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China
China

Where Posting Negative Online Reviews Can Ruin Your Life

In China, e-sellers harass consumers in some particularly disturbing ways if they've written negative reviews about their products.

Thinking about writing a negative review? Think again! (sbfh 0607)
Thinking about writing a negative review? Think again! (sbfh 0607)
ChinaFutureECONOMIC OBSERVERSourcesCountries

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

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ECONOMIC OBSERVER
The Economic Observer is a weekly Chinese-language newspaper founded in April 2001. It is one of the top business publications in China. The main editorial office is based in Beijing, China. Inspired by the Financial Times of Britain, the newspaper is printed on peach-colored paper.
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Society
Parenting

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Kelly Sikkema
SocietyEL ESPECTADORSourcesfeatured-postColombiaCountries
Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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