as well as its exclusiveness and ­purpose, the electronic red envelope is rebuilding the interest structure of certain interpersonal relationships. 6  “Red Envelope War” Further Explores the Internet Insurance, http://www.sc136.cn/ article/201602/42032.html, 20160219.

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Firstly, in regard to the use form, the electronic red envelope is presented in a form of cash gift, and solves the difficult position when the cash shall be used under certain circumstances. Viviana Zelizer, American economic sociologist and the Chairman of the Economic Sociology Association, had systematically explored the “social meaning” of money in western society in her book The Social Meaning of Money. Different from the traditional understanding of market economics, she believed that money was not a simple concept that quantified and reduced all interpersonal relations and emotions, and, instead, when using the money, people were constantly creating and changing the social meaning of money. To put it simply, “money differ from each other”. Furthermore, money will become a more complicated issue when the intimate relationship is involved. According to Viviana Zelizer, there is no problem with contributing money to charity organizations, but when people are sending a cash gift, they must hide the money in a traditional gift to make money not that like money. For example, gold is hidden in cookies and candies; paper money is used to decorate a belt or a photo frame; and the ladies’ magazine in 1909 suggested that the husband who wanted to give his wife a check as a gift should place the check in a beautifully decorated purse and send the purse to his wife. In a word, when presenting the cash gift to relatives or friends, cash shall be well disguised to make an appropriate gift. In the gifting process, the one who sends the gift will find ways and means to emphasize the money’s meaning as a gift, thus avoiding the money’s meaning of purchasing and reflect the mystique of the gift. That’s the same reason why the money shall be wrapped by a piece of red paper before being handed out in the Spring Festival. By avoiding directly gifting money to others, it will prevent the purchasing relationship between people, as the purchasing relationship will remind people of the affiliated relation or the social ranks, which we do our utmost to avoid in interpersonal communication. In the age of the electronic red envelope, there comes a new way to conceal the money, which protects people’s feelings when money is involved, prevents the embarrassment of face-to-face money gifting between the acquaintances and sometimes makes it more comfortable to send or receive the small-amount red envelope. Take the popular red envelope advertisements among acquaintances as an example. “Several days ago, a classmate released the information about her child ­participating a competition in the group and requested us to vote for her. Then she sent a large-amount red envelope in the group to show her gratitude. All of us

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are snatching the red envelope while voting.” “Someone publishes a link of a questionnaire in the group and requests us to fill in the questionnaire. As we have already snatched the red envelope, we will feel sorry if we do not help him out.” No one cares about the amount of the red envelope, and both the one who sends and the one who receives the red envelope know that. It only represents the gratitude. This scene will never take place in real society, as people can never say “you do me a favor and I give you 8 cents” to others. Secondly, in view of the goal of use, the material gain makes place for expressiveness of the red envelope. The economic utility constitutes the major function of the traditional red envelope; while the electronic red envelope can also help users make friendly contacts with frequent interactions in addition to the economic utility. Compared to the traditional red envelope, the electronic red envelope rushing everywhere in relatives and friends’ Moments is playing a decreasing role as a gift but contains much greater symbolic meanings. Generally, with a smaller amount from several cents or several yuan to dozens of yuan or hundreds of yuan, the electronic red envelop has a smaller economic meaning, while the electronic red envelope of coupon can hardly bear the role as a gift. At the same time, compared to the traditional red envelope, the social networking significance of the electronic red envelop is higher based on the entertainment and interest of “snatching red envelopes” and sharing and interaction of “shared red envelopes”. A red envelope is associated to emotions and blessings. An increasing number of users get used to express their feelings or blessings through the electronic red envelope. Despite the small amount, it delivers important things. For example, 5.20 represents “I love you”, 13.14 indicates “forever and ever” and 6.66 suggests “everything goes well”, mainly based on the homophony of these words in Chinese. With a small amount, the electronic red envelope conveys the care of who gives it, which cannot be done through the traditional red envelope. The expressive function of the electronic red envelope has been gradually accepted and recognized by society. On October 26, 2015, a report said that a teacher sent red envelopes to students on class to prevent students from playing truant. According to the report, a school teacher stimulated students to take the class on time with the red envelope; and any student making progress in an exam or listening to the class carefully would also receive the red envelopes from the teacher. A good result had been achieved by this measure. Students no longer skipped classes, the classroom atmosphere was active and the relationship between the students and

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the teacher is extremely good.7 As commented by the media, “The socalled ‘WeChat Red Envelope’ generally provides a too small amount to exert any economic stimulation, but it is playing the role as ‘social networking catalyst’. The ‘red envelope’, as a medium, enables a series of interpersonal interactions and strengthens the weak interpersonal connections. Apparently, this is very important for university students and teachers who have been obviously alienated.”8 Thirdly, instead of the “exclusiveness” of the traditional red envelope, it is quite entertaining to receive and send the electronic red envelope. By clicking WeChat Red Envelope in the WeChat interface, two forms of electronic red envelopes are provided for choices, “regular red envelope” and “luck-test red envelope”. The users can select either form, then set the amount and number of the red envelopes and choose the group or individual to send it. The “luck-test red envelope” is very popular in WeChat groups. After a user sends this type of red envelope in a group, the group members can click the link to snatch the red envelope, and everyone will get a different amount randomly. The amount is completely decided by “luck”. Those who have only snatched a red envelope of a small amount will be more concentrated on snatching the next one; and the “luckiest” guy is often required to release the next red envelope. In this way, this activity can last long and enliven the group through constant interactions. The traditional red envelope, generally given by the elder to the young, exclusively belongs to the receiver; but the electronic red envelope shows the “publicity” that all group members have the chance to get it. Some netizens even summarize the tricks on “how to snatch the most red envelopes in the red envelope war”: adding more friends, joining more groups, quicker Internet speed and new mobile phone. The process of “snatching red envelopes” is entertaining and perfectly fits the essence of group interaction. Fourthly, there is no limitation on the subjects releasing the red envelope. In Chinese traditional festival customs, the red envelope shall be handed out by the elder to the younger for blessings and celebrations, which has been subverted by WeChat Red Envelope. Now everyone can join the red envelope activities as long as they are interested. This change 7  Chen Yong, Give You a Red Envelope if You Do Not Play Truant, “Yangtse Evening Post”, 20151026. 8  Ran Yu, No Need to Exaggerate the Utilitarianism of Teacher-student WeChat Red Envelop, http://cjrb.cjn.cn/html/201510/27/content_5482973.htm, 20151027.

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has greatly stimulated people’s enthusiasm. They do not care about the amount but only care about the process of “snatching red envelopes” itself. As everyone is equal in the WeChat group, “People who have been set in their ways are actually more longing for changes, such as changing the rules of the game and changing the distance with the rich. They will feel satisfied when they send a red envelope like the rich does. This is the rules of a game as well as a game recalling people’s memory.”9 In addition, the receiver of the red envelope can reply to the sender much more quickly than the traditional red envelope due to the convenience brought by the electronic red envelope. While it takes several months for the receiver to find the suitable “scenario” to return the traditional red envelope, the electronic red envelope needs only several seconds. Therefore, the electronic red envelope is stimulating both the receivers and senders. Many quiet groups in WeChat become bustling and hustling again and many old friends who are out of touch start to contact and find the common interest again by snatching red envelopes. A red envelope can activate a WeChat group that has been quiet for a long time. “Everyone in the group is excited and concentrated on snatching red envelopes. People reject all offline activities to stay with the mobile phone. All are laughing at the screen, and even the rich stay up to snatch the red envelopes of only several yuan.”

6.5   Embedded Trust: The National Carnival of Red Envelopes It takes only half a year for people to accept and trustingly use the red envelope, an emerging thing in the mobile Internet age. Why do people trust the electronic red envelope? Personified Trust in Traditional Society The traditional Chinese society is a local society, an acquaintance society, where people trust others because they are acquainted with each other. This is a kind of “direct trust”, “personified trust”. Therefore, Chinese people have an inherent distrust in the Internet and Internet products. For example, by the end of 1999, the climax of the Internet development, 9  Xiaodaoma, Flowing Red Envelopes Boost Social Networking and Payment, “Software Engineer”, 2014 (3).

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more than 300 B2C network companies had been founded in China, and the number increased to 700 in 2000. However, by 2001, only three or four of them had left an impression on the people. It was until the breakout of SARS when a lot of people had to stay at home that they could only rely on the network to purchase what they needed, so many people with strong security awareness only started to try online shopping at that time. Since then, they began to realize the convenience of “online order and home delivery”, and more and more people accepted online shopping. Apparently, the trust issue had once been a key problem that restricted the development of Internet economy in China. As to the trust issue in China, some scholars hold that Chinese people’s trust is a kind of special trust based on the kinship instead of the general trust based on the community. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Max Weber pointed out that Chinese people’s trust was “established upon the kinship or similar personal relationship”, that is, a kind of special trust formed and maintained based on the kinship community such as the family and clan. Niklas Luhmann divided the trust into interpersonal trust and systematic trust. The interpersonal trust refers to the trust among people, while the systematic trust suggests people’s trust in the group, organization or institution and consists of the non-interpersonal group trust and organizational trust. According to Francis Fukuyama, traditional Chinese culture emphasized different attitudes toward the close and the distant. Chinese people had a trust only inside the clan and were prudent to anyone outside their clan. Therefore, the trust of Chinese people could hardly be expanded to any group without kinship and the interpersonal trust could hardly be transformed to the systematic trust here. From this point of view, it is easy to understand the great difficulty to build people’s trust in any third party in the Internet transactions. Though Chinese society has a hierarchical order, the structure is flexible and retractable. Even the clear boundary can be changed. Therefore, Chinese people’s trust in their own families and outsiders is subject to the kinship between people as well as the intimate relation and the affinity relation derived from the generalization of kinship such as the people from the same village or with the same surname and others. Therefore, the trusted group also comprises some outsiders with an affinity relation in addition to family members, relatives and clan members. As is known to all, the relationship constitutes an integral part of Chinese society and the

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important foundation to understand Chinese people’s social behaviors.10 The relationship here refers to both the kinship between people and other general relationships such as classmates, friends and colleagues. Therefore, as shown in the results of the studies on the trust issue of Chinese people, Chinese people’s trust in the institution or third party is embedded in their social networks. Economic Behaviors Embedded in Social Relations In regard to the sharing red envelope aiming at marketing, the primary factor contributing to the success of a transaction is “relationship” instead of “interest” in many cases. In real society, the consumer is a kind of social subject instead of the economic subject in the non-economic hypothesis. Consumers are pursuing after multiple demands including the interest, social networking and role playing, and so on, but not seeking the maximum interests. Therefore, what pushes the potential consumer to conduct the first consumer behavior is not the economic effect but the consumer’s trust in the product or service established after the consumer’s friend shares the experiences. This kind of trust originates from the consumer’s trust in the friend’s consumption preference, consumption level and evaluation system. Economic considerations play only a small part in promoting consumers to conduct the first consumer behavior, particularly in the case of the red envelope. Firstly, the amount of the sharing red envelope is commonly small. For example, the red envelope amount of Didi Taxi is between 1 yuan and 5 yuan. Except in the promotional period, the preferential provided by Didi in the red envelope is often around 2 yuan. Secondly, the sharing red envelope has a weak fluidity, since it cannot be withdrawn and can be used only in the next time of consumption, and even needs to fulfill certain conditions. Thirdly, the sharing red envelope has an expiry date in most cases, so consumers must use it within a certain period after receiving the red envelope. Therefore, the popularity of the sharing red envelope can hardly be explained from the perspective of interest. As to “snatching red envelopes” as a form of social networking, the economic interest is playing an even smaller part. In this nationwide popular activity of snatching red envelopes, many people are sending the red 10   Li Weimin, Liang Yucheng, Special Trust and General Trust: The Structure and Characteristics of Chinese Trust, “Sociological Studies”, 2002 (3).

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envelopes of only 1 cent, but the fact is that many netizens still feel delightful to snatch the red envelope of such a small amount. Netizens even make fun of this situation as follows: “Dear, you know what? You may need to pay two cents to snatch an 1-cent red envelope.” “Snatching red envelopes is even more difficult than farming. You never stop snatching but you may only get two yuan for a whole day. When checking the traffic charge, you will find it has exceeded two hundred!”

According to the statistics of the technology department of a website, it takes approximately 300 KB to snatch one red envelope. As calculated based on the current traffic set, 100 MB, that is, 102,400 KB, charges 10 yuan. Therefore, 100 MB can be used to snatch 340 red envelopes, so the traffic charge to snatch one red envelope is 0.03 yuan, that is, 3 cents. In other words, if without the free wireless network, the users have to pay 2 cents to snatch a 1-cent red envelope. However, netizens do not take it seriously. “We snatch the red envelope for fun. We never hope to make a fortune by snatching red envelopes.” Instead, the sharing red envelopes mainly stimulate consumers to conduct their first consumption behavior through the following two social methods: Firstly, the one sending the red envelope is the one using the product. The user shares the red envelope in his social network including the Moments, QQ groups and so on, which is actually the process of sharing the favorable consumption experiences with friends. For example, the user of a taxi application may share with his friend: whether the taxi called through the application is safe; whether the fund in the bank card bound to the application is safe; whether the fee for the taxi called through the application is lower than that of the ordinary taxi; and how is the preferential; what are the weaknesses of calling a taxi with the mobile taxi application; and what need to be noticed. In such an embedded relationship, the information related to the price is delivered in a more detailed and appropriate way in a complete structure, which can hardly be achieved by marketing. Meanwhile, the information conveyed in this close relationship is a mix of information blocks, which contain the more detailed price data and more messages in addition to those expressly stated in the conversation. Secondly, as the activity of snatching red envelopes is practical, interesting and favorable for social connecting, it vigorously boosts users’ ­consumer behaviors. When seeing a friend share the red envelope on the

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social networking platform, they may click to receive the red envelope even if they do not use the product. After receiving the red envelope, they are more willing to understand more about this sharing red envelope, which drives the consumers to start using the product. In addition, despite the small amount, the sharing red envelope also stimulates people’s consumer behavior as long as the red envelope is safe and useful. With the special-car market as an example, according to the statistics from CNNIC, the number of users of the special car had reached 21.65 million by June 2015, and 26% of the interviewees expressed that they would use the special car whenever they had a coupon. Embedded Trust in Network Society Solving the trust issue in Internet economic behaviors is considered as the primary premise to guarantee the success of Internet transactions. The mainstream to explain the generation of the trust mainly applies the idea of rational choice. The rational choice theorists hold that the trust is firstly derived from the rational calculation of future actions of the trust object. The ideal market economy shall feature not only the completely transparent information but also the spontaneous order. The most effective method is to have the market allocate the resources based on the spontaneous supply-demand relationship, since any artificial interference will add to the cost and instability of market transactions. This ideal market transaction will be free from any crisis of trust, as both parties of the transaction are behaving upon the complete information. Anyone who does not stick to the commitments will be gradually eliminated during the transactions, while only those who observe the rules of market transactions are left. In this way, the trust issue is solved. However, this is only an ideal hypothesis of complete information. In reality, the market economy is always exposed to the incomplete information and uncertainty incurred by the imbalance of social status as well as the complex social environment. Therefore, the future actions of the trust object are undefined, so the trust is actually exposed to certain risks. The rational choice theorists center on the interest calculation when explaining this risky trust. People’s trust during the economic transactions can be mainly divided into two types: the initial trust and constant trust. The initial trust mainly refers to people’s considerations when choosing certain product or service for the first time; while the constant trust mainly indicates the user’s vis-

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cosity. The main factor impeding the development of the Internet economy lies in the lack of initial trust. For network transactions, consumers generally lack the initial trust in the following three aspects: the trust in the product itself, the trust in the fund security and the trust in the protection of consumers’ privacy in the Internet. Though many problems are yet to be solved to build the trust in the Internet economic behavior, the trust itself can be transmitted. For example, if I trust B a lot and B provides certain guarantee for Party C’s credibility, I will choose to believe C based on my trust in B though I have little understanding of C. This is the transmission of trust, and it is the same case with the celebrity advertising effect. According to the research, some newly opened online stores can associate themselves to celebrities or make use of the ratings of old consumers to help the transmission of trust from the two to the stores and thus establish a trust relationship with new customers.11 Therefore, the sharing red envelope, as a marketing measure, has effectively solved the difficulty of initial trust in the Internet economic behaviors based on the trust transmission, by successfully embedding the individual’s trust in a third party into the personal social network. The trust in any third party in people’s Internet economic behaviors is not constructed at one move, but is achieved through the personal social network, as shown in Fig. 6.3. As an economic behavior, the red envelope sharing achieves the multi-­ win situation of the consumer, consumer’s friend, platform and product or service provider. It is a kind of effective acquaintance marketing. From the perspective of the sharers. Firstly, they have enjoyed pleasant experiences (premise) through an Internet economic behavior, and then they get certain incentives for the next time of consumption by sharing the red envelope. Secondly, they receive favorable feedback by sharing the consumption experiences in their social networks. For example, if a friend of the sharer receives the red envelope, has favorable experiences when consuming the network product and gains practical economic benefits, the friend may say thanks to the sharer. In this way, the social connections and interactions among people are promoted and the social benefits of the relationship network are enhanced. From the perspective of the consumer, it takes no 11  Shi, Y. and C.L. Sia et al., “Leveraging Social Grouping for Trust Building in Foreign Electronic Commerce Firms: An Exploratory Study,” International Journal of Information Management, 2013 (3), pp. 419–428.

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Fig. 6.3  The diagram of the generation of the network trust relationship

cost to receive a red envelope, but it will definitely bring consumer the economic benefits if the shared red envelope is used. The platforms and product or service providers serve multiple purposes through the sharing red envelopes. Firstly, the sharers can immediately get an electronic red envelope by sharing one, and they can use it for the next time of consumption. Therefore, it stimulates the next consumer behavior to a certain extent. Secondly, the people who receive the sharing red envelope may be attracted to the information on product quality, service quality or fund safety, and so on provided by the acquaintance and certain incentives. Then, these potential consumers may be inspired to conduct their first-time consumption. Thirdly, everyone who shares the red envelope has become a low-cost “salesman”. Essentially, the platform is converting all consumers to the salesmen of the platform at an extremely low cost through the red envelope sharing. When these people recommend the platform and share the experiences about the platform in their social networks, their social networks will have a trust in the platform based on their trust in these sharers. The sharing of each red envelope is actually a process of the delivery of trust. Being a kind of “viral” communication, it enables the platforms and product providers to achieve a significant ­publicity effect at an extremely low cost. Fourthly, it realizes the precise

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target marketing. The social networking platform, the carrier of sharing red envelopes, presents a distinctive feature that people enjoy homogenous social circles. For example, users of Renren Net are all college students. Users often connect with their classmates or friends close to their lives in WeChat. As an important assumption, homogeneity means that people share consistent demands to a great extent. For example, I am a college student and I like to order food delivery on weekends, so many of my classmates also have such demands. In this case, my red envelope of food takeaway shared in WeChat Moments will be frequently used. The effect of even the most precise advertising and marketing cannot be compared to that of the red envelope sharing. Therefore, the Internet-sharing red envelope is essentially a kind of economic behavior embedded in people’s social network. Though it seems that consumers are sharing the red envelopes issued by merchants or organizations, it is actually the merchants and organizations who are sharing consumers’ social networks at a very small cost. Countless netizens bring their limited resources into play, which finally attain a considerable marketing and advertising effect. The marketing and publicity embedded in private networks features a much better communication effect than extensive advertising.

6.6   Conclusion In the Internet age, the trend of two-way embedding can be seen between the economic behavior of receiving and sending electronic red envelopes and various social factors, which integrate with and influence on each other. The relationship marketing of the electronic red envelope reflects the social embeddedness of economic behavior, while the role of the electronic red envelope in reshaping the interpersonal benefit pattern embodies the economic embeddedness of social relations. Based on this two-way embedding, this chapter discusses the electronic red envelope as a marketing strategy also as a social networking method, analyzes the embedded trust mechanism in Internet economic behaviors and concludes that the embedded trust is indispensable to the private relationship network in online economic behaviors. The economic behavior is decided by both economic and non-­economic factors, while the economic behavior and social behavior jointly constitute the major factors contributing to people’s economic behaviors. From the holistic view, the economic system is a subsystem of the social system that

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is embedded in social relations. From the perspective of individuals, the economic interest is only the direct cause of the consumer behavior, as the more profound causes shall be the social network and social trust system. As to the study of Chinese market economy, some scholars believe that some economic chaos arising in the economic development in China is incurred as China lacks the institution-based trust mode; and no institution-­based trust mode has been established in Chinese society due to the nepotistic interpersonal relation trust rooted in Chinese traditional culture. Therefore, many scholars suggest gradually perfecting the legal system, constructing the modern market mechanism and changing Chinese people’s trust mode from special trust to general trust. However, according to the Internet economic phenomena analyzed in his chapter, people’s “general trust” for the third-party supervision can hardly be built without the special trust in the interpersonal relations. Therefore, without the special trust in interpersonal relations, the efficiency would be lower even if the perfect legal and supervision system was established.

References 1. Chen Yong, Give You a Red Envelope if You Do Not Play Truant, “Yangtse Evening Post”, 20151026. 2. Fei Xiaotong, The Birth System, Shanghai, The Commercial Press, 1947. 3. Fei Xiaotong, From the Soil, Beijing, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2013 4. [US] Mark Granovetter, The Sociology of Economic Life, Shanghai, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2014. 5. He Jun, 36 Million WeChat Red Envelopes Have Been Snatched within 10 Minutes, Network Companies Waged the “Commercial War” in the Spring Festival, “Securities Daily”, 20120213. 6. Li Weimin, Liang Yucheng, Special Trust and General Trust: The Structure and Characteristics of Chinese Trust, “Sociological Studies”, 2002(3). 7. Zhang Weiying, Ke Rongzhu, Trust and Its Explanation: Trans-provincial Investigation & Analysis of China, “Economic Research Journal”, 2002(10). 8. Zhou Yi, Trust Modes and Market Economy Order – the Explanation Path of Institutionalism, “Social Sciences”, 2013(6). 9. “Red Envelope War” of the Spring Festival Ended, WeChat Had 200 Million Bank Cards Bound, [EB/OL]. [20150225] http://sh.qq.com/a/20150225/ 009047.htm.

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10. Ran Yu, No Need to Exaggerate the Utilitarianism of Teacher-student WeChat Red Envelop, [EB/OL]. [20151027] http://cjrb.cjn.cn/html/201510/27/ content_5482973.htm. 11. “Red Envelope War” Further Explores the Internet Insurance, [EB/OL]. [20160219] http://www.sc136.cn/article/201602/42032.html. 12. Luhmann, N. and G. Poggi et al. Trust and Power : Two Works. U-M-I out of Print Books on Demand, 1979. 13. Shi, Y. and C.L. Sia et al. Leveraging Social Grouping for Trust Building in Foreign Electronic Commerce Firms: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Information Management, 2013(3).

CHAPTER 7

“The Differential Mode of Association” in Cyberspace: Sociological Research on “Crowdfunding” Jinhao Song

7.1   Introduction In recent years, with the crisis of traditional charity and the development of new network media, a new charity mode has gradually emerged, which has the characteristics of low threshold, wide audience and convenient participation. Compared with the traditional charity mode, this new charity mode is called “micro-charity”. As the name implies, micro-charity frees people from the impression that traditional charity activities are far away from ordinary members of society, making charity an easy thing for almost everyone to participate in. According to the data released by the China Internet Network Information Center in 2016, as of December 2015, China had 688 million Internet users and 50.3%1 Internet penetration, a huge group that has become potential participants in micro-charity. 1  See the 37th China Statistical Report on Internet Development issued by China Internet Network Information Center, http://cnnic.cn, 2016-01-22.

J. Song (*) China Credit Trust Co., Ltd., Beijing, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_7

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Compared with the traditional charity mode, the main feature of micro-­ charity is to carry out it by means of Internet media. In the initial stage, micro-charity mainly relies on microblog platform. With the development of social media on the Internet in recent years, there are more and more ways to carry out micro-charity by means of social tools such as WeChat, such as the “Qingsongchou” mentioned below. The author thinks: (1) Micro-charity is carried out with the help of online social media, but it is not limited to microblogs, especially Sina MicroBlog. (2) The “micro” characteristic embodied in micro-charity does not mean that it is unimportant, but that it really exists in the daily life of ordinary people and serves them. Compared with the traditional charity, micro-charity starts from “micro” and takes the individual’s unique needs as its focus to carry out charity activities. (3) The participants and even sponsors of micro-­ charity are ordinary people or grassroots groups. Because they are concerned about individuals, every ordinary people may make a sound when they need help and become the focus of micro-charity activities, while other individuals can also participate in the activities in their own way and truly pay attention to the progress of charity actions and enjoy the process of improving the situation of others on their own. The year 2011 is regarded as the first year of China’s folk charity, or “the first year of micro-charity”, because of the rise of folk charity forces. Since the beginning of this year, micro-charity projects have begun to develop in China and have produced huge social benefits, such as: “Free Lunch”, “Love Save Pneumoconiosis”, “Veterans Coming Home” and “Wardrobe of Love”. These projects have their own unique development mode and track, some of which are advocated through public participation, some seek cooperation with the government, others try to establish a long-term charity mechanism, and even explore new charity projects through the influence of these projects, thus promoting the sustainable development of charity undertakings. Take the well-known “Free Lunch” program as an example. This project is a “Free Lunch” fund public offering program launched by hundreds of journalists such as Deng Fei and dozens of mainstream media in China, in conjunction with the China Social Welfare Foundation, and proposes to donate three yuan money every day to provide free lunches for poor schoolchildren. The idea started in February 2011, when Phoenix Weekly reporter Deng Fei heard from a female teacher that children in mountain areas could not eat lunch; Deng Fei decided to go to her school and build a free canteen for the children. On April 2 of the same year, Qianxi county Shaba Primary School officially

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opened a free lunch and became the first school in the country to enjoy a free lunch. Since then, the free lunch program has gradually developed in poor areas of our country.2 After the project started, Deng Fei further expanded its publicity, including cooperation with some stars such as Ma Yili. Later, the project expanded its influence through various propaganda means such as Internet and paper media, and continuously improved its operation mode until it finally established a special fund and even promoted the implementation of the free lunch plan at the national level. By the end of December 2015, the Free Lunch Fund had raised 175.19 million yuan, with a total of 514 schools offering meals. It can be said that the Free Lunch Program has contributed a great deal to improving the nutritional status of rural children in China on a large scale.3 Looking at the development of free lunch, we can draw lessons from the following points: on the one hand, the project has a clear financial management situation, and promptly announces the revenue and expenditure of charity funds, even every school’s daily expenses will be announced on microblog on the same day, and at the same time there is a perfect supervision mechanism. On the other hand, the project has received a lot of public support, which has increased the credibility of the project and is conducive to fund-raising. In addition, the diversified fund-raising methods are the difference between this project and other micro-charity projects. In addition to online fund-raising, they also pay attention to offline fund-raising activities and even cooperate with the government to obtain financial support. These broad sources of funds are the basis for the good operation of the project. Similar to free lunch, there are many other micro-­ charity projects, which may not have such a big influence and may not have such a wide range of attention groups, but these projects are witnesses and promoters of the development of China’s micro-charity undertakings. As of February 29, 2016, Sina Micro-Charity had 16,466 individual help-seeking projects, of which 16,253 have been completed and 4,828,341 netizens have donated money through micro-charity projects.4 Among the projects that have been completed, many have achieved more than 100%, such as the micro-charity project called “Pass Love, Warm  See the official website of “Free Lunch”: http://www.mianfeiwucan.org/  See the official website of “Free Lunch”: http://www.mianfeiwucan.org/ 4  See the micro-charity home page of Sina MicroBlog http://gongyi.MicroBlog.com/, 2016-02-29. 2 3

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Leukemia Girl Lu Ruoqing”, which raised 1.05 million yuan in charity within five days, with a degree of completion of 106%. Of course, there are also those with a relatively low degree of completion, only 10% or even 0. What needs to be considered is why the completion of different projects is so different in the same way of communication. The following will explore the sociological significance behind these differences through case studies.

7.2   The Predicament of Traditional Charity and the Rise of Online Crowdfunding The rise of online charity represented by micro-charity has a unique background: on the one hand, the rapid development of the Internet and its extensive impact on social life; on the other hand, the development of traditional charity is facing a series of difficulties. After the rise of micro-­ commonweal, micro-commonweal activities carried out in the mode of “Crowdfunding” have become an important trend in the development of micro-commonweal, but not all the results of micro-commonweal projects are satisfactory, and the reasons and logic behind them deserve our in-depth consideration. The Crisis of Official Charity After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in the era of planned economy, all the lives of ordinary people are under the control of the state, and the daily material needs and welfare needs are met by the relevant state departments. Therefore, under those conditions, there is no or even no need for charity in today’s sense. After the reform and opening up, China’s charitable and charity undertakings have gradually developed, but on the whole they are still under the control of the state. Although the largest charity organization, the Chinese Red Cross, exists as a social organization, it still refers to the organization and management of state organs, and is headed by state leaders as honorary presidents and presidents, with most of its staff having administrative levels and staffing. Other charitable organizations like the Red Cross, such as the Soong Ching Ling Foundation, have the same strong administrative color as the Red Cross. This kind of administrative management system has led these charitable organizations to implement an upward responsibility system, focusing on

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the demands and tasks of their superiors, and often “ignoring” the actual needs of the grassroots, resulting in the actual charity work sometimes being divorced from reality. In addition, the opacity of the revenue and expenditure of charity also caused people’s distrust of charity, and the accumulation of these problems broke out after a series of charity scandals in 2011. That year, China’s charity undertakings reported “sky-high food incident”, “Guo Meimei incident”, “Song Qingling statue incident”, “Lu Xingyu incident” and so on, which caused the Chinese Red Cross, Song Qingling Foundation, China Youth Foundation and other charity organizations to be caught in a whirlpool of public opinion, especially the “Guo Meimei incident” has had a very bad impact on the Red Cross and the Red Cross has suffered a great credibility crisis. Although the Red Cross Society has carried out a series of image reshaping and police investigation concluded that Guo Meimei has nothing to do with the Red Cross Society, the impact on the Red Cross Society’s image has not been eliminated. According to the Report of China Charity Donations 2011, the Red Cross received about 2.867 billion yuan of donations from the society that year, a 59.39% decrease from the previous year.5 This influence has been continuing. In the two days after the Ya’an earthquake in April 2013, 450,000 people donated to the One Foundation’s loving enterprises and people, with donations exceeding 41 million yuan, and the Red Cross Society also launched rescue work quickly after the earthquake. However, “the positive actions of the Red Cross Society have not been recognized by some netizens. From time to time, netizens on microblog have released screenshots proclaiming: ‘Today’s Ya’an earthquake, as of 4:00 p.m., the Chinese Red Cross Foundation has only raised more than 30,000 Yuan in relief funds and has reaped tens of thousands of “roll” words.’”6 Even in the process of rescue, such rumors as “Red Cross members buy 10,000 medicines and issue 50,000 tickets”, “collect 5 million Yuan from Taiwan Red Cross”, “Staff Wearing Brand Watch” and “Donation Received by One Foundation Should Be Turned in” appeared continuously. Although these rumors were later clarified one by one, it can be seen that the public distrust of traditional charitable organizations did 5  See The Report of China Charity Donations 2011 issued by China Civil Charity Donation Information Center: http://www.mca.gov.cn/article/zwgk/gzdt/201206/20120600327110. shtml, 2012-06-28. 6   Wang Tao: see people.cn: http://yuqing.people.com.cn/n/2013/0422/c21011821228810.html, 2013-04-22 for the Right and Wrong of China Red Cross under the Public Opinions of Ya’an Earthquake.

