August 9 news, Taobao announced that pictures with external link QR codes will be unusable starting today. Taobao explained the move as a way to avoid potential safety hazards caused by sellers bypassing Taobao's payment channels.
"We have discovered that some sellers are using QR code images containing external website information to circumvent Taobao's normal trading procedures and/or management system for the purpose of posting advertisements or even committing fraud, which has greatly affected consumer protection and platform transaction security," the announcement stated.
Specific measures include: For newly posted pictures with external link QR codes, starting from the date of this announcement (August 9, 2013), they will be unusable; For previously posted pictures with external link QR codes that are not deleted within one month, Taobao will freeze the images but will not delete the products or deduct points. However, after one month, relevant actions will be taken.
In fact, WeChat version 5.0 includes a QR code and barcode scanning function that is directly linked to payments. This has significantly increased user awareness of QR code scanning shopping channels. Taobao's ban on QR code ads is seen by commentators as a countermeasure against WeChat version 5.0.
Recently, the relationship between Alibaba and Tencent has entered a delicate phase. Last week, Taobao banned WeChat marketing accounts on the grounds that sellers were using WeChat marketing applications to harass users; Yesterday, Alipay announced the latest payment vulnerabilities, data pointing directly to mobile platforms, claiming that popular applications such as Momo and WeChat have become the main targets of hacker attacks. (Chuck)