The game behind Spring Festival travel rush： ＂Yellow Cattle＂ accelerates group purchasing for profit by grabbing tickets.
● At present, the ticketing software is still the choice for many people to buy train tickets during their stay in Spring Festival travel rush. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 60 ticketing softwares currently operating in the market have launched paid ticketing services. Some ticket buyers have reported that when the number of tickets is very sufficient, some third-party software will also check 20 yuan’s acceleration package by default when checking out.
● The operating principle of the ticketing software is to use a high bandwidth to frequently refresh the trains that may have surplus tickets, so as to achieve the purpose of giving priority to ticketing once tickets are released. There is an urgent need to standardize the information leakage and hidden charging traps that may exist in the ticketing software.
● "Yellow Cattle" will agree to wait until 24 hours before departure by default, and 100% tickets will not be guaranteed. Purchasing with a deposit is more complicated, including the overlord clause such as "the deposit will not be refunded if the ticket is successfully grabbed by yourself". There are even some "black-hearted" scalpers who, after receiving the deposit, snap up tickets directly in other third-party ticketing channels, earn corresponding profits when they grab them, and pull out ticket buyers when they don’t grab them.
With the coming of Spring Festival travel rush, the anxious "scalpers" ushered in the last war at the end of the year. From January 10, 2020 to February 18, just a few tens of days, to a great extent, decided their "harvest" in a year. After all, for returnees, train tickets for popular routes are still "hard to find".
From the data published by 12306.com, as early as half a month ago, the smoke of this war was faintly smelled.
On December 21st, the railway Spring Festival travel rush ticket-grabbing war began to reach its climax: tickets for January 19th, 2020 (the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month) were sold by online and telephone booking, and tickets for January 17th, 2020 (the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month) were sold at station ticket sales windows, railway ticket sales outlets and self-service ticket vending machines.
If the time goes back ten years ago, you were told at the train station that there was no ticket to buy, and at most you would only complain that you came too late. In 2010, with the opening and operation of the 12306 website, the availability of train tickets began to be linked to luck. Until these years, looking at the unusually eye-catching "acceleration package" and VIP in the mobile phone, after waiting for a few days, you began to doubt whether the money spent at the beginning was enough.
From "waiting" to "looking forward" and then to "grabbing", Spring Festival travel rush, the largest population migration in the world, has created a huge demand for tickets. People are surprised to find that technological progress has not changed the status quo, but has become the "fat meat" coveted by some lawless people. In this regard, the "Legal Daily" reporter conducted an investigation.
Online ticketing is very popular.
Ticket grabbing software shows its magic power
According to media reports, on December 12th, the railway department began to sell tickets for January 10th, 2020 (the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month), and on that day, the national railways sold a total of 12.561 million tickets. From the first day’s ticket sales, 10.625 million tickets were sold on the railway 12306 network, 0.4 million tickets were sold by telephone booking, and the online ticket sales of the railway 12306 accounted for 84.6% of the total ticket sales. Among the tickets sold on the railway 12306 network, the mobile phone client sold 9.455 million tickets, accounting for 89% of the tickets sold online.
At present, the ticketing software is still the choice for many people to buy train tickets during their stay in Spring Festival travel rush. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 60 ticketing softwares currently operating in the market have launched paid ticketing services, or requested to share forwarding links to increase exposure. Some ticket buyers have reported that when the number of tickets is very sufficient, some third-party software will also check 20 yuan’s acceleration package by default when checking out, which is very hidden and will be paid by routine if you don’t pay attention.
According to a recent survey of 100 college students conducted by the reporter of Legal Daily, at least 60% of them have used the "acceleration package for grabbing tickets". 50% people think that there is little difference between the acceleration of grabbing tickets and scalper scalping.
"The principle of the ticketing software is to constantly send ticket purchase requests, while the 12306 network has to manually send ticket purchase requests, and there is still an interval in time." Wang Zefang, who works in Zhejiang, told the reporter of Legal Daily that his hometown is Bozhou, Anhui Province, and he never spent money to buy an acceleration package in Spring Festival travel rush. "I grabbed it several times without an acceleration package before, but I didn’t get a ticket, so I would change my itinerary or travel by other means of transportation. But overall, tickets to Bozhou are generally more difficult to grab, and hard seat tickets or seatless tickets are not very difficult, so there is no great need to buy acceleration packages. "
Wang Hanwei, from Lvliang, Shanxi Province, is currently attending a university in Beijing. He told the reporter of Legal Daily that according to his own experience and that of his classmates around him, if you need to use the ticket rushing package of the ticket rushing software, you can buy it for free. They often take the method of sharing each other’s acceleration packages to grab tickets. "If you don’t use acceleration packages, you will almost never get tickets."
"Our classmates have also discussed this issue, and everyone generally thinks that this is a kind of ‘ Prisoner effect ’ Caused. Everyone will accelerate each other and get the acceleration package together, so that everyone has an acceleration package and then they will use this acceleration package. " Wang Hanwei said, but the question is whether the acceleration package has any effect is unknown, so he guessed that if everyone doesn’t use the acceleration package, they may also get tickets. This is the herd effect of the group, or it may be intentional by a third-party platform.
In view of the "standby ticket purchase" mode that the 12306 network started to go online last year, "I think it is more reliable, and the standby ticket is made through the official platform, and generally if there is a refund, it will be the first to wait. Therefore, now you will use the 12306 network alternate ticket or ticketing software to grab tickets. " Wang Hanwei said.