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not disappear quickly due to a series of efforts by the Red Cross to reshape their image, and the road to reshaping the image of traditional charitable organizations is still far away. The Rise of Online Crowdfunding Under the situation that the traditional charity model has experienced a major setback, a new charity model is emerging, which is the micro-charity mentioned in the introduction. Micro-charity is carried out in the form of “crowdfunding”, which is a new financial concept. The corresponding English word is Crowd Fund, which originated in the United States and refers to the general public using the Internet as a platform to focus multiple small sums of money to support a project or organization.7 According to the definition, crowdfunding is a way to raise funds to support the sponsors by using the Internet platform with the help of mass forces. It can be said that the premise of crowdfunding is that there must be a network platform, a certain audience and sponsors. The prerequisite for the establishment of these conditions is the advent of the network age (or Internet age), especially the rise of Web2.0 featuring Internet users’ participation (information released by individuals can be quickly transmitted on the network). Compared with the traditional charity activities, especially the official charity activities, the important advantage of crowdfunding is to obtain the information of recipients on the network platform, make donations on the network platform, and then still pay attention to the use of donations and recipients through the network platform. The whole process does not require much time and effort, nor does it require special expertise. More importantly, donors have the initiative and will also get more direct satisfaction through their own efforts. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, donors can satisfy their self-realization needs to a certain extent through this process, which is already the highest demand of human emotion, and this satisfaction may be difficult to satisfy in the traditional charity mode. It is a pioneering work to carry out online charity activities in the form of crowdfunding. It conveys vivid cases directly to individuals in society. Everyone has the initiative and selectivity to participate in charity ­activities. 7  See Hu Jixiang, Wu Yingmeng: Development and Supervision of Crowdfunding, published in Securities Market Herald, 2013 (12).

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The recipients are no longer a cold number or a simple pathology report. Participants can choose the recipients they want to help through the description of crowdfunding platform track the actual situation of recipients and truly participate in charity activities. This has a more direct and practical experience, which is of great significance to the rescue of individuals in society and the cultivation of social charity atmosphere. Differences in Implementation of Projects In the network era, the rapid flow of information provides the conditions for the development of crowdfunding and also promotes the development of micro-charity, which is fully manifested in this era. However, with the promotion of this model, we have found that there are great differences in the “completion” of projects released on the same platform (the ratio of the amount of funds raised to the amount of funds targeted). Some projects can achieve the fund-raising goal in a short time, while some projects may not be able to raise the expected amount until the deadline. The reason for this difference deserves our consideration. It can be said that social relations on the Internet are often projections of real social relations, and social relations in the real world often affect social relations in cyberspace. We can learn from the real world to think about the existence of such differences. In real society, when we encounter difficulties, we usually ask for help from others. Although there will be a saying that “one party is in difficulty and the other party supports us”, the “eight parties” here often have various relations with the “one party”. Even because of their different relations, the strength of the “one party” in the “eight parties” supporting the “one party” may be far behind. In short, the relationship between the two sides determines the strength of the support. This also involves the classical concept in sociology, that is, the concept of “The Differential Mode of Association” put forward by Fei Xiaotong. If the “The Differential Mode of Association” is broadly understood as the close and distant pattern of social relations, then this concept can well explain why people in the real world are different with the help of others. However, network space is different from offline space, but has its own unique features. Under such circumstances, can this classic concept explain the difference in aid recipients? If so, in what way does this pattern exist? These are questions that deserve our in-depth investigation.

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Considering the convenience of data collection and ensuring the integrity of the data as much as possible, we analyzed the relationship between donors and recipients and the reasons for the differences between different help-seekers in achieving their goals on the basis of several cases of charity crowdfunding on WeChat.

7.3   “Qingsongchou” Platform Project: Case Analysis The “Qingsongchou” mentioned here refers to the crowdfunding platform launched by Beijing Qingsongchou Network Technology Co., Ltd. Beijing Qingsongchou Network Technology Co., Ltd. was established in September 2014. In the same year, the “Qingsongchou” based on social circles and aimed at the daily life of the majority of netizens was officially launched. As of May 1, 2016, there were 49,334,920 registered users and 553,601 fund-raising projects on the Qingsongchou Platform, with 76,379,381 support times.8 Most of the projects on the Qingsongchou platform focus on the daily life of users, such as a sharing of private dishes, a walk-by-walk trip, a dream exhibition and so on. Most of these projects are just the small wishes of the sponsors. The amount of support from the supporters is usually small and will not have a great impact on the life of the supporters. It is easy to get feedback and support from friends, so it is easier to call everyone together. The Qingsongchou Platform covers crowdfunding projects in various fields, such as entrepreneurship, sales and charity. Here we mainly focus on charitable and charity projects on this platform. The charity crowdfunding project of “Qingsongchou” was launched through the “Micro Love Channel” template. Fund raisers can launch their own crowdfunding projects through WeChat platform, then spread their crowdfunding demands based on the circle of friends and gradually expand the scope of dissemination through the forwarding among friends. The operation mode is relatively simple and easy. Supporters only need to support the project through a third-party payment platform such as WeChat payment. The release of public-interest crowdfunding projects has the following requirements: the initiator is an organization and it needs to submit its qualification certificate; the sponsor is an individual and needs to submit identity i­ nformation. 8

 See the official website of Qingsongchou: http://www.qschou.com/

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For medical assistance projects, relevant pictures must be uploaded, including the identity information of the recipients and the hospital diagnosis certificate with the official seal of the hospital; the account number to be withdrawn after the end of the project must be the aided person himself or his immediate family members. In addition, the “serious illness relief ” project of Micro Love Channel must pass the project verification before raising funds can be raised. At the same time, if the initiated project reaches or exceeds the target amount within the target time, it cannot continue to support the project. If the project fails, the system will return all fund-raising to its supporters. Among the many charity projects on the Qingsong Financing Platform, some have succeeded in raising funds and some have failed. We will focus on several charitable projects among them. These projects are cases where sponsors raise funds for their relatives to cure diseases. Some of them are students and some are working personnel. Most of their relatives are seriously ill and need a lot of money to cure them. The following three cases are highlighted: Case 1: Save the Baby Struggling with the Disease9 The case was initiated by G∗∗ (female)10 in December 2015. Due to the indirect social relationship between the author and the sponsor, many people around the author are sharing this help-seeking message after the project was launched, so the author has paid continuous attention to this case and collected other messages related to this case, including donor messages and the progress of the case. The following is the content of her help letter: All the kind people: Greetings! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to read this help letter and listen to the inner cry of a father and mother of a child under the age of 5. She had a pair of shining eyes like stars, but she was gradually covered with a haze, which not only obscured the light but also endangered her life. My name is G∗∗, a financial management major student in a financial and economic college in Beijing, and my daughter is Z∗∗, born in December 2010. She is not yet five years old. 9  See Save the Baby Struggling with the Disease for the content of case from http://www. qschou.com/project/ffc6dc47-3178-4741-bf7a-bb66d47a3623?uuid=62e21d8e-6df2446f-95f2-3954aabc65c7&platform=wechat&shareto=2. The words are changed slightly. 10  According to academic practice, all the names of characters in the cases are aliases.

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August 30, 2014, is the opening day of the daughter’s kindergarten. During the summer vacation, the mother said the child’s eyesight was a little poor, so we took her to the hospital for examination and diagnosed her with congenital cataract. We couldn’t believe it. We arrived in Wuhan overnight. The next morning, the diagnosis of Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital even saddened us. Our daughter was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in her left eye. That is, children’s eye cancer, the incidence of which is only one in ten thousand, is a rare disease. At present, the safest treatment is to remove the eyeball in order to save his life. Losing eyes was too cruel for a child under the age of 4. After many inquiries, the current domestic authority is the Ophthalmology of Beijing Tongren Hospital. After the doctor looked at her daughter’s illness, he told us that the child’s condition had developed to stage D in the eye, that is, the middle and late stages of the eye, and there was still a good hope of saving life and protecting the eye at the same time. But the next treatment was unexpected. I went back to Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital for systemic chemotherapy. My daughter was lying in bed for two days, playing more than ten hours of hanging bottles every day. Plus the side effects of chemotherapy, our heart ached. But the daughter never cried and was unusually strong. I heard that interventional therapy has better effect on tumor. On the 21st day after chemotherapy, we came to Guangzhou Women’s and Children’s Hospital to do arterial interventional therapy. The daughter insisted on entering the operating room and smiled at us and said, “I am not afraid.” The moment the operating room closed, the whole family wept together. On the 20th day after the intervention, her daughter’s eye fundus examination was in a bad condition. She could not see that the eye fundus doctor could not judge her condition. The doctor advised us to pick eyes or perform wave cutting. In order not to make the child’s life incomplete, the whole family decided to go to Quanzhou for wave cutting operation. After the operation, the doctor said, “the baby is very strong and the operation is relatively successful, and it is ok to review it every two months.” Looking at her daughter with her eyes covered with gauze, we hope to bear all this for her, and we hope that the one who comes out of the operating room is us. From December 2014, we took the child to check every two months, and the daughter’s condition recovered normally until September 25 this year, when a change in the condition was found through an MRI examination; we were admitted to the hospital for further check-up until October 15. On October 16, doctors, after expert consultation, believed that the

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tumor had relapsed in the optic nerve and had already endangered life, and demanded immediate craniotomy and eye removal in conjunction with neurosurgery. We felt the sky was falling in an instant. On October 23, our daughter underwent eye surgery and craniotomy at Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital, which lasted more than six hours. A week later, the results of surgery and pathology showed that cancer cells invaded the severed end of the swollen and cut optic nerve, and the condition was very serious. The doctor asked us to go to Beijing for complete surgery and lumbar puncture and sheathing after discharge, and also to cooperate with radiotherapy at the orbital apex and the optic chiasma apex. And still can’t guarantee effective! We immediately fell into despair! After many inquiries, we know that there is a proton technology in the United States that can be used to treat our children with other drugs, and the in-situ recurrence rate is extremely low, but the cost is extremely high. The domestic treatment in the early stage has already cost nearly 300,000 yuan, and 2 million yuan is a sky-high price for an ordinary family. At present, we have already sold all the relatives who can borrow money and sold all the houses, cars and other things that can be sold, but only more than 700,000 yuan can be collected, which is far from 2 million yuan. Giving up? or treatment? … while looking at the child suffering, but strong, never cry out, as a parent, my heart was bleeding; thinking about a young life as young as 5 years old, I have not yet played coquetry in the arms of my parents, but will soon face the separation of life and death, and I will not feel any pain for being a parent. After many painful days and nights, I finally got up my courage and took a pen to reflect my daughter’s misfortune to all the good people and ask them for help. Please help me with my poor daughter. I really don’t want her to leave the world so young. She has only entered the kindergarten middle class, has not yet entered the primary school gate, has not yet worn the school uniform, has not yet looked at her idea of Wuhan University, there are still many children waiting for her to go back to play in the community, and a painting problem assigned by the kindergarten teacher Li has not yet been completed … she still has a lot of work to do, there are still many places not to see, and there are too many relatives waiting anxiously for her! Sincerely entreat you to extend a helping hand to save my poor daughter. Thank you very much! The phone number, micro signal and QQ number of the originator and her husband, as well as the originator’s bank, Alipay and WeChat account

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numbers are attached to the help letter. Among the other five photos attached, two are photos of children in need of assistance (one before illness and one after illness, which is in strong contrast), one is a pathological report of the rescued person, one is a medical birth certificate of the rescued person, and another is a photo of the sponsor holding an identity card. The goal of raising funds for this project is 2 million yuan, and the operation time of a single project on the Qingsongchou platform is one month. However, the project was completed quickly in two days, raising a total of 20,176.58 yuan and receiving 19,276 times of support, with an average of 103.8 yuan each time. Moreover, according to the news from the alumni association of a university in g, besides the Qingsongchou platform, its Alipay and bank account also received about 2 million yuan in donations, with a total amount of 4 million yuan in two days. It can be said that this is a very successful project. After the success of raising the fund, G∗∗ updated the schedule with the content of “preparing to take the child to see a doctor” and received eight blessings. Of these eight, three explicitly published that they are G∗∗’s university alumni. The first of G∗∗’s two replies was “Thank you for your sister, sister and brother, and I thank you for your child.” She thanked her alumni first. Case 2: I Hope That My Father Will Be Lucky 11 As in the previous case, this case was also shared by the author’s WeChat friends in the circle of friends. The caller is Z, a senior at a university in Shanghai, and the launch date is February 2016. Similar to case one, the sponsors have similar educational background, but the sponsors in this case are college students and have not yet graduated. Therefore, the social relationship and related resources of Z∗∗ relative to the initiator of Case 1 may be relatively small. The main contents of the sponsor’s help letter are as follows: Dear classmates, friends, teachers and loving people, I am a senior student in a famous financial and economic college in Shanghai, Z∗∗, and I am currently being sent to a famous comprehensive university in Beijing to study for a master’s degree. Because father suffered from peripheral 11  See I Hope that My Father Will Be Lucky for the content of case from http://www. qschou.com/project/7f32a1a2-fa10-4056-850c-b733ba63f577?uuid=8b6ac8c1-b4e741f7-92f3-029a25539a9f&platform=wechat&shareto=1&from=timeline&isappinstalled=0. Words are changed slightly.

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T-cell lymphoma, non-specific stage 3B, and long-term need of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted drugs and other treatment, the cost is high, I hereby implore everyone’s enthusiastic donation. Since childhood, the father has always been the pillar of the family, and the father’s ordinary worker’s salary is the only source of income in the family. In his second year of high school, his father was laid off because of layoffs in his company. In order to maintain my family and support me to continue studying, my father, who is nearly 50 years old, can only go to work everywhere and do hard and low-paid physical work like a young man. In his freshman year, his father discovered painless swollen lymph nodes in his groin, but he did not take them to heart and did not do any examinations. Father is very economical, and minor illness endures a habit of becoming a father. However, my mother and I didn’t care because my father’s health was always hale and hearty. More than three months ago, when his father was working abroad, he suddenly suffered severe abdominal pain and his face turned blue. He went home by train in the morning after a sleepless night. After doing abdominal CT, he found a number of swollen lymph nodes around the abdominal aorta, the largest of which has reached 5.5 × 4.7 cm. When I was still in class, my father hid the seriousness of the illness from me in order to avoid me being too worried. On January 16, 2016, I went home immediately after my father’s exam and took him to the provincial cancer hospital. On February 4, 2016, two days before the Chinese New Year, my father was finally diagnosed with lymphoma. During the Chinese New Year, because the hospital could not give chemotherapy, the father had to go home for a while, but his illness could not be delayed any longer, so the doctor asked us to buy targeted drug chidamide to “save our lives”. During the Chinese New Year, the father had a high fever in the middle of the night, and my mother and I were scared every day. On February 7, 2014, we went back to the hospital and doctors confirmed the treatment plan of CHOP chemotherapy combined with chidamide targeting drugs. However, for me, who is not yet financially independent, and for families that are not already well off, the cost of chemotherapy in the hundreds of thousands and the targeted drug treatment of 26,600 (all at our own expense) per month are really unbearable, so we can only discuss with doctors to temporarily stop chidamide and use chemotherapy to continue life. However, now that the first chemotherapy is over, lymphoma has relapsed rapidly within a few days, and the disease cannot be controlled, so targeted drug treatment is urgently needed. The non-specific type of peripheral

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T-cell lymphoma is a rare disease with very limited treatment and drugs, and it is the most troublesome of all lymphomas. The doctor shook his head and sighed every ward round, but how could I bear to tell the father, who is eager to continue working to support his family, the seriousness of his illness. In addition to physical torture, my father’s heart is under great pressure. He doesn’t want to delay my studies, hopes that I can continue to study, and even says what he thinks is a drag on me. If it had not been for economy, the father’s illness would not have been so serious. How can I get my father to give up treatment for his gray-haired father who has worked hard for most of his life, but now I am helpless in the face of economic pressure. Therefore, I can only ask for help. No matter how much help or support you give, it is a great help to my father. Thank you all here! Bank account number, Alipay, WeChat and other transfer methods are attached to the help letter, but the payee is not indicated. Among the eight photos attached, one is the bed photo of the rescuer, one is the sponsor’s student ID card, five are pathological reports and one is an invoice for medicine. It can be found that Z in the case described his father’s illness in detail and expressed his wish to rescue his father. The goal of the case is to raise 160,000 yuan in two stages, with 80,000 yuan raised in each stage. Both stages of the task have been completed, raising a total of 168,217.01 yuan of charity money, with 3911 times of support, with each person supporting 43 yuan on average. In this case, Z did not further introduce his father’s rescue process, but we will find out from the donor’s message that someone is her college or high school classmate, but since they are all students at present, their donation amount is not high. Case 3: Charity Donation. One Cent Is Also Love 12 This case was initiated in December 2015 by L∗∗, who asked for help from his brother who suffered a car accident. This case was also concerned after being shared by others in February 2016. More specifically, this case did not reach the expected funding target, and it is a very rare case that did not reach the target. Through comparison, we can analyze how the 12  See the Donation from Kind People, One Cent is Also Love for the content of case from http://www.qschou.com/project/d23c291e-fc97-4a98-a869-fca54113ea2c?uuid= 62e21d8e-6df2-446f-95f2-3954aabc65c7&platform=wechat&shareto=2. Words are changed slightly.

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Differential Mode of Association works in cyberspace. The details of the case are as follows: My name is L∗∗! I’m from Tongjiang City, Heilongjiang Province! In the picture is my eldest brother L∗∗! There was a major car accident on the night of December 26, 2015! Now in the intensive care unit of Jiamusi No.2 Hospital! After examination, the head and brain spread congestion, the heart was damaged, and the cheekbones of the face were fractured! After the accident, the weather was too cold and the hands and ears were severely frostbitten. Because the family is poor, it can’t pay the expensive medical expenses, and has borrowed a lot of money from relatives and friends, but it is still not enough to pay the expensive medical expenses. I hope the kind-hearted person can lend a helping hand. The bank account number, mobile phone number and micro signal of the rescued person’s postal bank are attached to the back, and nine photos are also attached, all of which are photos of the rescued person in the hospital bed. In this case, 3376.56 yuan was raised, while its target was 30,000 yuan, with 235 times of support, with the average amount of support less than that of 15 yuan. Observing the message part, we will find that few donors mentioned that they are related to the sponsor or the rescue object by blood or profession, but there are several donation messages “pulling up the river∗∗×× Love”, all of which are sent by a person named “Ayu” on the net. After verification, “Laqihe” is an administrative village under the jurisdiction of three villages and towns in Tongjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. According to preliminary judgment, this part of actual donors may have geographical ties with sponsors or recipients, but actual donors may not make donations on the WeChat platform or have no conditions for making donations on the WeChat platform before entrusting the person named “A Yu” to replace donations.

7.4   Differences in Crowdfunding Effect and Its Realistic Basis There are a large number of “Internet circles” in cyberspace. These “circles” are not only the projection of social circles in cyberspace, but also have their own characteristics. However, we found that trust in cyberspace often needs the support of the real society, and the trust relationship in cyberspace is a prerequisite for the good development of micro-charity undertakings.

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Reasons for the Difference in Donations Analysis of the three cases mentioned above shows that case 3 is the case with the lowest funding target. Compared with case 1 of 2 million yuan and case 2 of 160 thousand yuan, this case of 30 thousand yuan can be said to be an easy funding target, but the final result is a failure, which requires us to think about the reasons. First of all, the description of the rescued person in different cases is quite different. The first case was described in nearly 1500 words, introducing her social identity, especially the detailed process of her child’s onset and treatment. The order is clear, and the lines also clearly reveal a mother’s desire and eagerness to treat her child, such as “listening to the inner cry of a father and mother of a child under the age of 5” and “thinking about a child as young as 5 years old, but not playing coquetry in the arms of her parents, but will soon face separation between life and death, and I will not want to be born as a parent”. All these are the natural outpouring of a mother’s emotion and have a strong appeal. The text description of Case 2 has nearly 1000 words. The sponsors also introduced their social identity, especially their father’s illness and rescue process. When they saw such descriptions as “how can I bear to tell the father who wants to continue working to support his family the seriousness of his illness” and “the father’s heart is under great pressure, he doesn’t want to delay my studies, hopes that I can continue to study and even say what he thinks he is dragging me down”, the daughter’s affection for his father and the forbearance of a great father leapt to the page. Compared with the first two cases, Case 3 used only 160 words to describe itself and the rescuer’s social identity, but only a simple pathological description of the rescued person. This description is very simple. For donors, what people see is only an introduction to the disease, with little emotional expression. There are also obvious differences in the information accompanying the three cases. The photos attached to case one include not only the photos of the initiator and identity card information, but also the photos and birth certificates of the rescued person and pathological diagnosis certificates, which will undoubtedly greatly increase the credibility of this case. Similarly, the photos attached to Case 2 include the sponsor’s student ID card, his father’s photo and his father’s diagnosis certificate, including the invoice for medication, which will also enhance the credibility of the whole case. However, in case 3, the photos uploaded are only those of the rescued person in the hospital bed. We can’t deny that this will enhance people’s

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compassion, but there is no introduction to social identity in the text, and there is no evidence of identity in the attached photos. There are no photos of cases, the description of the illness is relatively simple, no possible treatment effect is published, no amount of treatment needs to be paid, no specific family situation is published, and no explanation is given on how the remaining charity money will be handled. This will undoubtedly cast doubt on the credibility of the matter. Moreover, the case also lacks detailed descriptions and emotional words that can arouse people’s sympathy. In addition, from the previous case description, we can find that the average amount of support in case 3 is lower than that in the previous two cases. The credibility problem caused by information disclosure will affect the number of times people support it, and the amount of money finally collected will be affected by the number of times of support and the average amount of support each time. A lower average amount of support each time will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of fund-raising. In case 3, the average amount of support is less than that of 15 yuan, and it takes at least 2000 people to complete its fund-raising goal. Therefore, the low amount of support per person is also an important factor affecting the difficulty of fund-raising. This is the difference between the three cases, but in cyberspace, how these differences result in the difference in the final donation effect and how the logic of these influencing factors play a role is different from the real world is a more worthy topic. The Realistic Basis of “WeChat Moments” Network space is a unique space derived from human society. It is not only closely related to the real society, but also has unique characteristics. The Internet also has its own unique circle, and the circle in the Internet is often born out of the real society. Fei Xiaotong described the distinction between “The Differential Mode of Association” and “Group Pattern” in his article Family in Earthbound China: In order to separate the two types of “communities” with different structures, I use the term “community” in a narrower sense, referring only to the communities formed in the group structure, to distinguish them from the communities formed in the difference order structure. The latter is called “social circle” and replaces the community with the ordinary so-­called group.13  Fei Xiaotong: Earthbound China, page 43–44, People’s Publishing House, Beijing, 2015.

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That is to say, Fei Xiaotong’s “social circle” refers to the community formed under the Differential Mode of Association order, which needs to mention the problem of The Differential Mode of Association. The Differential Mode of Association order is Fei Xiaotong’s summary of China’s local social structure, which he wrote in Earthbound China: In my opinion, it shows that our social structure itself is different from that of the western world. Our pattern is not a bundle of clearly bound firewood, but a ripple that appears to be pushed out in circles as if a stone were thrown on the water. Everyone is the center of the social circle promoted by his social influence. What is pushed by the ripple of the circle is related. The circles used by each person at certain time and place are not necessarily the same.14 This is a special classic metaphor in the history of Chinese sociology, which vividly expresses the social structure of Chinese local society. This classic concept has always influenced the current social studies; so many scholars later supplemented, defined and extended this concept. For example, Huang Guangguo divided the “relationship” of Chinese society into “emotional relationship”, “instrumental relationship” and “mixed relationship”. Yan Yunxiang believed that the Differential Mode of Association order includes “horizontal elastic self-centered” difference, vertical rigid hierarchical “order” and so on. These are all studies conducted under the framework of the Differential Mode of Association and did not depart from Fei Xiaotong’s earliest elaboration. The social circle in real society is a kind of social network formed under the Differential Mode of Association order. Each person is in a central position and forms different circles with different people who are in contact with him. Under different circumstances, people will use different circles for their own use. We should make it clear that the social circle of an individual refers to the range that an individual can reach, and this range will change with the change of the individual’s situation. As Fei Xiaotong’s example in Earthbound China, the neighborhood of a rich family may be the whole street, while the neighborhood of a poor family may have only three to five families close to home, that is to say, the circle is flexible. In addition, there will be a mutual aid relationship within the circle, which is generally two-way. If there is a one-way relationship, the helping party will generally expect a return, which may be economic or emotional. In real life, the circle will have the characteristics of internal  As above.

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protection and external exclusion. The circle can be used as a way of allocating resources. In this sense, the people inside the circle will protect the interests of the insiders and avoid the outflow of the interests of the circle. At the same time, they will exclude outsiders from sharing and using the resources inside the circle. This internal protection and external exclusion are important factors for maintaining the stability of the circle. There is also a circle phenomenon in cyberspace. Some scholars have defined the Internet circle as a network of social relations established and maintained by social members based on different reasons, with the distance and closeness of social relations as the measurement standard, gathering and interacting through the Internet media platform.15 It can be seen from this that the composition of the Internet circle is formed on the basis of real social relations, and WeChat Moments of friends is a special standard Internet circle phenomenon. Everyone takes himself as the center to establish a network circle of his own, and different people establish different circles to finally build a network relationship structure. Qingsongchou on the WeChat platform reflect the structure of the WeChat Moments, and the strength of charity rescuers’ support also reflects the strength of the relationship between groups. By comparing the three cases mentioned above, we can find that there are both transitivity and difference between “WeChat Moments” and reality circle. First, we will analyze the inheritance between the two. WeChat Moments is the extension of the real social circle in the network world. First of all, the size of the real social circle directly affects the size of the “WeChat Moments”. Observing the three cases, we can find that both the case one and the case two help-seekers have introduced some of their social identities. The case one help-seeker is a student from a financial university in Beijing in 2001 and has been working for many years, while the case two help-seekers is a fresh graduate from a famous financial university in Shanghai and has not yet graduated. The educational background of the two is similar, but G’s work experience will undoubtedly expand her social circle. We can basically think that the two are larger than G’s social circle. Looking at the relevant data of these two cases, we can find that case one is better than case two in terms of both the number of supporters and the amount of support per capita and even the speed of 15  See Zhu Tian, Zhang Cheng: Concept Form and Influence An Analysis of the Circle Communication on the Internet in Contemporary China, published in Journal of Sichuan University (Section of Philosophy, Social Science) 2014 (6).

