The hair on my back stands on end—this price war/“over-competition” is almost over.

I support regulators stepping in, and they should have done it earlier.

The most disgusting part of a platform price war isn’t that things are cheaper—it’s that it packages “cheap” as righteousness. Users think they’ve gotten a bargain, but the “wool” will eventually grow back from somewhere else: merchants lose first, delivery riders bear the burden first, small shops die first, the supply chain degrades first. Once the market has been cleaned out, the platform will slowly change the rules back.

This isn’t business innovation at all—it’s capital using low prices as a meat grinder.

On July 7, the State Administration for Market Regulation moved to tackle “involution-style” competition. The Price Law needs to be amended, low-price dumping needs to be regulated, delivery subsidies need to be regulated, and platform rules also need to be regulated. My judgment is simple: low prices themselves aren’t wrong, but low prices that “clear the field” by taking losses are like drugs. At first, it feels great—then the whole industry gets addicted, starts bleeding, and rots.

Don’t be superstitious about price wars. Many times, it’s not an efficiency revolution—it’s the industry self-harming.

#电商 #Price war #反内卷 #platform economy