中國(guó)電商網(wǎng)站打擊“刷單”行為

April Chen was one of millions of hopeful buyers logging on to Alibaba’s shopping platforms on November 11, hoping to take advantage of some discounts on Singles Day, China’s biggest online shopping festival of the year.

11月11日，數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的購(gòu)物者滿懷希望地登錄了阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的購(gòu)物平臺(tái)，希望能獲益于中國(guó)一年之中最大的網(wǎng)購(gòu)節(jié)日——“光棍節(jié)”(Singles Day)。阿普麗爾•陳(April Chen)就是這些購(gòu)物者中的一員。

The Chongqing native had only intended to buy two items. But when she checked her account on Alibaba site Taobao later, she was in for a shock. In the space of less than a minute, at 11:05am, someone had placed orders for 80 items, everything from a Rmb91 ($13) skateboard, a Rmb1,200 ukulele to a Rmb18,900 oak bed frame. The orders had been placed, but not paid for.

這位重慶人只打算買(mǎi)兩件東西。然而，當(dāng)她隨后在阿里巴巴旗下淘寶網(wǎng)(Taobao)查看自己的賬號(hào)時(shí)，卻大為震驚。上午11點(diǎn)05分，在不到一分鐘的時(shí)間里，有人下單購(gòu)買(mǎi)了80件物品，所購(gòu)商品包括91元人民幣(合13美元)的滑板、1200元人民幣的夏威夷四弦琴、1.89萬(wàn)元人民幣的橡木床架等各類(lèi)商品。這些商品已經(jīng)下單，卻并未付款。

Ms Chen had become a victim of “brushing”, an unwanted growth industry in China and a practice that companies such as Alibaba are trying to stamp out. With online sellers under tremendous pressure to rack up sales, especially on Singles Day, many resort to the time honoured practice of placing fake orders. Higher sales mean better placement on ecommerce websites, leading in turn to more sales.

陳女士成了“刷單”現(xiàn)象的受害者，這是中國(guó)一個(gè)不想要的成長(zhǎng)型產(chǎn)業(yè)，也是阿里巴巴等公司試圖杜絕的現(xiàn)象。面臨提振銷(xiāo)售的巨大壓力(尤其是在光棍節(jié)當(dāng)天)，許多在線商家選擇了屢試不爽的虛假下單行為。銷(xiāo)售的提高意味著電商網(wǎng)站上更有利排名，進(jìn)而會(huì)帶來(lái)更多銷(xiāo)售。

Whoever hacked Ms Chen’s account left a clue for the mysterious behaviour — each order contained a note for the merchant, advertising a unique “promotion” service: “We are a professional Taobao promoter and we cordially invite you to come communicate with us, mutual help in improving shop ranking, order numbers and business development.”

攻破陳女士賬號(hào)的人為這種神秘行為留下了線索：每個(gè)訂單都包括了一則留給商家的說(shuō)明，推銷(xiāo)一種獨(dú)特的“排名提升”服務(wù)：“我們是專(zhuān)業(yè)的淘寶排名提升團(tuán)隊(duì)，我們誠(chéng)摯邀請(qǐng)您聯(lián)系我們，共同幫助提升店鋪排名、訂單數(shù)和業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展。”

Specialised companies — which appear to have victimised Ms Chen — offer the services of what are known in China as “water armies”, capable of making a lacklustre online shop appear a thriving business. Many use bots or, increasingly, hack users accounts and place fake orders. Before Singles Day, regulators had promised to crack down on the practice, but with little success.

使陳女士淪為受害者的，似乎是一些在中國(guó)被稱(chēng)為“水軍”的專(zhuān)業(yè)服務(wù)公司，它們能讓一家乏人問(wèn)津的網(wǎng)店顯得業(yè)務(wù)繁忙。其中許多“水軍”會(huì)使用自動(dòng)程序或(越來(lái)越多地)破解用戶賬號(hào)下虛假訂單。光棍節(jié)之前，監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)曾承諾要打擊這種行為，不過(guò)收效甚微。

“If a company really wants to be successful with online sales, it needs to find a way to improve its on-deck search ranking [on ecommerce platforms],” said Mark Natkin of Marbridge Consulting in Beijing. “The difference between being at the top of a page of results and buried at the bottom is night and day. Brushing is a very tempting shortcut.”

北京邁博瑞咨詢(xún)(Marbridge Consulting)的馬克•納特金(Mark Natkin)表示：“如果企業(yè)真的想在網(wǎng)上銷(xiāo)售方面取得成功，就必須想辦法提高(在電商平臺(tái)上)在線搜索的排名。在搜索結(jié)果頁(yè)面的頂端和埋在頁(yè)面底部有著天壤之別。刷單是一條非常誘人的捷徑。”

Partly due to the prevalence of brushing, the impressive numbers that New York listed Alibaba reports every Singles Day have invited scrutiny, including from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. On November 11, Alibaba reported up to $17.8bn in sales over the 24 hours, more than Brazil’s projected ecommerce sales for the entire year, and a 32 per cent increase from the previous year.

