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Buying Positive Reviews and Followers
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Buying Positive Reviews and Followers

How Faking Online Traffic Became a Norm in E-Commerce Businesses and Social Media

Dong Dong's Notes
TMTPost, 2017
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8

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Recommendation

China’s thriving market for generating fake online traffic has created a chaotic environment for consumers who rely on online reviews for buying decisions. Sadly, this problem isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. Businesses are willing to pay for fake reviews, and people are willing to provide them. TMTPost columnist with the pen name “Dong Dong’s Notes” interviews an industry mogul who offers a fascinating insider’s perspective as he traces his personal journey through three distinct online markets. getAbstract recommends this must-read to marketers putting out their feelers to China and to Chinese consumers.

Summary

In the online marketplace, ratings and ranking have a profound effect on consumers’ buying decisions. Theoretically, a vendor with a high rating should deliver good products and services and warrant trust. So why do Chinese vendors with near-perfect ratings fall short?

Fake reviews and click fraud are the lucrative byproducts of China’s burgeoning e-commerce industry, and one man named “Bob” has been instrumental in its development. Capitalizing on the surging demand for fake online traffic, Bob created a lucrative grey-market enterprise, which employed more than 30,000 people in early 2016.

Fresh out of school in 2010, Bob noticed a start-up conundrum: When you first start out, you don’t have rating, but without ratings, you won’t get any business since shoppers prefer vendors with a solid track record. To solve the catch-22, Bob put together a team that created fake online transactions. He charged start-ups ...

About the Author

Dong Dong’s Notes is a co-op columnist for TMTPost and covers stories on technology, ecommerce, entrepreneurship and entertainment.

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