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"the freeloaders only wanted to get a refund, but were fleeced by the platform, which ran away with 2 billion yuan."

red star capital bureau noticed that recently, a rumor about "the shopping platform jingtaotao absconded with the money" was circulated on the internet. the rumor said that a large number of "wool-buying parties" flocked to jingtaotao to shop and then applied for a refund. the system showed that the money would be credited in 30 days, but the platform suddenly absconded in the past two days, claiming to have taken away 2 billion yuan.

image source: weibo

on september 19, two jingtaotao users said that they applied for a refund after placing an order on the platform but failed, and the platform did not refund the money. the relevant person in charge of jingtaotao responded to the red star capital bureau that the claim of running away with the money was not true, and the company was operating normally. "some time ago, the company was 'fleeced' by a group of users with premeditation, so we strengthened risk control management."

public information shows that jingtaotao has opened a "refund only" mode for paid members. becoming a member can enjoy "refund only" for goods of different amounts, without returning the goods. there are 9 levels of membership, and the activation fee increases from 188 yuan to a maximum of 28,888 yuan. the corresponding "refund only" amount ranges from 60,000 yuan to 1.45 million yuan per quarter.

it is worth mentioning that if members want to enjoy the refund-only benefit, they need to purchase the product at a more expensive price. take a bluetooth speaker sold on jingtaotao as an example. the purchase price of "all people only refund" is 4,848 yuan, and the price of "buy now" is 727 yuan, a difference of 7 times.

regarding the refund-only model launched by jingtaotao, cui lili, professor of the department of digital economy and executive director of the institute of e-commerce at shanghai university of finance and economics, told the red star capital bureau that the model is more like a way to attract traffic, achieving traffic and monetization through refund-only combined with high membership fees.

only the refund platform "runs away" to crack down on the "freeloaders"?

buying a membership for 18,888 yuan will only get a refund of 900,000 yuan

the red star capital bureau noticed that recently on social platforms, some users posted information about jingtaotao rights protection and running away, and some formed rights protection groups. some people also said that "these users are 'wool-gathering gangs' who placed orders because the platform only has a refund mode" and "running away is to crack down on wool-gathering gangs."

screenshot from xiaohongshu app

on september 19, the red star capital bureau contacted two jingtaotao users through the above rights protection group. they said that they applied for a refund only after placing an order on the platform but failed, and the platform did not refund the fee. user ms. wang (pseudonym) said that she successfully applied for a "refund only" on august 26, but failed to apply for a "refund only" after the 28th, involving an amount of more than 20,000 yuan. user mr. hu (pseudonym) said that he and his friends also applied for a certain amount of goods but failed to apply for a "refund only".

public information shows that jingtaotao is a shopping software app created by shanghai jingduobao e-commerce co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "jingduobao company"). it claims to be based on the innovative model of "only refunds for everyone" and the suffix of its app also reads "only refunds for everyone".

jingtaotao has opened a "refund only" mode for paid members. according to jingtaotao's "refund only for all" membership agreement, members can enjoy "refund only" for goods of different amounts, without returning the goods. there are 9 levels of membership, and the activation fee increases from 188 yuan to a maximum of 28,888 yuan. the corresponding "refund only" amount ranges from 60,000 yuan to 1.45 million yuan per quarter.

screenshot from jingtaotao app

ms. wang said that she bought a membership for 888 yuan, and the "refund only" amount was 120,000 yuan per quarter. mr. hu bought a membership for 18,888 yuan, and the "refund only" amount was 900,000 yuan per quarter.

the above-mentioned users all told the red star capital bureau that the “refund only” request was unsuccessful because they were judged as “freeloaders” by jingtaotao.

on september 13, ms. wang received a text message from jingtaotao, saying that she had "repeatedly arbitrage the discounts of order activities on the app, the amount was huge, for the purpose of possession, and used improper means to 'plunder wool' and maliciously exploited loopholes in the e-commerce platform to obtain profits, and the amount had reached 3,000 yuan."

however, the above users all said they were not clear about the claim that the platform had run away.

the platform responded: no one ran away, and a "professional wool party" was found

“refund only” items are 6 times more expensive

on september 19, red star capital tested and found that the jingtaotao app can now be downloaded and used normally. the platform’s customer service denied the claim that it had run away, saying that the company’s public relations team had noticed related rumors on the internet.

subsequently, the relevant person in charge of jingtaotao replied to the red star capital bureau that the claim of running away with the funds was not true and the company was operating normally.

regarding the failure of the "refund only" mentioned by the above user, the person in charge said that jingtaotao was "fleeced" by a group of users with a premeditated plan some time ago. the company screened the abnormal transaction users and found that some of them were "professional fetchers" with huge amounts of money, so it strengthened risk control management. at present, various businesses and refunds are being carried out one after another. at the same time, the person in charge also revealed that legal procedures will be taken against these users.

users disagree with the idea of ​​"薅羊毛". ms. wang believes that receiving the goods and then applying for a refund is "薅羊毛", but she has not even received the goods and the refund has not been successful. mr. hu believes that there are indeed "薅羊毛党".

the red star capital bureau noticed that jingtaotao’s “refund only” model has also caused a lot of controversy.

in the jingtaotao app, two prices are displayed for each product, one is the "refund only price" and the other is the "buy now price". red star capital found that the two prices differ by several times, and members who want to enjoy the refund only benefit need to buy the product at a more expensive price.

take a bluetooth speaker sold on jingtaotao as an example. the "refund only price" is 4,848 yuan, and the "buy now price" is 727 yuan, a difference of 7 times. currently, jingtaotao shows that only one unit of this speaker has been sold in the refund mode. the red star capital bureau found that the same product is sold at a lower price in the official flagship stores of taobao, jd.com and other platforms.

screenshot from jingtaotao app

tianyancha shows that jingtaotao's parent company jingduobao was established in 2019 and received angel round financing of rmb 500 million in march 2024, with a post-investment valuation of rmb 3 billion, but the investor has not been announced. red star capital has checked multiple channels and has not been able to confirm the authenticity of the financing information.

regarding jingtaotao's refund-only model, cui lili, professor of the digital economy department of shanghai university of finance and economics and executive director of the institute of e-commerce, told the red star capital bureau that the model is more like a way to attract traffic, using refunds alone in conjunction with high membership fees to achieve traffic and monetization. whether the platform can make a profit depends to some extent on the game between the platform and consumers. whether consumers can use the high membership fees they pay depends on whether there are refund-only products on the platform that consumers like, and the difference between the overall amount of "free" these products can get during the membership period and the membership fee.

cui lili also mentioned that this is more like a model of recharging and exchanging for goods (similar to a single-purpose prepaid card), and the gameplay may be more complicated. this new model is worth paying attention to in terms of consumer rights and membership fee fund pool management. because the country has special management methods for single-purpose prepaid cards, and the management of membership fees with attributes similar to "deposit" or "pre-charge" is a link that is prone to risks.

red star news reporter qiang yaxian