During the interview, many people in the industry believe that the operating principle of the ticketing software is to use a high bandwidth to frequently refresh the trains that may have surplus tickets, so as to achieve the goal of giving priority to grabbing tickets once tickets are released. Although the same fee is charged, it is essentially different from scalpers hoarding tickets and reselling them at high prices. "Grab the ticket App is not a scalper." However, problems such as information leakage and hidden charging traps that may exist in the ticketing software still need to be standardized.
Ticket service charges a fee.
It is difficult to guarantee the purchase of scalpers
The "Legal Daily" reporter also found a new ticketing service on some social platforms — — Most of the acceleration groups for grabbing tickets are paid groups.
The reporter of "Legal Daily" searched in the QQ group with keywords such as "train ticket acceleration" and "train ticket grabbing", which will pop up a lot of information about train ticket grabbing. Immediately after the reporter of Legal Daily entered a QQ group, a user named "A train ticket purchasing" asked "Do you need to buy a train ticket?". The other party claimed that no matter how much the face value of the train ticket is, the purchasing fee is 45 yuan, and the payment will be made only after the order is successful, and no fee will be charged if it is not seized.
"A train ticket high-speed rail ticket purchasing" said that the ticketing software he used cost more than 3,000 yuan, and the success rate of ticketing was over 80%. "It is much better than those platforms you use", claiming that there are more than a dozen orders to dozens of orders every day, and 80% can grab it. In the chat content of QQ group, advertisements published by such purchasers are the main ones, and some users help each other to speed up the ticket grabbing.
On the morning of December 22nd, after paying 0.5 yuan, the reporter of Legal Daily successfully joined the QQ group named ×× Accelerated Train Ticket Grab Group, which has gathered hundreds of people and its popularity is still growing. In this QQ group, there are more than 20 friend-assisted links from various ticketing software within 5 seconds. According to the group announcement, the level of grabbing tickets at top speed and at the speed of light can be guaranteed within 30 minutes, but the group owner must add WeChat and pay 10 yuan, and the group owner will invite him to enter another WeChat group chat called "Come on".
The group announcement of "×× Refueling Group" shows that in this group, some platform bargaining links can also be sent to this group. The group owner said that it is hard to get a ticket in Spring Festival travel rush every year. If you want to reach the level of speed ticket grabbing, you need to buy an acceleration package of 40 yuan/copy, but here you only need 10 yuan to quickly reach the level of speed ticket grabbing, or even higher.
The owner told the reporter of Legal Daily that "10 yuan will fill you up with 30 people", that is, it will reach the level of grabbing tickets at top speed, but "there is no guarantee to get tickets, just let you enter this level and see your luck".
And this sentence has also become an exemption clause for many "yellow cattle" — — There is no guarantee of 100% ticket issuance. Now, by default, the ticket will wait until 24 hours before departure. Although the standards of each "scalper" are different, everyone’s caliber is similar. First, take the list and whether you can grab the ticket has nothing to do with yourself.
The purchasing requirements with deposit are more complicated, including the overlord clause of "the deposit will not be refunded if the ticket is successfully grabbed by yourself". Some netizens reported that there are even some "yellow cattle" with black hearts who, after receiving the deposit and the ticket purchase information, snapped up tickets directly in other third-party ticket purchase channels, earned corresponding profits when they grabbed them, and blacked out ticket buyers when they didn’t grab them.
According to the price list given by several scalpers, at present, the ticket purchasing fees in Spring Festival travel rush range from 40 yuan to 150 yuan, which are divided into deposit purchasing and non-deposit purchasing. According to media reports, according to the industry price, the rental price of an independent ticket brushing software ranges from 8,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan per month. If the purchasing price of each ticket is 100 yuan, 120 tickets are needed to cover the cost.
Middle-aged and elderly people don’t know how to grab tickets.
Buying tickets at the window is practical.
For the "main force" migrant workers in Spring Festival travel rush, although the railway department has introduced many measures such as telephone booking, online booking and group booking, it is really not so easy for most migrant workers to book a suitable return ticket because of their educational level and schedule.
In the survey, many migrant workers interviewed said that the quickest way to buy tickets online is not easy for them and is rarely used.
On December 20th, Beijing began to freeze its hands, but 53-year-old Uncle Li still insisted on buying Spring Festival travel rush train tickets at the ticket window of Beijing West Railway Station. His destination was Henan. When the reporter of Legal Daily saw him, he had just bought a hard seat ticket from Beijing West to Zhengzhou on January 10th next year from the window, and the fare was 93 yuan.
When asked why he came to the station window to buy tickets, instead of buying tickets online, Uncle Li said, "There are many trains and kinds of online tickets, which I don’t quite understand. When you come to the window to buy a ticket, you can ask the conductor directly. People will tell you more clearly, and you can get the ticket on the spot, and your heart is much more practical. "
On the same day, Uncle Lu, wearing a security uniform, also came to Beijing West Railway Station. He told the "Legal Daily" reporter that he didn’t know much about buying tickets on mobile phones. "I will definitely not increase the price to buy tickets. It is not easy to save money. Why do you add money to buy them?" I have a high degree of time flexibility, and I don’t want any good tickets. There are not many people waiting in line now, and there are quite a lot of tickets, so you can definitely buy them. "
From December 20th to 21st, the reporter of Legal Daily didn’t see the "scalper" in the railway station, and the ticket source displayed on the electronic screen was also very sufficient. Generally, the people who come to the railway station to buy tickets are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, and generally express their lack of ability to use the network. (Reporter Zhao Li Intern Dong Jinmeng)