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Survey: Non-compliant network access licenses disappear offline

author/IT Times reporterSun Yan

edit/Hao JunhuiSun Yan

“Don’t pay 3999, don’t pay 2999, just the price of a meal, and you can buy a 1024GB domestic5GTake the phone home." In the live broadcast room of platforms such as Douyin, the anchor is shouting passionately at the top of his lungs.These new mobile phones, which look similar to iPhone 15 and Huawei Pura70, are priced from only 298 yuan.

"I miss you so much, so much, and my heart that loved you is still praying to see you again." When people have long forgotten the term "copycat phone", Wenxiu (pseudonym) was amazed by her father's new phone, which has an Apple appearance, a Samsung name, and a Huawei account, but only costs 400 yuan. Every time her father's phone rings, she wonders in her heart: "Is there a problem with its security?"

2008 was the heyday of copycat mobile phones. After experiencing high purchase subsidies from operators and price wars by new mobile phone forces such as Xiaomi, OV, copycat mobile phones have disappeared for a long time. But now they are revived in live broadcast rooms. In addition to the hardest hit areas of Douyin and Kuaishou live broadcast rooms, copycat phones under the banner of "domestic 5G mobile phones" are still scattered in the "hidden corners" of e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, Taobao, and Xianyu.

An investigation by IT Times reporters found that the network access license logos of these counterfeit mobile phones were not compliant, and that multiple counterfeit mobile phone live broadcast rooms were suspected to point to several of the same brands. The method of mass-producing live broadcast room "disguises" was used to reduce the risks of customer complaints, high return rates, etc.

And it is the low-income people who are attracted by this copycat phone "Octopus".

Open TikTok, type in “mobile phone” and enter the live broadcast channel. For every 10 live broadcast rooms you browse, eight or nine are selling knockoff mobile phones. Open Kuaishou, type in “mobile phone” and the homepage will be filled with “domestic iPhone” ads.

In the live broadcast room, white-label mobile phones that look like best-selling models such as iPhone 15 and Huawei Pura70 were displayed in rotation. Lefort, Kaliyu, AMOI Xiaxin... unfamiliar names of 5G domestic mobile phones were everywhere, with prices as low as 298 yuan and 388 yuan.

"A new account starts broadcasting today," "Today is the 20th anniversary," "Only 298 yuan, a price that even primary school students can afford. College students can play games, and the elderly can watch Tik Tok. It's a super benefit that even if you compete with your hand speed can't get. It's only today!" The anchors kept encouraging consumers to enter the live broadcast room.

When the IT Times reporter asked what the main frequency of the phone was, the anchor opened the phone settings to show the details. The page showed that it was a Snapdragon 888 deca-core processor with up to 16GB+1024GB of memory. Is after-sales service guaranteed?The anchor promised to compensate three times if the product is fake, five-year warranty, one-year replacement but no repair, 7-day trial after unpacking, and seven-day return without reason if the product is used.; What functions does it have? The anchor showed that it supports WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, QQ and other software, one can be used as eight, split screen, AI photography, and can take pictures of stars and the moon; What brand is it? The anchor said it is a niche brand that is self-produced and sold, and a 5G domestic mobile phone.

"It's obviously fake at first glance. 1,298 yuan is normal, but how can you make money by selling it at 298 yuan?" Qian Wei (pseudonym), a mobile phone dealer who has been in the business for decades and survived the era when counterfeit phones were rampant, was amazed.

Are these hundred-yuan “domestic iPhones” and “copycat Huaweis” really guaranteed in quality?On social platforms, many bloggers have reviewed these 100-yuan knockoff phones, and the results are seriously inconsistent with the promotion in the live broadcast room.: The 168-yuan "domestic iPhone 15" that claims to be able to play "Honor of Kings" smoothly is not only laggy when playing games but also hot to the touch; the domestic 5G mobile phone that claims to be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 deca-core chip, after getting it, the chip turned out to be the Unisoc T610 4G chip launched by Ziguang ZTE in 2019; the phone that claims to have 512GB of memory only has 16GB.

On complaint platforms such as Sina Black Cat, there were 1,159 complaints about "copycat phones" and 1,666 complaints about "fake phones". The platforms complained about included Douyin, Pinduoduo, JD.com, Xianyu, Zhuanzhuan, etc., covering almost all e-commerce platforms, and problems of varying degrees occurred during use.Among them, the live broadcast rooms of Douyin and Kuaishou are the hardest hit areas, and the purchasing population is mainly the elderly and students.

A mobile phone is called a "shanzhai phone" because it is usually counterfeit and of poor quality. On the one hand, it imitates the appearance, trademark, product logo, etc. of brand phones, and on the other hand, it is suspected of false advertising, and the product performance and technical indicators do not meet national and industry standards. Whether it has a network access license is considered a key factor in determining whether it is a "shanzhai phone."

In order to dispel consumers' concerns, anchors would put the network access license logo on the back of the prototype and quickly display it in the live broadcast room. However, when the reporter of IT Times asked in the live broadcast room whether the logo could be clearly displayed, he was directly banned by the anchor.