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donation, which can basically be considered that g’s “WeChat Moments” is larger than Z∗∗. At the same time, the author observed the donor’s message, and the message in case one was “Come on, Sister Xue” and “Hello, ∗∗! I’m Miss Li, baby will be fine!” “may xx baby recover as soon as possible! my little friend∗∗ from Xiaobang Class of Wu Jiagang Foreign Language Kindergarten is a kindergarten, we are a community”, and so on. From these messages, we can see that the donors include alumni and teachers of the sponsors, parents of kindergarten students with children, neighbors of the sponsors and so on. Of course, other people with social ties to the sponsors, such as colleagues and friends, may not identify themselves when they leave messages because they are familiar with each other, which means that the members of the whole “WeChat Moments” are from the real world. The message in case 2 will include “alumni”, “strong ah, senior” and “senior high school bully of the same age before, and will definitely support you silently!!! Pray for your father!!!” and so on. Of course, we also do not rule out people who have other relationships with the sponsors among those who do not leave messages, but we can see from these messages that Z∗∗ “WeChat Moments” is mainly concentrated in the alumni group. Comparing Case 1 and Case 2, we can basically think that the size of the real social circle of individuals directly affects the size of the “WeChat Moments”. In addition to the size of the circle, the resource endowments of the real social circle will also affect the “WeChat Moments”. The social circle is a way to integrate resources. Members in the circle will share their own resources with each other to form the resources of the whole circle, and each member has the right to use the resources of the circle. This can be considered as the resource endowment of the whole circle. The resource endowments of the real social circle will also affect the “WeChat Moments”. Comparing these three cases, we can find that there is no doubt that the most abundant resource endowment in the real social circle is g in case 1. Her alumni circle, work circle and life circle all have abundant resources, and even the parents of her daughter’s classmates can form a circle. These social circles transplanted into cyberspace will also become part of her “WeChat Moments” and the resources of the real social circles will also play a role in cyberspace. Similarly, the resources of Z∗∗ alumni circle in Case 2 have also been transplanted into cyberspace and become the circle resources that can be used in the “WeChat Moments”. By contrast, in case 3, L Mou has hardly introduced his social identity, probably because his social background is relatively single and his social circle will be relatively

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single, and his resources will be relatively single and his resource endowment will be relatively weak when the social circle is relatively single. According to the data from case 3 and the comments from donors, we can find that the sponsor’s “WeChat Moments” is small in scale and the support among its members is weak, and only the members of “Laqihe” village who can define the social relationship have a relatively small support. The donation amount is about 10 yuan, not more than 50 yuans; that is to say, the resource endowment of L’s real circle directly affects his “WeChat Moments” resource endowment. It can be said that the resource endowment of L’s real social circle is worse than that of G’s in case 1, and this difference will also exist in cyberspace, even because the “WeChat Moments” is often more vague than the real circle boundary and easier to expand, so the “WeChat Moments” of the larger real social circle tends to expand more obviously in cyberspace, so the difference in resource endowment between the circles existing in real society will also tend to become larger in cyberspace. In addition, the composition of the real social circle will also affect the “WeChat Moments”. Relatively speaking, the social circles of people with rich life experiences tend to be more complex, with more diverse forms of composition and stronger heterogeneity, while the social circles of people with relatively simple life experiences tend to be more single and homogeneous. In the case of strong homogeneity, the resources provided are relatively single and the complementarity within the circle is relatively weak. Compared with the three cases, there is no doubt that G in case 1 has strong social circle heterogeneity. Her social circle includes classmates, alumni, colleagues and even teachers and parents of children’s kindergartens. The life experience of Z in case 2 and L in case 3 is relatively simple, and their social circles are more homogeneous. Therefore, by observing their “WeChat Moments”, we can find that the composition of “WeChat Moments” is almost the same as their real circles. In “WeChat Moments”, G∗∗ can raise the funds he needs very smoothly, while Z∗∗ and L Mou with the same homogeneity will have differences in the final fund-raising results mainly because of the differences in the overall level of their homogeneous groups. The main group of Z∗∗ “WeChat Moments” is her classmates and is a high-level school with a relatively high resource endowment, while the main group of L’s “WeChat Moments” is the villagers around him with a relatively low resource endowment, and even these people have to entrust others to donate money for themselves through WeChat. Even though the student group has almost no income, comparing the donation

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information of the two cases, we can find that the donation amount of the students in case 2 is still higher than that of the villagers in case 3; that is to say, in the “WeChat Moments”, when the homogeneity within the circle is too strong, the resource level of the homogeneous group often determines the resource level of the whole circle. New Features of “WeChat Moments” “WeChat Moments” is an extension of the real social circle in the network world, both of which have strong scalability. By comparing the three cases, it can be found that the reason why case one was able to raise funds quickly was closely related to g’s social network. From the donor’s comments, we can see that the donors of the project include not only some colleagues from G, but also alumni from her universities and middle schools, and even parents of children’s kindergarten classmates and neighbors from their residential quarters, who constitute the main contributors. In WeChat space, G’s broad circle is an important prerequisite for her rapid success in fund-raising. In case 2, the donation was also made by Z∗∗ college and high school students, who constituted the main force of the donation. However, case 3 received only 235 times of support. Among the donors, 31 donations were donated by people nicknamed “A Yu” and all were marked “∗∗Love from Laqihe Village”. As mentioned earlier, we speculate that the donors may be ordinary villagers, and they do not know or have not opened WeChat, so please donate on their behalf. Furthermore, it can be inferred that L’s circle of friends is mainly farmers or migrant workers. According to the message, no other groups with specific social relations with the sponsors were found. Just like the social circle, the “WeChat Moments” will have great flexibility according to its own conditions, and the powerful “WeChat Moments” will often be able to provide more support. “WeChat Moments” has its own unique characteristics on the basis of inheriting the real circle, especially under the unique network space, “WeChat Moments” will certainly develop in order to adapt to the characteristics of the network space, mainly in the following aspects: First of all, members of both the social circle and the “WeChat Moments” will be connected through certain cultural symbols, such as blood ties, industry ties and geographical ties. The difference is that the “WeChat Moments” will be wider and more inclusive. For example, in case one, there will be many alumni from G who will donate money to her,

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and in case two, there will also be alumni from the university where Z has donated money, even those she has never met in high school. In the “WeChat Moments”, the role of symbols will be more obvious. People will look for identity through the identification of specific symbols. For example, some people will help because they share the identity of “alumni” even because they are students of famous colleges and universities. In the real world, we often have to consider other factors besides this identity symbol, such as whether we have met or not and how we feel about meeting each other. However, in cyberspace, this symbol is often enough. This is related to the trend of “fragmentation” in the network society. What distinguishes people in the network world are their own unique symbols, through which their differences can be reflected. Therefore, the symbolic representation becomes more important. Secondly, the feature of reciprocity in “WeChat Moments” is weaker than that in social circle. Through the investigation of these cases, it can be found that the help is often one-way, the donors do not ask the recipients to provide the necessary returns and have little expectation of seeking returns, and even many strangers do not have any intersection with the help-seekers since then. This is because members of WeChat Moments are less interactive and each member does not have a close network like most circles in society. In addition, the “WeChat Moments” has less control over resources than the social circle. Compared with the social circle, the sharing of resources in the “WeChat Moments” is more frequent, because the public nature of resources in the network space is more obvious, and the “WeChat Moments” is looser than the real circle, with lower interest relations among members, and it is easier to share resources than monopolize them. Finally, WeChat Moments often lack central figures. In Earthbound China, Fei Xiaotong believes that there is a central figure in the social circle. The ability and resources of this central figure can often affect the scale and stability of this circle, and he will also maintain this circle through the allocation of resources. However, comparing with cyberspace, we can find that it is difficult to find such a central figure in the “WeChat Moments”, even in the case of a very vague boundary; it is difficult to determine the members within the circle. For example, if we look at the above three cases, we can think that all donors and sponsors form a social circle together, but we cannot find a central figure in this circle. The person most likely to become the central figure is the sponsor, but the sponsor cannot allocate resources within the circle, cannot determine the

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boundaries of the circle, and even does not know most of them, so the sponsor cannot naturally become the central figure. In this case, others are less likely to become central figures. The lack of central figures in the circle will often bring about a series of consequences, such as the circle will be very loose and the mutual aid of resources within the circle will be weak. Compared with the relationship between the two, “WeChat Moments” is more a supplement to the real “social circle”. In general, people often seek help from a relatively close part of their social relationship before turning to “WeChat Moments”, which is also the reason why few donors in several cases have close ties with the sponsors. However, the “WeChat Moments” has more flexibility. Everyone in the circle can share the news with the other circle to which they belong. The more times they share the news, the more potential supporters will accumulate, and these supporters will often be able to play a role that is difficult for real social circles to play. Why Trust “Strangers” Looking at the three cases, we can find that for most of the supporters, both the sponsor and the rescued are strangers, so why do we trust another person of the network terminal in an individualized network space? In an “acquaintance society”, the reason for trust is often the positive evaluation of this person by the society. This evaluation may be made by itself or by another person worthy of trust. Moreover, in an “acquaintance society” there is a great risk that a person will cheat others of trust, and after being discovered, it will often be difficult to get rid of the negative impression of others for life, unable to establish a foothold in the society, and the cost of escaping from the society is very high. Therefore, trust in an “acquaintance society” is easy to generate. However, in cyberspace, every member is an independent symbolic individual, and everyone can participate in this space wearing a mask. Moreover, the moral and legal constraints in this space are not obvious. How does trust come about? Comparing the three cases, it can be concluded that the projects with more support, completed fund-raising goals have higher trust, the projects with less support and unfinished fund-­ raising goals have lower trust. That is to say, by comparing cases 1 and 2 with case 3 to explore the formation of trust. G∗∗ and Z∗∗ have introduced their social roles in the case introduction, such as “the 01 financial management major of a finance and economics college in Beijing” and “I am z××, a senior student in a famous finance and economics college in

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Shanghai, and now I am sent to a famous comprehensive university in Beijing to study for a master’s degree”, at the same time, they have a detailed description of the diagnosis and treatment process of the rescuers and relevant pathological reports, and they also publish identity cards, student cards, medical birth certificates and other certificates to prove the credibility of the news and personnel. However, none of these cases in L have been reported. Some of them are just introductions to the disease, but there is no relevant medical and pathological evidence. These differences are why the first two cases can gain more trust than the third. The reasons for the increase in the first two cases can be divided into two parts. One part is the social role, that is, their student status especially that of key universities will bring them much convenience and gain more trust in a society that is easy to label. The other part is the authoritative proof, such as various certificates and pathological reports, which represent authority or identity in the real society. People will think that they have been recognized by the real society, and members of the network society will be more likely to give trust. It can be seen from this that the trust in the network society comes from the real society, whether it is the labeled social role or the proof of authority, which is the support given by the real society, and the initiator in case 3 does not provide these materials, so it is difficult for him to gain the trust of the people in the network society who have not had any intersection with him in the real society. Therefore, it is difficult to establish a kind of trust by virtue of the activities in the network society, and the real circle can be built only with the help of the power of the real society. However, in the “WeChat Moments”, limited trust will become a force hindering the real development of the “Moments”. How to build a trust building system is a very important task. The Extension of “The Differential Mode of Association” in Network Space The social relations in cyberspace are all born out of the real society. Only on the basis of the real society can cyberspace have a foothold. As a classical concept, the Differential Mode of Association can still describe the current social structure of our country, and by enriching this theoretical connotation, it will surely gain more long-term vitality. Similarly, there is still a Differential Mode of Association order in cyberspace. Through the above analysis of WeChat Moments, we can find that in cyberspace we also

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develop our own social network centering on ourselves, and the whole cyberspace is mostly composed of circles with strong scalability. But after all, cyberspace is different from the real society, and there are great differences between the Differential Mode of Association in cyberspace and the real society. First of all, the structure of cyberspace exists in a flat state, with more “horizontal self-centered” difference “and without” vertical rigid hierarchical “order”. According to Yan Yunxiang, the Differential Mode of Association should include these two parts. In this sense, the Differential Mode of Association of cyberspace is “incomplete”. In addition, because of the anonymity and virtuality of cyberspace, the network circle structure is more fragile, the circle mobility is larger and the circle is unstable, thus supporting the spatial pattern is also unstable. Generally speaking, the Differential Mode of Association still occupies a dominant position in cyberspace, and it is precisely because of this that the code of conduct of the real society can be introduced into cyberspace and play its role, and the Internet circle will also exist in large numbers.

7.5   Looking at the Prospect of Micro-charity from the Perspective of Conformity Raising Judging from the current social conditions, micro-charity still has a good development prospect, but it also has development risks. How to foresee possible problems and take preventive measures is the direction that needs to be worked out at present. The Significance of “Crowdfunding” “Crowd-raising” is an effective means to raise funds. Since this chapter focuses on crowd-raising in the field of charity and charity, the significance of crowd-raising in this field is mainly analyzed below. First, crowdfunding is an effective way to integrate resources. Before the appearance of crowdfunding, the development of charity can only rely on the work of relevant organizations. The asymmetry of information exchange will affect the efficiency of charity development, especially the traditional charity in China, and it is difficult for donors to intuitively feel the whereabouts and role of their donations. After the emergence of crowdfunding, theoretically every individual can become a sponsor and every individual can also become a donor. A wide audience will expand the number of fund-raising groups. Even though the amount of donations per

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person is not large, the quantitative advantage may make up for the lack of quality. In this sense, crowdfunding can effectively integrate social resources, and can stimulate the participation of social members more than the traditional charity model. Secondly, crowdfunding will improve the charity and charity atmosphere of the society. Whether a social charity atmosphere is strong or not is an important indicator to measure the degree of social development. As mentioned earlier, the traditional charity model has rejected a large number of people outside the charity gate, and the degree of public participation of social members is not high; even if they participate, their sense of achievement is not high. And crowdfunding will enable participants to truly appreciate the help they have given to others, and there is no threshold for such giving, which will undoubtedly greatly increase people’s enthusiasm for participating in charity undertakings and enhance the charity atmosphere of the whole society. Third, crowdfunding lowers the threshold for social assistance to members of society, which to some extent also plays a role in easing social conflicts and helps maintain the harmonious and orderly operation of society. This kind of charity and charity mode will provide reference for the traditional charity mode and promote the overall development of charity and charity. The Significance of Micro-Charity China’s charity started late and only gradually came into play after the reform and opening up. Looking at the development of charity in China over the past 30 years, we can find that the problem of traditional charity mainly lies in two aspects: on the one hand, the monopoly of charitable resources will affect the enthusiasm of the public to participate in charitable activities and affect the development of charity in the whole society; on the other hand, excessive monopoly will inevitably lead to the abuse of power, so a series of “charity scandals” will appear. This monopoly runs counter to the common people’s desire to make charity public and transparent. Before the Internet age, there were few channels for people to receive information and express their wishes. This contradiction will not cause any special problems for the time being. However, after the Internet age, the channels for people to express their wishes have increased, while the traditional charitable organizations still try their best to maintain their original monopoly position. This will undoubtedly intensify contradic-

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tions, which will spread rapidly in the Internet age and directly affect the social image of charitable organizations. On the other hand, the problem is mainly manifested in the identity crisis. The problems in the self-image management of traditional charitable organizations affect the public’s recognition of these organizations. Under the administrative management system, the problems of charitable organizations have accumulated a lot. When these problems broke out in 2011, they attracted the attention of the whole society. At that time, whether the scandal was exposed or the public opinion was boiling, it was based on the existence of the Internet. Therefore, it is also a very important task for charitable organizations to conduct image management and crisis public relations in the Internet age. However, there is no denying the fact that after years of development, traditional charities still have their own unique advantages in carrying out charity work, especially when dealing with large-scale or sudden disasters, a complete organizational system and professional rescue actions are huge advantages. Therefore, to do a good job in the transformation work in the network era, the traditional charity can also be further developed and contribute to the social charity together with other charity models. As a new form of charity, micro-charity has developed in full swing in a few short years, both for its internal reasons and under the influence of the external environment. On the one hand, micro-charity itself is a product of the network era, but also meets the requirements of the development of the network era. Its development provides convenient conditions for people to engage in charitable and charity activities, making charity a daily activity within people’s reach, which will inevitably promote their own development. On the other hand, the “first year” of the development of micro-charity was the year 2011 when the traditional charity suffered setbacks. The traditional charity provided space for the development of micro-charity in the face of crisis, and this external environment provided opportunities for the development of micro-charity. Considering self-conditions of micro-charity and the current trend of social development, we can think that micro-charity still has a good prospect at present. First of all, micro-charity is indeed in line with the trend of the coming of the current network era. As a product of the network era, micro-charity is well developed on the network platform and has formed a trend and will continue in a short period of time. In addition, micro-­ charity makes all people who can access the Internet potential charity personnel. For netizens, charity is no longer far away, but within reach, and

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charity is not a task, but a sincere help to others according to their own situation. This will undoubtedly be welcomed and supported by members of the society and will also have their own soil for survival in society. In addition, micro-charity is a useful supplement to traditional charity activities, which is conducive to the improvement of China’s charity system and will also promote social stability and development, which must also be hoped by social policy makers. Limitations of Micro-Charity As a new thing, micro-charity has some shortcomings even though it can conform to the trend of the times in the Internet age. First, it is involved in the credibility of the project content. For example, on the “Qingsongchou” platform, x launched a “treatment of diseases” project in February 2016.16 The sponsor is a boy with leukemia who is currently studying in Germany. At first, the fund-raising target was 5 million yuan, but then some netizens suggested that according to Germany’s medical system, a large proportion of medical expenses during the treatment period would be reimbursed, and the recipients of the rescue would not have to spend so much money on their own. Later, the incident caused a heated discussion on the Internet, and even we could find a lot of discussions on the fund-raising interface of “Qingsongchou”, including the voice of questioning and explanation. Subsequently, the father of the patient explained and expressed his thanks in the form of updating the progress on February 16, 2016, and changed the fund-raising target from 5 million yuan to 500 million yuan. In mid-March 2016, the “Qingsongchou” also responded in the form of updating the progress, believing that the content of the case is in line with the actual situation and indicating that the sponsor is willing to refund the donors who have doubts and need a refund. As of March 22, the project has raised more than 490,000 yuan and is about to reach the 500,000 yuan fund-raising target. From this case, we can find that the online crowdfunding platform represented by “Qingsongchou” does have the problem of unscientific authentication of case content, and the authenticity of the case can hardly be fully confirmed. 16  See Treating Diseases for content of case from http://www.qschou.com/ project/22a40d6e-70f9-4859-be10-d8510acf30cd?uuid=0&platform=wechat&shareto=1 &from=timeline&isappinstalled=0

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Even though “Qingsongchou” are spread in “WeChat Moments”, they are generally in an “acquaintance relationship”, the uniqueness of “WeChat Moments” makes most people in the circles do not understand it, but “acquaintances” may lower people’s vigilance and ignore the verification of case content. In addition to the content of the case, the use of charity money also deserves our attention. For example, in March 2016, the news that “the parents who have not used up their donations have caused a stir by posting photos of their daughters abroad”17 involved the use of charity money. At present, it is very important to construct a trustworthy environment for the development of micro-commonweal, which is the foundation of ensuring the long-term development of micro-commonweal. It is worth learning from Sina micro-public service platform that introduced a third-party verification system, and during the writing of this chapter, the “Qingsongchou” platform also introduced a third-party verification system, but the third party of Sina micro-public service is mainly social organizations, while the “Qingsongchou” are mainly individuals. As mentioned earlier, the trust in cyberspace comes from the real society, so Sina ­micro-­charity will be relatively well certified with the help of social organizations with high social reputation in the real society. Of course, these are all in the process of exploration, hoping to establish a trust authentication system smoothly and quickly. The analysis found that “WeChat Moments” is the product of the projection of social circle in the network space, and “WeChat Moments” has developed on the basis of the real social circle. The scale and resource endowment of the real social circle have a direct impact on “WeChat Moments”. However, individuals seeking help in cyberspace are often people who cannot find enough help in the real world, and may be able to find enough help through the expansion and development of the circle in cyberspace, but at the same time it may be difficult to find enough help because the real world social circle is too weak. We should also pay enough attention to this situation and widen the channels of help for these people as much as possible. Even though the group of netizens mainly facing micro-charity has reached more than 600 million people, more people do not have access to the network. On the other hand, more than 600 million netizens are not able to use the “tool” of micro-charity, and these people are often the 17  Chen Xinyu: The Daughter Is Dead Before the Donations Run Out, Stirring Up the Waves By Parents Exposing Photos While Traveling Abroad, punished in Guangzhou Daily, 2016-03-11.

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group with the weakest social resources. While rejoicing that micro-­charity can help many people, more attention should be paid to those groups that cannot get help smoothly. In the current Internet age, the “digital divide” still exists objectively in society. What we have to do is to minimize the social problems it brings.

7.6   Conclusion Through the analysis of the three cases on the “Qingsongchou” platform, it can be found that the Differential Mode of Association still exists within the cyberspace, and the cyberspace born out of the real society still inherits the social structure of the real society. Although this structure will change, its essence has not changed, and the experience of the real society still has reference significance in the cyberspace. “WeChat Moments” is more an extension of the real social circle, which can be seen as an expansion of the social circle in the network field. It is the scalability of the social circle that enables online charity to succeed in the form of crowdfunding. However, the structure of this extended circle is not stable. Compared with the real social circle, its interactivity and mutual assistance are weak. Many of them may have only one intersection in their lives. However, to some extent, the advantage of the number of circle members will make up for the shortage of mutual assistance quality. The rise of online charity represented by micro-charity is not long. Although it can be judged that its development trend is better according to the current situation, this conclusion still needs time to be tested. Micro-charity also encounters some problems in the development process. I hope the whole society can prevent the problems before they occur and effectively solve them after they occur, so that micro-charity and traditional charity models complement each other and further promote the continuous development of charity in our country.

References 1. Chen Xinyu. Parents who have not used up their donations and their daughters have gone abroad have caused waves. Guangzhou Daily, March 11, 2016. 2. Fei Xiaotong. Earthbound China. Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2015. 3. Hu Jixiang, Wu Yingmeng. Development and Regulation of Crowdsourcing Financing. securities market herald, 2013 (12). 4. Liu Yidi. Research on the process and effect of micro-charity transmission. Lanzhou: Lanzhou University, 2014.

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5. Wang Bin. The Rise and Differentiation of Network Social Order Patterns. Chongqing Social Sciences, 2015 (8). 6. Wang Dan. Research on the Sustainable Development of Online Charity in China. Social Work, 2014 (6). 7. Yan Cuiping, Cai Qi. Circle Culture in Network Virtual Community. Hunan Social Sciences, 2013 (4). 8. Yan Yunxiang. Structure of Difference Order and Hierarchy of Chinese Culture. Sociological Research, 2006 (4). 9. Zhang Jianghua karis, Publicity and Chinese Society: Rethinking about “The Differential Mode of Association.” Society, 2010 (5). 10. Zhu Tian, Zhang Cheng. concept, form and influence: an analysis of the phenomenon of circle communication on China's internet media platform. journal of Sichuan university: philosophy and social sciences, 2014 (6). 11. Zhong Yibiao. Sociological Analysis of Young People’s Micro-Charity. Chinese Youth Research, 2015 (7). 12. Zhang Yinfeng, Hou Jiawei. Analysis of China’s micro-charity development and its trend. China Youth Research, 2014 (10). 13. Caring personnel donation. One point is also love [EB/OL]. http://www. qschou.com/project/d23c291e-fc97-4a98-a869-fca54113ea2c?uuid =62e21d8e-6df2-446f-95f2-3954aabc65c7&platform=WeChat&shareto=2. 15. Save the baby fighting the disease [EB/OL]. http://www.qschou.com/project/ffc6dc47-3178-4741-bf7a-bb66d47a3623?uuid=62e21d8e-6df2-446f95f2-3954aabc6z5c7&platform=WeChat&shareto=2. 17. I hope fate will care for my father [EB/OL]. http://www.qschou.com/ project/7f32a1a2-fa10-4056-850c-b733ba63f577?uuid=8b6ac8c1-b4e741f7-92f3-029a25539a9f&platform=WeChat&shareto=1&from=timeline&is appinstalled=0. 19. Treatment of diseases [EB/OL]. http://www.qschou.com/project/22a40d6e70f9-4859-be10-d8510acf30cd?uuid=0&platform=WeChat&shareto=1&from =timeline&isappinstalled=0. 21. Wang Tao. Right and wrong of the Chinese Red Cross under the public opinion of Ya 'an Earthquake [EB/OL]. People’s Network [2013.04.22] .http:// yuqing.people.com.cn/n/2013/0422/c210118-21228810.html. 22. “Free Lunch” Official Website [EB/OL]. http://www.mianfeiwucan.org/ home/help/help1/. 23. Sina MicroBlog Micro Public Service Home Page [EB/OL]. [2016-02-29]. http://gongyi.MicroBlog.com/. 24. Yang Ting. The number of netizens in China has reached 668 million [EB/ OL]. [2015-07-23]. http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2015-07/23/ c_1116022351.htm. 25. China Charity Donation Information Center. Report of China Charity Donations 2011 [EB/OL]. [2012.06.28]. http://www.mca.gov.cn/article/ zwgk/gzdt/201206/20120600327110.shtml.

CHAPTER 8

Network Power Construction in Micro Public Welfare 2.0: A Case Study of Tianjin Explosion Chenting Song and Fei Sun

8.1   Introduction Since the beginning of its development, micro public welfare has achieved remarkable results, such as “Free Lunch”, “Crackdown on Abduction and Trafficking by Weibo”, “Love Saves Pneumoconiosis” and other micro public welfare projects, which have gained the attention and support of hundreds of millions of Internet users. Micro public welfare 2.0, which is upgraded micro public welfare, once again played a huge role in Tianjin Explosion in 2015. The donation relay conducted by ordinary Internet users on the platform of WeChat Moments quickly generated wide recognition and cohesion. Through actions of Internet users, a large amount of donation was raised in a short time, and the actual rescue operation was successfully carried out. Compared with previous micro public welfare

C. Song (*) School of Literature and Law, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China F. Sun Fujian Forum Magazine, Fujian Academy of Social Science, Fujian, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_8

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projects, micro public welfare 2.0 has more obvious advantages in spontaneity of grassroots people, timeliness and popularity. There is no opinion leader in a strict sense, and even no normative organization. However, it uses the platform of WeChat Moments to deliver information and gather resources at the fastest speed, effectively playing a role in rescue and achieving the effect that cannot be achieved by traditional public welfare. From micro public welfare 2.0, people not only see the new form of civil public welfare and its vitality, but also see that ordinary individuals begin to have strong power in the network age. The network power of ordinary Internet users is not virtual, but real and effective. However, network power is different from traditional power. Its actual influence not only comes from the positions or resources of the power subject, but also from the strategic actions embodied in the relational networks in the network space. Internet users are no longer “the crowd” described by Le Bon, but have gradually begun to consciously construct their own network power. With the help of information media and through creating capillary-type network relations, the channels for publishing opinions have been continuously expanded, with information spread and resources accumulated. Ordinary Internet users can achieve overwhelming public welfare influence that only organizations or elites could reach in the past.

8.2   Public Welfare 2.0 in the Tianjin Explosion Event At about 23:30 on August 12, 2015, an explosion of dangerous goods occurred in Tanggu development zone, Binhai New Area, Tianjin. As of 15:00 on September 11, 2015, a total number of 165 people were killed in the “August 12” explosion accident in Tianjin Port, including 24 public security firefighters, 75 firefighters at Tianjin Port, 11 civil police officers and 55 other people.1 The event of Tianjin Explosion shocked the country. With countless live photos and video circulating on social media such as Weibo and WeChat, the shock also touched the heart of every Chinese Internet user. Tianjin Explosion became one of the biggest online focuses and hot spots in China from August to September 2015.

1  Refer to Baidu Wikipedia on “8·12 Tianjin Binhai New Area Explosion”. Refer to https://baike.baidu.com/item/8·12天津滨海新区爆炸事故/18370029?fr=aladdin.

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As a complex network event, Tianjin Explosion brought endless network hot topics and new network phenomenon, including ordinary Internet users’ attention to and support for unofficial fire personnel, public thinking and questioning on city planning and construction safety, attention to compensation for surrounding residents, public awareness of the environmental pollution after the explosion, pop stars posting condolences and blessing on social media, once eye-catching incident of “Internet users forcing donation”2 and so on. Among so many hot network topics and new network phenomena, the author chooses micro public welfare 2.0 as the object of investigation and analysis in this chapter. This is not only because micro public welfare 2.0 shows new characteristics of the Internet, which is completely different from traditional public welfare in its form and operation mode, but also because micro public welfare 2.0 clearly shows a complete process of the construction of network power by ordinary Internet users in the network society. Therefore, the description and analysis of micro public welfare 2.0 will help us better understand the changes of network power structure and even the changes of the whole network society. The Explosion Shocked the WeChat Moments At 23:30 on August 12, 2015, two loud explosions woke up the sleeping Binhai New Area in Tianjin and lit up the dark night. Japan’s Himawari-8 weather satellite took satellite photos of the explosion, showing a bright little fire spot on taupe land.3 Explosion occurred in a warehouse of Ruihai International Logistics Co., LTD. at Tianjin Port International Logistics Center. A fire occurred at its dangerous goods warehouse at 22:00 that 2  After Tianjin Explosion, many Internet users started to comment on “force donation” under the Weibo account of @Mayun - The Nature Conservancy. Some Internet users were fierce in their words and directly asked why Ma Yun did not donate. Some even called him Dad while criticizing Ma Yun. Ma Yun’s Weibo account crashed for a moment, and the comments under his account were entirely about “forcing donation”. Many Internet users accused Ma Yun by stating: “why don’t you donate to Tianjin”, “you should donate RMB 100 million as the richest man”, “your donation stands for my donation”, “if you don’t donate, I will never use Taobao again”. Refer to Netease news: Ma Yun was forced to donate to victims of Tianjin Explosion: why such a rich person as you don’t donate. Refer to http:// news.163.com/15/0816/16/B15DQCGV00011229.html?bdsj, 20150816. 3  Refer to Ye Yuting, Xu Ye, firefighters fighting the fire in Tianjin Explosion: “we didn’t know the cause of the fire when we are sent there”. Refer to http://news.ifeng. com/a/20150814/44423078_0.shtml, 20150814.

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night, causing two explosions during the firefighting process and a huge mushroom cloud which could be seen tens of kilometers away. Within 2 km of the scene, all the glass of buildings was shattered. Within 10 km of the scene, people felt strong quake. CENC (China Earthquake Network Center) also detected the explosions, and magnitude of the second explosion was about 2.9, the explosive power was equivalent to 21 tons of TNT.4 The explosion was a great disaster to the ordinary people living nearby. Reporters who rushed to the scene were amazed by the horror as in Hollywood blockbusters. Light rail trains stopped at abandoned subway stations. Tall buildings with shattered glass were empty, and the grass was littered with teddy bears, postcards, wedding photos and other items. Thousands of brand-new cars were burned to frames in a huge parking lot 400 meters away from the explosion site. A photographer at the scene said that he could smell pungent smell of burning even when he wore a mask.5 Since the early morning of August 13, WeChat Moments had been stormed by the Tianjin Explosion event. Pictures of the scene and small videos taken by the Internet users at the scene spread on the Moments and appeared on the phone screens. At the same time, the storming information on Moments enabled many Internet users in Tianjin to know about the explosion at the first time and put themselves into the volunteer rescue work immediately. Although it was midnight, the prompt of “Pray for Tianjin. We are together tonight” issued by car navigation of Tianjin volunteer taxi cars still lingers in our ears. The reminders like “it is estimated that the fleet transporting blood, which will be led by police cars, will depart from the South Station to TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital. Vehicles along the road, please make a way for life” and “Tianjin TEDA No. 2 Primary School is a temporary shelter. Residents who cannot return to their home may go to No. 2 Primary School” were quickly spread on Moments. In Tianjin TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital, which is the largest hospital in the development zone and closest to the site of the accident, not only the day-shift nurses came to hospital voluntarily to serve the wounded but also a large number of volunteers began to enter the 4  Refer to Gui Tiantian, Quchang, A logistics warehouse in Tianjin Binhai New Area exploded, Beijing Youth Daily, 20150813. 5  Refer to Ye Yuting, Xuye, firefighters fighting the fire in Tianjin Explosion: “we didn’t know the cause of the fire when we are sent there”. Refer to http://news.ifeng. com/a/20150814/44423078_0.shtml, 20150814.

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hospital to donate blood, transport the wounded and help hospital staff to maintain order. What’s more precious was that, rational reminders like “dear friends, please do not arbitrarily forward the unverified information of residence, blood donation, medical treatment and other information, so as not to cause panic” and “Don’t create panic by spreading rumors. Please wait for official reports. Do not obstruct the road to cause traffic jams. If professional rescue is not in place, more casualties would happen. Avoidance of more serious accidents starts with you and me!”6 had been put forward on the Internet, and circulated on WeChat Moments overnight. Movement Inspired Public Welfare Actions: Public Welfare Effect Inspired by Posts About Firefighters In the morning of August 13, 2015, the number of posts about Tianjin Explosion on Moments became even larger and the contents became even richer. Some posts prayed for the people of Tanggu. Some reminded people to cherish life. Some asked for the truth. However, the posts that caught most attention and were forwarded at the largest amount were about firefighters. These posts about firefighters directly brought the climax of public welfare activities conducted by ordinary Internet users. Several firefighters sacrificed in the Tianjin Explosion event. In the fire extinguishing process, another explosion happened on site. Except for one person, all others of the first group of firefighters sacrificed. There were originally six fire brigades in Tianjin Port public security bureau, but only three survived after the rescue. Especially, the secondary casualties during the firefighting became a heartbroken tragedy to many Internet users. In China, the average age of firefighters was 20, and the average age of those who died was 24.7 The passing of young lives and their heroic dauntlessness greatly touched the nerve of Internet users. Therefore, as soon as the news of firefighters’ sacrifice got out, it became a hot topic on Weibo, WeChat, QQ group and other social media. Posts about firefighters set off a new climax in WeChat Moments. Internet users expressed their condolences and admiration for heroic firefighters in 6  Refer to The whole city was sleepless after Tianjin Explosion: citizens voluntarily joined in rescue. Refer to http://news.sina.com.cn/c/20150813/064032198559.shtml, 20150813. 7  Refer to A Chinese puzzle for firefighting heroes. Refer to http://www.wtoutiao.com/p/ s5eyzr.html, 20150814.

