BEIJING – The Chinese Internet is not a safe place. Criticizing government officials might land you a free (and sometimes lengthy) trip to a re-education camp or an eye-opening stay in a psychiatric ward.

If you're complaining about a product that you bought online, chances are you will receive bizarre presents such as an infant-size coffin, or a parcel containing disgusting and smelly things. Insulting phone calls in the middle of the night will keep you awake or your telephone number might simply become a hotline for phone sex.

The harassment will stop once you remove your online criticism or - even better - change it into praise.

If none of these threatening methods convince you, the sellers have other resources. For example, they can bribe the administrator of the website, delaying any criticism or use keywords to shield the offending text from being seen, or simply just have it deleted.

According to some Chinese industry resources, it is pretty much the unspoken rule these days that all online shopping evaluations are fakes.

Bad news travels fast

Word of mouth is one of the most important features of e-commerce. A negative comment has far greater effect since "good news usually stays inside while bad news travels far".

However, a "harmonious world" without any discord cannot possibly exist, either in the real world or in the virtual world. A product's poor rating serves as a warning to potential buyers, but also as a reminder to sellers about maintaining service and quality.

According to a study conducted by British online shopping evaluation site Reevoo, 68% of consumers said they trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, and 95% said they suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don't see bad scores.

A good business should respond to client reviews positively and actively. A lasting business is based on an environment where sellers are willing to accept criticism from customers with an open mind and use this criticism to improve their products or services. Reevoo's study showed that 18% of consumers became loyal customers after receiving a brand response to negative feedback, and 95% of them would actually recommend a brand or retailer to friends after great customer service.

Read the full article in Chinese.

*Newsbites are digest items not direct translations.

Photo - sbfh 0607