From Taojiji To Beidian: Exposed Risk Of Social E-Commerce

Recently, the headquarters of Hangzhou Beidian gathered every day to protect their rights. According to the reporter's incomplete statistics of the 21st century economic report, the arrears of Beidian have exceeded 130 million yuan. However, they have no other channels to protect their rights except for seeking help from the relevant departments and waiting anxiously.

Just two years ago, in October 2019, the office of taojiji in Shanghai gathered merchants from all over the country. Over the years, from peanut diaries, honey buds, global catchers, global goodies to the present Beidian, social e-commerce has fallen one after another.

"Previously, in 2017, the company had encountered a similar social e-commerce platform suddenly collapsed, defaulting on payment of more than 2 million yuan. This time in Beidian has been a quick response, only a week has been off the shelves of all links, but still was owed 900000 yuan payment. " Xiaoxi (pseudonym), a man's wear supplier, said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that he was worried about the loss and was somewhat lucky.

Since the first off-line debt collection started on August 9, a number of businesses have not received payment for goods and have not made a clear reply after several rounds of discussions. So, what happened to Beidian? Is it that social e-commerce is blocked, or is there another secret? Where is the money going? The way of protecting the rights of businessmen shows the paleness and powerlessness of the existing relevant laws and regulations.

Social e-commerce is full of risks

Xiaoxi told the 21st century economic news reporter that in the tripartite consultation on August 11 when Hangzhou Municipal petition Bureau, merchants and Beidian jointly arrived, Zhang Longzhu, vice president of beibei.com, said that the reason for the arrears was due to the poor management of Beidian. Some businesses on the scene raised an objection, but no explanation was given. Now only on the scene of the business debt registration, and did not give more reply.

On the same day, Beidian also set up a business reception group, "a total of four people's reception group, none of which is a core member of the company, and one of them is a security staff member, which seems a bit funny." Xiaoxi reluctantly said that out of fear of Beidian's sudden closure of its website and app, it is now trying to preserve the evidence through notarization.

"I still hope that it can be settled through friendly negotiation with Beidian under the mediation of the government. Even if a lawsuit is initiated, it means a long waiting period for investigation and evidence collection, for fear that the money will be transferred. " Xiaoxi explained that at present, Beidian has also promised to give a clear reply on the repayment time of the bill payment, the payment time of the non bill payment and the refund of the deposit in the meeting tomorrow (August 12).

From Xiaoxi's point of view, compared with other e-commerce, social e-commerce has different settlement methods and long payback cycle is a common phenomenon. At present, his company is considering closing stores in the same social e-commerce platform“ Compared with the income we get, we take more risks due to delayed payment, which is not in direct proportion. This is also the main source of risk for us as businesses to choose and consider social e-commerce platforms. "

He further explained that at the moment when the pattern of e-commerce industry has been determined, the survival space of small platforms is narrow“ However, the business model of social e-commerce is still worthy of recognition. Nowadays, there are many social tools and the head of the team is more mature. The Beidian incident can not be attributed to the market and industry, but more to the problems of the company and leaders. "

The appeal for judicial relief is also difficult

Even if we take the legal approach, the road of protecting the rights of businessmen in the future is still rugged.

After placing an order in Beidian, Liu Yun, the representative of the merchant, found that the money for purchasing the goods did not go directly into Beidian, but into the accounts of Hangzhou Beiqian Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Beiqian") and Hangzhou BEIMENG Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "BEIMENG"), and the two companies collected money on their behalf, Both of them are wholly owned subsidiaries of Beibei company.

According to industrial and commercial data, the legal representative of Beiqian is Zhang Sirong, who once served as the legal representative of Beijia company; The legal representative of BEIMENG is Zhang Longzhu. It is worth noting that Zhang Longzhu has been the executive director and general manager of Hangzhou Ximei Brand Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ximei") after his frequent appointment and resignation in recent six months.

Some businesses said that at present, Beibei group headquarters are doing Ximei business, and the employees related to Beidian business no longer exist. However, after the reporter of 21st century economic report called Beidian, the other party said that at present, only businesses with business qualification can pass the examination and settlement, and the mode of personal online supermarket originally publicized is no longer feasible.

At the same time, the reporter's investigation found that the original self-employed Beidian operators have been transferred to Ximei, and in the business dynamics of Beidian, Ximei also seems to become a new business point.

At present, under the multi-party negotiations of the merchants, only Zhang Longzhu of Beibei group comes forward, which makes the businessmen feel very dissatisfied. Zhang Longzhu's statement is that the specific plan will be given on Friday. In Liu Yun's view, this is Beibei's internal delay in transferring assets, and businesses are eager to accelerate the appeal process and carry out property preservation.

On the one hand, the property preservation process requires the property clues of the property preservation party, but the property clues mastered by the businesses are limited, and it is not clear where the assets of the property preservation party are. For example, if the business provides a bank account, there may be no money in it; On the other hand, if Beidian transfers its property by collecting payment for goods, it may have only a pile of creditor's rights contracts and no assets, so it is meaningless to preserve its property.

Zhao Zhancheng, a senior lawyer of Beijing Yunjia law firm, said that only Hangzhou Beijia e-commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Beijia") of Beidian can be preserved. Although Beijia is a subsidiary of Beibei group, its company and legal person are independent. Even if it goes into bankruptcy and liquidation, it will not involve Beibei group. The debt and contract disputes between the business and Beijia can only be carried out for the property preservation of Beijia, but not for the parent company Beibei group and Beiqian and BEIMENG who collect money on their behalf.

In response to the concerns of businessmen about the misappropriation of funds, Zhao Zhancheng also said that there is no way to stop it even if there is a relationship between Beijia, Beiqian and BEIMENG, even if there is a relationship of collecting money on behalf of Beijia, they will eventually give the money to Beijia according to the contract. However, we still don't know how the specific terms of the contract are stipulated.

Businessmen are most worried about Beibei group's abandonment of Beidian. Bankruptcy liquidation is the last result that businessmen want to see, because the payment for goods of businesses in bankruptcy liquidation belongs to the last ordinary bankruptcy creditor's rights. After several rounds of property distribution, the proportion that the merchants can get is often very small. For businesses, bankruptcy procedure is usually an "empty procedure".

Although it is feasible for Beiqian and BEIMENG to transfer loans to Ximei in the form of loans or shares, in the future, if Beijia applies for bankruptcy, the creditor's rights will still exist, and the liquidation group will recover them through various procedures. Zhao Zhanzhan points out that other cooperation between Beijia and the collection company can not be ruled out, and there is still the possibility that the creditor's rights can not be recovered.

Zhao explained that if each business person filed an individual lawsuit based on the contract signed with Beijia, the transfer of property and other issues had nothing to do with the case, and there was no way to investigate.

Liu Yun told the 21st century finance and economics reporter that she is currently taking an individual lawsuit. She has submitted materials to the court online. Due to the huge amount involved, she is filing a lawsuit with Hangzhou intermediate people's court. In the future, it is more likely to take a class action. Her lawyer also said that the future property protection plenary session is very difficult.

In addition, her own company has called the police.

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