A recent controversy involving Pang Donglai and Zhong Shanshan highlights a common underlying issue: the burden of landlords and rent. Pang Donglai's frustration stems from physical landlords, which ultimately led him to angrily close his store. Zhong Shanshan's ire, on the other hand, is directed at platform landlords, whose algorithms disrupt the real economy.

Both are unpretentious entrepreneurs with a grounding in reality, and their criticisms are highly representative. At its core, their anger toward landlords and rent points to a single injustice: those who create value receive a small share, while those who distribute it take a large portion. This is both unfair and damaging to value creation.

In theory, a landlord should only collect rent based on costs and location, with both parties agreeing on a fair price. However, a landlord should not raise the price arbitrarily simply because the tenant's business is thriving. A landlord is not a shareholder. Yet, the current situation sees landlords frequently targeting the tenant's success, demanding exorbitant fees as if they were shareholders.

We often see platforms like Douyin acting this way: they calculate traffic based on whether the tenant is profitable and by how much. This implies that the more you earn, the more they take, effectively treating themselves as shareholders. Many businesses on these platforms are voicing complaints.

Regarding the recent defense of e-commerce by Wu Xiaobo, we find that he misunderstood Zhong Shanshan's point. Zhong's core concern is with platforms and algorithms, not e-commerce itself. In fact, if Zhong's views were adopted, and platform and algorithm power were restricted and self-regulated, even Wu Xiaobo, who sells knowledge-based products on these platforms, would benefit. I'm not sure what Wu Xiaobo is opposing.

Wu Xiaobo has always enjoyed discussing business history and ethics. He should understand that any business model where the value creator receives a small portion and the value distributor receives a large share is unhealthy and a betrayal of innovation and value creation.

Currently, the monopoly rent extracted by platforms and traffic sources is more severe. If a physical landlord raises prices, we can find another location. But there are only a few major platforms. If platforms monopolize and traffic prices rise, the real economy has no choice but to submit to their exploitation.

Therefore, controlling the "landlords" of platforms and algorithms is more practically significant and urgent than ever.