中國電商網(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)以百萬計(jì)的購物者滿懷希望地登錄了阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的購物平臺，希望能獲益于中國一年之中最大的網(wǎng)購節(jié)日——“光棍節(jié)”(Singles Day)。阿普麗爾•陳(April Chen)就是這些購物者中的一員。

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)查看自己的賬號時，卻大為震驚。上午11點(diǎn)05分，在不到一分鐘的時間里，有人下單購買了80件物品，所購商品包括91元人民幣(合13美元)的滑板、1200元人民幣的夏威夷四弦琴、1.89萬元人民幣的橡木床架等各類商品。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，這是中國一個不想要的成長型產(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。銷售的提高意味著電商網(wǎng)站上更有利排名，進(jìn)而會帶來更多銷售。

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.”

攻破陳女士賬號的人為這種神秘行為留下了線索：每個訂單都包括了一則留給商家的說明，推銷一種獨(dú)特的“排名提升”服務(wù)：“我們是專業(yè)的淘寶排名提升團(tuán)隊(duì)，我們誠摯邀請您聯(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，似乎是一些在中國被稱為“水軍”的專業(yè)服務(wù)公司，它們能讓一家乏人問津的網(wǎng)店顯得業(yè)務(wù)繁忙。其中許多“水軍”會使用自動程序或(越來越多地)破解用戶賬號下虛假訂單。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(Marbridge Consulting)的馬克•納特金(Mark Natkin)表示：“如果企業(yè)真的想在網(wǎng)上銷售方面取得成功，就必須想辦法提高(在電商平臺上)在線搜索的排名。在搜索結(jié)果頁面的頂端和埋在頁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)報出的令人印象深刻的數(shù)字都會招致嚴(yán)密關(guān)注——甚至包括美國證交會(SEC)的審查。今年11月11日，阿里巴巴在24小時內(nèi)錄得高達(dá)178億美元的銷售額，同比增長32%，超過了巴西全年的預(yù)期電子商務(wù)銷售額。

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，阿里巴巴表示美國證交會曾問詢其對光棍節(jié)數(shù)據(jù)的報告。今年，阿里巴巴表示會聘用會計(jì)師事務(wù)所普華永道(PwC)來審計(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，說起來容易做起來難。阿里巴巴及其他電子商務(wù)網(wǎng)站在試圖捍衛(wèi)其銷售平臺聲譽(yù)之際，和“刷單者”玩起了貓鼠游戲。為了規(guī)避旨在偵測刷單行為的算法，商家會為彼此的商品下單(這種現(xiàn)象被稱為“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：“阿里巴巴對我們平臺上的刷單行為持零容忍態(tài)度。我們的系統(tǒng)會快速封殺這些訂單，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)站上注冊的一家小企業(yè)的業(yè)主告訴英國《金融時報》，刷單的常見流程是，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，電商普遍存在一種飽受零售業(yè)其他領(lǐng)域抨擊的行為：阿里巴巴及其競爭對手京東(JD.com)和eBay等許多網(wǎng)站可能對“銷售”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?而不是對包裹的付款)計(jì)入總銷售額。

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，該公司對光棍節(jié)銷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“通過支付寶(Alipay)結(jié)算”的訂單;該公司后來確認(rèn)，該數(shù)字僅僅對應(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)了太多爭議。