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Samsung Accused of Paying For Negative HTC Reviews
judgecorp writes "Samsung Taiwan has been accused of paying to have negative reviews of HTC products put online by students who recommended Samsung devices instead. The Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission is investigating Samsung's advertising agency in Taiwan, and Samsung Taiwan has responded by cancelling all Internet marketing."
This is, actually, normal behaviour from phone manufacturers who use Android as OS. There is tons of competition in the area and put blatantly, Android based setups cant stand out for favour that easily. This makes all the manufacturers play dirty, just like Google does. Don't be evil, my ass.
I was always wondering why some of my friends were recommending substandard samsung products and accusing me of being an Apple fanboy when I promoted LG products (I have an LG android phone). My "friends" (not IRL ones) are probably paid Samsung shills.
Its called affiliate marketing, and lots of businesses use it (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/). Is it legal? Who cares!
That there is such a thing as the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
after all, they can't bully HTC on patents, so they have to do it by hiring whiners
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I wonder what are those false advertisements they are talking about.
Anyway, I hope this is not a false advertisement from HTC as well.
.
What makes this different from positive advertising of your product's virtues or negative comparisons or statements about your competitor's products? Is it the hidden "agency" of using unattributed posters to say these negative things? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_agent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_agency
I hope there's a special level of hell set aside for them.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
... how much HTC paid for this accusation?
"With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone."
Samsung has a "kill Taiwan" strategy. There was bound to be backlash for a company that is government-backed.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201303200043.aspx
I've had a HTC incredible 2 for almost 2 years now, and I've not been too happy with it :/ (Thankfully, the 2 year contract is almost up)
Between the faulty charger port, horrible reception, quickly draining/overheating battery, and broken promises by HTC/Verizon several times to update, I don't exactly have a very positive view of HTC.
I'll admit this is the only HTC phone I have, maybe the other ones suck less.
But regardless, while I'm not ruling it out that it's impossible for Samsung to have done such, it's certainly possible that they're also legitimate.
Personally I believe the HTC One is a remarkable phone, exceedingly pretty and I love the fact that HTC dared to go against the mainstream with their camera by focusing on good low-light performance at the mega-pixel race's expense. While the Samsung Galaxy S III has nice specs it looks like ass and Samsung is seemingly afraid of trying new things now that they believe they've found a winning formula. I hope HTC can gain some market-share from Samsung and continues to experiment with their phones.
they screwed their business themselves
no brand recognition
years of constant new phone releases under new names
crappy support and updates
crappy software. like a mail client with no push email to MS Exchange subfolders when every other android phone maker was doing it
During a brief period as a reviewer of video games, one of my contacts related how he was persona non grata with Sony for not doing positive reviews of their games. It comes as no surprise that Samsung, and most likely other companies too, would engage in similar behavior. What bothers me is that the students seem to have sold out relatively cheaply. I once figured out that at the very least, if asked, I would cost a minimum of $10,000 for a positive review of a bad game.
Microsoft here. You remember all the nasty, sneaky, dirty tricks we've pulled over the years? Well, our latest trick is to make front groups who claim our competitors are now using those same tricks.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
A Taiwan-based corporation that brings in a lot of revenue to its government is now hurting and then goes to the same government it has given billions to and asks it to investigate the legitimacy of negative articles from its competition which, in turn, creates negative publicity for their competition?
Whenever a company uses illegal tactics (I would assume this could be considered defamatory in Taiwan) to advance a product against competitors, just fine them based on a simple fee schedule that is the total number of products sold against the harmed competitor(s) times a sliding scale of severity based on how anti-competitive it was. If that means billions in fines, so be it. Just make it so black and white and inflexible that it becomes a matter of "did you do it?" "Yes?" "Then pay "$x * y" in fines and restitution.
Does anyone else notice that many Samsung ads seem less about the products and more about making other people feel bad? I don't own an iPhone, but whenever I see a Samsung ad insulting some apple user all I can think is, "Boy those guys are jerks." If I need a product and the Samsung one is superior I'll probably buy it, but it would cross my mind that I don't want to be a jerk like the people in their ads.
Definitely no other company does this.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Samsung is carved, tattooed, laser imprinted and sealed at the top of my do-not-buy-never-ever-blacklist. There is seriously no shittier, less moral, asshole tech company that Shamescum...in the world. (Monsanto and BigOil are shittier, but they aren't tech companies). I'm serious.
They are not copying Apple as they get their shilling for free!
Every single company in existence would likely do this at some point if they make a habit of it so they never get ratted on.
Once they make that first step it is blackmailed for life. At least if you are a smart comment and review shitstirrer, that is.
Any large company that doesn't run covert smear campaigns are probably nuts. Attack your competition. Even legally. (mocking is still legal last I checked)
Better yet, don't run smear campaigns, run "X is the best product / company" campaigns instead. Be on the moral side of cheating the system at the least!
All this negativity is bad for you.
Samsung’s local advertising agency had hired the students to criticise HTC and recommend Samsung smartphones instead.
People used to do this at my college all the time.
Not directly, sure, but they'd be like "Here's a free pizza from samsung, remember how HTC never gave you a pizza when you pick a phone :D"
The fact that we have the word 'astroturfing' to describe this kind of thing should be a pretty good hint that this happens.
People pay for fake Twitter followers, good reviews, bad reviews of competitors, position papers, and all sorts of crap. It's all about managing your brand and the message.
