Stepping on the red line!
How about saying that online loans are “deep”?
When you borrow money on my platform, it is clearly written on it. I will charge you a comprehensive annualized interest rate of less than ten points, and it will be credited to your account quickly. This opportunity is not to be missed, and the time will never come again!
But I won't tell you:
As long as you sign and the money arrives, the third-party platform will quickly deduct a "service fee", "membership fee", and "guarantee fee"… In this way, the comprehensive annualized interest rate can be directly doubled!
Although it sounds a bit "shady", there are quite a few online loan platforms that charge high "service fees" through third-party platforms.
A recent complaint brought 58.com, which had been dormant for a long time, to the public’s attention.
According to Tencent Finance, on the eve of March 15, some consumers reported that they did not click or check to activate membership.
However, in the early morning of February 19, 58 Haojiu, a subsidiary of 58.com, privately deducted 1,500 yuan from him through Shenzhen Oak Network Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. and Baofu to activate a one-month premium membership.
The money was deducted directly from the bank card he had reserved before. There was no confirmation in the whole process and I was completely unaware of it.
After finding out, he immediately contacted customer service to negotiate, but no one handled it for several days. When I received the message again, it turned out to be a text message: "The membership service has taken effect, and the cancellation failed due to the use of bonus rights."
The co-author didn't even give a chance to refuse…
Even earlier, on January 29, a user also said on the "People's Complaints" platform of People's Daily Online that he applied for two loans totaling 40,000 yuan through 58 Haojie. I have to say that the lending speed is really fast and the money arrives quickly.
But when he checked the bank statements, he was confused. As soon as the loan arrived, a sum of money was instantly transferred, and a full 3,000 yuan was deducted in two installments.
It was not the bank that transferred the money, but a third-party institution called "Shanghai Flash Network Technology Co., Ltd."
This means that he actually received only 37,000 yuan, but when he repaid the loan, he had to calculate interest on the principal of 40,000 yuan. In other words, each loan actually received 18,500 yuan, and the repayment was calculated as 20,000 yuan, and the comprehensive annualized interest rate rushed to 35.28%.
The annual interest rate advertised on the 58 Haojie interface is only 7.2%, which is nearly five times the difference between the two and far exceeds the upper limit of judicial protection stipulated by the state. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a disguised loan shark.
Supervision has been strengthened
In fact, the problem of arbitrary charging of online loans has been criticized for a long time, but this year, it seems that supervision is coming for real?
Just a few days before March 15, the financial regulatory authorities interviewed five platforms: Fenqile, Qifu IOU, Youwodai, Yixianghua, and Credit Fei.
They are clearly required to standardize marketing promotions, clearly disclose interest and fee information, protect personal information, comply with collection requirements, and improve complaint mechanisms.
On March 15, the financial regulatory authorities went all out and issued a blockbuster new regulation – "Regulations on Expressed Comprehensive Financing Costs for Personal Loan Business", which targeted the "hidden charges" and "interest rate cover" in the online lending industry.
From "suggestion" to "mandatory", this time's new regulations are not empty words. The core is one: all fees must be transparent and cannot be hidden.
First, all costs are calculated together. Whether it is interest, service fees, guarantee fees, or membership fees, they must be added together to calculate the "annualized comprehensive financing cost."
Second, users must confirm their knowledge. Offline loans require signature confirmation, while online loans require a mandatory reading pop-up window and sufficient reading time.
Third, the scene is fully covered. Especially for online consumption installments, comprehensive financing costs must be displayed prominently on the payment page to prevent users from being misled by the guise of “low monthly payment” and “zero interest”.
Fourth, responsibilities must be extended. Lending institutions must manage their cooperative institutions, such as loan assistance platforms and guarantee companies, to ensure that their fees are compliant and transparent, and cannot pass the blame to third parties.
However, this time the new regulations will not be implemented immediately. A buffer period of nearly 5 months will be given and will be officially implemented from August 1, 2026. In the past five months, some companies have begun to make corrections, while others want to accelerate their performance. So 58 is easy to borrow, which one does it belong to?
You won’t know if you don’t check, but you’ll be shocked if you check.
As of March 19, the number of complaints about 58 Haojie on the Black Cat complaint platform has reached 37,582, which is more than 5,000 more than his hometown 58.com, and most of them focus on "arbitrary deductions."
As for 58 Haojie, do you want to take advantage of these five months to boost performance, or do you want to start making rectifications? At present, after 315, the phenomenon of "illegal deduction of guarantee fees" still exists.
On March 19, four days after the introduction of the new regulations, there were still users reporting on Black Cat Complaints that 58 Haojie illegally deducted guarantee fees through a third-party platform, and the interest rate exceeded the upper limit, requiring a refund.
The pressure is on 58.com
58 Haojie’s illegal operations were ultimately paid by 58.com.
Recalling that year, Yao Jinbo encountered a rogue rental agent right after graduating from college, and secretly made up his mind to create a platform so that rogue agents had nowhere to go.
But the ideal is very full, and the reality is very skinny. 58.com finally felt defeated by the reality.
Since its listing in 2013, 58.com’s revenue growth has been declining, and in the fourth quarter of 2019, it experienced negative growth for the first time.
In September 2020, 58.com announced the completion of a privatization merger and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, trying to find a new way out through business spin-offs.
After delisting, it spun off businesses such as Anjuke (real estate agency), Swan Daojia (local life), and Kuaigou (city freight). It may want to list these sectors independently to support the overall situation.
But the reality is cruel. These separated businesses have strong opponents in every field.
In the field of recruitment, there are Zhaopin Recruitment and BOSS Direct Recruitment; in real estate business, there is Beike House Search; in intra-city freight, there are Lalamove, Truck Help…
The main business is weak, and the financial business was once a hope, because the financial business has indeed given 58.com a surprise.
Changyin Wuba Xiaojin, which it holds a stake in, maintained rapid growth from 2019 to 2023. Its net profit reached 683 million yuan in 2023, ranking fifth in the industry and becoming an important source of profit for 58.com.
But the good times did not last long. Entering 2024, Changyin Wuba's growth suddenly stalled, and the net profit that year plummeted 95.02% year-on-year, leaving only 34 million yuan. By the first three quarters of 2025, net profit has further narrowed to 21 million yuan, which is about to hit bottom.
With the implementation of new loan assistance regulations, 58 Haojie’s model of relying on hidden charges to achieve high interest rates has made 58.com’s financial business even worse.
But what’s even more fatal is the closed-loop imbalance of 58.com’s business model.
Its core income relies on traffic sales, advertising and commissions, which results in the platform deliberately lowering the review threshold and causing the proliferation of false information such as black agents and fake housing listings, which in turn backfires on word-of-mouth and leads to the continued loss of core traffic.
The essence of the loan assistance business is an extension of traffic realization, which is highly dependent on the parent company's traffic supply, and has extremely weak synergy with main businesses such as recruitment and real estate. It can neither drive the recovery of the main business nor solve the fundamental dilemma of inefficient operations and aging business models.
It can only be said that 58.com is under a lot of pressure. Please stay tuned for the follow-up.