部分是由于刷單盛行，在紐約上市的阿里巴巴每年光棍節(jié)報(bào)出的令人印象深刻的數(shù)字都會(huì)招致嚴(yán)密關(guān)注——甚至包括美國(guó)證交會(huì)(SEC)的審查。今年11月11日，阿里巴巴在24小時(shí)內(nèi)錄得高達(dá)178億美元的銷(xiāo)售額，同比增長(zhǎng)32%，超過(guò)了巴西全年的預(yù)期電子商務(wù)銷(xiāo)售額。

In May, Alibaba said the SEC had queried its reporting of Singles Day numbers. This year, Alibaba said it would hire accounting firm PwC to audit the Singles Day GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) to ensure it was free of fake orders.

今年5月，阿里巴巴表示美國(guó)證交會(huì)曾問(wèn)詢(xún)其對(duì)光棍節(jié)數(shù)據(jù)的報(bào)告。今年，阿里巴巴表示會(huì)聘用會(huì)計(jì)師事務(wù)所普華永道(PwC)來(lái)審計(jì)光棍節(jié)的商品交易總額(GMV)，確保該數(shù)據(jù)的統(tǒng)計(jì)中不含虛假訂單。

But this is easier said than done. Alibaba and other ecommerce sites play a cat-and-mouse game with “brushers”, as they try to safeguard the reputation of their sales platforms. In order to evade algorithms designed to detect brushing, merchants will go as far as to place orders for each other’s products in what are known as “brushing pools”, and even send each other fake parcels, paying and then cancelling the orders.

不過(guò)，說(shuō)起來(lái)容易做起來(lái)難。阿里巴巴及其他電子商務(wù)網(wǎng)站在試圖捍衛(wèi)其銷(xiāo)售平臺(tái)聲譽(yù)之際，和“刷單者”玩起了貓鼠游戲。為了規(guī)避旨在偵測(cè)刷單行為的算法，商家會(huì)為彼此的商品下單(這種現(xiàn)象被稱(chēng)為“互刷”)，甚至?xí)舜税l(fā)送虛假包裹，并在付款后再取消訂單。

“Alibaba has no tolerance for the practice of brushing on our platforms,” said Alibaba. “Our system swiftly blocked these orders to protect the affected user.”

阿里巴巴表示：“阿里巴巴對(duì)我們平臺(tái)上的刷單行為持零容忍態(tài)度。我們的系統(tǒng)會(huì)快速封殺這些訂單，以保護(hù)受影響用戶。”

One small business owner registered with Tmall told the FT that the common procedure for brushing is that merchants publish or give their brushing assignments to professional brushers; then the brusher places orders, makes payments and the merchants will fake an order dispatch online, or send an empty parcel.

在天貓(Tmall)網(wǎng)站上注冊(cè)的一家小企業(yè)的業(yè)主告訴英國(guó)《金融時(shí)報(bào)》，刷單的常見(jiàn)流程是，商家向?qū)I(yè)刷單者發(fā)布或分配刷單任務(wù)，刷單者下訂單、付款，商家則會(huì)偽造發(fā)貨記錄或發(fā)出空包裹。

Meanwhile, in a practice that has drawn fire from elsewhere in the industry, many sites like Alibaba and its competitors JD.com and eBay can take a relaxed view of what constitutes a “sale“, making brushing even easier. Some will even count ordering and not paying for a parcel in their sales totals in some cases.

同時(shí)，電商普遍存在一種飽受零售業(yè)其他領(lǐng)域抨擊的行為：阿里巴巴及其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手京東(JD.com)和eBay等許多網(wǎng)站可能對(duì)“銷(xiāo)售”持較寬松標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，這讓刷單變得更加容易。在某些情況下，部分電商甚至?xí)延唵?而不是對(duì)包裹的付款)計(jì)入總銷(xiāo)售額。

Alibaba indicated that it was taking a more conservative approach to Singles Day sales than it takes to GMV — it said the $17.8bn final tally for the day referred to orders “settled through Alipay”, later confirming that this referred only to items that had been paid for.

阿里巴巴指出，該公司對(duì)光棍節(jié)銷(xiāo)售額采取比商品交易總額更保守的統(tǒng)計(jì)方法。該公司表示，光棍節(jié)178億美元的最終統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字是指“通過(guò)支付寶(Alipay)結(jié)算”的訂單;該公司后來(lái)確認(rèn)，該數(shù)字僅僅對(duì)應(yīng)于那些已經(jīng)付款的商品。

This year, Alibaba has stopped publishing quarterly GMV figures — the unaudited measure was getting too much attention and inviting too much controversy, say analysts.

分析師們表示，今年阿里巴巴已不再發(fā)布季度商品交易總額數(shù)據(jù)——此前這一未經(jīng)審核的數(shù)據(jù)吸引了太多注意、引發(fā)了太多爭(zhēng)議。