On November 27, reporters learned from the Xunlei Online Game Accelerator Network that due to adjustments to the platform's operating strategy and considering the overall operating situation, the Xunlei Online Game Accelerator will officially cease operations on December 1 this year, shutting down acceleration services and various activities.
Xunlei Online Game Accelerator issued a shutdown notice, screenshot from Xunlei Online Game Accelerator Organ Network
According to its official website, Xunlei Online Game Accelerator is a professional product launched by "Xunlei Network" (full name Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Co., Ltd., XNET.US) dedicated to helping players solve problems such as high game delays, lags, and disconnections. level acceleration software. Xunlei online game acceleration users are divided into ordinary users and member users, and members are further subdivided into ordinary members and premium members.
It has been less than a week since the official suspension, and the official has not released a member refund plan. The reporter called the official customer service of Xunlei members and learned that “Xunlei online game accelerator members can be converted to Xunlei members and enjoy download acceleration services, but refunds are not supported.”
The birth of the online game accelerator industry was based on the needs of early online game users for network stability. In recent years, with the enhancement of network transmission capabilities and the popularity of mobile games, the survival of online game accelerators will face greater challenges.
There are already signs of outage
Membership renewals were suspended in June last year
Currently, the Xunlei Online Game Accelerator membership activation and renewal functions have been temporarily closed.
The reporter entered the Xunlei Forum from the official website of Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xunlei") and found that as early as July 2021, some users reported on the forum that the online game accelerator was suspended for renewal, and asked "if there are any plans to renew it in the near future" "Online online game accelerator". At that time, the official staff replied in the forum, "Due to the upgrade and maintenance of the PC online game accelerator payment portal, online game accelerator membership cannot be opened/renewed during this period, and no relevant (offline) notification has been received yet."
On November 27 this year, a reporter called the Xunlei member-only customer service number, and the customer service responded, “Since June 25 last year, online game accelerator renewal has been suspended.”
What are the benefits of becoming a member of Xunlei Online Game Accelerator? According to the Xunlei Online Game Acceleration Organ Network, its ordinary users can enjoy Xunlei’s free high-speed channel for downloading popular games such as LOL, Blade & Soul, and DNF; upgrading to a membership can enjoy fiber node acceleration, popular game gift packs, and Blade & Soul, CF, Gold medal Internet cafe privileges for 184 games including FIFA-, QQ Dance, etc.
As for the total number of users and members of Xunlei Online Game Accelerator, reporters have not yet learned from public channels. Before the shutdown, Xunlei’s platinum members and online game accelerator members had been separated independently.
As for the reason for the outage, customer service said that "it has not yet received a specific and detailed notification."
According to Xunlei's official website, Xunlei currently has individual consumer-level services such as Xunlei Download, Xunlei Video, Xunlei Live, Xunlei Kuainiao, and Xunlei Membership, which are distributed in download acceleration, network acceleration, game acceleration, uplink acceleration and other fields, forming a technologically leading company. Cloud acceleration product matrix.
On November 10 this year, Xunlei announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ending September 30, 2022. The financial report shows that Xunlei’s total revenue in the third quarter reached US$88.3 million (approximately RMB 640 million), a year-on-year increase of 47.1%, exceeding the upper limit of the previous quarter’s expected guidance. Xunlei’s revenue mainly comes from three sources. Among them, membership revenue was US$25 million, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%.
Questions asked by users on the Xunlei Forum, screenshots from the Xunlei Forum
Are membership fees non-refundable?
Lawyer: This statement has no legal effect
Regarding the solution after the outage, Xunlei member official customer service responded to reporters, "Member recharge is a virtual service and refunds are not supported." However, Xunlei online game accelerator members can be converted into Xunlei members and enjoy the acceleration service of Xunlei members’ download resources. If you need to handle membership conversion, you need to provide the customer service with the order number that was recharged at that time, and the business process will be carried out after inquiry and confirmation.
In other words, the suspension and compensation methods are decided by Xunlei. So, how to protect the rights and interests of users?
"This type of recharge should belong to the purchase of network virtual services. The two parties have established a network service contract. They are neither virtual assets nor virtual currencies." Zhu Junchao, founding partner of Kenting Law Firm and head of Nuocheng's gaming legal team, analyzed that this service The contract performance is as follows: users pay legal currency directly, and Xunlei provides accelerator acceleration services to paying users through the Internet during their membership period.
Zhu Junchao believes that the network service contract reached by both parties is legal and valid and protected by law. The user has purchased a specific acceleration service and paid for it. Xunlei should ensure that the user can enjoy specific acceleration services during the membership period. Now because Xunlei has unilaterally stopped the acceleration service The service is a unilateral breach of contract by Xunlei and directly results in the inability to achieve the purpose of the user's contract. Users can require Xunlei to bear the liability for breach of contract in accordance with legal provisions to compensate for losses (i.e. refund).
Regarding the "non-refundable" clause for membership recharge, Zhu Junchao believes that this clause is a standard clause and is not naturally valid. "If Xunlei terminates the service without reason but refuses to refund the user, it is equivalent to deliberately restricting the user's legal rights and maliciously avoiding its own liability for breach of contract." Zhu Junchao said that there are generally two solutions: after negotiation and agreement with the user, switch to another member ; To refund the user, Xunlei can average the service fee to the specific number of service days, then multiply it by the number of days of unserviced service, and refund the fee in the original way.