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their Moments. More Internet users began to worry about the firefighters’ safety, hoping they could watch out while fighting the fire, among which, “the coolest retrogradation in the world”, a sketch created on the morning of August 13 by an Internet user named “little demon”, became the post forwarded in the largest amount in Tianjin Explosion event. As of 12:28 on August 13, the sketch had been forwarded 507,631 times, commented 36,264 times and read 650.8 million times, and received 162,196 likes.8 In the sketch, when people fled, uniformed firefighters headed to the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd, stepping into a sea of fire. Therefore, it was named “the coolest retrogradation”. Firefighter’s sacrifice moved and shocked many Internet users. Under the inspiration of fireman’s spirit, Internet users turned their emotions into actions. More ordinary Internet users were no longer satisfied with the role of bystanders, but actively engaged in more meaningful actions. It sparked a wave of public welfare campaigns by ordinary Internet users. From August 14, not only the Internet users in the urban area of Tianjin, but also the Internet user volunteers from all districts and counties of Tianjin and provinces and cities across the country, began to go to the scene of the explosion to offer their support. They helped maintain order at the scene, helped people find their missing families and posted information on site through the Internet to seek more material help and operational support. YJ, a friend of the author, also arrived at the explosion site as a volunteer and witnessed many touching moments. For example, WZL, a nurse, failed to apply for participation in volunteer medical rescue and came to the resettlement site on her own expenses to do what she could to help at the registration office. For another example, college girls volunteered to carry supplies on site. Although they were physically limited, they did their best to carry heavy boxes of mineral water. Meanwhile, more and more information and related posts about the scene were posted on the Internet by civilian volunteers in a timely manner. In WeChat Moments, news of lack of various supplies in the frontline rescue site flooded in, attracting attention from Internet users and even the whole Chinese people.

8  Refer to The coolest retrogradation in the world: the Weibo article forwarded in the largest amount in respect of Tianjin Binhai New Area Explosion. Refer to http://news.163. com/15/0813/16/B0TMUSAL00014AED.html, 20150813.

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Micro Public Welfare 2.0 Originated from WeChat Moments Micro public welfare 2.0 is a typical example of the spontaneous public welfare activities carried out by Internet users in the Tianjin Explosion event. The concept of micro public welfare 2.0 was proposed because it’s an upgraded version of micro public welfare. In micro public welfare, Internet users become the subject of actions and participation of the general public becomes crucial. Furthermore, in micro public welfare 2.0, there is no elite or opinion leader. Ordinary Internet users not only become the main subject of micro public welfare, but also become the core and dominant figures of micro public welfare. The author will make a detailed description and analysis of micro public welfare 2.0 which originated in WeChat Moments based on his experiences in the explosion event. In the afternoon of August 13, 2015, WY, a primary school teacher in Tianjin, saw the post issued by her friend YJ on the Moments saying that he and some other friends (DY, YZ, etc.) drove directly to Tanggu to offer on-site rescue. These ordinary Internet user volunteers felt that donation to official charities was of little meaning and they did not trust the charities. So they bought bed sheets, rubber gloves, cleaning supplies and other relief supplies, and drove directly to the site to help those in need on their own. They were members of the Tianjin Blue Sky Rescue Team, which was a small team organized by the Internet users. Members were not full-­ time volunteers, and had their own permanent jobs in a various industries such as wedding celebration, finance and self-employed business. When needed, they gathered as a team to undertake voluntary actions. Immediately, WY forwarded a photo of YJ driving to the scene with a mask on the face in WeChat Moments, expressing her admiration. In the evening of the same day (August 13),WY saw the live photos and information sent by YJ on the Moments, saying that they had arrived in the afternoon, and the relief supplies, such as bed sheets and rubber gloves, had been delivered directly to the people in need. However, they were short of money and hoped that others could help by either giving money or offering hands. After seeing the news, WY immediately transferred some money to him by WeChat. Meanwhile, the message asking for donations, together with her name and contact information, was forwarded on the Moments to call on friends for help. Through speedy information transmission and timely sharing on WeChat Moments, at over 7 o’clock in the morning next day (August 14), someone contacted WY and transferred RMB 100 to her by WeChat red packet,

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which was the first donation received by WY.  WY immediately used the WeChat transfer function and transferred the money to her friends in the front line, and received reply of confirmation. In the remaining time of the day, donations never stopped. Although the amount of money transferred by WeChat friends was not much, which was no more than RMB 100 or 200, WY felt great trust and heavy responsibility, so she paid extra attention to receiving and transferring money. At the same time, due to powerful payment function of online financial platforms, the donation from Moments friends was completed efficiently and conveniently through online tools such as WeChat red packet, WeChat transfer and Alipay. As a result, a donation relay based on the platform of WeChat Moments was formed: YJ, DY and other members of Tianjin Blue Sky Rescue Team were responsible for frontline purchase and delivery; and WY and other ordinary Internet users, who saw their message asking for help on the Moments, were responsible for raising and transferring the charity money. Friends and colleagues of WY, for example, handed their donations directly to her, and also transferred donations from their friends and colleagues to her. During the entire fund-raising period, WY kept forwarding the screenshots related to the donations (including the screenshots showing that all donations were given to the frontline persons, the screenshots showing the reply to her from the frontline persons, the photos of materials bought, the public disclosure of the quantities and prices of the items, the list of persons making donations, etc.). She not only sent the screenshots to her friends on the Moments who made donations but also updated them in her Moments in a timely manner to achieve full information disclosure. As of the evening of August 14, WY raised a total of RMB 1700. After contacting her friend responsible for purchase in the front line and learning that the materials were temporarily sufficient, WY quickly posted the news in her Moments. On the afternoon of the second day (August 15), WY learned that another fund-raising would be needed to buy high-power flashlights. Therefore, WY posted a message in her Moments once again, and raised a total of RMB 1600 within two hours. Other than WY and her friends in her friend list on WeChat, other ordinary Internet users who saw the message were also in action, so the donation network was quite large and the donation activities were quite rapid. After being used for purchasing materials, there was still surplus of the raised funds. After discussion with the persons in the rescue team, WY posted a message in respect of donations in her Moments for the last time, describing the details of dona-

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tions and the current situation: “the donation has ended, the relief supplies have been delivered and distributed, and the remaining donation will be donated to large non-government-run public welfare organizations such as One Foundation and Tencent Foundation in the name of the donors. Thanks for the efforts of all donors”. It can be seen from the case of micro public welfare 2.0 that every ordinary Internet user who sees a message asking for help on the Moments may become an important node in a donation activity of micro public welfare 2.0, which may reach out to form a new activity node based on the messages forwarded by ordinary Internet users in their Moments, so as to rapidly form a huge network of Internet users to result in a surprising donation effect. WY alone received the donation at the amount of RMB 3300. Several ordinary Internet users used their Moments to rapidly achieve the donation effect which was better than the effect achieved by some government-run public welfare institutions in a short period of time, and quickly realized a strong influence of the network on the reality.

8.3   Micro Public Welfare 2.0 Model Based on Network Power From Tianjin Explosion, we see a new form of public welfare, that is, micro public welfare; as well as the phenomenon that ordinary individuals start to own strong network power in the network age. Network power can have the same real effect as physical power. Network Power: Presented as Power of Flows of the Relational Network With the advent of the information age, the transformation of the power structure triggered by the Internet has attracted the attention of many scholars. Manuel Castells was the first to expound the “rise of the network society”9; Alvin Toffler, Nico Stehr and Nicholas Negroponte once ­respectively used The Third Wave,10 Knowledge Societies11 and Being 9  [US] Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2001. 10  [US] Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1983. 11  [Canada] Nico Stehr, Knowledge Societies, Shanghai, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1998.

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Digital12 to describe this structural shift of social power; Steve Jones believes that the cyber society with computers as the intermediary has arrived.13 War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the High-tech Assault on Reality14 by Mark Slouka and Anarchy Online—The Conflict and Order in the Internet15 by Charles Platt have also respectively expounded the conflicts and contradictions of network power. Despite the vast amount of research literature, many studies still remain at the superficial stage, and have not made an in-depth analysis of the power structure changes in the network society. Among the studies implementing in-depth analysis of the network power structure, the arguments of Manuel Castells, Joseph Nye and Liu Shaojie are representative. Castells proposed that the Internet has realized “space of flows” and “timeless time”, and “power of flows” is superior to “flows of power”.16 Castells believed that the network power in the network age refers to the power of the spirit or the mind, and is a power of identity presented by code images.17 Castells further emphasized the power characteristics of the Internet information: “I am forced to accept the definition of this historical period as an ‘information age’. We actually mean that our society is featured by the power rooted in information technology...On this basis, a new social structure is being expanded into the foundation of our society: the network society”.18 It clearly explains why Castells is so obsessed with the concept of “network society”, and is unwilling to use the “information age” that the public is more accustomed to. It is because he clearly ­understands that information has existed since ancient times, but a new vitality of information is given by the Internet; information is not an essential characteristic of the new age brought by the Internet, and power nurtured in information reflects the true value of the Internet. It is also on the  [US] Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, Haikou, Hainan Publishing House, 1997.  Steve Jones, Cybersociety: Computer Mediated Communication and Community, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, p. 1. 14  Refer to [US] Mark Slouka, War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the High-tech Assault on Reality, Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 1999. 15  Refer to [US] Charles Platt, Anarchy Online - The Conflict and Order in the Internet, Baoding, Hebei University Press, 1998. 16  [US] Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Page 466–568, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2001. 17  Refer to [US] Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity, Page 419, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006. 18  [US] Manuel Castells, editor-in-chief for The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Page 7–8, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2009. 12 13

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basis of such power that network society, which is a new social form, is gradually rising. In this sense, this chapter calls the new power form of the network society as “network power” rather than “information power”. Joseph Nye proposed the concept of “soft power”. In the network age, “rich information” has become an emerging key power resource, and has changed the traditional power structure, that is, there has been a “transfer of power” from being “capital-intensive” to “information-intensive”.19 Liu Shaojie proposed that the social operating mechanism of power has undergone profound changes in the Internet age. On the one hand, the subject of information power (network power) has changed. Rather than being solely controlled by traditional elites, information power (network power) also becomes available to ordinary people. On the other hand, the operating direction of information power (network power) has become reversible, but no longer only being top-down. The information power (network power) represented by the grassroots people may directly affect the upper layers of society to form a bottom-up information power.20 The above research shows that contemporary scholars’ understanding of network power is quite different from the traditional views of power represented by those of Marx, Weber and Parsons. Rather than being available only to powerful elites, network power can be enjoyed by ordinary people. At the same time, network power is reflected as relational turn, but not only a kind of resource. This comes down in one continuous line with the “relational turn” of contemporary sociological power research. The contemporary sociologists have gradually attached importance to the study of the specific process of power operation, and emphasized individual initiative in the process. Habermas inherited Arendt’s power communication theory21 to define power as “a common will formed through communication aiming at reaching a consensus”, and further pointed out that the power communication theory is not able to effectively explain the process of realizing the power of individuals and groups. In addition to communicative interaction, the acquisition of the status of the power subject also requires strategic actions. These actions require existing mandatory dom [US] Joseph Nye, Hard & Soft Power, Page 105, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2005. 20  Refer to Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Power Structure in the Networking Age, Jianghuai Tribune, 2011 (5). 21  Arendt believes that power arises from the establishment of communities, and the size of power depends not only on human’s action capability, but also on human’s capability to coordinate actions. 19

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ination or manipulation or persuasion of public opinions. Giddens’ view of power is reflected by its dual characteristics, emphasizing both the dynamic role of the action subject, that is, the transformation ability, and the structure’s ability to restrict the action subject, that is, the ability to dominate.22 The postmodernism scholars represented by Foucault completely negate the view of social dominance that presupposes the existence of a fixed structure and acts as a whole object. Power is no longer seen as a dominating process with a single center and homogeneous domination.23 Foucault cares about the real process in which the actors’ intentions are realized. Power is first expressed as a kind of intentional strategy, not as the possession of certain resources, and there is no so-called essence. As a result, Foucault starts from the boundary of the role of power to understand the “environment” for power to take effect—“where it (power) places itself and produces its real influence”.24 This provides a completely different theoretical perspective for the definition of power. Power is no longer on objective object that can be controlled and transferred, and it does not necessarily produce a fixed social structure. The heterogeneous power, which is like blood capillaries, starts to flow and interlaces in the relational network. At this time, general individuals in the society have virtually become active actors, and no longer the suppressed and forced objective entities. Therefore, from the perspective of contemporary sociology, the micro-­ operational process of power in daily life receives the same attention. In the network society, the microscopic nature of power and the individual initiative as the subject of power are highlighted in multiples; the relational network of power which surrounds individuals like blood capillaries have also become more and more obvious and important. Different from macro power research, the power network produces real influence not only because of the position or resources of the power subject, but also due to the strategic actions contained in the relational network in the network space. The subject of network power is no longer limited to a few elite groups. Ordinary Internet users can use the “One to N to N” information transmission of the Internet to construct strategic networks 22  Refer to Guo Zhonghua, Transformation and Domination: Interpretation of Giddens’ Thought of Power, Academia Bimestris, 2004 (3). 23  Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France 19751976, St. Martin Press, 2003, p. 29. 24  Ibid., p. 28.

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through strategic actions, so as to gain the position of the power subject and the initiative of taking actions and accumulate resources to produce strong influence. The Internet gives ordinary Internet users unprecedented network power, and the utilization strategy and its good effect of such network power were fully demonstrated in the micro public welfare 2.0 practice after Tianjin Explosion. Micro Public Welfare 2.0: The Upgraded Version of Micro Public Welfare Containing Network Power The advent of the Internet age has provided ordinary Internet users with the possibility of gaining network power. In the field of micro public welfare, the realization process of such network power is very obvious. Micro public welfare is a product of the Internet age. The development of the Internet has promoted the change of China’s public welfare model. The possibility of ordinary Internet users gaining network power has directly led to the emergence of micro public welfare and even the micro public welfare 2.0 model. Network power is embedded in the relational network, while the emergence of Web2.0 provides a technical basis for quickly and efficiently forming relational networks in cyberspace. If it is true to say that Web1.0 provides a technical network for Internet users, Web2.0 provides a social network for people on this basis. With the advent of blogs, social networking sites, microblog and so on in Web2.0, the former concept of “content-centered” has started to turn to “relations-centered”, and virtual social networking and real social networking have started to overlap in a large amount.25 Moreover, Web2.0 technology has lowered the technical threshold for individuals to participate in online publishing and communication, and constructed a network platform with the participation of the subjects. Therefore, in the Web2.0 age, after the emergence of various network-based interactive media, it has become possible for China’s public welfare model to transform from the traditional resource clustering model to the open resource clustering model with autonomous participation by all the people. In the context of the Web2.0 age, micro public welfare, which is a bottom-up public welfare model, starts to appear. In 2009, Yu Zhihai, founder of the organization named “One Extra Kilometer”, proposed the concept of micro public welfare for the first 25  Refer to Song Chenting, Liu Shaojie, Network Mobilization: Challenges Faced by the Traditional Government Management Model, Social Science Research, 2014 (5).

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time, as well as two basic elements of micro public welfare. Firstly, it is simple, supporting many people to participate in it. Secondly, it is effective, bringing significant changes to the recipients through the participation of a large number of ordinary people.26 The concept of micro public welfare is completely different from that of traditional public welfare. In the traditional public welfare model, government-run charity institutions are the resource distributors and centers of actions, and the public also generally believe that the public welfare undertaking is the work of a few rich people, white-collar workers or government-run institutional organizations, and it has nothing to do with them. By contrast, micro public welfare adheres to the popularized public welfare concept and follows the “long tail theory”27 to pay full attention to the role of most ordinary individuals on the long tail of public welfare undertakings in the Internet age. It uses the Web2.0 interactive technology to activate the public welfare energy of a large number of user groups on the long tail through information transmission between Internet users, and gathers small power of grassroots individuals to encourage the participation by all people to the greatest extent by starting from the tiny things. The “Guo Meimei Incident” in 2011 triggered a crisis of trust in the government-run public welfare institutions. The social opportunity brought by the crisis of trust in the government-run public welfare provided a good opportunity for civilian force to enter the field of public charity, and the once depressed civilian public welfare in a state of wandering gained new opportunities on the Internet. As a result, micro public welfare grew rapidly in an explosive way. As of June 2013, there were more than 1200 public welfare organizations certificated by Sina Weibo, and there were about 1000 individuals engaging in public welfare. In addition, the number of official stores of public welfare institutions registered on Taobao reached 226.28 With the continuous maturity and development of the Web2.0 application platforms, such as WeChat and microblog, micro public welfare 2.0, 26  Refer to Sun Xi, Research on the Meaning, Characteristics and Applications of WEB2.0, Journal of Modern Information, 2006 (2). 27  “Long tail” is often found in statistics. In economics, it mainly refers to the demand curve with quantity and types being parallel. The “long tail theory” was proposed by Chris Anderson. Refer to [US], Chris Anderson, The Long Tail, Beijing, CITIC Press Group, 2006. 28  Refer to Yang Zhao, Research on the Origin, Problems and Development Suggestions for Micro Public Welfare, Development Research, 2013 (11).

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which is an upgraded version of micro public welfare, came into being. In 2011, Tencent launched the WeChat platform, which brought new opportunities for the development of micro public welfare. According to 2013 Analysis Report on We-Chat User Behavior released by the Sootoo Research Institute, the total number of WeChat users had already totaled 600 million people, and 63.4% of the users used WeChat at least once a day.29 With its rapid popularization, WeChat has become a major platform for micro public welfare. As a result, ordinary Internet users have not only become the subject operating micro public welfare, but also have the opportunity to become the core and leader guiding micro public welfare. This new form of real-time public welfare, which is completely spontaneous by grassroots people and flexible without any intermediary or fixed organizations, has gained the possibility of being realized. It will form a synergistic ant colony optimization between individual users in a complete sense and create micro public welfare 2.0 truly dominated by ordinary Internet users. Especially in the Tianjin Explosion event, WeChat Moments injected fresh blood into the development of micro public welfare, enabling the successful practice of micro public welfare 2.0.

8.4   The Power Construction Strategy in the Micro Public Welfare 2.0 Castells predicted that, in the network society, “new power is contained in the code of information, and people’s mind becomes a part for power storage”.30 In the face of changes in the operation of network social power, Liu Shaojie pointed out that the information power constituted by social identity from the grassroots society has become the most dynamic and influential new power. Different from any previous social form, the ­grassroots public may become the power subject for the first time to own information power that can produce realistic influence.31 In micro public welfare 2.0 of Tianjin Explosion, people saw a real case of ordinary Internet users becoming the power subject and exercising network power. 29  Refer to Chen Mingyu, Sootoo Research Institute: 2013 Analysis Report on We-Chat User Behavior, http://www.sootoo.com/content/426426.shtml 30  [US] Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity, Page 419, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006. 31  Refer to Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Power Structure in the Networking Age, Jianghuai Tribune, 2011 (5).

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As a new form of civilian public welfare development, the generation and operation of micro public welfare 2.0 no longer depends on formal organizations or even network elites. Its successful initiation and operation and generation of its influence are all from the collaborative operation of ordinary Internet users. In the Internet age, the online grassroots people, who are at a disadvantage in terms of their positions and resources in the real society, can use their own relational networks to quickly bring together a huge amount of insignificant resources by making use of the characteristics of network power and appropriate power construction strategies. As a result, the “micro power” and “micro resources” from online grassroots can converge into significant “huge power” and “large resources” that can influence the reality. Therefore, the network power of ordinary Internet users is constructed and realized in this process. By taking a specific micro public welfare practice in the Tianjin Explosion event in 2015 as an example, the author analyzes the micro operation process of power in micro public welfare 2.0 and then analyzes the constructive strategy of shaping network power. Stimulation of Identity Originating from Emotional Resonance The stimulation of group identity is an important condition for constructing network power. Only when people have a positive emotional response to certain things and certain groups, that is, they have a “sense of us”32 established on the basis of identity, can individuals and groups be effectively connected. By relying on the Internet, such connection will be developed in an unprecedented speed and breadth to form a strong group foundation, and then further make it possible for the formation of relational networks to provide a foundation for the accumulation and acquisition of network power. The identity from the traditional sociological perspective emphasizes individuals’ sense of social belonging. From the perspective of constructivism, identity is not automatically generated from the group identity, but is the product of the communication process and the social environment. Kurylo pointed out that identity construction is not an inner self process, 32  Melucci, Alberto, Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 83.

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but a by-product of communication.33 While Smith-Lovin believed that what kind of people the people become depends essentially on the social network they are in.34 Internet is an important communication channel and a new type of social network in the information age. Therefore, it will inevitably play an important role in the construction of identity. Its role includes expanding people’s social relations with other members, changing their thoughts and feelings about identity, and providing materials for identity construction.35 Therefore, the process of forming social identity in the network age is an autonomous construction process, as well as a process where Internet users autonomously organize the significance and value. On the network platform, individuals usually obey their own mind to achieve identity, but rarely deliberately follow the conceptual and systematic rational ideology for value judgment. They also do not use careful logical thinking to rationally decide their identity. Identity in the network society is formed on the basis of perceptual experience. People develop their identity without thinking about it, but by obeying the cultural value, moral habits and other factors that have been internalized in their mind. Their identity is formed “unconsciously” in the perceptual cognitive process such as feeling, perception and representation.36 An important way to cause emotional resonance is to resort to the “living world”. However, people react differently when facing abstract numbers and specific images or stories. Resonance among the Internet users can be stimulated more efficiently in the “living world” when they face the daily life, the live broadcasts of new things around them, simple words that can express ­feelings directly, or novel and thought-provoking pictures, so that “we”, who share the same living fields, experience and collective memory gradually become clear. Specific to the micro public welfare 2.0, emotional resonance provides the basis for the initiation of micro public welfare in terms of identity. On the afternoon of the day following the day when Tianjin Explosion hap33  Kurylo, Anastacia, “Linsanity: The Construction of (Asian) Identity in an Online New York Knicks Basketball Forum,” China Media Research, 2012 (8). 34  Smith-Lovin, Lynn, “The Strength of Weak Identities: Social Structural Sources of Self, Situation and Emotional Experience,” Social Psychology Quarterly, 2007 (2). 35  Wang, Wei-Ching etc., “Internet Use, Group Identity, and Political Participation among Taiwanese Americans, “China Media Research, 2009 (5). 36  Refer to Song Chenting, Perceptual Ideology Communication and Social Identity Construction in the Network Age, Journal of Anhui University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2015 (1).

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pened (on August 13, 2015), WY, a teacher working at Tianjin Primary School, posted a few screenshots of her friends going to the explosion site, showing shocking scene effect. She was greatly touched, and praised that “my pal is great” when forwarding the post. On that night, her “pal” going to the explosion site to deliver materials posted messages on the Moments that there was not enough fund for purchasing materials, in hope of raising donations from good-hearted people. After seeing the message, WY immediately forwarded it on her WeChat Moments, initiating a micro public welfare practice centered on WY and others. Rather than relying on theoretical preaching in a systematic way, the videos, daily words and other contents on WeChat contain symbols of perceptual experience, which makes Internet users autonomously compare the perceptual information contained in the symbols with the value norms and life beliefs formed through their own inheritance of customs, cultural inheritance, psychological accumulation and so on in their minds, so as to achieve collision and matching at the perceptual level in the “living world”. It unconsciously stimulates the Internet users to resonate and virtually generate their sense of identity, so that the Internet users voluntarily become members of micro public welfare to start the first step of constructing network power. Construction of Relations Based on the Circles of Acquaintances Different from face-to-face social interactions, the communication behaviors that people carry out by using the Internet, is a kind of interaction in lack of on-site communication that hides the body existence.37 Internet provides an unprecedented broad communication platform, but the expansion of the communication space does not mean a substantial change in the way of interaction. “China’s society of acquaintances has not undergone a qualitative change, and the relations of acquaintances are still ­playing an important role in social life”.38 The circles of acquaintances are still playing a fundamental role in the construction of interpersonal relations in the cyberspace.

37  Refer to Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Social Structure in the Networking Age, Academic Monthly, 2012 (10). 38  Liu Shaojie, The Social Foundation of the Trading Order in the Chinese Market, Sociological Review of China, 2014 (2).

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The highly persistent and stable relations in the network still continue the ripple circles of differential pattern discussed by Fei Xiaotong. For example, QQ fellow groups and WeChat Moments are all established based on the relations of acquaintances based on blood relationship, geography-­related relationship, interest-related relationship and so on. It is worth noting that the Internet has given the relations of acquaintances greater vitality while ensuring its traditional advantages such as strong homogeneity, credibility and high sense of identity. First of all, the relations of acquaintances on the network have a stronger feature of self-­ choice. Different from the traditional relations of acquaintances which have the ascribed features mainly based on blood relationship and geography-­related relationship, the relations of acquaintances on the network present a certain feature of selectivity. The Internet users are active and autonomous when choosing their relations of acquaintances. They make their own choices in respect of developing and maintaining the relations of acquaintances with whom, as well as focusing on interests or relatives. Secondly, the spatial range of the relations of acquaintances on the network is larger. Due to the constraints of physical distance in reality, the spatial range of the traditional differential pattern is small. However, the circles of acquaintances in the network society can surpass the specific places and enter the space of absence to make the spatial scope of interaction grow at an exponential rate. Moreover, the relations of acquaintances on the network are more flexible. Such flexibility is reflected by the movement of nodes both within the relations of acquaintances and between different relations of acquaintances. Also, the realization of such flexibility is simple and practicable. It can be easily done through WeChat, Weibo, QQ and other social networking tools. In the case of the micro public welfare 2.0 of the Tianjin Explosion event, its initiation and organization were entirely achieved based on WeChat Moments. On the evening of the day following the day when Tianjin Explosion happened (on August 13, 2015), a volunteer delivering materials to the explosion site posted a message to raise funds on the Moments due to lack of funds, which was forwarded by WY, posting that “bed sheets, rubber gloves, decontamination supplies and other medical disposable items are in urgent need at the explosion site”, and it was hoped that “the rich may contribute money and the able-bodied may render services” by delivering materials to Tianjin Blue Sky Rescue Team at Tianjin Hopeway Business Hotel by 12:30 on the afternoon of the next day, or directly transferring funds to WY, YJ, DY or YZ. The telephone numbers

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of WY and other three persons responsible for purchasing materials were posted. Therefore, starting from several donors among the friends of WY and YJ, the effect of Moments made micro public welfare 2.0 develop at an exponential rate. As a social networking function launched by Tencent WeChat, the Moments is mainly for the communication based on the relations of acquaintances. Due to the addition of Internet technology, the connection between the relations of acquaintances has become more convenient and faster. Information is rapidly transmitted between the relations of acquaintances, and each new individual node where the information arrives at becomes the starting point and core of the next round of information transmission. Therefore, under the impetus of the Internet, a huge relational network based on the circles of acquaintances is rapidly formed in an instant. At the same time, the identity achieved based on the emotional resonance toward the event itself and the natural trust from the relations of acquaintances guarantee the rapidity and stability of the construction of the relational network. The action of ordinary Internet users constructing the relational network based on their circles of acquaintances reflects their strong power in the network age. While the huge capillary-­ style relational network further becomes a channel for the flows, interlacing and ultimate realization of the network power. Interactive Strategies for Realizing Power Influence In the traditional view of power, only organizations or elites who occupy the advantages in resources and social status can gain power. However, in micro public welfare 2.0, ordinary Internet users, who are at a disadvantage in terms of social status and resources, have fulfilled the functions of formal public welfare organizations to a large extent through donation practice initiated and organized on the Moments. They have successfully and rapidly organized the implementation of donation, purchase of materials, on-site rescue and many other links to ultimately realize their power influence. The flowing network power provides Internet users with a new “starting line” in the process of power construction. That is, everyone can speak in the cyberspace and has the opportunity to create a network relationship centered on themselves, as well as may possibly become the subject of network power. However, in practice, because the network information is multifarious and disorderly and the attention of Internet users is dispersed,

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not everyone can effectively build a relational network to realize network power. In micro public welfare 2.0, Internet users rely on the “interactive strategy” to realize their network power, that is, they realize strategic actions that help gain and exert power influence through the interaction between people and between people and scenarios (including network scenarios and real scenarios). In the formation of identity stimulation and relational networks, interactive strategies play an important role. To realize or even expand the influence of network power, further interactive strategies will be needed. This is mainly reflected in the following two aspects: the improvement of network consensus and the transplantation of power influence. Improvement of Network Consensus in Interaction Scholars such as Klandermans divide “consensus mobilization39” into three levels, including the public discourse level, the persuasive communication level and the level of improvement of consciousness through competition with rivals. Based on these three levels, the author proposes three stages of network consensus construction: the emergence of network consensus, consensus mobilization and consensus improvement. The emergence of network consensus provides background support for the realization of network power, while the realization of consensus mobilization and consensus improvement requires an interactive strategy. The emergence of the network consensus means that, under the unconscious situation, potential social networks and action participants are formed on the basis of the common network group culture. Due to the problems such as lack of transparency and charity scandals, the government-­ run public welfare has been in crisis for a time since 2011. When the government-run public welfare encounters the bottleneck of development, the private public welfare meets the needs of the public just in time to release their emotions. In addition, the successful operation of the projects such as “Free Lunch for Children” and “One Foundation” has made  Consensus mobilization refers to a form of mobilization that most people agree with. “Its purpose is widely supported by the entire population in a certain geographical community, and it is rarely or not subject to any organizational objection in the pursuit of social changes”. Refer to [US] John D. McCarthy, Mark Wolfson, Consensus Movements, Conflict Movements and Their Occupation of Infrastructure; refer to [US] Alton Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller as editors-in-chief, Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, Page 314–315, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2002. 39

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Internet users develop full confidence in private public welfare. In this context, the relational networks and participants of micro public welfare 2.0 have gained double guarantee from the acquaintance relationships and confidence in private public welfare. Network mobilization consensus means that a frame constructor consciously mobilizes the target groups and absorbs the Internet users to join its relational network. Specifically to the micro public welfare 2.0 in Tianjin Explosion event, it was reflected in the attention to and report of the explosion site, as well as the follow-up and explanation of the volunteer work on the spot. It conducted emotional mobilization within the Moments in a visual and figurative way. Moreover, by relying on the radiative communication effect of the Moments, the relational network was rapidly expanded to rapidly enlarge the scope of mobilization and strengthen the effect of mobilization. The improvement of network consensus means to consolidate and expand the scope of the Internet user group with consensus and to expand the depth and breadth of the content of the consensus. The mobilization at the perceptual level is always most influential, but it cannot guarantee the continuity of consensus. Further improvement of the consensus requires further strategic skills. First of all, micro public welfare 2.0 guarantees that special funds are used for special purposes with information released in a timely manner. All information on the demand, amount and use of the funds and materials is clearly posted in a timely manner. When there was surplus of funds, WY and others posted a message in their Moments again to express their gratitude and explain how to deal with the remaining funds. They posted that “the remaining funds would be donated to One Foundation, Tencent Foundation and other reliable charity organizations (excluding Red Cross Society)”, which highlighted its transparency and was in sharp contrast with the government-run charity. As a result, micro public welfare 2.0 has become an action resolving the crisis of the public’s faith in public welfare. The improvement of the consensus has been sustained on the basis of consolidating trust. Secondly, micro public welfare 2.0 instantly updated and publicized the status of donation in the Moments, enabling the donors to get a sense of self-efficacy and sublimating the consensus. In addition, because the pictures and information posted in Moments were related to acquaintances, such messages could also stimulate the sense of consensus of other acquaintances to donate, thereby expanding the efficiency of public welfare.

