Thunderstorms, rights protection, and withdrawals have been the norm in the data collection industry in the past year. The small platform is gone, and it doesn’t look good when a big company like Tencent shuts down or terminates its digital storage business with refunds.
On the Black Cat Complaints Platform, Huanhe was complained about slow refunds. QQ Music, which had released digital collections, was complained about violating the "can be transferred after 356 days of holding" clause promised at the time of release. Another Tencent product, Tencent Animation, was launched Shuzang was accused of "harsh conditions" after refunding his money.
In 2021, Tencent's digital collection platform Magic Core was launched. Subsequently, Tencent applications such as QQ Music, Tencent Animation, Tencent Video, Tencent News, and Qidian Reading were all embedded with digital collection sections, strongly entering the domestic digital collection market.
At the end of 2022, the data storage market entered a cold winter. The "soup" that everyone once wanted to get a piece of has now become a "hot potato." The most sensational event in the market is the collapse of Phantom Core, and the data storage business of Tencent-based applications is also It was completely shut down less than a year after it went online.
The platform withdrew, leaving players with nothing but feathers. At the beginning, digital collections with cultural connotations and collectible value have now completely become “small pictures” on the road to user rights protection.
TME data collection is "rotten"
"When will TME digital collection refund?", "Has anyone received a refund?", "Can you give me an explanation?" Tencent QQ Music's TME digital collection business has been out of operation for more than a year, and there are still many people in the community. A small number of users posted "asking for a refund", and anxious users simply formed a rights protection group with hundreds of people.
User inquires about refund issues in QQ Music Interactive Community
In early August 2021, Tencent Music's TME digital collection business was exposed on the QQ Music platform. At that time, the domestic digital collection market was exploding. With the help of artists and copyright resources, TME Digital Collection successively released many titles including Hu Yanbin, Luo Dayou, and Tengger. The digital collection of the musician's IP "Digital Vinyl Records".
Among them, the 20th anniversary vinyl record of Hu Yanbin's "Monk" is the first digital collection officially released by QQ Music. It is sold to the public at a price of 199 yuan each, limited to 2001 copies. Data shows that more than 80,000 people participated in the rush sale.
Liu Yi (pseudonym), who bought the digital vinyl of "Monk", said that when it was launched, the platform did not open the transfer function, but promised to transfer it after holding it for 365 days. "I have always felt that this is still valuable compared to other image collections." , it’s still a collection that can be listened to, so I plan to wait a year before transferring it out.”
But what Liu Yi didn't expect was that in less than a year, TME stopped selling new collections on June 30 last year. On November 16, 2022, "Interface News" also reported that Tencent Music stopped TME's digital collection business, and some members of the original team have been "internally active."
Some players discovered that the entrance to the TME digital collection has been hidden since August last year. Searching for "Digital Collection" and "TME Digital Collection" in the QQ Music App cannot find the platform entrance. Users need to click on "My-Purchased-Digital Collection" to access "TME Digital Collection Mall" and "Digital Collection Personal" Center" page.
The "disappearing" entrance setting caused many users to directly think that their collections were "cleared" by the platform; and when users who found their collections wanted to transfer their collections to others after 365 days, they found that the transfer function area kept prompting "Service upgrade in progress" , please wait patiently." This prompt continues to this day.
The originally promised “transferable” items were no longer counted. Some users wanted refunds, but were rejected by the platform. Some users posted the platform's response: "Membership services, digital albums, singles, collections, etc. are all virtual goods with special characteristics. Once you confirm the payment, no refunds will be given."
Tencent has officially concealed the items as virtual items and will not provide refunds.
If digital vinyl can at least be played, the digital figurines and digital commemorative tickets sold by Tencent Music will completely lose their usage scenarios if they cannot be transferred.
The "Twelve Zodiac Digital Commemorative Tickets" that created the sales legend of digital collections with "sold out in 10 seconds" and the "series of 3D digital figures" of independent musician Zhang Gayi, whose total number of reservations exceeded 50,000, are now only in the user account. One picture after another, "It's not even good enough to be used as the background or avatar of a QQ Music account, it's worse than the pictures downloaded from the Internet." user Mike complained.
Although the TME digital collection business on QQ Music has not officially announced the shutdown, judging from various operations such as hiding entrances and not fulfilling transfer commitments, the TME digital collection has shown itself to be completely in a state of irresponsibility and irresponsibility.
Tencent animation refund card setup
TME Shuzang is de facto suspended, and Tencent is not the only Shuzang stall in 2021, including the most influential and well-known Huanhe in the market. In addition, Tencent News, Tencent Animation, Tencent Video, Kuwo Music, Qidian Tencent products such as Dudu have integrated data collection services into their own apps.
Now, most of the data stored in these apps have become a mess.
Fantasy Core will be launched in August 2021, terminated in August 2022, and officially offline in June this year; Tencent Animation will combine animation IP with digital collections and launch a ten-year limited digital collection in April 2022. No new products have been released since the release of the "My King, Spare Your Life" series of collections; Tencent News launched the digital collection function in January 2022 and suspended the sale of digital collections in July 2022. In addition, the digital storage services embedded in apps such as Tencent Video, Kugou Music, and Qidian Reading have also been suspended.
The platform has shut down the data collection business. What will happen to the collections in the hands of users?
After Huanhe decided to stop issuing digital collections, it opened a channel for users to apply for refunds. The announcement has clearly stated that after Android users initiate a refund, it is expected to complete the review and refund within 7 working days; IOS users need to initiate a refund application before October 15, 2022, and complete the review and refund within 20 working days. payment.
It seems that Huanhe "generously" refunded the money, but more than 200 complaint messages on Black Cat Complaints show that users encountered "refund not received", "customer service cannot be contacted", "refund not processed APP" It just won’t open” and other situations.
The "big brother in the industry" ended badly, and Tencent's other data storage businesses ended up even more ugly.
Shortly after Tencent's animation data collection business was launched, a user said, "It quietly opened the transfer function, but the prerequisite for transfer is still that the user holds the collection for 365 days or receives the gift for 365 days." Later, the user continued to hold the collection for 365 days. During the collection period, it was discovered that the transfer function of Tencent Animation was "quietly closed" again, and "many people had no way to transfer it after the expiration date."
Feedback from Tencent Animation Data Collection users on Black Cat Complaint
It cannot be regifted. Tencent Animation has given a refund plan, but the refund conditions are issued through the official public account. "Refund the money and set up the card at all levels." The information shows that if you want to refund Tencent Animation's digital collection, you need to Meet the following conditions:
After the three conditions, Tencent Animation tyrannically reminded, "If the above points are not met, refunds will not be possible."
If the user is "lucky" to meet the conditions, the next operation is difficult enough: the user needs to bind the Tencent Animation account for purchasing digital collections on the official account, and the binding opportunity is only once. It's a clear "no waiting after expiration" date.
In the same month that Tencent’s animation Shuzang business was suspended, Tencent News also announced the suspension of Shuzang distribution. It is worth noting that Tencent’s news data collection business had just undergone management changes before it was shut down. Wang Shimu, head of Tencent News, was transferred to the PCG social platform and application line in May 2022, responsible for leading the team to incubate innovative businesses such as Magic Core. However, after three months, the phantom core also stopped.
There are many uncertainties in the digital collection market. What is certain is that Tencent will not play anymore. Unfortunately, after the end, it left the mess to the users.