I find nothing at all surprising about this revelation, and I strongly suspect many corporations do the exact same thing.
Hell, Microsoft, the oil industry, the tobacco industry, political parties and the *AAs routinely cite 'research papers' from organizations which are really there just to be paid mouth pieces in order to support the version of the truth one organization wants to get out there. It's all marketing sleight of hand.
This is just the normal way of doing business these days. I've just come to assume that anything *too* much in favor of anything was purchased or was otherwise put out by someone with a stake in the game.
News flash, the average person doesn't apply a lot of critical thinking to these things, and companies are highly motivated to get a leg up on the competition.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
..which am I supposed to consider more evil? The guys who've stacked the deck, or the guys trying to sneak more cards into the pack?
"May the BEST MAN, win..."? I seriously suspect that THAT is a BIG PROBLEM in the world today, what-with all the scumbag cheats & shenanigans out there (much of it in "the world of business", especially).
Just plain dead-up DISHONORABLE bullshit, to be blunt about it!
* I mean, what - Did those FOOLS *think* they'd "get away with it"? Come on...
There's ALWAYS someone who will "let the cat outta the bag" with b.s. like that, a prime example(s) being:
---
The Chinese Water Army:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/12/chinese-water-army-hijacks-onl.html
OR
HBGary:
http://www.naturalnews.com/033490_Facebook_infiltration.html
---
(Both being caught doing pretty much the same thing, albeit by using MULTIPLE trolling accounts/sockpuppets).
Samsung, were I they (or their board of directors but perhaps MORE IMPORTANTLY, their shareholders)? I'd find out WHO put their "John Hancock" on that order, & can his ass, fast... if only for "damage control", before they damage themselves further!
These people are no better than our OWN "trolling scumbag" Jeremiah Cornelius who now has to face the music on pretty much the same crap!
(I.E./E.G.-> JC spammed posts about myself here by the MANY 100's all March 2013 last month, only to BLOW IT, accidentally submitting one as his "registered 'luser'" account here instead of his USUAL ac ones -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3581857&cid=43276741 )
He pissed the entire forums here off royally trying to 'crap on me' & lmao, only ended up crapping on himself (and yet the punk had the NERVE to 'complain' about it, here too -> http://slashdot.org/~Jeremiah+Cornelius/journal/360681 later... no class, no honor, & certainly NO BALLS! )
I can't stand people like that. I really can't. Nice part is though, they ALWAYS screw up & get caught (like any up to no good idiot usually does, if only eventually).
APK
P.S.=> Now, they're going to have to "live it down", & find out that though you MAY do 1,000 great things now or in the past, all it takes is 1 'blackmark' to mess you up for years-to-decades into the distance... & "oh sure", the business types figure "Ah, customers are STUPID - they'll 'fuggit bout it'", right? WRONG... for example above, the ones I pointed out in the 2 links above (I, for one, will NEVER forget that, & I am certain I am NOT alone in that sentiment)...
... apk
The fact that we have the word 'astroturfing' to describe this kind of thing should be a pretty good hint that this happens.
Astroturfing is a different thing; it's when a company creates a political lobbying group disguised as a "grassroots" organization. (Fake grass, get it?) Calling this "astroturfing" makes no sense, since there is no such thing real grassroots support for a company like Samsung.
This is a negative variation on shilling: paying people to badmouth your competitors (as opposed to traditional shilling, which is paying people to talk up your own product.)
Shilling is to advertising as astroturfing is to lobbying.
for almost a year i read how awesome the galaxy S3 is. then my father in law got one and i played around with it. nice phone but nothing special. i'll keep my iphone 5
guerrilla marketing at its best
I wont mind talking negatively about android and samsung for free...
I'm posting anonymous for a reason (fear of retaliation from Samsung)
I've followed the story since it first broke out in Taiwan. What Samsung did was not just bad review. They essentially flooded forums with flame, troll, fake discussion to create a viral campaign.
For example, a hired writer would post under ID "A" asking, which phone is better, Samsung vs HTC. Then the same guy would login using ID "B" to write good review about Samsung phone. He would then use a 3rd ID "C" to pretend to be an HTC supporter, but reply with poor taste (like calling "B" an idiot, swearing, but give no real context). All this to great a buzz and fake discussion, with the original ID "A" eventually said he bought Samsung, and it was a smart move and a better choice. Samsung was also accused of hiring writer to cook up fake story on forum how he "unboxed the new HTC One and the quality was crap".
Samsung also played the nationality card. Samsung sponsored some sports event in Taiwan, then hire writer to post "WHY ISN'T HTC SUPPORTING TAIWAN LIKE SAMSUNG", and also using multiple ID's to "agree" and build the fake discussion so that Samsung sounds like the good guy, and HTC is the bad guy.
Leaving fake positive review is one thing. What Samsung did was with smear campaign on HTC, Sony Xperia, Apple, is just utterly disgusting!!!
It is an interesting article though because I've had similar thought's about HTC recently on certain other tech and Android forums the amount of HTC One posts is way beyond any other phone and most of them are full of nonsense reasons why the One is better than everything else but if you look at the actual specs the HTC is trailing the Galaxy S4 in everything.
To me that's very fishy.
My hope is that a large-scale crackdown on astroturfing will follow. It's an absolute poison to society and has no right to be a thing.
We know it's you doing it Jeremiah Cornelius http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3581857&cid=43276741