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Although there is no specific organization and opinion leader, micro public welfare 2.0 is still conscious, orderly and organized in terms of consensus mobilization and improvement, and it also has specific self-­ positioning and network connection discipline, so it can rapidly build a large-scale relational network to effectively enhance the cohesion of participating members and fully reflect the influence of network power. Transplantation of Power Influence If it is true that the establishment and improvement of network consensus demonstrates the uniqueness of the process of realizing network power, then the direct use of the power influence of real space is a “shortcut” to quickly acquire network power and achieve network influence. In the relation between the increase in information flow and the realization of network power, there is “a paradox of plenty”, that is, rich information leads to a lack of attention.40 When ordinary Internet users are overwhelmed by a large amount of information, it is difficult for them to determine what they shall pay attention to and they lack the ability to fully understand and judge the information. In the network society, the influence of information dissemination and the ability to encode and decode information have become the key to the realization of network power. However, the statuses of different individuals in real life are not equal. Those individuals and organizations that have power advantages in real space can have greater ability to guide the encoding, dissemination and decoding of network information. In other words, cyberspace is not a virtual space that is separated from time and space. On the contrary, it is inextricably linked with real space, and even in some respects a mapping of real space. The power elites in real space are in a more favorable node position in the power relations structure of the Internet. If they implement the right strategy, their power influence in their real space can be successfully transplanted to the cyberspace to complete the transformation of power influence. As one of the “interactive strategies” for realizing network power, the “transplantation” of power influence in the real space, that is, the actions of “leveraging power” implemented toward the individuals and organization with power advantages in real space, is divided into two types. Firstly, 40  Refer to [US] Joseph Nye, Hard & Soft Power, Page 152, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2005.

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it is to inherit its own advantages, that is, to directly inherit its own influence in the real space. Secondly, it is to use the power of others, that is, to leverage the power influence of others in real space and the network effect corresponding to it. In the micro public welfare 2.0 of the Tianjin Explosion event this time, the above two types were both reflected. First of all, WY was a teacher at Tianjin Primary School. She came from a well-off family and had strong advantages in social status and resources, as well as powerful interpersonal connections in real life. Her participation ensured the realization of network power of this micro public welfare to a great extent. Based on inheriting her own power influence in the real space, she built a relational network through her Moments to play a great role in mobilizing resources, making it easier for the initiation and promotion of micro public welfare and better realizing power influence in the cyberspace. Secondly, the government-­run publicity and preliminary work by volunteers had already created a huge network effect. Therefore, it was convenient and effective for micro public welfare 2.0 to borrow strength. Through forwarding the information on the explosion site on the Moments, reporting the volunteer work and using a variety of strategic means such as creation of symbols and creation of public opinion atmosphere, the micro public welfare 2.0 had formed the network power by borrowing strength from others to produce the ideal network appeal and influence.

8.5   Maintenance of the Real Effect and Influence of Network Power In the specific process of constructing specific network power in this fund-­ raising activity carried out by Internet users in Tianjin by using the Moments, micro public welfare 2.0 used the identity stimulation originating from emotional resonance and the construction of relations based on the circles of acquaintances on the basis of WeChat Moments to rapidly build the relations network to raise donations within several hours and assemble volunteers to go to the explosion site in Tanggu, so as to successfully carried out a completely spontaneous rescue activity by Internet users. In the micro public welfare in Tianjin Explosion event, there were no opinion leaders or elites or even standard organizations, but it relied on the transmission and interaction on the WeChat Moments to take each individual as a node to form corresponding relational networks. The micro

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public welfare conveyed news, gathered resources and called for actions at the fastest speed to achieve the effect that traditional public welfare is not able to achieve and produce an instantaneous outbreak of power effect and huge real-world influence. The author finds that it may be because there was no obvious core figure, the initiative and action diversification of ordinary Internet users were reflected in a more obvious manner in the network action of micro public welfare. Along with it, the relational network formation through the interaction of internet users is more loose and resilient. In such relational network, its veins and nodes cannot be clearly identified. However, once triggered by an event, the information or comment released from a certain node that triggers resonance can rapidly trigger a network to bring a wide range of online speech and actions. Online individuals who have developed identity will actively join in the team that forms the network relations, conducts network strategy actions and constructs network power to ultimately produce network power with the vibration effect. Perhaps, it is because they know that they have the potential to construct this kind of network power, the activists among these Internet users maintain a cool attitude toward the “transient” of real influence of network power. As can be seen from the specific case of micro public welfare 2.0, YJ, WY and others had already possessed the consciousness and ability of operating network power. Although WY did not clearly point it out in her discourse expression in the interview, she realized in her subconsciousness that, as an ordinary Internet user, she already had the ability to change reality by using the Internet, and she also felt the change on her power brought by Internet. First, as a rational Internet user, she consciously selected “meaningful” posts on the Moments, such as the post released by YJ about on-site rescue carried out by the “Blue Sky Rescue Team”, after the Tianjin Explosion event. Then, WY naturally added her name and contact information to this post and forwarded it to her Moments to start the action of raising donations. This seemingly “subconscious” action was actually forming the relational network of Internet users and constructing network power to exert realistic effects. The “subconsciousness” of this action indicated that she had become accustomed to this kind of action of forming relational networks and constructing network power, and proved that it would certainly deliver results through many practices. Compared with WY, YJ more prominently reflected the strong initiative and power subject consciousness of ordinary Internet users. It was manifested not only in his volunteer work, but also in his ability to profi-

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ciently and skillfully apply strategies to build himself into an important node of the relational network. YJ did not have the explicit consciousness to treat himself as the core figure in constructing network power, and even did not have a clear perception of his core role after the outbreak of the real effect of the network power. However, in the practice of constructing the power, his identity construction action of posting pictures and information and action of borrowing strength from his Moments both played a key role in the successful construction of network power. Through YJ and WY, we can understand the reason to a certain extent for why activists among the Internet users maintain a cool attitude toward the “transient” of real influence of network power. The activists among the Internet users already know and are even familiar with their potential in constructing network power. In the concrete power construction process, they have gradually become proficient in strategies and techniques. Those are their “subconscious” actions to create hot topics to attract attention, construct the significance of the framework organization, borrow strength and so on. At the same time, when constructing a relational network of Internet users, they can feel that there are many Internet users who share similar values and sense of identity with themselves. Although it is impossible to focus on real individuals, they can be sure that a relational network is being constructed step by step based on the likes on the Moments and the active response by Internet users. Moreover, in such a relational network, network power, which exerts powerful effects on reality and realizes their own will would flow and burst out. Because of such subconscious confidence in their construction of network power, Internet users maintain a cool attitude toward the “transient” of real influence of network power. They believe that they will still succeed in constructing network power by adopting similar strategies when encountering similar incidents next time. Therefore, there is no need to worry about the “transient” of real influence of network power or deliberately maintain network power. In the loose, diversified and resilient relational network of ordinary Internet users, power seems to be not stable enough or long-lasting, but is caused by the flow of network power. The power of flows has not vanished, but becomes invisible in the relational network of power of Internet users. In the practices of Internet users repeatedly constructing power network, the relational network is formed and consolidated time and time again, and network power will also be stimulated time and time again to produce amazing influence in the real world.

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8.6   Conclusion It can be seen from the huge social influence caused by the network information relay in the Wenzhou high-speed railway accident, the network-­ based collective execution force highlighted by the “Shifang event” and “Zhoukou flat grave event”, and the grassroots’ positive energy continuously triggered by “network anti-corruption” that the ordinary individuals in the network age are no longer “silent majority” and Internet users start to own strong power. Such network power was intensively manifested in micro public welfare 2.0 of Tianjin Explosion event in 2015. With the characteristic of grassroots without centers or organizations, micro public welfare 2.0 relies on ordinary Internet users to initiate and organize actions. The process of Internet users stimulating group identity, constructing relational networks and using strategic actions to achieve successful operation of micro public welfare 2.0 is a process of Internet users constructing network power. In the network age, ordinary Internet users can both express their opinions and make a difference. It is necessary for people’s view of power to transform from the model of fixed materialized power to the model of flowing relational network of power. The advantages of Internet, coupled with appropriate strategic actions, can compensate for the disadvantages of ordinary Internet users in resources and positions to a certain extent and bring them the possibility of possessing and realizing network power. It is worth noting that the phenomenon that ordinary Internet users begin to own network power does not only bring the bright side. Although the network space brings significantly greater possibility and operability in the aspects such as information collection, relationship connection, public opinion formation and resource accumulation compared with the traditional society, it has the problems such as huge and complex network information and ambiguous true identities of Internet users, which provide some people with ulterior motives with the opportunity to create and abuse network power by using the Internet technology and the identity of ordinary Internet users. It often causes more serious consequences than before. In the Tianjin Explosion event, for example, on the evening of August 13, 2015, a girl born in 1992 lied about the death of her parents in Tianjin Explosion to create an atmosphere of donation on Weibo and even obtained the support of Zhang Aijia, an online account owner with a huge number of followers, with a long article on Weibo. At the night,

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three fake posts on Weibo deceived more than 3700 Internet users to donate a total amount of more than RMB 100,000,41 causing severely negative social impact. The real influence of network power of ordinary Internet users is often only temporary. With the shift of attention of Internet users a few days or months after the outbreak of specific network events, their collective excitement gradually fades away and the community will be disbanded. However, we still need to pay full attention to this short-lived or even contingent network power. The possibility of ordinary Internet users gaining network power is precisely the core spirit and value of the network society, as well as the inevitable result of social progress and opening up. The network actions led by ordinary Internet users and network power exercised by them will continue to play an important and unique role and produce huge influence in the historical process of various social forces competing with each other. The future of the Chinese network and even that of the whole society will be shaped by these complex interactions and the network power originating from the mind of grassroots to a great extent.

References 1. [US] Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1983. 2. [US] Alton Morris, Carol McClurg Mueller, Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2002 3. [US] Charles Platt, Anarchy Online – The Conflict and Order in the Internet, Baoding, Hebei University Press, 1998. 4. Gui Tiantian, Quchang, A logistics warehouse in Tianjin Binhai New Area exploded, Beijing Youth Daily, 20150813. 5. Guo Zhonghua, Transformation and Domination: Interpretation of Giddens’ Thought of Power, Academia Bimestris, 2004 (3). 6. Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Power Structure in the Networking Age, Jianghuai Tribune, 2011 (5). 7. Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Social Structure in the Networking Age, Academic Monthly, 2012 (10). 41  Refer to the article named “a girl born in 1992 lied about the death of her parents in Tianjin Explosion to deceive more than 3700 Internet users to reward her, and Zhang Jiajia posted a long article after being deceived.” Refer to http://fs.southcn.com/content/2015/08/14/content_130714184.htm, 20150814.

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8. Liu Shaojie, The Social Foundation of the Trading Order in the Chinese Market, Sociological Review of China, 2014 (2). 9. [US] Mark Slouka, War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the High-tech Assault on Reality, Nanchang, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 1999. 10. [US] Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2001. 11. [US] Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006. 12. [US] Manuel Castells, editor-in-chief for The Network Society: A Cross-­ Cultural Perspective, Page 7–8, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2009. 13. [US] Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, Haikou, Hainan Publishing House, 1997. 14. [Canada] Nico Stehr, Knowledge Societies, Shanghai, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1998. 15. Song Chenting, Perceptual Ideology Communication and Social Identity Construction in the Network Age, Journal of Anhui University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2015 (1). 16. Yang Zhao, Research on the Origin, Problems and Development Suggestions for Micro Public Welfare, Development Research, 2013 (11). 17. [US] Joseph Nye, Hard & Soft Power, Page 105, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2005. 18. Chen Mingyu, Sootoo Research Institute: 2013 Analysis Report on We-Chat User Behavior. http://www.sootoo.com/content/426426.shtml. 19. A girl born in 1992 lied about the death of her parents in Tianjin Explosion to deceive more than 3,700 Internet users to reward her, and Zhang Jiajia posted a long article after being deceived. [EB/OL]. [20150814]. http://fs.southcn. com/content/201508/14/content_130714184.htm. 20. The coolest retrogradation in the world: the Weibo article forwarded in the largest amount in respect of Tianjin Binhai New Area Explosion. [EB/OL]. [20150813]. http://news.163.com/15/0813/16/B0TMUSAL00014AED. html. 21. A Chinese puzzle for firefighting heroes [EB/OL]. [20150814]. http:// www.wtoutiao.com/p/s5eyzr.html. 22. Ye Yuting, Xu Ye, Firefighters fighting the fire in Tianjin Explosion: we didn’t know the cause of the fire when we are sent there. [EB/OL]. [20150814]. http://news.ifeng.com/a/20150814/44423078_0.shtml. 23. The whole city was sleepless after Tianjin Explosion: citizens voluntarily joined in rescue. [EB/OL]. [20150813]. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/20150813/ 064032198559.shtml. 24. Habermas, J.  Hannah Arendt’s Communications Concept of Power. in S. Lukes (ed.). Power. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.

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25. Kurylo, Anastacia. Linsanity: The Construction of (Asian) Identity in an Online New York Knicks Basketball Forum. China Media Research, 2012 (8). 26. Melucci, Alberto. Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 27. Michel Foucault. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France 1975–1976, St. Martin Press, 2003. 28. Smith-Lovin, Lynn. The Strength of Weak Identities: Social Structural Sources of Self, Situation and Emotional Experience. Social Psychology Quarterly, 2007 (2). 29. Steve Jones. Cybersociety: Computer Mediated Communication and Community. CA: Sage Publications, 1995. 30. Wang, Wei-Ching etc. Internet Use, Group Identity, and Political Participation among Taiwanese Americans. China Media Research, 2009 (5).

CHAPTER 9

Network Expression of Social Problems: A Case Study of Forwarding “Death Penalty for Human Traffickers” Xiuxiu Liu

9.1   Introduction On June 17, 2015, many people’s WeChat Moments were flooded with such a sentence: “we insist on suggesting that the country changes the law on child abduction and trafficking. Those who sell children must be sentenced to death penalty and those who buy children must be sentenced to life imprisonment. Whoever steals children must be sentenced to death penalty. Seeking spread rather than likes”. Subsequently, this topic continued to ferment, forming four types of views. Firstly, there were people who supported the behavior of forwarding. They believed that it is the right of individuals to express their anger and let out their opinions. At the same time, human traffickers are so hateful that death penalty is not too much. Secondly, some people were against irrational anger and discussed that “death penalty for all human traffickers” was not feasible from the perspectives such as law and society. Thirdly, some people proceeded from X. Liu (*) Party School of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Beijing, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6_9

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the perspective of “how to do” and learned from the practice of the United States and Germany to tell parents what they can do to prevent the occurrence of tragedies. Fourthly, some used this case as an introduction to discuss the related deep reasons in the aspects such as state systems and social history. There were many confrontations between these four viewpoints. In some WeChat groups, the difference in the views even became the focus of quarrels. After a few days, the topic entered a phase of quieting down and the hot topics online were also switched. It is worth noting that many of these hot issues are ultimately proven to be online hype (the topic in this chapter is also such a case). The audiences leave with a sigh to pursue new “true” hot topics. However, the problem is that, irrespective of the topic being true or fake, the large-scale dissemination of the topic is true, proving that such topic can indeed arouse people’s general reaction and is a social pain point. The event of forwarding “death penalty for human traffickers” reflects many issues such as the mode of transmission of hot topics on the network, the engagement model of network interaction and the life cycle of network topics. However, such analysis based on the characteristics of Internet technology has been all over academic articles and social discussions, and it is urgent to look at this issue from a larger perspective. The author finds that most network events cannot be viewed in a single way, and it is necessary to combine the network topics in recent years to think about it as a whole. Since 2011, the network public welfare projects on Weibo, such as “cracking down on the abduction”, “taking photos to rescue child beggars” and “babies going home”, the intermittent call for Internet users to forward the posts such as “collecting newborns’ fingerprints and DNA” and other events all involve the issues related to trafficking of children. It seems that an incident has ended, but it will come back with another entry point after some time. It can be seen that the fact that such topics can stimulate Internet users’ minds in cycles through changing their appearance definitely represents the difficult social problem that has long been plaguing the public and has been difficult to be solved due to the reasons mixing historical, political and social factors. Therefore, the exploration of the network expression of such a difficult social problem has become a meaningful entry point.

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9.2   Treat Abduction and Trafficking of Children as a Difficult Social Problem A report published on Southern Metropolis Weekly in September 2006 mentioned a list of 518 children from Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangzhou who had been missing over the years. The reporter called to verify them one by one, finding that only 31 children were retrieved. It could be calculated based on this ratio that there was a detection rate of only 10–20%. As shown by the data released by National Working Committee on Children and Women under State Council, in 2012, 18,532 cases were registered for woman and child abduction and trafficking by the public security organizations and 2765 cases of child abduction were cracked. The child abduction and trafficking crimes are rampant in China, with tens of thousands of victims and affected families. According to the Statistics on the Situation of Women and Children in China, from 2005 to 2012, the number of cases registered for women and child abduction and trafficking by the public security organizations kept growing from 2884 cases in 2005 to 18,532 in 2012, and the proportion of such crimes in all criminal cases also showed the trend of growing.1 It can be seen that the rate of exposed cases of child trafficking has increased, but the ratio of cracking the cases is not high, indicating that it is indeed an intricate problem which involves many aspects such as history, society and ideas. To be specific, it is reflected in three links: trafficking, selling and buying. Abduction: Taking Risks for Profit Human abduction and trafficking has been a phenomenon that has long existed in history. It could be seen from the laws of the past that human trading was based on the system of status hierarchy. People were divided into two types: law-abiding people and humble people. Trafficking and abduction of free people (law-abiding people) differed from trafficking and abduction of slaves and maid-servants in that the former action constituted a crime, while the latter was legitimate. For example, it was regulated in Tang Dynasty in respect of the trading of slaves and maid-servants that “the trading is not permitted unless it is known that the people being traded are not law-abiding, otherwise those violating it shall be punished 1  Refer to Zeng Gangji, New Development of Child Abduction Crimes and Improvement of Relevant Legislation, Legality Vision, 2016 (1) (Last Part).

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according to law”. According to the provisions stipulated in Ministry of Finance Offices for Marketplaces in the Two Capitals in Six Codes in Tang Dynasty, trading of slaves and maid-servants was like trading of cattle and horses, “the trading of slaves, maid-servants, cattle and horses shall be based on certificates issued by the department and ministry”.2 As of the trading of law-abiding people, it was stipulated in the laws of Tang Dynasty that “those who traffic and abduct women as slaves and maid-servants shall be hung”. It was stipulated in The History of the Yuan Dynasty Annals of Criminal Laws that “officials, civilians, etc., who commit thefts, rob, fake banknotes, traffic and abduct people, dig graves, set fires, commit forcible rape or other capital crimes shall be disposed by authorities”.3 In fact, due to the existence of these two regulations at the same time, human traders often acted in a way between being legitimate and illegitimate. It was not uncommon to convert illegal trading of law-abiding people to legitimate transactions. The decree for pardon issued in October in Xuanzong Taihe 2nd year (the year of 828) stated that “common people in Lingnan territories, Fujian, Guiguan, Yongguan, Annan and other regions are forbidden to abduct and buy children or women. Punishment for all such crimes will be accumulated”. However, some officials still violated the ban, leading to the phenomenon of “trading in a huge amount”.4 It can be seen that the problem of human trading has always been complicated. Firstly, the existence of the double standard for “law-abiding people and humble people” provides a certain space for the crime activities of human traders. Secondly, the tradition of “trading of slaves and maid-­ servants being allowed” in the history provides the conceptual basis for the crimes of human trafficking and abduction today to a certain extent. Thirdly, despite strict laws, the crimes of human trafficking and abduction still cannot be stopped with the bans. According to records, the human traders mostly abduct boys to work as servants for rich households, laborers for illegal coal pits and so on, and abduct girls to serve as other people’s wives or concubines, or sell them to places for carnal pleasure. Due to the huge profit, the human traders are willing to take the risks (it is mentioned 2  Mao Lei, Chen Mingguang, Human Traders and Human Trading in Ancient China, Researches In Chinese Economic History, 2000 (1). 3  Refer to Heavy Punishment against Trafficking and Abduction in Han Dynasty: Human Trades Would Had Their Heads Cut off and Bodies Torn Apart, Southern Metropolis Daily, 20150519. 4  Mao Lei, Chen Mingguang, Human Traders and Human Trading in Ancient China, Researches In Chinese Economic History, 2000 (1).

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in many documents that “the huge profit” is the driving force for human trading in the ancient times).5 In the contemporary society, the problem of human abduction and trafficking has become more complex due to the large-scale flow of population. Accordingly, in accordance with the regulations of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, abducting and trafficking in a woman or child meant any of the following acts: abducting, kidnapping, buying, trafficking in, fetching, sending or transferring a child for the purpose of selling the victim. According to Article 240 under the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, whoever abducts and traffics in a child shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; if he falls under any of the following categories, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment and shall also be fined or sentenced to confiscation of property; if the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to death and also to confiscation of property: (1) being a ringleader of a gang engaged in abducting and trafficking in children; (2) abducting and trafficking in three or more children; (3) kidnapping a child by means of violence, coercion or anesthesia for the purpose of selling the victim; (4) stealing a baby or an infant for the purpose of selling the victim; (5) causing serious injury or death to the child who is abducted and trafficked in or to her or his relatives or any other serious consequences; or (6) selling a child out of the territory of China. It can be seen from the provisions of the law that the law in this aspect is indeed harsh, but the crime of human abduction and trafficking still has not been stopped. According to the statistics made by a scholar based on 133 cases publicly reported by the media since 2000, children were mainly abducted from Henan and Yunnan and abducted into Henan, Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangzhou; children under the age of six were mainly adopted, and girls aged 14 to 18 were mainly abducted into the porn industry; the crimes were mainly committed by groups and more than 50% of the children being abducted by the children’s parents and relatives.6 As for the profits, it was reported that “an abducted child is sold at 5  Yan Wenbo, An Yuanyuan, Laws on Taking in Lost Children and Women and Human Trafficking and Abduction Crimes in Qing Dynasty, Lanzhou Academic Journal, 2010 (12). 6  Refer to Li Chunlei, Research on the Status of Rescue and Protection of Trafficked Children in China and Countermeasures for Improvement  - Based on Analysis of 133 Publicly Reported Cases in Recent Years, Journal of Chinese People’s Public Security University (Social Sciences Edition), 2013 (6).

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the price from RMB 30,000 to RMB 60,000. The suspect directly participating in the abduction and trafficking can get the profit of over RMB 25,000 and the middleman introducing the trade can get a bonus of several thousands or even ten thousand yuan”.7 The following case is for the reference of profitability of children’s own parents trafficking the children. On March 11, 2010, the defendant Liu Moude and his cohabiting girlfriend Zhang Mouhong gave birth to their child Liu Mo without getting married. In May of the same year, Zhang Mouhong became pregnant again and lost her job, so Liu Moude asked Zhao Mouze and others to help find a buyer for their child Liu Mo and tried several times to persuade Zhang Mouhong to agree with it. Later, with the introduction of Zhao Mouze, Liu Moude and Zhang Mouhong sold Liu Mo at the price of RMB 42,000. The buyers and sellers signed an “agreement for placing out the child for adoption”. Liu Moude, Zhang Mouhong and Zhao Mouze illegally made profits of RMB 15,000, RMB 5000 and RMB 18,000 respectively.8 It can be seen from these facts that no matter how severe the criminal law is, it cannot stop the temptation of huge profit. Therefore, profit is the root reason why the human traffickers are still rampant under the great pressure of law. Selling: Criminal Organizations with Complex Structure It can be seen from these facts that the criminal law is stricter and cannot stop the temptation of profiteering. Therefore, being profit-driven is the fundamental reason why the traffickers are still rampant under the pressure of law. For traffickers, abducting children is only the first step, and they can gain profit only by completing the transaction. In the process of transporting children from one place to another, the children are changed hands by human traffickers, who take various measures to avoid investigation. As a result, it is very difficult to crack down the cases. Firstly, it is easy for human traffickers to hide themselves due to large-scale population flow. Different from the social situation of “born and brought up here” in ancient society, the population flow models such as the “pendulum model” and the “migratory bird model” make the entire society in the status of flow. Human  A Suspect Earns RMB 25,000 for Trafficking One Child, Jinan Daily, 20111209.  Chen Junhong, Lin Qianshu, Parents’ “Giving Away” Their Own Children for Illegal Profit Constitutes the Crime of Child Trafficking, People’s Court Daily, 20150319. 7 8

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traffickers can change places along with the population without attracting the attention of grassroots people or the police. Moreover, human traffickers often hand over the abducted children to women of childbearing age to raise them for a period a time, which greatly reduces children’s resistance. Secondly, the traffickers have formed a complex criminal organization, which has added difficulties to clear the clues. Some scholars pointed out: After severe crackdown by the public security departments after 2000, smaller criminal gangs conducting abduction and trafficking were eliminated. However, the larger criminal groups have developed toward a higher level due to their complexity and high intelligence. Their division of labor is more and more complicated and much stricter, and they have strict organizational rules and confidentiality regulations. For example, criminals use pseudonyms to contact each other, do not inquire about personal information and only contact persons on a single line. Each process of abduction and trafficking is being refined. For example, the original one link of stealing and hiding children has been refined into two separate links.9

The scholars also used a diagram to show a “network-­based” organization of human traffickers (refer to Fig. 9.1). Such ­organization has two charac-

Fig. 9.1  The organizational structure of the “networked” crime groups abducting and trafficking in women and children 9  Zhang Peng, Network-based Crimes of Abduction and Trafficking in Women and Children and the Countermeasures for Investigation, Journal of Shanxi Police Academy, 2007 (2).

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teristics including tightness and looseness. In terms of tightness, the whole organization is closed with strict division of labor. It connects a series of coordinated processes including abduction, kidnapping, acquisition, transportation, wholesale, retail and so on so that no outsiders can go in. In terms of looseness, the persons at the upstream and downstream links are not familiar with each other and they contact another fixed person. Once a clue breaks off, it will be difficult to conduct deeper investigation to find the next node. Thirdly, the invisible participation of institutions with official nature, such as hospitals and social welfare institutions, has made the abduction and trafficking cases more complicated. It was pointed out by one report that “the public security bureau of Qidong county in Hunan province cracked a major human trafficking case which involved welfare homes in many regions in Hunan. It was learned after interrogation that babies abducted by human traffickers are sold to Hengyang County Social Welfare Home and other places at the price of RMB 800 to RMB 1,200 per baby. After buying these babies, these social welfare homes made records and applied for funds of raising these babies from the state, and also re-sold these babies to social welfare homes in other regions and individuals at the price of RMB 8,000 to RMB 30,000”.10 Social welfare homes with official background participate in the chain of baby reselling to turn crimes of children abduction and trafficking which is banned by explicit laws into legal activities of children adoption, presenting a very vile nature. It involves major issues such as the relationship between the government and civilians, and social trust. Therefore, it is a severely difficult issue to make child abduction and trafficking a more important social topic, and it cannot be completed in a short period of time. Fourthly, there is the direct impact of the population policy. Since the 1970s, China began to implement the family planning policy, which was regarded as a fundamental national policy in 1982. For more than 40 years, “the family planning work has achieved great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, and it has had a positive and far-reaching impact on China’s economic development, social progress and the improvement of people’s health”.11 However, the rigid policy of one couple being allowed to give birth to only one child has also caused hidden  Memorandum on Child Abduction, Social Outlook, 2009 (9).  Wang Peian, Do a Good Job in Family Planning under the New Situation, Population Research, 2014 (6). 10 11

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dangers for hidden violations in the respect of the population policy. If children who are beyond the stipulated limit of the family planning policy are abducted before having their permanent residence registered, some parents may choose not to report a case to the security authority due to their fear of being found their violation of the family planning policy. There are also even worse cases. It was reported that some family planning offices in Shaoyang, Hunan, took away the children who were beyond the stipulated limit of the family planning policy and sent them to social welfare homes to put them into the procedures of overseas adoption.12 As a result, the crimes of child trafficking, which involve illegal criminal activities far beyond human trafficker groups, have become even more complicated and confusing. Coupled with the difficulty of obtaining evidence, there is a difficult situation that cannot be described easily. Buying: Misinterpretation and Misguidance of “Local Knowledge” “There will be no trafficking without the demand for buying”. This is a sentence heard for many times in the discussion on buying and selling children. However, the issue of “buying” is full of controversy. From the perspective of laws, it was stipulated in Article 241 under the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China that whoever buys an abducted child shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance. Whoever buys an abducted child and illegally deprives the victim of his or her personal freedom or restricts his or her personal freedom, or commits any criminal acts such as harming and humiliating the victim, shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the relevant provisions of this Law. Whoever buys an abducted child and commits the criminal act as specified in the second or third paragraph of this Article shall be punished in accordance with the provisions on combined punishment for several crimes. Whoever buys an abducted child and sells the victim afterward shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 240 of this Law. Whoever buys an abducted child but does not maltreat the child nor obstruct his or her rescue may be given a lesser punishment. This provision has been quite controversial. On the one hand, the call for “buyers to be sentenced” is urgent; while on the other hand, there are various ethical  Refer to Shao Yang’s Trafficked Children, Caixin Weekly, 2011 (18).

