CATDOLL: AcFun Danmu.com was suspected of operating without a license for eight years and was punished by relevant departments

The hotness of the ACG market this year has attracted much attention to barrage video websites. However, just as it was appreciated by the mainstream market and capital, the famous barrage video website AcFun encountered a new crisis. Yesterday, a Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that AcFun was recently punished and warned by relevant regulatory authorities for operating without a license.

License crisis

According to reports, the Beijing Municipal Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement Corps recently conducted an administrative law enforcement inspection on the website acfun.tv and client software AcFun operated by the Beijing branch of Guangzhou Danmu Network Technology Co., Ltd. in accordance with the law. It was determined that AcFun had engaged in commercial Internet cultural activities and Internet audio-visual program services without approval, and subsequently fined it and issued a warning.

The regulatory authorities pointed out that AcFun does not have the qualification of Wenwangwen (Internet culture operation license) and audio-visual license (Internet audio-visual program transmission license). After checking the official registration website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Beijing Business Daily reporter found that in fact, AcFun did not have the ICP (Value-added Telecommunications Business License of the People's Republic of China) registration and license required for general websites. After further searching AcFun's domain names acfun.tv and acfun.com, it received "The domain name you queried: acfun.tv/acfun.com has been blacklisted."

In fact, according to the regulations of the regulatory authorities, not only can companies on the blacklist not apply for ICP registration and licensing, but the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television cannot issue them qualifications and audio-visual licenses. Beijing Business Daily contacted AcFun staff about this matter, and the staff said they could not respond for the time being.

Capital attention

Although AcFun does not hold relevant licenses, the website has been in operation for eight years and has gained the favor of capital due to the warming of the two-dimensional market. Data shows that at the beginning of this year, AcFun's daily active users have reached 2 million to 3 million, and the monthly active users are 39 million. It is precisely because of its great influence in China that AcFun was favored by Aofei and Youku Tudou. Not long ago, AcFun just received a $50 million financing led by Youku Tudou.

"In the future, everything that can make money in the film and television industry, including the video industry, must be pan-two-dimensional." AcFun Editor-in-Chief Liu Yanyan said in an interview with a Beijing Business Daily reporter. As original content has gradually become the mainstream content output method, AcFun's potential in creating IP has also become a part of capital.

Difficult to understand

According to reports, AcFun has changed hands four times before, and this year it has been plagued by negative news and is moving forward in a precarious situation.

Li Junhui, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that the launch of domestic websites is conditional and must obtain ICP registration and relevant licenses. Without a compliant license, it cannot be launched. "Based on the audio and video content playback service provided by AcFun, it must obtain various qualifications to operate. Operating without a license is an obvious violation and there is a risk of fines and closure at any time."

"At present, since the AcFun domain name is provided by an overseas registration service agency and the server is also overseas, this falls within the law enforcement boundary and there is no way to seal it up." Li Junhui believes that since the domain name is not compliant and the business may be affected by the license, it still faces risks.

Zhao Zhanling, a well-known intellectual property lawyer, believes that the possibility of AcFun being directly blocked is not great, and there may be such a crisis due to pressure from regulatory authorities. In addition, AcFun itself has a certain market prospect, and investors should understand the risks, especially large investments, which involve investigations in financial, business, and legal aspects. Therefore, AcFun will definitely have a plan to avoid risks and work hard to obtain a license.

Not long ago, another domain name of AcFun, acfun.tudou.com, was launched, and the website content is the same as AcFun. "If AcFun changes its domain name and re-operates, or completely becomes a sub-brand of Youku Tudou, it can also avoid such risks," Li Junhui judged.