Buying Positive Reviews and Followers

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 ...