(Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph 2025-12-10)
The e-commerce live broadcast room is brightly lit, and flash sales are taking turns on the screen; in the background of the platform, the streaming budget figures are constantly rolling. In recent years, in my country’s e-commerce landscape, traffic has become a battleground for merchants. However, when the "let more people see me" advertising becomes a routine operation, how to define its relationship with traditional commercial advertising has become a question for many people.
In July this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued enforcement guidelines on the application of advertising laws, focusing on the core issue of "what is commercial advertising" and clarifying the boundaries of commercial advertising and other commercial publicity as new technologies and new models continue to evolve. This new regulation pushes traffic into the "bright audit room." From now on, every penny invested in traffic is no longer just a "cost" on the company's books, but must return to the standard of advertising fees and business promotion fees, and be included in the perspective of supervision.
In the early stages of policy implementation, who will be tested first?
Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter’s research found that there has been a long-standing ambiguity surrounding e-commerce “streaming fees”: some platforms issue invoices for technical service fees and information service fees, but their actual functions include multiple attributes such as advertising display, algorithm distribution, and sales commissions. In this regard, Liu Peng, author of "Computational Advertising" and visiting professor at the w88 casino of Advertising and Branding of Communication University of China, said that when these complex functions are unified and packaged into technical service fee invoices, tax characterization naturally falls into trouble.
So how are the new regulations constrained? Has the tax treatment of e-commerce marketing costs been significantly changed?Professor Zhang Xin, Vice Dean of the Law w88 casino of the w88 casinoTo put it simply, advertising expenses will be deducted from the original full cost deduction to the advertising fee limit. Once the limit is exceeded, the excess amount will be directly included in the taxable profit for the year.
The reporter interviewed many companies and found that the pressure on the three types of entities is the most concentrated. One is the new consumer brands that have relied on high-intensity streaming in the live broadcast room to expand rapidly. Calculations by many beauty companies show that if they continue to maintain the original purchasing pace, the proportion of sales to revenue will soon exceed 30%, and they will face greater adjustment pressure under the new regulations. Second, the current operating conditions of small and medium-sized clothing merchants with low unit prices and limited profit margins are already tense. Once the new regulations are strictly implemented, the ability of the capital chain will be tested. Third, some companies that have long handled investment expenditures in the name of "technical service fees" need to adjust their financial accounting methods and compliance strategies simultaneously once the relevant expenses are clearly classified as advertising fees.
“政策是在告诉市场：烧钱抢量的粗放模式走到头了。”Professor Zhang Xinsaid that the new regulations have actually created a watershed for different types of enterprises. Enterprises that rely on product strength, supply chain and refined operations to win will actually run more steadily in the new environment.
Many small and medium-sized businesses have expressed concerns about the new regulations. "Our investment costs are several million a year, but we didn't really care much about the fees before." A seller in the clothing category said frankly that what he is most worried about now is whether the past few years will be traced.
Experts suggest that in the early stages of policy implementation, on the one hand, small and medium-sized enterprises should be helped to figure out how to calculate accounts through industry-specific and scale-specific guidance; on the other hand, more inclusive transitional arrangements can also be explored. "In the short term, it is a pain, but in the medium and long term, it is a real boost to business capabilities."Zhang Xinrepresents.
From impulse to settlement, how do platforms and algorithms respond?
Facing the reshaping of rules, the platform’s response also attracts attention. The reporter's investigation found that some leading platforms have recently quietly adjusted the presentation methods of advertising products and the design of backend tools.
“Advertising products are shifting from ‘helping customers get more traffic’ to ‘directly helping customers calculate more clearly.’” The reporter found that a traffic cost analysis tool launched on a certain platform is trying to break down the originally vague traffic costs into multiple modules such as creative production, algorithm matching, and advertising space bidding, so that companies can classify and estimate more clearly. This kind of dismantling not only helps enterprises classify and record accounts according to the requirements of the advertising law, but more importantly, it provides the tax department with a clear basis for inspection.
“The big trend in the future is to embed the ‘compliance verification’ function in the algorithm system.” Liu Peng judged that from real-time interception of sensitive words in advertising laws to automatic prompting of possible corresponding tax attributes based on the purpose of delivery, AI compliance parallel computing will gradually become a standard feature of delivery platforms.
The transformation of the role of platforms is not only reflected in the iteration of technical tools, but also reflects that the boundaries of responsibility of digital economy infrastructure providers are being redefined. Submitting tax-related information in accordance with regulations and cooperating with regulatory authorities to conduct data verification have become important links for platforms to fulfill their social responsibilities.
Digital economic governance logic and future trends
The new regulations are not introduced in isolation: on the one hand, there are law enforcement guidelines that include streaming fees in the scope of advertising fees, and on the other hand, there are institutional arrangements that require Internet platforms to report tax-related information in accordance with regulations. These jointly point to the long-term and refined governance of the platform economy.
“This is more like an adjustment to the ‘growth mode’ of the digital economy.”Zhang Xinbelieves that in the past, the platform economy has played a huge role in stimulating employment and expanding domestic demand, but extensive traffic competition has also brought about problems such as inflated investment, false costs, and unfair competition. “Through rule adjustments, companies can be pulled out of ‘traffic anxiety’ and back to their products, services and brands themselves,” she said.
Zhang Xinbelieves that on the one hand, enterprises must complete the transformation from "chasing dividends" to "strengthening capabilities" in mentality. On the other hand, it is necessary to establish a refined decision-making system with data feedback as the core: no longer focusing only on the total amount of merchandise transactions and short-term conversions, but more on measuring repurchase rate, user retention, customer acquisition cost recovery cycle and other indicators.
From a regulatory perspective, how to find a balance between preventing risks and encouraging innovation is also a difficulty in current system design. Many interviewed experts believe that this adjustment of the system around investment fees is only a fulcrum in the digital economic governance system. To truly form a benign ecosystem, fiscal and taxation regulations need to be coordinated with market supervision, data governance, antitrust and other tools.
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