"Recently, according to the preliminary verification, the State Administration of market supervision filed an investigation into the suspected monopoly of HowNet according to law." The announcement of the State Administration of Supervision Website on May 13 aroused widespread concern in the market. Subsequently, HowNet responded that it would take this investigation as an opportunity to deeply introspect, conduct comprehensive self-examination, make thorough rectification, operate in accordance with the law, innovate the development model, and assume the social responsibility of China's knowledge infrastructure.
The investigation is under way. Whether HowNet has monopoly behavior, whether it is suspected of industrial monopoly, whether it abuses its dominant market position, etc. need to be realistic and standardize the investigation according to law. But the event itself has sent multiple distinct signals.
Conduct thorough investigations in accordance with regulations and laws, respond to social concerns and demonstrate the authority of the rule of law. From "the high duplicate checking fees charged by college students' collective roast", to "the unauthorized collection of more than 100 papers was sued by retired professors, and was eventually awarded a compensation of more than 700000 yuan", and then to "the Chinese Academy of Sciences stopped using HowNet because it could not afford nearly ten million renewal fees", HowNet has been deeply involved in public opinion turmoil in recent years. HowNet has been criticized for charging low-cost papers from authors and unreasonable fees from individuals and research institutions, significantly increasing the price of databases for many years, and arrogant treatment of intellectual property disputes. Some netizens even ridiculed "kuzhiwang for a long time". This time, the State Administration of market supervision is very timely and necessary to investigate the case of HowNet according to law, thoroughly find out its suspected monopoly behavior, actively respond to social concerns, maintain fair competition in the academic literature database service market, and protect the interests of consumers and social public interests with authors and readers as the main body.
The more the head platform, the more we should standardize the operation according to law and actively fulfill our social responsibilities. HowNet continues to explore the Chinese academic literature information service and knowledge service market, and has become the most influential academic literature digital service platform in China. However, don't deceive customers, use their own status to implement "hegemonic" operation, test on the edge of the law, or even exceed the bottom line, and eventually only lose trust and lose the market. The investigation of HowNet once again sounded an alarm to all platforms, constructed a more reasonable operation mode and actively assumed social responsibility, so as to go further and more steadily. The HowNet responded in a timely manner to the "comprehensive self-examination and thorough rectification", and its attitude is worthy of affirmation. If the reform is in place and thorough, we will live up to our platform status and the trust of the majority of readers and authors.
Pay equal attention to standardization and development, and strengthen the normalized supervision of the platform economy according to law. In recent years, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to the standardized governance of the platform economy. The anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies have investigated and dealt with a series of major typical cases in accordance with the law, focused on solving some prominent competition problems in the field of the platform economy, and promoted sustainable and healthy development with regulatory norms. On April 29, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee stressed that "we should promote the healthy development of the platform economy, complete the special rectification of the platform economy and implement normalized supervision". For HowNet and other platform enterprises, they play an important role in providing convenient services, promoting scientific and technological progress, prospering the market economy and participating in international competition. At the same time, we should also note that if they engage in monopoly and unfair competition, it will damage fairness and justice and hinder innovation and creation. On the one hand, we should guide development, encourage platform enterprises to operate legally and in compliance, and enhance their core competitiveness through technological innovation and management innovation; To promote the healthy growth and sustainable development of the platform economy, we should focus on standardized supervision, implement normalized antitrust supervision and continuously purify the competitive environment in the field of platform economy.