In Episode 27 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma discuss the latest scandal to come out of the Chinese internet — fake reviews on one of China’s leading travel websites, Mafengwo. Mafengwo had $1.5 billion in sales last year, 63k transactions, and over 100 million monthly active users. It’s already backed by some of the best investors in the business, including Temasek, Hillhouse, General Atlantic, and Capital Today, and in August, it was leaked that it was in the middle of raising $300 million at a valuation up to $2.5 billion.
A controversy then blew up when analytics firm Shenzhen Hurui and a Wechat official account known for their exposés of the tech industry published a blog post that claimed 85 percent — 18 out of 21 million — of Mafengwo’s user reviews were faked or plagiarized from other sites. Outrageously, some of them were so poorly plagiarized that they still retained the original website’s URL, or in other cases, scripts indicating that the review was translated using an online translator. Mafengwo immediately denied the accusations and even filed a lawsuit claiming defamation.
Our co-host this week is Eva Woo, a former business journalist at SCMP, Bloomberg, and Caixin. Together with Eva, Rui and Ying-Ying unravel the tangle of accusations leveled against Mafengwo and explain why the company has taken such a strong stance against them (hint: its very business model depends on it). We also briefly go into why the purported victims from which Mafengwo was alleged to have plagiarized from — Dianping, Ctrip, et al. — haven’t made any complaints. Another hint: the entire industry could be guilty of such behavior based on questionable incentives, and plus, there exists an entire shadow paid-poster economy that is thriving, with the growing reliance on user-generated content as key building blocks for driving traffic.
Listen to the newest episode of TechBuzz China and join Rui, Ying-Ying, and Eva in exploring: How did this exposé come about, and why are users so outraged? What can we learn from the Mafengwo incident and should we be more wary of the numbers coming out of other Chinese companies? What are the responsibilities of investors in such instances, or do they have reasons to be complicit in accommodating such bad behavior?
As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Finally, a huge shoutout to our new listeners over at dealstreetasia.com.
Ep. 84: 2021 China Internet Report with SCMP CEO Gary Liu
Ep. 83: Acquired crossover — 2021 China tech trends
Ep. 82: Q1 China ecommerce update with BigOne Lab
Ep. 81: What it takes to win in China - Rui Ma with Karl Ulrich
Ep. 80: Community (grocery) group buying: The next must-win market in China?
Ep. 79: Yatsen Group: Cosmetics ecommerce superstar and China’s L’Oreal for the digital age?
Ep. 78: China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) dreams
Ep. 77: The next thing in China ecommerce? Consumer to manufacturer (C2M)
Ep. 76: Lufax IPO and the end of P2P lending in China
Ep. 75: China ecommerce SaaS: Youzan, Weimob, and WeChat mini programs
Ep. 74: Ant Group: The biggest IPO…ever?
Ep. 73: KE Holdings: China’s second largest platform?
Ep. 72: What makes TikTok tick: A dialogue with Eugene Wei
Ep. 71: Industry trends in China’s COVID-19 recovery, with Mu Chen
Ep. 70: Livestreaming ecommerce with Lauren Hallanan
Ep. 69: China AI with Jeff Ding
Ep. 68: Entertainment livestreaming outside of China with Shang Koo of M17.asia
Ep. 67: TikTok’s siblings: ByteDance’s other video apps
Ep. 66: Beyond TikTok: Bytedance’s ambitions in gaming and education
Ep. 65 (Extra Buzz Special): Luckin’s luck ran out
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