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dilemmas for sentencing buyers. It is difficult to return children who are sold by their biological parents, and foster parents who buy children at a high price generally do not abuse the children and do not hinder rescue by the police. In addition, after the children grow up, they become emotionally intimate with their foster parents. All these problems pose some difficulties for the punishment for buyers. From a social perspective, buying children is closely related to “local knowledge”. Wang Jinling used this concept proposed by Geertz to try to interpret abduction from a new perspective. That is, to focus on analyzing the difference in behavior characteristics, origin, behavior methods and other aspects of abduction and trafficking of people, especially of women and children; the purpose of the research is not to discover behavioral rules with universal meaning, but to understand the local society, i.e. the cultural principles and local knowledge structure, that governs the behavior of people conducting human abduction and trafficking and relevant groups/communities, so as to repair, expand and even reconstruct the existing knowledge system with grand narrative characteristics to provide a new epistemological foundation for improving relevant laws, policies and specific implementation measures.13

The author believes that this perspective is crucial for interpreting the link of “buying”. It helps us abandon the standpoint of intellectual elites and understand this problem from the perspectives such as local customs, systems and the value perception of the parties involved. After buying a child, a buyer faces the immediate problem of legalizing the child. Such legalization includes two levels: one is in the aspect of social relations, that is, whether the child can be accepted by relatives, friends and neighbors; the other is in the aspect of law, that is, whether the abducted child can get household registration to become a legitimate citizen. In terms of the social relations, the child may be recognized through adoption or other vague expressions; and many relatives, friends, neighbors and even the community know that the child is bought, but do not report to the relevant departments, so that they let this illegal action exist by turning a blind eye to it. It shows that, in civil society, the action of buying children is recognized by the society to a certain extent. They adopt the behavior methods such as showing sympathy to the foster 13  Wang Jinling, Local Behavior, Standpoint of Parties Involved and the Orientation of Public Policies – Analysis of the Framework of Research on Woman and Child Abduction and Trafficking, Zhejiang Academic Journal, 2009 (4).

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­ arents and making the less trouble the better, which in fact condones p such illegal adoption. As far as the legal aspect is concerned, there are articles pointing out that there are generally three channels to get registered permanent residence for abducted children, including buying fake birth certificates, applying for adoption through the civil affairs department and waiting for population census.14 The institutions involved include hospitals, civil affairs departments, public security departments and so on In the process of handling these procedures, there are indeed problems that are difficult to identify. However, it is certain that the behavior of pulling strings accounts for a larger proportion. A larger number of more complicated phenomena of “collusion” are hidden behind it, and “local knowledge” highlighted in it is self-evident. It can be seen from the above-mentioned three links of abduction, selling and buying that the phenomenon of trafficking in children happens in all dynasties and regions. It is a product of interlaced effect of the hierarchy of social status, the impetus of profit, the collusion mechanism, the influence of the population policy, the effect of local knowledge and so on, as well as a difficult social problem that is crisscross and is hard to be eradicated. It is obviously difficult for the initiative of forwarding the message of “death penalty for human traffickers” to solve the problem.

9.3   The Problem of Abduction and Trafficking in Children in Network Expression Since entering the network society, the issue of trafficking in children has come into view of Internet users in various forms. The event of forwarding “death penalty for human traffickers” is only one of them. The author believes that it is precisely because trafficking in children is a difficult social problem as mentioned above, it can stimulate Internet users time and again and come back in different forms of hot topics to gain a wide range of serious attention in the network atmosphere of “amusing ourselves to death”. In fact, some clues can be found in the various forms of complex network expression to sort out the network expression characteristics of social problems.

14  Li Shu, Wu Liang, A Perspective View of Why Child Abduction and Trafficking Cannot Be Stopped after Being Repeatedly Fought, PPC Daily, 20140816.

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Outbreak: Social Pain Points in Perceptual Experience In the context of “death penalty for human traffickers”, several key points stimulated the mind of Internet users. Firstly, they suggested that the state should change the law. According to the experience of the Internet users, there was no lack of precedents of network public opinions affecting national policies, which made them think that this initiative was just and legitimate. Secondly, the severe criminal law on selling, buying and stealing children aroused the resonance of Internet users, who might be unfamiliar with the articles of criminal law on abduction and trafficking in children, but found the initiative of “death penalty” working off their anger and easing their mood, so they thought that “death penalty” should be so. Thirdly, there was content of “seeking spread rather than likes”, which could be easily accepted by Internet users, because it seemed to be a requirement for spread without any utilitarian purpose and was at the moral high ground. In addition to directly stimulating Internet users’ mind, these three key points also touch the social pain points. Since the implementation of the family planning policy, China’s fertility rate has continued to decline, and children have become scarce in families and the society. Some people even believe that “children are Chinese people’s religion”. Under such circumstances, the importance that every family attaches to their children is evident. Any news about children can affect the emotions of hundreds of millions of parents (the network projects such as “free lunch for children”, “babies going home” and “taking photos to rescue child beggars”, which once caused extensive participation, all proceeded from this point to mobilize huge power). Therefore, many Internet users did not hesitate to copy, paste and forward it, which took less than one minute. This act expressed the attitude of forwarders and gained a sense of identity in the Moments. It can be said that most of the forwarders were involved in the forwarding action from the perspective of perceptual experience. It was such massive forwarding that led to the effect of “flooding the screen” and triggered a large-scale discussion. As pointed out by Liu Shaojie, “social representation in cyberspace is not only about the inherent ideological concept or value belief of a certain social group. It can also be the value concept that floats above all present groups and can lead unified action of various groups at the same time. Moreover, such concept is not a theoretical system expressed in abstract concepts, but a flowing representational

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c­ onsciousness that can be accepted and understood by members of society at all levels in a perceptual image”.15 Furthermore, in the new situation, perceptual communication has replaced the position of rational communication. “Popular communication with the main content of communicating perceptual symbolic forms has promoted the profound changes of social structure.16” Perceptual communication contains strong information power. Rendering: Identification of Truth in Rational Disputes In the experience transmission of “death penalty for human traffickers”, effective “information power” was not released at last, because the Internet users reflected on the indignation of their first reaction and compared their original sensibility with the rationality later after discussion to get some of the truth. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, several other views appeared after the phenomenon of flooding the screen. These views appeared one by one, letting the angry people calm down. Firstly, there was professional discussion of legal scholars. Since the forwarders were targeting the criminal law of China, a large group of legal scholars spoke out. They spread basic legal knowledge to make more people understand the application scope and legal purport of the current articles of law and state the procedural justice in the field of law, the spiritual essence of law and so on. In summary, there were mainly the following viewpoints. First, legal scholars believed that the call for “death penalty for human traffickers” violated the “principle of appropriate punishment for crime”; that is, the severity of punishment should be compatible with the crimes committed by criminals and the criminal responsibility assumed, meaning severe punishments for grave crimes and light punishments for light crimes. In the current Criminal Law, differentiated measurement of penalty had been made for abduction and trafficking in children and it was basically appropriate, while the forwarding incident was against the basic principle of punishment. Secondly, some legal scholars quoted data of many countries to show that death penalty was not positively correlated with suppression of crimes. Thirdly, it was a consensus in the academic 15  Liu Shaojie, Social Differentiation and Social Representation in the Age of Networking, Contemporary World, 2013 (2). 16  Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Way of Ideological Communication in the New Situation, Jilin University Journal (Social Sciences Edition), 2011 (5).

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circle that death penalty should be used prudently, and it was impossible to return to a past age. Finally, they emphasized that the spiritual essence of law was to defend the dignity of law: “law should not be ridiculed, but should be an object of legal research; and law should not be judged, but should be the criterion for judgement. We should believe that the provisions of law are reasonable, but should not presume that there are unbalanced provisions in the law …We should absolutely not advocate that unjust law is still law, but should also not entirely agree that unjust law is not law. Instead, we should advocate the faith in law, because ‘law has to be believed in, otherwise it will be ineffective’”.17 These discussions set off endless rounds of disputes. In addition to the professional disputes, the disputed between morality and law was more intense. Secondly, activists provided strategies. In the opinion of activists, both the proposal of death penalty for human traffickers and the professional critique of the indignant emotions were of no practical meaning, and the most practical thing was to tell people what they should do to prevent the tragedy. To this end, they summed up the experiences and lessons of other countries and proposed various “anti-abduction” methods suitable for the situation of China. For example, in the article named How the United States prevents the abduction and trafficking in children: three children changed the history of the United States – the missing children intervention system of the United States, the author reviewed the painful lessons of three missing children in the United States and described how the United States advanced the missing children intervention system in the case. In the article named German kindergartens only teaches these skills in the three years, which is the reason why German children do not get abducted easily, the author introduced the curriculum of German kindergartens and especially emphasized the kindergarten’s emphasis on practical experience. The author believed that to make children independent and protect themselves, it is a good way to let them visit police stations, learn how to call the police, learn how to deal with bad persons and so on. In the article named Moms should do these things because human traffickers are endless, the author suggested that moms should “establish a list of reliable persons”, “clarify the rules for dealing with ‘strangers’”, “tell children the key persons that they should look out for” and do other things, which were actionable methods 17  Zhang Mingkai: The Unfolding of the Criminal Law Maxim, 3rd edition, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2013.

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a­ llowing moms to establish an awareness of “anti-abduction” in daily life. The above-mentioned articles for actions were forwarded in a huge amount in the Moments, receiving over 10,000 views. It could be seen that there were a wide range of supporters for the activists. Thirdly, there was the calm analysis of reflectors. In addition to responding to problems, there were always some people who were more interested in the stories and meanings behind the phenomenon. They were keen on thinking about the ins and outs of the trafficker events and digging a series of hidden facts behind the events. In the event of forwarding “death penalty for human traffickers”, the reflections were divided into two approaches, including exposing the truth and pursuing the truth. Under the unremitting efforts of exposing the truth, Internet users dug up the “backstage manipulator” of the forwarding event—it was marketing conducted by an employee of a match-making website without authorization. When the truth was out, the Internet users burst into an uproar. Some were sad and disappointed and no longer paid attention to it; some were so furious that they criticized the shameless behavior of the official account; and some clapped their hands and laughed loudly to make fun of the forwarding behavior of the ones fooled, causing endless disputes. In the opinion of those who explored the truth, the problem revealed was real and worthy of exploration despite the backstage manipulator. To this end, they analyzed the “love and fear” behind the forwarding event, discussed various operating mechanism of human traffickers and dug up old posts and news reports over the years. Leading the discussion into deep thinking allowed readers to approach a part of the truth through their reflection. In fact, each of the above camps was full of all kinds of quarrels, and even the suggestions of the activists might be at opposite poles (e.g., they had different opinions on whether children should be friendly or hostile toward strangers; whether children should cry out for help). Moreover, in these articles which valued speed more than any other things and did not carefully check facts, there were indeed many inaccurate and unrealistic materials or opinions. However, the author believes that, in general, “truth becomes clearer through debates” and effective debates are beneficial. If we can summarize views and conduct intensive cultivation in these numerous and complicated discussions, it may be more conducive to healthy dissemination of public opinions.

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End: Lonely Activists After the Topic Ended After a few days, the topic of “death penalty for human traffickers” was quickly removed, and the relevant discussions cooled down. Looking back on the topic of “taking photos to rescue child beggars” in 2011, and the films in relevant themes such as Dearest in 2014 and Lost and Love in 2015, all once attracted a wide range of attention and formed a wave of public opinions, but temporarily faded out in the vision of Internet users under the action of cycles. In terms of influence, these events were roughly divided into the following categories. Firstly, these events have partially changed people’s concepts. Although the hot events about child abduction and trafficking arise from the people’s concerns, the subsequent discussions also enable the people to increase relevant knowledge, experience corresponding emotions and adjust their inherent concepts. For example, in the event of “death penalty for human traffickers”, the people improved their understanding of the relevant articles of the criminal law, had an intuitive experience of the indignation of the forwarders and adjusted their relevant concepts of law and morality. However, the main reason why it is said that these events “partially” change people’s concepts is that, in the complicated network expression, the degree of people’s concepts being changed is directly related to many factors such as the interests of individuals, educational background and personal experience of Internet users. After the network discussions, some Internet users have developed rational knowledge on this topic and can look at the issues in a calm attitude, while some Internet users are still immersed in the controversy although they have developed some understanding from a rational perspective. Secondly, these events have inspired the actions of enthusiasts. In the hot discussions on the above topics, there are always a group of enthusiasts who not only suggest actions, but also practice what they preach to join the team of “anti-abduction” or “rescue”. They are lonely activists after the topics end. These activists are divided into official personnel and civil organizations. In terms of the former type, Chen Shiqu, the director of the anti-abduction office of the Ministry of Public Security, attracts a high degree of attention on Weibo (with a total of 6.99 million fans), and he can promote relevant departments to register and investigate a case. Therefore, some people send messages to him to seek for resolution of some incidents, and he indeed plays a role in refuting rumors, publicity and assistance. In terms of the latter type, “babies going home”, a civil voluntary

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public welfare website established in 2007 for looking for children, also keeps paying attention to abducted children despite the ups and downs of topics and provides various help for missing or abducted children. Moreover, more and more volunteers have joined in this camp to contribute to promoting the resolution of problems. They are lonely, because there are always some activists who neither pursue fashion nor run errands for fame and fortune despite the endless rounds of hot topics. Thirdly, these events have promoted the development of relevant systems. Although network initiatives are not necessarily in line with the procedures of relevant departments, and always cannot become policy issues because they are simple or rude, the introduction of relevant policies is also somewhat related to these calls. For example, a commentator from GMW.cn believed that after the topic of ‘death penalty for human traffickers’ flooded the screen for a week, it was reported by the media on June 24 that the NPC Standing Committee once again reviewed the draft of the Amendment to Criminal Law (IX), which was intended to change the provision of whoever buys children being exempted from criminal penalty to light punishment being available when only certain conditions are met. It indicates that buyers will be subject to criminal penalties in the future. In a certain sense, media integration has greatly shortened the process of public opinion guidance, promoted rapid and benign interaction between public opinions and public decision-making, and highlighted the value of public opinions.18

Repetition: Coming Back After a Makeover As mentioned above, the topic on the “abduction and trafficking in children” has produced a variety of network hot spots, including the events of forwarding and flooding the screen where emotions overwhelm all other things, the group actions targeting particular topics, the collective reflection certain phenomena and so on. The author believes that the reason why there are so many comebacks after a makeover is that such topics are inherently difficult and complex problems, so the Internet users use the method of “trial and error” to try again and again. In one aspect, there are repeated repetitions. Such repetitions are manifested in two aspects, namely, the repetition of contents and repetition of 18  From “Death Penalty for Traffickers” to “Criminal Penalty for Buying Children”, refer to http://guancha.gmw.cn/201506/25/content_16081923.htm, 20150625.

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forms. In terms of repetition of contents, one message repeatedly appears on the Moments every once in a while, stating that dear friends, I would like to take up two minutes of your time to forward this for me. If you like to give others likes, please forward this message no matter how busy you are: we support the proposal of Gao Xiang, a CPPCC member, that fingerprints and DNA of children shall be recorded in a computer system for free at the time of obtaining their registered permanent residence, so as to ensure that the abducted and trafficked children cannot obtain registered permanent residence and can be found in time. Please forward it for children if you support it.

The Weibo account of “Jiangning public security online” refuted the rumor on January 7, 2016, and explained that this CPPCC member named Gao Xiang did not exist. There was a member named Gao Xiang in Nanjing CPPCC, but he clearly stated that he did not make the proposal. Moreover, Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-abduction office of the Ministry of Public Security, posted a message on Weibo on March 7, 2015, stating that the fingerprints of newborns under the age of two years old are unstable with a high error rate. It is technically difficult to be solved. As for the collection of DNA of all newborns, it is unnecessary. The collection of DNA is actually for the purpose of checking the identities of children. The current national DNA information library for anti-abduction can actually be used for verifying children’s true identities.

On February 21, 2016, Chen Shiqu forwarded the Weibo post at that time to reiterate the matter. It can be seen that this message had a strong ability to repeat its dissemination, because it contained a full name, which made it convincing, and it appeared quite reasonable due to the publicity by technical means. However, it can also be seen that the strength of refuting the rumor was not enough. In terms of repetition of forms, seeking forwarding and flooding the screen is one of the most important ways of repetition. Such method is widely used in various fields such as patriotism and family love, and is time-tested in the field of abduction and trafficking in children. Such a message occupies a moral high ground and seems to be incomparably correct, but it often has the problems such as false information and moral coercion. In the other aspect, there is the repetition after acquisition. In the event of “taking photos to rescue child beggars”, under the initiative of a well-­ known scholar named Yu Jianrong, many Internet users spontaneously acted to take photos of child beggars and upload the photos. Some media

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practitioners and even the public security departments joined in and acted together. However, after more than a year, there were basically no children who were abducted among the children with their photos taken. It can be seen from this vigorous action that most of the abducted children do not become beggars, but are adopted. The action of “taking photos” involves children’s privacy, which is controversial in the field of law to a certain extent. Therefore, this hot topic on the network has gradually cooled down and people have learned a lot from it. The most straightforward lesson is that this path is not feasible and other paths are needed. As a result, people do not repeat the action of “taking photos”, but repeatedly pay attention to the old topic of “abducting and trafficking in children” by means of forwarding messages, conducting hot discussion on movies about lost children and so on. In summary, the author believes that the fundamental reason why the topic on abduction and trafficking in children appears repeatedly is that it is a difficult social problem which cannot be solved by single means. Initiatives on the Internet can certainly play a role in attracting attention, but the fragmented, simplified and perceptual network appeals cannot completely solve the problem. Therefore, by targeting the long-standing problem of child abduction and trafficking, the Internet users try to solve the problem again and again in the hope of finding a breakthrough, or promote the solution process bit by bit.

9.4   Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression It is precisely because the problem of child abduction and trafficking is a difficult social problem that the variety of expressions mentioned above show up. Then, it seems especially important to explore the secret of the relationship between social problems and network expression from the perspective of academics. It involves both the deep problems of social reality and the spirit of informationism in the new era, and is a new expression form of social and historical problems in the new era. Specifically, the topic on the relationship between social problems and network expression can be discussed in two aspects. Firstly, it is to answer why social problems are so rich in network expression and what their fitting points are. Secondly, it is to answer why network expression cannot completely solve social problems and why there is even phenomenon of using rumors to gain forwarding by cheating, that is, what the violation points are.

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The Fitting Points Between Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression It is beset with difficulties in solving the social problem of child abduction and trafficking, and one key reason is that the means for rescuing abducted and trafficked children is single. That is, “the police plays the most important role, while other relevant government departments, social groups and citizen volunteers play a minor role. Comprehensive management mechanism for the overall social rescue and assistance has not yet been formed”.19 In respect of this issue, the public security department has done a lot of work, such as establishing a mechanism for rapid detection of missing children and a responsibility system for investigating and handling cases of abduction and trafficking of children. Since 2009, the national anti-abduction DNA database has been established. By 2014, the public security departments had used the database to help 3166 children who were abducted many years ago to find their biological parents. However, for such a complicated social problem, the public security sector is unable to solve it alone (it is also one of the reasons for the low detection rate). There has been no effective solution for a long time until the emergence of Internet, which provides a new channel for civil participation, that is, the single path of solving the social problem highly fits with the feasibility of network participation. Since the Internet entered China, it has become an important position for the public to express their interest appeals. The cost for Internet users to post and forward information to relevant departments has been greatly reduced. Once an incident of a child going missing happens, the people involved can immediately take two measures. They can call the policy immediately and use the traditional method to find a solution. Also, they can carry out civil investigation through the actions of professionals, volunteers and ordinary Internet users. Moreover, these two methods can form a resultant force. In 2010, Deng Fei, a media practitioner, proposed the concept of “crackdown on abduction and trafficking by Weibo” on Sina Weibo and joined hands with the official Weibo account of China Policy Network under the Ministry of Public Security to establish a group organization named “anti-abduction volunteer group” to call for the 19  Li Chunlei, Ren Ren, Zhang Xiaoxu, Research on the Status of Rescue and Protection of Abducted and Trafficked Children and Countermeasures for Improvement in China  – Based on the Analysis of 133 Publicly Reported Cases, Journal of Chinese People’s Public Security University(Social Sciences Edition), 2013 (6).

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i­ntegration of media and civil resources, so as to support and help the public security system fighting child abduction and trafficking. Chen Shiqu pointed out on his Weibo account on June 3, 2013, that “please call the policy immediately when you find children missing. If there is any problem, please leave a message on my Weibo account. The anti-abduction office will verify them one by one. If you know that there are missing children in remote places with not access of Internet, you may also leave a message to me for verification”. It can be seen from these examples that the network expression can help with the single policy actions and become a supplement to the solution path. The occasional cases which succeed through joint forces have also greatly inspired the majority of Internet users and become an important reason for them to participate in network expression and network actions. However, from another perspective, the social structural factor involved in child abduction and trafficking is also one of the factors ridiculed by Internet users. The first part of this chapter analyzes the complicated factors involved in child abduction and trafficking, such as the collusion mechanism between the upstream and downstream, the influence of the population policy and the role of local knowledge. These problems are also important popular topics discussed on the network in recent years. Once the problem of child abduction and trafficking is linked to these aspects, the critique brought by it is also very turbulent, that is, the complicated structural problem of social problems highly fits with the resistance of network expression. In recent years, the problem of network social governance has become increasingly severe, which is precisely due to the impact of chaos in the network ecology. It must be said that, in the current social situation in China, the spirit of informationism has inherent resistance. Such resistance comes from the dissatisfaction of ordinary Internet users with the social contradictions in the transition period. At the same time, the “society” strives to fight for rights and interests through the network platform and requires participating in various social affairs in more active methods, hoping that the country will make adjustments. Once the problem of child abduction and trafficking involves the family planning policy or operations under the table of local welfare houses, the sound of fling abuses surges like a flood and is pushed to a new high among the accusations. However, such resistant spirit of informationism can be further subdivided with respect to this problem. Fling abuses that do not care about truth are only

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emotional venting, but criticism in the spirit of considering something as it stands is a kind of supervision by public opinions. In summary, the fitting points between social problems and network expression are manifested in both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, the network expression of child abduction and trafficking has opened up a new way for social problems. Although it may not be the best way out, it is a start of mobilizing the comprehensive governance mechanism. Moreover, given the good foundation of cooperation between the government and the people, the future prospects are worth expecting. On the negative side, the network expression of child abduction and trafficking has also reflected the reflections of Internet users on social problems. Except for the irrational expression of indignation, the resistance to the dark side of society is conducive to the formation of supervision of relevant departments and the promotion of institutional rectification and system improvement. The Violation Points Between Difficult Social Problems and Network Expression Generally speaking, network expression cannot completely solve social problems, but it does not prevent Internet users from working hard for it. The author finds that the following pairs of contradictions are related to the unsuccessful match between the two. Firstly, there is the contradiction between the difficulty of the problem and the single expression. This contradiction has already been mentioned in the above analysis. The popularity of a network topic is directly related to its expression. It is difficult for a long, comprehensive and abstruse topic to obtain widespread attention. It does not meet the requirements of fast, direct and sharp network communication. Therefore, hot topics have the irritating nature to attract people’s attention, the quickness to call for actions immediately and the convenience to facilitate operations. Most of the hot topics on child abduction and trafficking have these characteristics. However, these characteristics are not in tune with the difficulty and complexity of social problems, so that the network expression of social problems is always simplified and even rude. As a result, the characteristics of the two appear to be mismatched, which is the direct reason why it is difficult for network expression to completely solve the problems. Secondly, there was the contradiction between the dilemmas of the people at the bottom of society and the advantages of the middle class. According

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to the statistics of “baby going home”, the largest child-­searching website in China, the website received a total of more than 5000 child-searching registrations from across the country from its establishment in 2007 to May 2013, among which 90% of the children were abducted due to missing supervision and half of the families with their children abducted were peasant-worker families, meaning that most of the abducted children are from grassroots families, rather than middle-class families as manifested in the film Dearest. However, the families paying attention to this problem on the network are from the middle class. Therefore, there is a problem of hierarchical dislocation here. Some scholars believe that the key reason why there is such a somewhat inexplicable way of ‘rescuing’ children as crackdown on abduction and trafficking by Weibo is that such method is simple and practicable – emotional public can all participate in such a hypothetical action of rescuing children and thereby vent a complex emotion … For the vast majority of participants, what matters is that they can vent their complex emotion. However, few people go deeply into the matter to find out whether it is truly in line with the requirements of the principle of maximizing the interests of children … The action of crackdown on abduction and trafficking by Weibo is more accurately ‘an action of clearing up child beggars in the streets by Weibo’, which actually reflects the ‘the conflict between the ideas of the middle class and the living method of the public at the bottom of society’.20

The author believes that such conflict is also manifested in the mutual lack of understanding between the ideas of the middle class and local knowledge. In terms of social relations and the “adoption” procedures, the tolerance of buying children at some places is so high that it goes beyond the imagination of the middle class. Therefore, in terms of ideas, mainly the middle-class people are going around crying for help, while the people at the bottom of society are basically in a state of aphasia. There is no effective communication between the two, so that the consensus expressed by the middle class is only an identity within the class and the imagination of the bottom class. In terms of actions, the action of “taking photos to rescue child beggars” becomes a practice of the above-mentioned imagination, so it cannot achieve the desired effect. Such hierarchical dislocation is very obvious in the network discussion on child abduction and trafficking. The middle-class people 20  Yao Jianlong, Reflection on Crackdown on Abduction and Trafficking by Weibo and China’s Mechanism for Children Protection, Oriental Law, 2011 (2).

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with surplus love usually do not realize such hierarchical gap and unconsciously play the role of “saviors”. Thirdly, there is the contradiction between procedural justice and expression forms. Although there are many cases in which the network voices promote policy development, there is still the problem of procedural justice. In the event of “death penalty for human traffickers”, the post started with the sentence stating “we insist on suggesting that the country changes the law on child abduction and trafficking”. However, the amendment to the criminal law is subject to a series of procedures. It is stipulated in Article 7 of the Legislation Law of the People’s Republic of China that the National People’s Congress and Standing Committee thereof shall exercise state legislative power. The National People’s Congress enacts and amends criminal, civil, and state organic laws and other basic laws. The Standing Committee of National People’s Congress enacts and amends laws other than those to be enacted by the National People’s Congress; while the National People’s Congress is not in session, the Standing Committee thereof partially amends and supplements national law enacted by the National People’s Congress, provided that any amendment or supplement may not contravene the basic principles of such national law.

That is to say, the voices of Internet users have to enter the institutional procedures, rather than only exist in the forwarding and call on the Moments, to truly change the national laws. From the perspective of network expression, the ability to express opinions and the effectiveness of expression are two different matters. The former itself is very important: “this is a primitive and simple voice. Compared with other forms of expression of public opinions with limited channels, such expression is more pure and informative. It will of course be questioned and refuted just like the sufferings in the public opinion field last week, but it is neither possible nor obligatory to show irrefutable ‘correctness’ and ‘rationality’”.21 That is to say, the root reason why this contradiction arises is that people lack the channel to enter the institutionalized expression and thus raise the status of network expression to such an extent. Therefore, this is one of the basic problems of the Chinese network society at this stage. 21  From “Death Penalty for Traffickers” to “Criminal Penalty for Buying Children”, refer to http://guancha.gmw.cn/201506/25/content_16081923.htm, 20150625.

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9.5   “Appropriate” Network Expression of Social Problems After realizing that some network expressions are actually revolving around social problems, and there are fitting points and violation points between the two, we can explore the issue of “appropriate” network expression of social problems based on these relational propositions, so as to purse a more effective solution path and a more orderly network society. Firstly, we should take advantage of the structure in the network field. There are actually huge differences in positions and resources in the seemingly flat Internet field. The ordinary Internet users, social media influencers, various media and official organizations or personnel inevitably occupy different positions, which form the most basic structure in the network field. We can see from the successful cases of network expressions promoting policy changes that the cooperation between the four is very important. The large amount of forwarding and comments by ordinary Internet users is the basis; the attention and actions of social media influencers and various media are important support; and the response and attitude of official organizations or personnel are critical. The absence of either party may lead to unsatisfactory network expression. Of course, it does not necessarily mean failure. For example, some scholars have pointed out through the Tianjin Explosion event that “the Internet users are no longer ‘the crowd’ described by Le Bon, but have gradually begun to consciously construct their own network power. With the help of information media and through creating capillary-type network relations, the channels for publishing opinions have been continuously expanded with resources accumulated. Ordinary Internet users have achieved overwhelming public welfare influence that only organizations or elites could reach in the past”.22 It means that ordinary Internet users may also have powerful energy and the power in the network field can flow. However, it is still very critical that we recognize the structure in the network field. It is the basic ecology of social problems in network expression. The positive interaction guiding this ecology is conducive to forming network expression of positive energy and resistive expression of negative energy. Secondly, we should pursue effective inter-class communication. It is not enough to only recognize the structure. It can be seen from the 22  Song Chenting, Information Power Construction in Micro Public Welfare 2.0 – A Case Study of the Tianjin Explosion Event, Fujian Forum, 2015 (12).

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i­ncident of “taking photos to rescue child beggars” that ordinary Internet users, social media influencers, various media and official organizations or personnel all participated in it to make the action vigorous, but did not achieve the desire effect, which was a result of the hierarchical dislocation as mentioned above. Therefore, the network expression of social problems needs to pursue effective inter-class communication. There might be a deep digital gap when Internet first entered China, but it seems that this gap has become much smaller on the surface with the participation of rural Internet users. According to the 37th Internet Report, the number of Internet users in China had reached 688 million as of December 2015, with a total of 39.51 million new Internet users in the whole year, among which the number of rural Internet users increased by 16.94 million compared with the end of 2014, showing the growth of 9.5%. In the next few years, the use of mobile phones for surfing the Internet is a major driving force for the increase in the number of Internet users in rural areas.23 However, the increase in the number only means that more rural Internet users are having access to Internet, but the currently more obvious digital gap is in fact manifested in the class barrier on the network. In other words, rural Internet users have obtained access to the seemingly completely open Internet, but have not broken the existing class barrier. This phenomenon is very obviously shown on the WeChat Moments. WeChat Moments is a circle of contacts that is dispersed based on individuals. Most of the friends in the WeChat Moments are people that individuals come into contact with and know in their work, study and living, but not strangers, so it has a characteristic of being relatively closed. The moral values that the middle class keeps emphasizing may not be able to spread into the circles of people at the bottom of society, and vice versa. Therefore, the pursuit of effective inter-class communication is very important. In the face of social problems, it is necessary to listen more to the discourse of the class of the parties involved to judge whether the measures advocated are effective, rather than continuously emphasizing it in the inner circle of the class. Thirdly, we should build a more sufficient discussion space. The inter-­ class communication should not rely on Moments, but needs more open network space. For example, some news app leaves an open space for the discussion of Internet users. Any Internet user is able to comment on any 23  Refer to The 37th Statistical Report on Internet Network Development in China by China Internet Network Information Center, http://cnnic.cn, 20160122.

