Blogger sells to fraud; is this the end of WeChat monetization?

With the rise of internet platforms like TikTok, Video Accounts, and Kuaishou, more and more financial vloggers are becoming active on short video platforms, sharing their real-time stock trading gains and losses through entertaining short video comments. "Song Yufei" is a well-known influencer in this area with hundreds of thousands of followers on his TikTok account.

Generally, when TikTok financial vloggers start a public account, it is to direct public domain traffic to a private domain, selling courses and memberships. It is quite rare for them to sell their account to a "pig butchering" scam group, especially for an influencer with significant impact.

Does this mean that the commercial value of public accounts has reached a dead end?

Certainly not. In fact, finance and the internet are currently the industries with the fastest and most profitable monetization. The highest commercial value among WeChat public account followers belongs to financial fans and entrepreneurial fans. If you can attract fans from these two industries to your WeChat public account, the account's value can be substantial.

There are many ways to monetize financial-related WeChat public accounts, mainly including the following 4 types:

1. Connecting with financial institutions

Accounts can connect with some regular licensed financial institutions for services such as brokerage account opening, online loans, credit cards, etc. Typically, a successful credit card application is valued between 100-300 yuan. Recommending micro-loans or facilitating a P2P loan can earn a commission of 3%, and so on.

2. Account leasing and selling

Legally speaking, public accounts are a form of virtual property, and selling the account to entities engaged in normal commercial activities is not illegal.

This monetization method primarily involves using professional account trading platforms to lease or sell the public account. For example, platforms like Xinbang and Zhaoyu Network. Usually, for finance-related public accounts, the price per fan ranges from 3-8 yuan, depending on the verticality of the account's fans, their quantity, and their profiles.

Leasing can be done on a monthly or annual basis, mainly negotiated based on the fan's profile.

3. Accepting commercial advertisements

Accepting commercial ads and account renting have different billing methods, usually charged per advertisement. For financial public accounts with highly vertical fans, merchants are willing to offer a high price. Typically, an account with 50,000 financially focused fans can quote up to 10,000 for a top banner ad per day.

4. Paid knowledge

Courses in the financial industry are generally priced high and cover a wide range of areas. For example, courses on how to trade stocks, how to select funds, asset allocation, and even entrepreneurial investment. Many financial literacy public accounts generate revenue by continuously selling courses.

Furthermore, there are companies that specialize in debt planning, selling courses on debt management and planning through public accounts to those in need. For example, a company that restructured debts last year used public accounts for recruitment and course sales, earning over 20 million in three months.

These four standard monetization methods fully demonstrate the tremendous value of public accounts in traffic monetization, making it one of the preferred modes of operation for many companies adopting a light-asset business model in the current environment.

As for influencers like Song Yufei who choose to sell their public accounts to "pig butchering" scam groups, it reflects the account holder's eagerness for quick profits, straying onto the verge of illegal and criminal activities for short-term benefits.

Is selling accounts to "pig butchering" scams illegal for financial vloggers?

From a criminal responsibility perspective, such behavior might involve aiding and abetting internet criminal activities and fraud. According to Article 287, Section 2 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, aiding and abetting internet criminal activities refers to providing technical support, advertising promotion, payment settlement, etc., knowing that others are committing crimes through the internet. If financial vloggers knowingly sell public accounts to facilitate "pig butchering" scams, they may be complicit in fraud.

From a civil responsibility perspective, transferring public accounts to "pig butchering" scam groups might also infringe upon fans' rights. If fans are deceived due to trusting the vlogger's recommendations, the vlogger's actions could involve infringing upon the fans' right to know and choose. Moreover, if the content of the public account contains false or misleading advertising information, it could violate relevant advertising laws and regulations, necessitating legal accountability. Therefore, financial vloggers must act cautiously when transferring public accounts to avoid becoming accomplices to fraudulent gangs.

The impact of the "Song Yufei selling accounts" incident on the entire financial self-media industry

This incident has had a profound impact on the entire financial self-media industry. Not only does it damage the industry's image and credibility, but it may also lead investors to lose trust in the entire industry. Practitioners in the financial self-media industry need to put in more effort, strengthen self-regulation and supervision, in order to rebuild the industry's positive image and public trust.

As investors, it's also important to enhance one's awareness of risk prevention and discernment. When faced with the temptation of high returns, it's crucial to remain vigilant, not blindly follow trends, or heed others' investment advice. Especially when encountering promotions of other public accounts, advertisement insertions to direct traffic to other platforms, distinguishing between major and minor accounts, and when the public account's entity is not an individual, extra caution should be exercised to avoid becoming victims of "pig butchering" and other online scams.