Chinese marketers would laugh their heads off if their online pluggers were so foolish as to announce their true identity. The beauty of online plugging is hidden identity. Call me a cynic, but I never harbored any illusion about the Internet as a democratizing platform. Back in the days of Web 1.0, I witnessed how people manipulated it to their benefit.
A person I know worked at the entertainment channel of one of the most popular portal sites in China. Talent agencies would wine and dine him, beautiful starlets would snuggle up to him, red envelopes would be slipped into his pockets - all for the purpose of masquerading press releases as entertainment news. Pretty soon the guy was so flushed with money he opened a side business in a busy shopping district.
And this happened when outsiders lauded the media outlet he worked for as an open and democratic alternative to the establishment.
It doesn't really take inside information to know that most of the entertainment articles on China's major websites are not really news. But ordinary netizens cannot tell the difference. As long as what's posted is not too outrageous or dumb, people will buy it and nobody will feel it's a violation of their right to accurate information.
What's happening now is much worse, or the perpetrators wouldn't be called an "online black society". As the Internet is flooded with all kinds of rubbish, it is more difficult to hype something than to attack it. So, instead of raving about how wonderful your product is, it is better to wage a smear campaign against your rival. So, you say, your neighbor's toddler got sick from using that product and see its sales plummet. By the time the rival company clears things up and government agencies have come forward, the damage is done and there'll be an inkling of odium forever associated with that brand.
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