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social news and such a comment reflects the basic value of the person leaving the comment in respect to this matter, which is conducive to inter-­ class mutual communication and understanding. Secondly, it is not only necessary to pursue inter-class dialogue. More importantly, various network views should approach the truth through full discussion. A social problem is like an elephant and Internet users usually take a part for the whole like “blind people touching the elephant”, which often tends to be partial. Therefore in the face of social problems, it is necessary to listen to the voices of different people and promote full discussion. It can be seen from the network debates in recent years that Internet users pay more attention to rational analysis, and generally do not stop at emotional venting. This is a very important beginning and it is hoped that Internet users can be more patient and rational. Fourthly, we should grasp the key nodes in the flow. It is undeniable that ordinary Internet users, social media influencers, various media and official organizations or personnel are key nodes in the network structure. However, more emphasis is placed on the role of the key nodes in the transition of topics and denial of rumors in the process of topic transition. These key points are often also circulated in real discussion. For example, in the initiative of “collecting DNA of all newborns”, Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-abduction office of the Ministry of Public Security, is a key node. His denial of rumors is highly legitimate and convincing. In the incident of forwarding the post of “death penalty for human traffickers”, the professional answers given by legal scholars enabled Internet users to be rational, presenting a key turning nature. In other words, the key nodes in the flows can have a positive or negative influence on the topics. As a result, it requires Internet users to have more public ethics, the social media influencers to have the patience to investigate the incidents, the various media to assume more responsibilities (rather than adding fuel to the fire in the wrong direction) and official organizations or personnel to show up in a timely manner. At the same time, the role of various network companies also should not be ignored. The technical means they adopt may also bring innovation. In this way, in the process of communication of social problems, the topics can be guided by making the best use of the circumstances to achieve the effect of “setting things right”. Further on, the promotion of key nodes facilitates the topic to enter the formal agenda and makes it discard the dross and keep the finer part to become contents acceptable to procedural justice.

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Fifthly, we should grasp the “degree” in the form of expression. The above several aspects are all assumptions of the specifications for contents of expression and directions of communication. In fact, the methods of expression are equally important. Among the resistant spirit of informationism, what is most prone to emerge is the violent temper of online life. In real life, people often understand the principle of “not saying excessively terrible words or overdoing things”, but this consensus fails to work when they are online. In this virtual republic, Internet users tend to say excessively terrible words or overdo things in the face of social problems, which is related to the primary stage of online life and is also the direct mapping of the contradictions in China at present. It is true that people need to vent their emotions, and appropriate expression can better demonstrate the quality of Internet users. Therefore, the author advocates controlling the degree in network expression to explore the new outlook of network life.

9.6   Conclusion This chapter takes the incident of “death penalty for human traffickers” as an entry point and regards it as a recurring topic on child abduction and trafficking to explore why such topics always come back after a makeover. By making a breakthrough in the analysis method of considering something as it stands, this chapter pays more attention to the continuity of network topics and connects the seemingly scattered and cumbersome network events to form an overall reflection on this type of events. With respect to the topic of child abduction and trafficking, the author analyzes in detail the various complicated problems involved in the three major processes including abduction, selling and buying, and believes that the factors such as the status hierarchy system, the driving force of huge profits, the collusion mechanism between the upstream and downstream, the influence of the population policy and the role of local knowledge all affect the crime of child abduction and trafficking. The combined action of historical, social and political factors has made child abduction and trafficking a difficult social problem. Such difficulty may be beyond the imagination of most ordinary Internet users. If we proceed from these factors to look at the network activity of “death penalty for human traffickers”, we will better understand the “tricks”. A network topic on child abduction and trafficking roughly experiences the stages including outbreak, rendering and ending, and will repeat based on years of observation. From these

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network topics that only change their forms but not contents, or even don’t change their forms, we can know several relational propositions between social problems and network expression. Two propositions on fitting include that: the single path of solving the social problem highly fits with the feasibility of network participation, and the complicated structural problem of social problems highly fits with the resistance of network expression. The three propositions on violation include: the contradiction between the difficulty of the problem and the single expression, the contradiction between the dilemmas of the people at the bottom of society and the advantages of the middle class, and the contradiction between procedural justice and expression forms. Some of these problems can be solved by some means, while others are the structural problems of the current construction of China’s network society and require us to be far-­ sighted and take the long view. With respect to the key attempts, the author proposes to promote the “appropriate” network expression of social problems through five suggestions including: to make use of the structure of the network field; to pursue effective inter-class communication; to build a more sufficient discussion space; to grasp the key nodes in the flow; and to grasp the “degree” in the form of expression. In general, many social problems have existed for a long time in China in the transitional period. When we explore network social governance, we may as well make more efforts on continuity. In this way, we can more clearly look at the circulation of network topics and grasp the key rules to seek a steady and effective solution.

References 1. Chen Junhong, Lin Qianshu, Parents’ “Giving Away” Their Own Children for Illegal Profit Constitutes the Crime of Child Trafficking, People’s Court Daily, 20150319. 2. Li Chunlei, Research on the Status of Rescue and Protection of Trafficked Children in China and Countermeasures for Improvement – Based on Analysis of 133 Publicly Reported Cases in Recent Years, Journal of Chinese People’s Public Security University (Social Sciences Edition), 2013 (6). 3. Li Shu, Wu Liang, A Perspective View of Why Child Abduction and Trafficking Cannot Be Stopped after Being Repeatedly Fought, PPC Daily, 20140816. 4. Liu Shaojie, Social Differentiation and Social Representation in the Age of Networking, Contemporary World, 2013 (2). 5. Liu Shaojie, Changes in the Way of Ideological Communication in the New Situation, Jilin University Journal (Social Sciences Edition), 2011 (5).

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6. Mao Lei, Chen Mingguang, Human Traders and Human Trading in Ancient China, Researches In Chinese Economic History, 2000 (1). 7. Song Chenting, Information Power Construction in Micro Public Welfare 2.0 – A Case Study of the Tianjin Explosion Event, Fujian Forum, 2015 (12). 8. Wang Jinling, Local Behavior, Standpoint of Parties Involved and the Orientation of Public Policies  – Analysis of the Framework of Research on Woman and Child Abduction and Trafficking, Zhejiang Academic Journal, 2009 (4). 9. Wang Peian, Do a Good Job in Family Planning under the New Situation, Population Research, 2014 (6). 10. Yao Jianlong, Reflection on Crackdown on Abduction and Trafficking by Weibo and China’s Mechanism for Children Protection, Oriental Law, 2011 (2). 11. Yan Wenbo, An Yuanyuan, Laws on Taking in Lost Children and Women and Human Trafficking and Abduction Crimes in Qing Dynasty, Lanzhou Academic Journal, 2010 (12). 12. Zeng Gangji, New Development of Child Abduction Crimes and Improvement of Relevant Legislation, Legality Vision, 2016 (1) (Last Part). 13. Zhang Peng, Network-based Crimes of Abduction and Trafficking in Women and Children and the Countermeasures for Investigation, Journal of Shanxi Police Academy, 2007 (2). 14. Zhang Mingkai: The Unfolding of the Criminal Law Maxim, 3rd edition, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2013. 15. From “Death Penalty for Traffickers” to “Criminal Penalty for Buying Children”. [EB/OL]. [20150625]. http://guancha.gmw.cn/201506/25/ content_16081923.htm.

Appendix: Important Network Incidents from 2014 to 2015 Yixuan Wang, Licheng Ying, Gegen Xiao, Jiahui Yan, Xiaoxu Li, Shuangting He, and Aosong Lin

Tmall “Double Eleven” Sales Nearly 100 Billion Since 2009, Ali Baba Group’s Tmall (then called Taobao Mall) has started to build the “Double Eleven” shopping festival. By 2015, the “Double Eleven” has spread from Tmall to the whole e-commerce platform, from domestic to global, and has become a shopping carnival for the online shopping force from e-commerce marketing day. On November 11, 2015, snapping up took place in the first minute and 12 seconds, and the turnover reached 1 billion yuan. In the first 12 minutes and 28 seconds, the trading volume reached 10 billion yuan. As of 00:00 on the 12th, the transaction amount reached 91.217 billion yuan. In 2015, the “Double Eleven” event not only renewed the global 24-hour retail record of single e-commerce in terms of sales but also presented some new changes and features. First, wireless transactions have jumped to become the main battleground for e-commerce consumption with 68% of orders. Tmall adds a lot of shopping experience to the mobile phone, whether it is from shopping settings, shaking or giving red envelopes. Mobile phones are ­becoming more and more people’s consumption tools, and the entire shopping experience has been fully integrated from the traditional PC to the mobile at an extremely fast speed. Secondly, cross-border business is Y. Wang • L. Ying • G. Xiao • J. Yan • X. Li • S. He • A. Lin School of Society and Population, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6

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growing rapidly and the trend of consumption internationalization is more obvious. In 2015, the “Double Eleven” was attended by netizens from more than 200 countries and regions on Tmall platform alone, and 460 million logistics orders were generated by the Communist Party. The phenomenon of “buy the world, sell the world” is more common. Third, the trading area has expanded and further spread to the real consumption. Goods and services that traditionally do not fall within the scope of e-commerce, such as automobiles, real estate, finance, aviation, entertainment and other fields, have also joined the “Double Eleven” promotional activities, showing a boom of nationwide consumption online and offline. Finally, the festival significance of “Double Eleven” celebrations is becoming increasingly obvious. In addition to shopping activities, the “Double Eleven” party broadcast live on TV on the evening of November 10 is also driving consumers around the world to jointly welcome the arrival of the “Double Eleven” zero point in 2015 while enjoying the festival culture. The “Double Eleven” is no longer just a shopping carnival for the purpose of coveting cheap goods, and it has begun to penetrate into social life in an all-round way, causing a profound cultural change (Lin Aosong).

An Incident on the “Ten-word Letter of Resignation” by a Female Teacher In April 2015, a photo of a resignation letter suddenly became popular in the moments and microblog, causing a heated discussion on the Internet. This resignation letter has only ten words—“the world is so big, I want to see it”—and was rated as “the most literary resignation letter” and “the most sentimental resignation letter in history” and so on. The photo of the resignation letter was forwarded by many official media and microblog “V”, and the topic of “the most literary resignation letter” on microblog reached more than 10,000 discussions and 1,992,000 readings, making the phrase “the world is so big, I want to see it” a popular online phrase in 2015. The author of this resignation letter is Gu Shaoqiang, the backbone teacher of Henan Experimental Middle School who has been teaching for ten years, and this “willful” resignation letter was approved by the leaders. The evolution from an individual behavior to a public event reflects the social fact that the ­attitude expressed behind this letter of resignation toward life’s natural and unrestrained “willfulness” has become the public’s pursuit—“the world is so big, I want to see” can become a reason for a person to resign, and the person who resigned is still a middle school teacher who is steadfast, stable

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and well paid to outsiders. In real life, people’s determination to pursue their ideal life simply is called out by the ten-word reason for resignation, which is also the “feelings” of “ten-word resignation letter” and the reason for its popularity. After the “ten-word resignation letter”, various “capricious” resignation letters appeared on the Internet, such as the resignation of girls because they couldn’t get up in winter, which also triggered social reflection on the capriciousness and responsibility of the younger generation (Lin Aosong).

An Incident on the “Strictest Tobacco Control Order” in Beijing On June 1, 2015, Beijing Tobacco Control Regulation, known as the “most strict tobacco control order in history”, was officially implemented, sparking public opinion and heated debate. According to the regulation, smoking was prohibited in all indoor public places in Beijing, including office buildings, restaurants, workplaces, public transport and so on, with a complete halt to all tobacco promotion activities, individuals found violating the prohibition will be fined the highest of 200 yuan, and smoking was prohibited in all the indoor public places “with the tops and covers” summed up by netizens. The implementation of Beijing’s “most controlled smoke order” has received attention not only from smokers, but also because it is expected to be a model of tobacco control in other cities. “Are you controlling for smoking?” a topic issued by the World Health Organization on Twitter in support of the Beijing Tobacco Control Regulation campaign realized a discussion volume of 61,000 and a reading volume of more than 60 million. Most people expressed strong support for the implementation of the “most controlled smoke order”; it is believed that the “most controlled smoke order” implemented by Beijing will be used as an opportunity to gradually achieve the goal of smoke-free China. However, doubts have been expressed as to whether the regulations can actually be implemented and have the desired effect; or that measures such as “no smoking in public places and the workplaces” are too strict and are not fundamental tobacco control measures. Since the tobacco control regulation, the effect is relatively significant; with the help of the media, the Internet and other publicity, the public awareness of the Beijing smoking control regulations increased from 43.43% to 82.64%. In order to prevent tobacco control

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orders from becoming “the most stringent on paper”, it is also necessary for the whole people to work together to discourage supervision (Lin Aosong).

An Incident on Qingdao Prawn On October 4, 2015, Mr. Xiao in Sichuan posted an article by microblog, saying that he was made to pay through the nose for a seafood meal at a Qingdao restaurant called “Shande Live Seafood Barbecue Home Cuisine”, and the price of 38 yuan was listed on the menu at the time of ordering, while the boss charged 38 yuan as the price of each prawn at the time of checkout. Garlic prawn cost 1520 yuan each. After complaining to the relevant local functional departments about “kicking the ball”, he paid the 800 yuan meal fee for his escape and left. Subsequently, the microblog attracted netizens’ attention. After being forwarded by multiple media accounts, public opinion reached a hot climax on October 7, forming the “Qingdao Prawn Incident”. The number of topics read on microblogs is close to 5 million, netizens have reported various experiences of tourism slaughter, prepared various jokes to ridicule the incident, and traditional media have also tracked the incident. On October 5, relevant Qingdao government departments started an investigation into the incident, punished the businesses involved on the 6th, and then issued a series of notices on standardizing the tourism market and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. The Qingdao prawn incident has highlighted the frequent loss of tourists in the tourism market in recent years and the mutual prevarication and inaction of relevant government departments, which has quickly aroused public dissatisfaction. The “friendly Shandong” tourism brand and Qingdao’s city image were severely damaged by the Qingdao prawn incident, which triggered people’s reflection on the tourism market norms, city image shaping and government management. At the same time, the Qingdao prawn incident shows the timeliness of information dissemination, the concentration of public opinion expression and the role of public opinion in monitoring and promoting the government under the network new media environment (Lin Aosong).

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An Incident on the Suicide of Left-behind Children in Bijie At 23:30, June 9, 2015, four left-behind children in Tiankan Township, Guanqu District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, died at home and were suspected to have committed suicide by drinking pesticides collectively. It is understood that four children—one boy and three girls—are siblings; the eldest brother was 13 years old, the youngest sister was only 5 years old, the father works abroad, the mother has been away from home for many years, and only four children were at home. A month ago, four children had dropped out of school without living expenses. The only food in the family was corn planted by their father last year. After the report was made, the local police immediately launched an investigation and the aftermath was carried out in an orderly manner. Several persons responsible for the incident were dealt with. After the incident was disclosed by media public opinion, it caused social shock. Premier Li Keqiang instructed that the temporary relief system should not be in a mere formality, that acts of omission and false implementation should be severely rectified and held accountable, and that tragedies should not occur again and again. Also in Bijie, Guizhou, on the winter night of 2012, five boys, including four left-behind children, died of carbon monoxide poisoning while escaping from the cold in the dustbin. The two successive deaths of left-behind children have exposed the contradiction and friction between the rapid development of the current urbanization process and the decline of the countryside, and have enabled the society to focus its attention again on the special group of left-behind children. The left-behind children in the countryside often have the dual problems of survival and psychology. The absence of family care and humanistic care makes them psychologically vulnerable to loneliness, inferiority and anxiety. Their emotional needs are difficult to meet and their psychological status is worrying. Even when social security assistance measures are in place, the risk of injury and suicide faced by left-behind children is much higher than that of other children. Faced with this situation, the government, society and family should work together to improve the psychological plight of the left-behind children so as to avoid the recurrence of such incidents. In the process of the incident, the network public opinion has always focused on the incident, urging relevant departments to deal with it as soon as possible, and interacting with the traditional media public opinion, demonstrating the ­powerful emerging force of the network public opinion platform as the representative of public opinion (Li Xiaoxu).

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An Incident on a Female College Student Helping the Falling Elderly Blackmailed in Anhui On September 8, 2015, Yuan XX, a student at Huainan Normal University, posted an article by microblog, saying that she helped the falling elderly and was blackmailed and found witnesses to prove her innocence. The netizen “@ Ren Fantong” said on her microblog that she was an eyewitness and could prove Yuan’s innocence. However, after that, three witnesses claimed to have heard Yuan XX admit to knocking down the old man and apologized to the old man. On September 21, the police decided that Yuan XX had contact with each other when riding past the old man, Yuan XX took the primary responsibility and the old man took the secondary responsibility. Internet public opinion began to shift from one-sided condemnation of the elderly to labeling Yuan as “dishonest” and criticizing her. The development of the incident was a wave of 30% setbacks, with several major reversals in the end. In this process, the parties and witnesses spoke through the network platform, and the public opinion field on the network evolved from the initial criticism of the elderly into a rational search for facts and even influenced the outcome of the event handling, showing that in the new media era, the network public opinion platform, as the expression space of public ideas in the virtual space, was deeply embedded in the social structure and interacted with reality. However, in this incident, the network platform not only provided the public with a full opportunity to speak freely, but also gave some radical and ambiguous speech fermentation space, highlighting the impact of the development of the network society on people’s social trust, sense of social participation and sense of social responsibility (Li Xiaoxu).

An Incident on the Investigation of Haze by Chai Jing On February 28, 2015, Under the Dome, a haze survey video shot by Chai Jing, a former CCTV anchor, at her own expense, entered public view and attracted great public attention. By 24:00 on the same day, the total click-­ through rate of Under the Dome on major video websites had exceeded 31 million. The documentary, which took a year to produce and lasted 103 minutes, was directed at the haze phenomenon and was released on the eve of the “two sessions” and quickly spread among major network platforms and WeChat moments. From the perspective of a mother

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instead of a reporter of CCTV, Chai Jing made this video at her own expense with a view to directing the public as well as the social and government attention to the grim issue of environmental pollution. In the documentary, as a former media person, she appeared as a declaration of war, taking her daughter’s illness as an introduction, taking “sharing the same breath and destiny” as the theme, explaining common sense again with data, attribution and analysis, systematizing it and explaining it, and answering three questions: “What is Haze? Where does it come from? What shall we do?” She visited many pollution sites to find the source of haze, visited many countries to interview the experience of pollution control, and put forward action plans at the national and individual levels. This documentary shows a mother’s perspective, from which the conscience, responsibility and responsibility of the whole society can be further extended. With an intuitive form of expression, clear event sorting and huge dissemination effect, ordinary viewers can follow the understanding without hindrance within 100 minutes, and the topic of “Haze” will become clearer in China’s public life. As the main channel of documentary communication and the main position for netizens to explain and discuss, the platform of moments and microblog has pushed this topic to the forefront with its advantages of three-dimensional linkage communication, demonstrating its strong power of gathering social identity (Li Xiaoxu).

An Incident on Unlocking the Second Child in an All-round Way On October 29, 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee concluded. The meeting decided to adhere to the basic national policy of family planning, improve the population development strategy, fully implement the policy that a couple can have two children and actively carry out actions to deal with the aging of the population. This is another demographic policy adjustment after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee launched the implementation of the “selective two-child” policy in 2013. On the morning of December 21, 2015, the 18th session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress first considered the Amendment to the Law on Population and Family Planning (Draft). The draft proposes that the amendment will come into effect on January 1, 2016. The draft also

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revised the provisions on incentives and guarantees that are not compatible with the policy of fully releasing the two-child policy, removing the provisions on incentives for couples who marry late and have children late and parents with only one child. At present, China’s population structure has been distorted, with deep aging coexisting with severe childlessness. After the implementation of the comprehensive two-child policy, China’s total population peak is expected to appear in 2029, with a population of 1.45 billion and a population of 1.35 billion by 2050. During this period, the population will increase by 100 million to 150 million compared with the policy of not releasing the two-child policy. At present, the proportion of the elderly population in Chinese society continues to rise, and the new population will reduce the aging degree of China from 35–36% to 34–35% in 2050. Although the comprehensive two-child policy cannot stop the general trend of aging, it can slow down the aging of the population to a certain extent. At this rate, China’s social labor force is expected to increase by 30 million by 2050. The implementation of the comprehensive two-­ child policy will accelerate the release of China’s social demographic dividend. From the time when the policy has not been officially released to the public, the search index of “fully releasing the second child” on the internet platform has remained hot for a long time, and netizens have expressed their opinions on the policy. This shows that the network public opinion has its own logical system and stand, is an important channel for the public to express their attitude, and is also a real reflection of the realistic mentality in the lack of communication space (Li Xiaoxu).

An Incident on Yunnan Tour Guide Abusing Tourists On May 1, 2015, a video of female Yunnan tour guides verbally abusing tourists because they were dissatisfied with the low consumption of tourists was widely circulated on the Internet, placing female tour guide Chen XX at the forefront of public opinion. In the video, the tour guide was furious because she was dissatisfied with the tourists’ low consumption. She abused the tourists for several minutes, questioned where the tourists’ morality and conscience were, threatened the tourists and forced them to spend. During this time, the tour guide was arrogant. The abusive behavior of tour guides immediately aroused the public anger of netizens, pointing at abusive tour guides, while the online public opinion fell on the ground accusing the tour guides and their travel agencies involved. The Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission also opened an

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investigation into the incident and immediately released the results of the investigation and handling of the tour guide and related travel agencies. Later, the tour guide involved apologized and explained that she had made mistakes in swearing and expressed her “grievance” as a tour guide, and the truth of the whole incident was gradually restored. Chen XX is carrying a low-cost tour in Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Xishuangbanna. The contract is signed as a “tourist shopping tour”. However, tourists did not spend much in the scenic area, so the tour guide was greatly dissatisfied. The transformation of the tour guide involved from a strong person to a weak person has triggered a shift in public opinion on the Internet. A large number of news reports have begun to pay attention to the survival status and embarrassing situation of the tour guide group, and some netizens have pointed the finger at the tourists involved, believing that they have failed to fulfill the travel contract, lack honesty and take advantage of it. As a fuse, the incident triggered the discussion of the deep-seated industry problems in tourism by the network public opinion and reflected on the “unreasonable low price” of tourism service industry. In the whole incident, there has been a huge shift in public opinion around the Internet. The focus of discussion has risen from the incident itself to the problem of the tourism service industry behind it, from blaming the tour guides involved on one side to sympathizing with the survival plight of the tour guide group and reflecting on the current situation of the chaos in the tourism service industry. Internet public opinion has gradually promoted the development of the incident and the restoration of facts, and exerted pressure on the deep-seated industry problems reflected by the incident, forcing Yunnan’s tourism service industry to make adjustments and changes. The phenomenon of tour guides forcing tourists to consume frequently in Yunnan Province and the incident of tour guides abusing tourists as a fuse have triggered the questioning and reflection of the chaos in Yunnan’s tourism service industry by the public opinion on the Internet. From this, we can see the huge influence of network public opinion and guide netizens to discuss the issue rationally, which is one of the important ways to promote social change (He Shuangting).

An Incident on Chengdu Man Beating Female Driver On May 3, 2015, Sina Weibo user “Chengdu Business Daily” released a 35-second video of a “Chengdu female driver being beaten up” which caused a heated discussion and then went viral on the Internet. In the

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video, a male driver forced a female driver to stop and beat her in the street. During the whole process, the man kicked the female driver in the face several times and was cruel and violent. Netizens have denounced male drivers, calling them “scum men” and “perverts” and saying that their violence is too excessive and bad in nature. Subsequently, relevant news reports followed up, saying that the man had caused a fracture of the right shoulder and concussion of the female driver and bruises on her body and had been detained in criminal detention. The state media also responded to the incident and the impact of the incident gradually expanded. On May 4, the beating man made a sincere apology for the violence. His driving recorder recorded the video exposure and the whole “quarreling” process of the two men. In the course of driving, the female driver suddenly changed lanes and caused two accidents, which angered the male driver, who retaliated after forcing the female driver to stop under the overpass. The video caused quite a stir. Public opinion began to shift from sympathizing with female drivers to accusing female drivers of being wrong first. Later, netizens ripped out the records of female drivers for 26 driving violations and even exposed their records of opening houses. Female drivers, instead of male drivers, became the target of criticism by netizens. Although the female driver apologized for the first change of road, she was considered to be with ungodly attitude, even lying in the interview, and the father of the female driver also explained that public opinion was guided by the “water army” on the Internet and wanted to pursue the legal responsibility of the rumor mongers. The father and daughter’s post-event public relations behavior caused a great antipathy among most netizens, and the criticism of female drivers became fiercer and fiercer, with public opinion favoring male drivers. According to an online survey, nearly 70% of netizens think it is the responsibility of the female driver. In the whole incident, public opinion has turned sharply from one side to the other, denouncing hitting drivers to the criticism of female drivers by most netizens. The public relations behavior of female drivers who are strong in advance and weak afterward has been greatly questioned by public opinion. Through different public relations actions, both parties reshape or clean up their image in the incident and strive for the attitude of netizens, which is an important reason for the great change of public opinion. The man has changed from a “cruel abuser” to a “doer for good”, and his crisis public relations is suspected of being too hard. However, the women has changed from a “sympathized victim” to a “hated perpetrator” whose image has been recognized by the public

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because of driving video and human flesh. Internet public opinion may be affected by the so-called water army in the incident, but most netizens are still able to judge the incident itself. The Internet has proved its ability to restore and judge the truth of the incident again, but in the process of restoring facts and criticizing mistakes, it is easy to overexert and hurt innocent people without proper guidance and restraint (He Shuangting).

An Incident on Gunfire at Qingan Railway Station in Heilongjiang Province On May 2, 2015, Xu XX, a man from Qingan County, Heilongjiang Province, stopped passengers from entering the station at the county railway station, and the police on duty stopped him. The man did not listen to the dissuasion and threw down young children to grab guns. He was shot down and killed by Li XX, the police on duty. After the network exposure, it attracted great attention from netizens and triggered a dispute over whether the guns used by the civilian police were reasonable. The police on duty carried great social pressure. Xinhua News Agency reported on May 3 that the scene of the incident was restored through surveillance video, but the complete video was not made public. Coupled with the video clips circulating on the Internet and the depth of relevant reports, the whole incident was clouded with doubts, causing netizens to question the truth behind the incident and make unlimited guesses. Dong XX, the county party Committee standing Committee member and deputy county magistrate in Qing’ an, expressed condolences on behalf of the provincial and municipal leaders to the injured policemen in the incident and affirmed their practice. Local railway police paid compensation to the family members of the deceased in the name of rescue. The deceased was cremated, his three children were sent to welfare homes and his mother was sent to nursing homes. Although the relevant departments immediately set up an incident investigation team to conduct investigation and evidence collection, the video sent for inspection related to the incident has not been exposed, causing great doubts among the public on the Internet, and some netizens have even pointed out that the video is suspected of having been edited. The mainstream media have been voicing their voices, “pushing back” the truth and demanding that the video be released as soon as possible. On May 14, the results of the investigation of the incident were released and the video on the scene was released: Xu attacked a police

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officer at the scene and grabbed his daughter and threw her at the police officer. Prosecutors decided that the police shot legally. Moreover, Dong XX, a deputy county magistrate, was suspended for academic fraud and other issues, and the incident gradually subsided. Since the beginning of the incident, relevant departments have failed to investigate the incident, the truth of the incident has not been released in time, and relevant media reports have continued to dig for the information behind the incident, triggering questions from online public opinion. As for the shooting behavior of the police, the network is agitated and easily affects rational judgment due to emotion. It is easy to lose the initiative to launch an investigation under the “adverse force” of network public opinion. The incident revealed that while restoring the truth of the incident in time, we should also pay attention to and guide public opinion and public sentiment on the Internet (He Shuangting).

An Incident on 12306 CAPTCHA From March 16, 2015, 12306 railway official website login screen began to use the verification method of selecting picture verification code in an attempt to crack down on cattle buying tickets through the application of new technology. However, the picture verification code has been criticized by netizens because it is difficult to identify it. On December 4, the report from Beijing Youth Daily—“Online Train Ticket Verification Code Is Pointed Difficult to Identify”—pointed out that the correct rate of one-­ time input by users is only 8%, and the number of 12306 Wonderful Verification Codes has reached 581. Subsequently, several mainstream media forwarded articles, which caused netizens to pay attention to and speak out. After being reprinted by a well-known blogger on Sina Weibo, the topic was hotly debated, and some even complained that “12,306 verification code has defeated 99% of ticket buyers nationwide, and I have no way to go home”. After that, netizens began to chant through the spoof image verification code, and various versions such as the northeast version and the star version of the spoof appeared on the network. While ­entertaining the spoof, netizens chanted the image verification code too low, making it more difficult to snatch tickets, believing that this method is putting the cart before the horse. Later, some official departments, including the railway department, began to respond to relevant reports, saying that the purpose of using the picture verification code was to prevent third-party ticket purchase software from cracking and prevent the

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yellow bull party from damaging the fairness of ticket purchase in order to protect the rights and interests of passengers who really need to buy tickets, and called on netizens to offer suggestions, suggestions for modification and relevant improvement measures, hoping to improve service and user experience through adjustment so as to ensure the interests of the majority of users. In this incident, netizens caused the carnival of the whole people on the Internet through the entertainment form. We should see the people’s demands reflected behind this entertainment form (He Shuangting).

The Legality of Online Ride-hailing Industry Causing Disputes In recent years, the network taxi platform software, which was born under the background of the Internet, has gradually been favored by people (such as Didi Car and Uber Car). The car operation platform and car drivers use the Internet to promote the benefits of car, and establish WeChat and QQ groups to promote “legal and compliant” car business to build social identity. Taxi drivers also expressed their opposition and anger on the Internet, organizing protests and even some violent incidents. With the popularity of special cars, a series of problems have emerged. On June 25, 2015, several celebrities posted “Beat U, I’m afraid of the unlicensed cab” on their microblogs. The theme poster set off the topic of hidden trouble in car operation. In this regard, the attitude of all sectors of society is different. According to the current laws and regulations, the government administration believes that “private cars” are operating illegally by using private cars, that is, “unlicensed cab”. Traditional taxi drivers believe that private car access to the platform should be firmly prohibited from participating in the operation. The platform company and the car driver think that they belong to the leasing company and operate in compliance with the law. The main consumer of the special car holds a rather vague view, and supporters think that the network special car enriches the way of travel and makes up for the travel demand. Questioners consider the frequent criminal crimes and pricing confusion of car drivers and think that car operations should be tightened before the relevant laws and regulations are promulgated. It can be said that the free and diffuse nature of the Internet has brought the problem of Internet-based cars into the public’s view and kept fermenting. The social differences over the legitimacy of the

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car also show the absence of government and legal supervision over the Internet car. Properly responding to such problems requires the government to give reasonable guidance and actively carry out relevant reforms, so that online ride-hailing car can participate in market competition in compliance with the law. There is no denying that the full penetration of the Internet into people’s lives has become unstoppable (Xiao Gegen).

