What is hidden behind the popularity of ＂live answering assistant＂？ There are plug-ins to earn traffic

　　"The World Cup will be broadcast live, and Sohu has prepared a million bonuses."

　　This is the information that Zhang Chaoyang, Chairman and CEO of Sohu Board of Directors, disclosed to the outside world in an interview with the media recently.

　　Since the beginning of this year, live answering questions has been hot all the way.

　　However, when many platforms flock into the field of live answering questions, some problems are gradually exposed, among which the most concerned is the emergence of various auxiliary cheating software.

　　Just as the respondents were still in love and hate with the "answering assistant", a news set off public opinion — — The co-organizers and operators of "Million Heroes" today sued sogou Input Method, arguing that sogou Input Method blocked the answer page and automatically displayed the answers to the questions, which was unfair competition.

　　However, less than 24 hours after the news broke, the incident was quickly "reversed". Subsequently, sogou Company clarified to the media: Today, the headline party has submitted a written application for withdrawing the lawsuit, and the court also verbally ruled that it is allowed to withdraw the lawsuit. All the above actions are recorded in the record.

　　Shortly after that, the relevant departments issued a notice on "Strengthening the Management of Online Live Answering Programs", demanding to strengthen the management of online audio-visual live answering activities, further standardize the order of online communication and prevent social risks.

　　However, the investigation by the reporter of the Legal Daily found that there are still many problems to be clarified behind the upsurge of the answering industry.

　　There are many kinds of "answering assistants"

　　With the emergence of a series of live answering activities, live answering has become the hottest outlet.

　　Many live broadcast platforms have launched answering activities, with prizes ranging from 100,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan each. This "coin-throwing war" has attracted millions of users to participate. With the increase in the number of participants, the topic of the live broadcast platform has become more and more tricky.

　　Faced with this situation, some Internet companies are competing to launch "answering assistants". Users only need to use two mobile phones, one to participate in the answering activities of the live broadcast platform, and the other to open the "answering assistant" to get the answers in real time, which can improve the answering speed and correct rate and get more generous bonuses.

　　"Some users can get money, but less and less, can only say that every little makes a mickle. ‘ Answer assistant ’ Still useful. Take a problem-solving software as an example. After the user enters the chat room, the expert gives the answer online, which is fast enough and accurate. I can get money for the basic field. I won 6 games in a row and earned a lot. " Fu Tao, a white-collar worker in Beijing, told the reporter of Legal Daily, "There are still many respondents who use both ‘ Answer assistant ’ 。”

　　Zhang Xiaodong, a student from a university in Beijing, often shuttles between answering platforms. In his view, some "answering assistants" can only give the best answer instead of the correct answer according to the relevance of search results.

　　In addition, Zhang Xiaodong said that some "answering assistants" can give a direct answer to questions suitable for retrieval, such as "What is the highest score of a single shot in a snooker match without the opponent making mistakes": 147. In the face of rhetorical questions and vague semantic questions, such as "which country is not a constitutional monarchy", some "answering assistants" will show "still thinking"

　　Zhang Xiaodong told reporters that there is also an "answering assistant" based on online speech recognition. Its advantage lies in that it can be awakened by long pressing the volume increase button, long pressing the home button, powering on the mobile phone, Bluetooth headset and other ways, and the topic can be recognized online.

　　"However, this kind of speech recognition class ‘ Answer assistant ’ There is no guarantee of the speed of answering questions. Often, when the answers are searched out, the answering time is over. " Zhang Xiaodong said that another "answering assistant" has the problem of low accuracy. "In the past, there was another software that users could only get answers to questions through pictures or voices. The use steps were cumbersome and the user experience was average. Now it has been removed."

　　The market for additional products is booming.

　　In fact, before the live answering market was ordered to rectify, its popularity gave birth to various "artifacts".

　　However, some respondents found some of the "doorways" when using them.

　　Zhang Xiaodong said that when we first started to play live answering questions, everyone still adhered to the initial intention of relying on their own knowledge to reserve answers. "Later, it was discovered that a number of answering WeChat groups and answering QQ groups appeared on the Internet. However, many answering QQ groups require payment before joining the group. For the respondent, it hasn’t started yet ‘ Bonus hunter ’ You have to pay a sum of money ‘ Tuition ’ " .

　　In addition to answering WeChat group and QQ group, there are also answering plug-ins.

　　Searching for e-commerce platforms will find that many merchants sell "answering artifacts" ranging from a few yuan to dozens of yuan. These "answering artifacts" are under the banner of "one second to answer, safe, professional and assured", and there are many kinds of plug-ins covering all major answering platforms.

　　However, many respondents believe that the "answer artifact" they bought is not so accurate, and some common sense questions can be answered wrong, and finally they have to rely on themselves.

　　"For example, a life question: From Beijing to Tianjin, which of the following means of transportation can’t be taken? A. Plane; B. train; C. cruise ships. Respondents know by common sense that Beijing is not near the sea, and they certainly can’t choose a cruise. But some ‘ Answer artifact ’ The answer provided is the cruise ship. Many respondents chose C in doubt, which is definitely wrong in the end. " Zhang Xiaodong said.

　　"There are many big platforms that offer free ‘ Answer assistant ’ Software, its purpose is to increase their own traffic. However, some unknown plug-ins are unreliable, which may carry viruses or Trojans, threatening the security of personal information. " Yang Song, a programmer who once designed a plug-in similar to "Answer Assistant", told the reporter of Legal Daily.