By taking screenshots of the images with speed, the reporter found that the "mobile phone network access licenses" displayed in some live broadcast rooms showed that the manufacturer was "XX Department Store", but when the digital code was entered on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's telecommunications equipment network access license authenticity query website, it was displayed incorrectly. In other words, these network access licenses are not compliant.

Another anchor selling the "same Huawei Pura" took out a network access license. After checking the authenticity query website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's telecommunications equipment network access license, the reporter found thatAlthough the license is real, the mobile phones sold in the live broadcast room are completely different from the photos of the mobile phones displayed on the website. They are obviously counterfeit mobile phones disguised as real licenses.

When the reporter consulted a company that handles terminal access licenses as a mobile phone city stall merchant, and stated that the company was supplied by a Guangdong factory and wanted to make its own brand of mobile phones, the staff told the reporter,To apply for a mobile phone network access license, all you need is the product specification and inspection. The higher the network standard level, the more expensive the price. For example, 5G network access license is more expensive than 4G, with a starting price of more than 100,000 yuan. A 5G full network access license will cost about 280,000 yuan.From the perspective of formal procedures, relevant technical documents, test reports, corporate qualification certificates and other documents need to be prepared, and samples need to be sent to designated testing agencies for technical testing to ensure that the products meet national standards and technical requirements. The entire process takes several months.

Why did knockoff mobile phones have a "rebirth" through live streaming? It's not just because the live streaming platforms have traffic.

On the live streaming platform, most of the live streaming rooms are new stores, and most of their sales do not exceed 25,000, but the phone styles, configurations, and store details page introductions are extremely similar.

The IT Times reporter found that many fake mobile phone live broadcast rooms pointed to the same "brands". Frequently appearing "brand" names include Lefort and Kaliyu. Taking Lefort as an example, the "Lefort XX flagship store" opened and closed very quickly. One day later, the number of stores prefixed with "Lefort" on Douyin increased from 9 to 11, and the stores that were followed the day before, such as "Lefort All-in-One Flagship Store", were no longer available the next day.

When checking the business licenses of these stores, the reporter found that although the legal representatives were different, the registered addresses were concentrated in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, Zhangdian District, Zibo City, Shandong Province, Lusong District, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, and Longhua District, Shenzhen City. Most of them were department stores and trading companies.

What is the purpose of opening live streaming rooms in batches? An industry insider explained that live streaming rooms are easily complained by consumers, and the cost of closing and reopening is not high, which is equivalent to a "vest store". Moreover, if the store is closed, consumers may not be able to apply for after-sales service, and it does not have to bear the loss of high return rate.

Some media have compared it to the "octopus" model, where knockoff phones are the "brain" and live broadcast rooms are the "tentacles" that stretch in all directions. Even if one tentacle is cut off, it will not shake the entire system, and another live broadcast room can be started at a low cost. The "octopus" sucks low-income people under its suction cup, and its target user profile is the elderly and students in the sinking market, and these people often have lower complaint and return rates.

In offline shopping malls, copycat phones have long disappeared.

Recently, a reporter from IT Times secretly visited Huanlong Communication City near Shanghai Railway Station. Many years ago, this place was an important distribution center for knockoff mobile phones. Nowadays, when people mention the "Railway Station City That Never Sleeps", they still associate it with knockoff mobile phones and parallel imports.

Now, it is a desolate place.

"Shanghai has been cracking down on counterfeit phones for many years. We no longer sell counterfeit phones here. You can go to Shenzhen Huaqiangbei to have a look." "Let alone counterfeit phones, we don't even do such marginal businesses as mobile phone installment leasing."The owners of the mobile phone stalls in Huanlong Communication City told reporters that copycat phones once reached their heyday in 2008, but as domestic mobile phones became cheaper and cheaper, copycat phones lost their market space and went downhill, and disappeared in the past few years.

In the previous series of reports on the 20th anniversary of the founding of IT Times -In the article, many mobile phone industry practitioners mentioned that around 2009, the cost-effectiveness of copycat phones disappeared due to high purchase subsidies from operators. At that time, the old domestic mobile phone powerhouse "China Cool Alliance" (ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, Lenovo) rose through cooperation with telecom operators.

In 2019, Lei Jun said at Xiaomi’s ninth anniversary party: “In just nine years, the biggest change we have made is the elimination of China’s copycat mobile phones.”

New domestic mobile phone forces such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have emerged, especially after Xiaomi raised the "knife" and triggered multiple rounds of price wars, the prices of domestic brand smartphones have been driven down to below 800 yuan, and copycat phones no longer have any profit margins.

According to the observation of the reporter of IT Times, the digital market near Shanghai Railway Station has shrunk on a large scale. The owners of offline stores that still "stay" mainly focus on second-hand mobile phone transactions, mobile phone repairs, SLR camera accessories and other businesses. The business of new mobile phones and mobile phone accessories has long been hit by the "10 billion subsidies" of e-commerce platforms. "I can't even sell mobile phone accessories." said a stall owner who has been working in Huanlong Communication City for 14 years.

After years of severe offline crackdowns, online platforms have become a "hidden corner" for counterfeit mobile phones.

Layout/ Ji Jiaying

Image/ Kuaishou Douyin IT Times

Source: IT Times WeChat ID: vittimes