A Video on Sanya City Manager Bullying a Director-General On the afternoon of December 4, 2015, Bi XX (former stationmaster of China National Radio’s Heilongjiang Journalists Station), 65-year-old, claimed that his bicycle and clothes were detained by urban management personnel for illegal parking while he was swimming in Sanya Bay. Later, he only wore shorts to protect his rights in downtown areas for more than four hours. He wrote an article about the whole process of the incident from his personal perspective and uploaded it to the Internet, which was then forwarded by several prominent figures on the Internet, thus arousing widespread concern. On December 7, Sanya Municipal Government announced that it had handled the matter and asked for a public apology. On the same day, someone issued a document accusing Bi XX of “departmental level cadres should not be a permit for throwing criminals” and reminding him to “flaunt naked and contradict Party discipline”. On the morning of December 8, Bi XX once again issued a letter reiterating his own experience and pointing out that Sanya’s urban management has not made an apology and explanation in person at present. Just as netizens thought the dust had settled, on December 12, a story titled The Latest Video Proof! Expose the Ugly Face of Director Bi! spread on the Internet, causing a reversal of events and causing a great stir. This article confirmed with several video surveillance that Bi XX did not “walk weakly to the city government” as he described himself after his bicycle and clothes were detained by the city management on the same day, but took a taxi to the city government and went home in the process. Later, Bimou admitted that he had lied and apologized for it, but said that it could not change the nature of improper law enforcement in Sanya City. Sanya city authorities said the video was not leaked from its organization. It can be said that the whole thing has attracted wide attention from the people’s government at a higher level, various media and netizens after the fermentation of the

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Internet. The power of law enforcement in urban management is already a sensitive term, mixed with office officials and retired officials, making the impact of the whole incident exceed everyone’s expectations. Therefore, after the handshake between the virtual space and the real space, we should carefully and objectively reflect on the network behavior embedded in the social structure and the possible reaction of the network public opinion to the society (Xiao Gegen).

Wuzhen Summit of World Internet Conference The first World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen from November 19 to 21, 2014, and Wuzhen was designated as the permanent venue. A year after the meeting passed quickly, but China’s Internet process has changed with each passing day. Take Wuzhen, the venue of this conference, for example, where the Internet is within reach. At present, the whole process of food, clothing, housing and transportation can be completed through code sweeping in Wuzhen without credit card and cash. Even an Internet hospital is opened here and medicine can be prescribed through app. It can be said that Wuzhen was rebuilt by the Internet, or that the Internet has fundamentally changed Wuzhen, and the genes of the Internet have also been slowly integrated into this ancient town. On December 16, 2015, the second World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen, China’s largest and highest-level Internet conference. The theme of the conference was “Interconnection, Sharing and Governance-­Building a Community of Destiny in Cyberspace”. This conference not only is broadcast live on traditional media but also has sub-venues on the Internet. General Secretary Xi Jinping and Secretary of the Secretariat Liu Yunshan attended the conference. Leaders of several countries, such as Russia, and more than 50 foreign ministerial officials were also invited to attend this Internet conference. The idea of cyberspace destiny community shows that heads of state and decision-making levels of multinational companies are aware of the importance of the Internet. Some people jokingly called it “non-mainstream” if they did not come to the conference because they were Internet users. This also shows from the side that the Internet has successfully transformed from a medium to an important part of the market. The extensive participation of representatives from many countries also proves that the World Internet Conference has transformed itself from the past meeting of Chinese Internet companies to a platform for all countries in the world to work together to find opportunities (Xiao Gegen).

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 n Incident on MERS Virus Event A On May 30, 2015, the official microblog of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an urgent microblog “Urgently Seeking Passengers Accompanying South Korean MERS Patients”, and after that the microblog was widely forwarded and reported in the media, and it caused an upsurge of public opinion on the Internet. The incident happened roughly as follows: a Korean man surnamed Jin was identified as a suspected MERS patient and was asked to be quarantined in South Korea, but successfully boarded a plane in South Korea and arrived in Hong Kong on May 26, 2015. The man took a bus to enter the mainland of China after hiding his illness in Hong Kong. On May 27, South Korean authorities informed China and the World Health Organization about the man. On May 28, Guangdong officials found the man in an emergency. Upon inquiry, he admitted to knowing his own situation and potential danger. On May 29, the man’s physical examination confirmed that he was positive. On May 31, the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission reported that the passenger’s illness had worsened and that 64 people had been followed up with his close contacts, but there were still 13 “missing” people, hoping to find them through the power of the media. With the further development of the incident, the Hong Kong side disclosed that two Korean women who were on the same plane as the Korean man were identified as close contacts and had to be observed in isolation, but they were rejected by the two parties. Finally, they were persuaded by the assistance and lobbying of the Korean consulate staff in Hong Kong. For a period of time, the Internet has caused condemnation and strong dissatisfaction of several Korean nationals and even all Koreans involved. For example, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily calls the man surnamed Jin a “poisonous man” who walks around. Judging from the whole incident, the greatest anger of netizens is their dissatisfaction with the disregard for other people’s lives by several Korean nationals. At this time, the relative freedom of cyberspace provides a relatively free platform for netizens to vent their personal emotions. In addition, judging from the official posting of microblogs, the emergence of the network has played an important role in improving government services and speeding up the timely and effective delivery of government information. It can be said that the establishment of the network platform provides a new way for the government to establish public trust and improve the service level (Xiao Gegen).

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 n Indecent Sex Video in Uniqlo Fitting Room A On the evening of July 14, 2015, an indecent video of Uniqlo fitting room was posted on Weibo. According to media reports, the video contained a clear guide word “Welcome to Uniqlo Sanlitun Store”, which caused netizens to speculate on the purpose of the video. According to the details of the video content, some netizens think that indecent video is Uniqlo’s marketing behavior of “using two unknown professional actors”. From a marketing point of view, Li Shilu, a financial think tank of Tencent, believes that video clicks exceed 100 million in two hours, which is equivalent to giving Uniqlo a free advertisement in a single day. On the morning of the 15th, Uniqlo’s official microblog issued a statement saying that it had reported to the relevant media platform at the first time and firmly denied the marketing hype. Many Internet watchers also said that Uniqlo, as a traditional Japanese enterprise, could hardly do this kind of marketing that undermines the image of the enterprise. With the rise of the incident, many brands such as H & M, Zara and Dragonfly FM have taken advantage of the market. On the afternoon of the 15th, the Internet Information Office interviewed the leaders of Sina and Tencent, ordered them to carry out an investigation and severely punished the suspected vulgar marketing and other acts. On the evening of the 15th, Beijing police took five people, including the male and female protagonists in Uniqlo’s indecent video, for investigation. A large number of netizens participated in the comments of the incident, making fun of the “Duan Zishou” and conducting a “human flesh search” on the video’s leading men and women, and even a large number of citizens took photos in front of Uniqlo Building in Sanlitun, Beijing. The indecent video of Uniqlo fitting room caters to the curiosity of netizens and their desire to spy on others, spreading viruses through the Internet and setting off a public carnival. After the incident, the network information office and the Beijing police reacted quickly, reflecting that China’s ability to conduct network governance according to law is improving (Yan Jiahui).

An Incident on Shampoo Advertisements by Jackie Chan Being Pranked “I actually refused to shoot this shampoo advertisement”, it was Jackie Chan’s advertisement for overlord shampoo in 2004. Because of the spoof of netizens, “I actually refused” and “Duang” became the most popular

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buzzwords on the Internet. On February 20, 2015, Jackie Chan, a blogger on the video website of Beery and Beery, edited with Pomerang’s Divine Comedy My Sliding Shoes last year and released the ghost animal video My Shampoo, which was then frantically forwarded by Weibo Big V and many netizens, and the fever soared. “Ghost Animal” is derived from Japanese vocabulary and refers to a kind of video with high synchronization rate of rhythm and sound and picture by video clips and repeated pictures or sounds with high frequency. Originally this video format was relatively small, but after adding such factors as pop songs, overlord shampoo incident and Jackie Chan’s celebrity effect, it was quickly accepted by the public, resulting in the popular parody of “Duang” this year and “when I first ... I actually refused”. The word “Duang” appeared more than 8 million times on Weibo and was discussed more than 300,000 times. Even the BBC in Britain reported on the popularity of “Duang”. Jackie Chan also used the word “Duang” on his microblog, reflecting his image of not being angry with the people because of being spoofed. “Duang” is a word with only pronunciation and no font meaning, but this does not affect netizens’ enthusiasm for this hot word, but gives netizens the freedom to understand and express it. The popularity of “Duang” is the result of the interaction between the presence space and the absence space. The contrast between Jackie Chan’s image of a decent hero and the shampoo with carcinogenic ingredients caters to the audience’s interest points through spoof videos. It is widely spread through the Internet and forms a trend of public opinion, reflecting the netizens’ criticism of false advertisements with an entertainment spirit, which has profound reality (Yan Jiahui).

An Incident on Bi Fujian’s Improper Speech On April 6, 2015, a video featuring CCTV host Bi Fujian singing and commenting on The Taking of Tiger Mountain on the dining table was widely disseminated on the Internet. Bi Fujian used insulting words to Chairman Mao and said he “hurt us bad”. The video caused a great stir on the Internet and caused a heated discussion among netizens. Some netizens think that this is just a joke made by Bi Fujian at a private banquet and should protect personal privacy and freedom of speech. The person who posted this private video on the Internet should be blamed. In response, some netizens pointed out that Bi Fujian’s remarks were “abusive” and did not fall within the category of freedom of expression, and

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that the so-called private banquet was actually foreign activities that had cultural exchanges with Belarusian ambassadors and others. Some netizens pointed out that Bi Fujian not only is a citizen but also has the identity of a party member, CCTV staff, veteran soldiers and public figures. He should abide by CCTV’s rules and regulations and party discipline and pay attention to the social impact on the public. On the 8th, Youth.cn published Bi Fujian Owes an Apology to the People of the Whole Country, believing that Bi Fujian has touched party discipline as a party member, challenged morality as a citizen, and broken the bottom line of professional quality requirements as a host. On the same day, Bi Fujian was removed from the title of Red Army Primary School Love Ambassador by the National Red Army Primary School Construction Project Council, and CCTV also issued a statement saying that it would seriously investigate and deal with Bi Fujian’s remarks. On the 9th, Bi Fujian’s name had disappeared from CCTV’s official website. On the same day, Bi Fujian issued an apology on his microblog saying, “My personal remarks have caused serious adverse effects in society, and I feel very remorse and sadness. I sincerely apologize to the public. As a public figure, I must learn lessons, be strict with myself and be strict with myself.” The outflow of indecent videos from Bi Fujian caused the public image he had established for many years to collapse instantly, even losing his CCTV job. In today’s society where the Internet and self-media are increasingly developed, the phenomenon that public figures’ private words and deeds are exposed on the Internet is not uncommon, and the impact of the incident will be infinitely magnified with the spread of the Internet, resulting in uncontrollable consequences (Yan Jiahui).

An Incident on Blue, Black, White and Golden Skirt On February 25, 2015, an American girl posted a photo of a dress with horizontal stripes on her social networking site and said that she had a disagreement with her friends about the color of the dress. She thought the color of the dress was white and gold, while her friends thought it was blue and black. The photo was forwarded 360,000 times on US social networking sites in three days. Netizens pointed out their own colors, and the debate quickly spread to other US social networking sites. Many US stars such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber also joined the debate, which was also reported by the BBC, Daily Mail, Time and other well-known media. The photo was introduced into China on the 27th and quickly

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posted on the Weibo hot search list, causing a heated discussion among Chinese netizens and Weibo Big V.  Most netizens started a big debate over what they thought was the “Blue and Black Party” and the “Platinum Party”. Some netizens felt that they saw other colors such as blue and gold, blue and brown, while others felt that sometimes they saw blue and black, and sometimes they saw platinum. As the debate intensified, some netizens lamented that they had lived for so many years before they found themselves color blind. The debate was accompanied by curiosity about the reasons. Various technical analysis posts for different people to see the phenomenon of different colors appeared one after another, and various professional netizens also gave scientific explanations. Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist at Wellesley College, said: “When you see this picture, your brain is correcting this color difference according to the sunlight. So if people think the light source is blue and ignore the blue part, they see white and gold. And if they ignore the golden part, they see blue and black.” That is to say, because of the light problem in this photo, people do have individual differences in their perception of skirt color, which has nothing to do with color blindness. The “blue-black and white-gold dress” has crossed regional, cultural and linguistic restrictions with the help of graphic expressions. The dress itself has many possibilities for interpretation, which provides room for debate. The addition of stars has also promoted the discussion of topics, making an ordinary dress popular all over the world through the Internet (Yan Jiahui).

An Incident on the Terrorist Attacks in Paris At about 9 p.m., November 13, 2015, shootings or explosions occurred in various public places in Paris, France, killing 129 people and injuring 352 others. At 9:20 p.m., a suicide bomber detonated his vest in Stade de France, killing a civilian. At 9:25 p.m., gunmen in unlicensed cab shot at the crowd at Le Petit Cambo Edge restaurant, killing 15 people and seriously injuring more than 10. At 9:30 p.m., a second suicide bomber detonated a human bomb near the French stadium, leaving no casualties. At 9:32  p.m., gunmen in unlicensed cab shot at the crowd at Cafe Bonne Bière restaurant, killing five people and seriously injuring eight. At 9:36 p.m., gunmen in unlicensed cab shot at the crowd on the balcony of La Belle Equipe restaurant, killing 19 people and seriously injuring 9. At 9:40 p.m., a suicide bomber detonated his vest at Comptoir Voltaire restaurant, causing serious injury to one person. At 9:40 p.m., three terrorists

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entered the Bartak Orchid Concert Hall in 11th District and fired AK-47 at the audience. At 9:53 p.m., 400 meters away from Stade de France, a suicide bomber detonated his bomb without any casualties. At 10:00 p.m., survivors in Bartak’s Orchid Hall were kidnapped. At 12:20 on the 14th, French police stormed the concert hall after discovering that the attackers had killed the hostages. The attackers then detonated their bombs, killing three attackers, at least two of whom died in the explosion. After the incident, the extremist group ISIS issued a statement taking responsibility for the terrorist attacks in the French capital Paris. French President Hollande said that Paris was hit by an unprecedented terrorist attack and the country entered a state of emergency. US President Barack Obama said on the terrorist attack in Paris that it was a terrorist attack against all mankind. Under the background of information age, with the popularization of information technology and network, international terrorism has also begun to occupy cyberspace. In cyberspace, the international community does not have a unified code of conduct and standards for cyberterrorism. Internet social media provides a broad platform and tool for terrorists to recruit personnel, raise funds and publicize extremist ideas, which also makes the spread of terrorism reach an unprecedented speed (Wang Yixuan).

Tu Youyou Winning the Nobel Prize Attracts Attention Tu Youyou, female, born on December 30, 1930, is a pharmaceutical scientist, lifelong researcher and chief researcher of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine and director of Artemisinin Research and Development Center. After years of research on the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine, the outstanding contribution is to create new antimalarial drugs-artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin. At 5:30 p.m. Beijing time on October 5, the Nobel Congress of Caroline Medical College in Sweden announced that it would award the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Irish medical researcher Campbell and Japanese medicine scientist Takamura, as well as Chinese pharmaceutical scientist Tu Youyou, in recognition of their discovery of groundbreaking treatments for malaria and new treatments for ascaris infection. This is the first time that a Chinese has won a Nobel Prize in science, which means that China has finally broken the curse that Chinese people have no chance of winning a Nobel Prize in science, rewriting

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China’s record of “zero” in the field of Nobel Prize in science. Subsequently, this incident aroused strong concern and heated discussion from domestic and international public opinion. After the announcement of the results of the Nobel Prize, Baidu’s search for “Tu Youyou” keyword exceeded 600,000 and 360 comprehensive search exceeded 300,000, Baidu’s media index peaked at 4200, and the number of full-text news searches with “Tu Youyou” as the keyword reached 47,700. As of 17:00 on October 9, Tu Youyou won more than 32,000 online news articles on topics related to the Nobel Prize, more than 8200 posts on relevant forums, more than 5600 blog posts, more than 2300 reports on relevant traditional media, more than 670 reports on relevant news clients and more than 16,300 articles on WeChat. According to the data, microblog public opinion on topics related to “Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize” began to appear on the Internet on October 5 and showed a trend of blowout. On the 5th, public opinion reached a peak of public opinion, with more than 730,000 microblogs on Sina Weibo on the same day and more than 400,000 microblogs on Tencent’s microblog. The popularity of public opinion continued to rise on the 12th (Wang Yixuan).  n Incident on the Explosion in Tianjin Binhai New Area A At 23:30  p.m. on August 12, 2015, a dangerous chemical (hereinafter referred to as dangerous chemicals) warehouse exploded in Tianjin Binhai New Area, causing more intense secondary explosions in many factories around it. China Seismological Network Express reported that the first explosion occurred at 23:30 p.m. on August 12, with a near-earthquake magnitude of about 2.3 tons of TNT and the second explosion 30 minutes later with a near-earthquake magnitude ML of about 2.9 tons of TNT. The final official figure was 165 victims and 8 missing. The explosion in Tianjin Port caused huge casualties and serious damage to the surrounding environment. Experts estimate that the two explosions are equivalent to 24 tons of TNT. After the accident, about 500 tons of highly toxic sodium cyanide were scattered and left in the environment. A large pit with a diameter of about 100 m and full of water formed at the origin of the accident explosion once exceeded the standard by more than 40 times, and a certain amount of cyanide was also measured at the soil environmental monitoring points arranged around it. In the process of detecting the surrounding air, many kinds of organic substances such as xylene were found to exceed the standard, and the accident area sewage outfalls were also detected to exceed the standard by three to eight times.

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Thousands of brand-new cars were burned in the parking lot not far from the explosion site. The houses within 1 km of the accident site suffered heavy losses and some residents were injured, and residents in nearby communities were also unable to return home after the incident. This is a rare public safety accident in China. As of August 24, 2015, 785,909 pieces of relevant information had been monitored in Tianjin Binhai area. There were 149,071 related online news reports, 455,270 microblogs, 87,050 forums, 50,655 blogs, 29,657 WeChat, 6141 print media, 6147 mobile phone clients and 1918 videos (Wang Yixuan). An Incident on the Capsizing of the “Oriental Star” Tourist Passenger Ship At 21:30, June 1, 2015, the “Star of the Orient” passenger ship belonging to Chongqing Orient Shipping Company carried 456 people, including 405 tourists, 46 crew members and 5 travel agency staff. It suddenly encountered rare severe convective weather on its way from Nanjing to Chongqing and sank in Jianli waters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. As of June 13, 2015, after repeated verification and confirmation by all parties concerned, there were 454 people aboard the “Star of the Orient”, of whom 12 were successfully rescued and 442 were killed. All the bodies of the victims have been found, and the search and rescue work has ended since then. On December 30, 2015, the investigation report on the sinking in the Yangtze River was released. According to the investigation conducted by the State Council, the sinking of the “Star of the Orient” passenger ship was a particularly catastrophic event caused by a strong wind and heavy rain attack caused by a rare severe convective weather (squall line accompanied by downburst). The investigation team found that the ship “Oriental Star” encountered a squall line accompanied by a downburst attack as it sailed to the Yangtze River’s Damchau waterway, with an instantaneous maximum wind force of 12–13 and heavy rain. Although the captain adopted the wind-resistant measures to stabilize the ship, under the action of strong winds and heavy rain, the maximum wind pressure tilting moment reached more than twice the maximum wind-­ resistant capacity of the passenger ship, the ship continued to retreat, was out of control, tilted into the water and capsized in more than a minute. The investigation team found that the passenger ship’s ability to withstand wind pressure and overturning is not enough to withstand the extreme weather. The captain and the chief officer on duty did not have enough knowledge of extreme weather and its risks, and did not respond ade-

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quately in an emergency. The investigation team also recommended that the 43 relevant personnel responsible for the problems found in daily management and supervision and inspection should be given disciplinary and administrative sanctions. After the sinking of the “Star of the Orient” passenger ship, China’s mainstream media reported quickly. It is particularly noteworthy that many traditional media have used new media methods to report. For example, WeChat, microblog and various clients, as well as restoring the capsized moment of the sunken ship with 3D animation, have improved the spreading power and authority of the incident (Wang Yixuan).

An Incident on the Stock Market Crash in June 2015 At the beginning of 2015, China’s stock market went crazy, showing a situation of losing control. On June 12, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Composite Stock Index (Shanghai Composite Index) once reached 5178.19, and the stock market was filled with optimism that 6000 was just around the corner, which also became the beginning of the stock market crash. On June 15 (Monday), the Shanghai Stock Exchange plunged by 2.00% to 5000 points, while the GEM dropped by 5.22%. On June 19, the Shanghai Stock Exchange plunged by 6.42%, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange fell by 6.03%, the GEM dropped by 5.41% and the Shanghai Stock Exchange fell by 13.32% that week. Thousands of stocks fell in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange and 1088 of all 2780 stocks fell. On July 8, 2015, Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 1884.46, down 40.0% from June 12, the lowest in 2015. On July 9, 2015, the Shanghai Composite Index hit 3373.54 points, down 34.9% from its peak on June 12. In the face of the stock market crash, the government launched a number of rescue policies, including reducing the issuance of new shares, increasing the quota of qualified overseas institutional investors (QFII), providing fund protection to major securities dealers, cracking down on rumor mongers and punishing those deliberately short selling. However, the stock market has always been in a violent shock, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange closing down 8.49% to 3209.91 points on August 24, dropping all the gains since the bull market in 2015. A large number of shareholders suffered heavy losses in the stock market crash. Some people said that the stock market crash “robbed the wealth of the middle class”.

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In the cyberspace, the stock market crash has become a hot public issue for discussion. Some netizens have created the banter of “chivalrous man, protecting the country” to express their strong dissatisfaction with the unreasonable intervention and withdrawal of political power in the stock market, which has led to the suffering of retail investors. More netizens have extensively discussed the causes of the stock market crash and their personal responses in such online communities as microblog, WeChat, moments, Tianya and Zhihu, as well as conspiracy theorists and rational analysts. The stock market crash has further verified the perceptual order characteristics in China’s financial market under the network condition. Although the public discussion triggered by the stock market crash cannot eliminate the potential stock market risk in the future, it has played a certain role in promoting the maturity of the Chinese stock market and prompting Chinese citizens to view this financial platform rationally (Ying Licheng).

An Incident on Petrochemical Explosion in Zhangzhou, Fujian At about 18:55, April 6, 2015, an explosion occurred in the PX project on the Gu Lei Peninsula in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, which caused widespread concern and discussion among netizens. In 2007, the project was originally intended to be launched in Xiamen, and was eventually located in Zhangzhou due to public protests. PX (xylene) is a low-toxic chemical product. If it is properly managed, it will not do much harm to itself. Therefore, netizens have been divided into “pro-PX” and “anti-PX” groups, and the relatively rational “pro-PX” group once prevailed. The problem is that there are serious problems in the management of Zhangzhou PX project. On January 24, 2013, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued a punishment letter to the owner unit of Zhangzhou Gulei PX project for its potential environmental problems. On the early morning of July 30, 2013, a hydrocracking pipeline in Gulei PX Project in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, which had not yet been put into service, cracked and flash ignited when it was flushed into the hydrogen test pressure, but no serious harm occurred. Even so, the person in charge of the project still did not take it seriously and the pipeline finally exploded again on April 6, 2015, causing 12 minor injuries and 2 serious injuries. After investigating the accident, the relevant departments trans-

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ferred to judicial organs 13 persons suspected of crimes, and punished 11 people, including Zhang Zhou’s executive vice mayor Liang Weixin, with disciplinary and administrative sanctions. As PX project has always been one of the hot topics on the Internet, the accident quickly fermented on the Internet and had a huge impact. On the microblog, the blog about Zhangzhou PX incident reached 33,222,000 reading and 18,000 commenting. Some netizens said: “So how wise it was for Xiamen citizens to boycott the project to settle in Xiamen, but the Xiamen municipal government did not insist on its own way but listen to public opinion, otherwise it would be hard to imagine that if the explosion occurred in Xiamen, the tourism-based this beautiful city would no longer exist.” Some netizens were worried about the potential harm of Dalian’s PX project, and others questioned the accountability of the accident and the government’s responsibility in the accident. The safety accident and its fermentation on the Internet have strengthened people’s concern about the environmental and social impact of major chemical projects, and promoted the public to realize that public issues are closely related to themselves, but it has also brought a huge impact on the PX industry, which is already in recession (Ying Licheng).

An Incident on Warehouse Fire in Harbin At 13:14, January 2, 2015, a fire broke out in the reinforced concrete residential building at the intersection of Taigu Street and Nanxun Street (727 Taigu Street). The building that caused the fire was an 11-story building with a “mouth” shape as a whole, with shops on the ground floor, warehouses on the second and third floors and residential buildings on the fourth and higher floors. In the process of firefighting, the fire building collapsed several times, with a collapse area of 3000 square meters, killing 5 firefighters and injuring 14. More than 2000 residents and street merchants were affected and the open fire was extinguished by the early morning of January 4. After preliminary judgment, it was felt that the fire may have been caused by the overload of electric heating, but the serious disaster caused by the collapse of the building has something to do with the fact that the fire building itself is a “rotten-tailed building” with a simple load-bearing structure, too long burning time and too low fire resistance of the floor, and the concrete loosening due to the alternation of heat and cold after the fire, thus causing serious damage to the whole building. The fire aroused great concern among netizens. The

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microblog reading on the theme of “Harbin Fire” has reached 176,766 million times and has been discussed more than a thousand times. On the one hand, netizens prayed for firefighters who died tragically in fighting the fire bravely, and on the other hand, they asked for the cause of the fire to be traced and the aftermath of the residents handled well. Some residents reported that they had reported to the relevant government departments that there was a burning smell downstairs, but no one paid attention to it, pointing out that the fire was directly related to the inaction of the local government. In addition, in order to make money for renting out fire passages, the residential property charges illegally, resulting in rescue difficulties, which is also the reason why the fire cannot be controlled in time. A netizen from Tianya Forum wrote a four-character poem titled Harbin’s “1·2” Fire Sacrifice (Businessman’s Loss of Morality, Officials’ Dereliction of Duty, People’s Loss of Home, Media’s Loss of Say) and said very deeply about the responsible parties in the fire and the lessons to be learned from it. Unfortunately, the original post has been deleted, but the post is still visible today. On December 25, 2015, the investigation team decided that the incident was a major fire accident, held four enterprises and 56 persons responsible for the accident, and punished the administrative personnel who were in default. In the process, netizens played a certain role in promoting public opinion (Ying Li Cheng).

An Incident on Freeloading He Jiong On May 3, 2015, Qiao Mu, an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, provided a List of Registered Staff with Salaries of Beijing Foreign Studies University on his microblog. Among them was He Jiong, a well-known host, ranked 869. Qiao Mu believes that although He Jiong was registered in school, he hadn’t been working in the university for many years, and his related work, mail and contact would have to be handled by other teachers. This freeloading behavior was extremely wrong in his view, and he must come to work before occupying the registration and receiving wages. The “freeloading” incident quickly triggered a controversy on the Internet, and supporters of He Jiong think that he has brought important intangible assets to the north and the outside world, and it is understandable to occupy the establishment. Opponents believe that He Jiong’s non-employment is indeed a violation of the relevant regulations. On May 18, 2015, Beijing Foreign Studies University issued a statement through its official microblog, saying that “after careful consid-

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eration, He Jiong offered to resign and the school decided to respect He Jiong’s choice”. The statement also said that from 2007 onward, He Jiong mainly undertook the work of publicity of school image, construction of campus culture and promotion of influence, and returned the salary to the school. He Jiong himself said: “I was originally expected to be proud of myself in Beijing Foreign Studies University, and I could leave if I left the school to be disputed.” His approach has received widespread support. But soon after, Qiao Mu pointed out that he had been verbally abused, insulted, intimidated and cannibalized by He Jiong fans, and that his wife and children had also been threatened, demanding an apology from He Jiong. He Jiong denied that he had direct responsibility for the matter. Qiao Mu deleted all microblog content after several exchanges failed, and the “freeloading” incident came to an end. The incident attracted wide attention, with 177,600 comments from May 13 to 26, 2015, alone. Although the incident did not have a serious negative impact on He Jiong and Beijing Foreign Studies University in the end, there are two aspects worthy of reflection: First, how university system management matches the needs of special talents, ensuring that there are no deviants and making full use of effective resources; the second is how to combine sticking to views and maintaining civilization in the network public space, which not only has the ability to judge right from wrong, but also can’t abuse and attack those who hold different positions, resulting in negative effects (Ying Licheng).

Postscript

“Internet” is not only a scientific term but also a new living environment and lifestyle, and even a symbol of the national development strategy. The development of Internet in China not only promotes the transformation of traditional industries to “internet plus” but also stimulates new business models, new product types and new consumption patterns. The contact, use and participation of individual netizens in the Internet through online shopping, online marketing and online payment are closely related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, and the connection between individuals and macro-economy has become more specific and direct in the networked era. The 2016 study report on China’s Internet Society was studied and compiled under the above background. In the same way as the previous annual report was structured, the annual “thematic report” and “thematic report” are still set in this report. The “theme report” discussed the “social dimension of the Internet economy”, including the background of the rise of the Internet economy, the analysis of the main connotation of the Internet economy, the social basis of the development of the Internet economy, the social impact of the Internet economy and a profound reflection on the development of the Internet from a sociological perspective. Choosing “Social Dimension of Internet Economy” as the theme not only responds to the general trend of “internet plus” development in the new era, but also intends to grasp the changing trend of social behavior, social © China Renmin University Press 2020 S. Liu, J. Wang (eds.), The Internet Society in China, Sociology, Media and Journalism in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8237-6

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concept and social structure in the network era in general from a sociological perspective, and tries to give academic care and in-depth thinking to the development of the network society from a theoretical perspective. The “special report” focuses on more important network events or issues in 2014–2015, such as “Baidu Hemophilia Bar Sold”, “Tianjin Explosion”, “Online Shopping Carnival”, “the Rise of Taobao Village”, “Hot Electronic Red Envelope”, “Network Information Consumption”, “Network Micropublic Welfare” and “Moments Economy”. This report insists on the consistent writing style, that is, from the perspective of sociology, presenting readers with a rich and colorful picture of the network society through discussion and discussion, with a view to contributing to a deeper and comprehensive understanding of the network society and its influence. This report is academic, interesting and readable. It can be used as a reference for the study of network society and a reading material for the majority of netizens to understand the network society, participate in network activities and think about network issues. The division of work for preparing this report is as follows: Chapter 1 Wang Jianmin and Wang Chunjin Chapter 2 Cheng Shiqiang Chapter 3 Shao Zhanpeng Chapter 4 Zhang Jun Chapter 5 Zhang Rong Chapter 6 Wang Dongmei and Zhuang Jiachi Chapter 7 Song Jinhao Chapter 8 Song Chenting and Sun Fei Chapter 9 Liu Xiuxiu Appendix Wang Yixuan, Ying Licheng, Xiao Gegen, Yan Jiahui, Li Xiaoxu, He Shuangting and Lin Aosong Liu Shaojie