　　"I found that some ‘ Answer assistant ’ I’m used to giving wrong answers in the last few questions, but it’s completely impossible to search for answers without beating around the bush, but many people use ‘ Answer assistant ’ The answers provided were eliminated. Is this intentional? A means to reduce competitors? " Zhang Xiaodong said that he thought the reason behind it might be "another meaning".

　　Fu Tao, who feels the same way, put it more bluntly: "Several times, I gave the wrong answer at the last question. The respondent seems to have the luck of cheating, but in the end, nothing can be taken away, and only the platform side earns traffic. "

　　In addition to these "assistants", the "artifacts" of the live answering market also have "resurrection cards".

　　In an e-commerce platform, the sales of "resurrection card" can be described as rapid growth. The "Legal Daily" reporter noted that the one with the highest sales volume has sold more than 3,000 copies, while the top ten in sales volume are also between 3,000 and 1,000 copies, with an average price of around 50 cents.

　　According to insiders, these businesses also register multiple accounts themselves and use "resurrection cards" on their behalf. Some businesses use some software to modify the number of "resurrection cards".

　　The reporter asked the customer service of an online shop selling "resurrection cards" that as long as players give their invitation codes, they will find someone to help brush the "reactivation coins". However, due to the hot demand, many stores claim that there is an upper limit for a single purchase, and they do not accept urgent orders, because it takes some time to find someone to brush the "reactivation coin". Some stores also said that if players want to take the "reactivation coin" immediately, they can increase the price, and the more they buy, the higher the price increase.

　　Is it aiding or cheating?

　　Is it cheating for respondents to use auxiliary tools when participating in answering activities?　

　　"This is indeed suspected of cheating, which is slightly unfair to users who have not used assistive tools." Li Junhui, a special researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview with the reporter of Legal Daily, however, because the answering activity was originally open, users can freely choose the way to answer questions, no matter whether many people discuss it or use auxiliary tools.

　　Zhu Wei, an associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview with the media that it is difficult to evaluate these so-called "external cheating" behaviors by law.

　　Zhu Wei said that from the perspective of merchants, the main profit point of the live answering mode lies in traffic. Its main way of making money does not come from netizens, so it may not be particularly important for netizens to use some so-called plug-ins as long as they do not destroy the normal operation of the whole live broadcast.

　　However, the reporter noticed that in the activity rules of each platform, the use of answering plug-ins is explicitly prohibited. For example, a platform states in its answering rules that users are forbidden to participate in this activity by any improper means and/or fraudulent acts. Once found, the event organizer has the right to cancel the user’s participation in the activity and award-winning qualification, and to recover the bonus that the user has obtained and the amount of the bonus that has been withdrawn, and reserves the right to pursue the legal responsibility of the user. Improper means and/or fraudulent acts include but are not limited to the following, participation through unofficial client portal; Tampering with equipment data and forging it as user participation; Disrupt the order of the platform, use simulators, plug-ins, plug-ins, or download, register, get answers, answer questions, get resurrection cards, or interfere, destroy, modify or exert other influences on this activity, and other improper means and/or fraudulent acts considered by the event organizer.

　　"How to distinguish between cheating and how to deal with it when there are a large number of cheating people is a difficult problem for the answering platform." Beijing lawyer Yang Zhen told the Legal Daily reporter.

　　The answering industry needs to be supervised urgently.

　　"We don’t take urgent orders, and there are more than 200 orders waiting in line."

　　This is what Zhang Xiaodong said to him when he first bought a "revival coin" on an e-commerce platform.

　　"Someone in the industry told me that the introduction of the resurrection mechanism was originally called ‘ Program Bible ’ Or ‘ Running the Bible ’ In fact, it is a very good means of social network interaction. " Zhang Xiaodong said, "Now, this social interaction means has become a vicious circle of cheating and anti-cheating."

　　According to the data of China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2017, the number of webcast users reached 422 million. According to the National Survey Report on Users of Live Answering Questions released by Penguin Think Tank, 55% of all mobile phone users who are interested in live answering questions have participated in this activity.

　　There are more and more users taking part in live answering questions, and the problems behind them are becoming more and more prominent.

　　"The so-called online and offline interactive entertainment mode called live answering questions has actually become empty talk and self-deception. Sell all kinds of auxiliary software, dummy answers, ‘ Resurrection coin ’ Many of them, this kind of auxiliary cheating software, in the final analysis, get the answer quickly by crawling search. Of course, it is not excluded that some plug-ins are hacking tools themselves. When you use it to answer questions, hackers have obtained all the information of users. Unlike the attitude of cracking down on online games and other plug-ins, most platforms are not very concerned about this. " Zhu Wei told the "Legal Daily" reporter that no matter how to use the auxiliary cheating software, the publicity effect of the platform, the binding result of identity information, the bank card and telephone information, and the advertising effect have all been completed, not to mention that many plug-ins can increase popularity.

　　In Zhu Wei’s view, live answering questions is a new gameplay, but there are old problems in the platform as a carrier. As a new media format, live broadcast has the advantages of strong real-time performance and various forms of expression, which not only has high communication efficiency, but also has a wide audience. However, investors who stand in the limelight blindly "scatter money" and connive at inferior platforms with rough content and related gray industries crowding into public view will not only destroy the ecology of the entire live broadcast industry, but also have a bad impact on the broad audience.

　　"It is imperative to regulate bad tendencies by law." Zhu Wei told the reporter of the Legal Daily.