There’s a blogpost in Legalweekly talking about regulating and punishing the fake-review issue in Dianpin: (here’s the original post in Chinese)
Cracking Down on Induced Positive Reviews: Dianping’s Firm Stance
XinYuan Sui, Jan. 12, 2024.
the issue:
As we have mentioned earlier here and here, about ingenuine review issues. The trend of businesses manipulating user reviews through incentives (like, conditional free desserts) or even writing reviews on behalf of customers has been a growing concern.
Dianping, a popular consumer review platform in China, is intensifying its measures against the practice of businesses inducing positive reviews from customers. This move underscores the company’s commitment to maintaining the integrity and reliability of its review system.
Dianping’s vigilant response
In response to these manipulative practices, Dianping has implemented stringent controls. Throughout 2023, the platform deployed hundreds of risk control models to detect and clean up fabricated or induced reviews. These measures also targeted the black and grey market practices of ‘brushing’ (fraudulently boosting store ratings by creating fake orders or reviews).
The platform’s risk control models proactively identify violations, and it offers a transparent reporting channel for public complaints. This is supplemented by phone call verifications and on-site risk assessments to confirm misconduct.
“Risk control model” is a curious term to coin an anti-fraudulent incentive system. Personlly, I’m a little intrigued and am really thinking of doing an internship maybe this summer to really look into the industry.
enforcement? hmm
The news featured an example of Dianping enforcing integrity, combating induced ingenuine review:
A recent case involved a hotpot restaurant in Xi’an, which offered free drinks to customers in exchange for positive reviews. Dianping, acting on tips from netizens and its risk control system, verified the violation through multiple channels, resulting in a warning and integrity score deduction for the merchant.
But the effort is mostly like a drop in the bucket. Like, how high should the stake be (for the Bs) so as to offset their incentive to fake reviews? Also, complexity introduced by heterogeneity nature of modern consumer markets creates further difficulty to design the award-incentivize-punishment system.
Though Dianping claimed to have been actively seeking out to customers for detection of incentivized reviews, me as a frequent diner in various restaurants never received one such phone call. Moreover, honestly, I’be already became fluent in writing a seemingly “positive” review to get free desserts…
on designing a platform of information
Dianping’s resolve is clear: the platform’s star rating system is foundational, and it’s committed to providing “real, trustworthy, and helpful” reviews. The platform adopts a zero-tolerance policy towards false reviews and related black and grey industry chains. By optimizing its mechanisms, encouraging user participation, and fostering government and corporate cooperation, Dianping aims to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and businesses alike.
Really, “optimizing its mechanisms” seems like a void committment that literally means nothing - its execution reveals complexities often overlooked. I can’t even recall how many times I rated in return for small gifts or desserts, and that I’ve never been approached by any phone calls from Dianping inquiring about all my ingenuine comments.
One good thing though, is that ratings don’t completely overshadow other quality signals. Like, it impacts a business’s visibility and ranking in recommendation charts. Yet, there are other factors at play - photos and pricing also serve as critical indicators of quality. Interestingly, consumers are not oblivious to the inflation of ratings. There’s a growing trend of savvy consumers who deliberately seek out for moderately rated ones, understanding that these might offer more genuine and authentic experiences.
I love Dianping, so while trashing it I still wanna wish it good luck. The platform stands at a crucial juncture where more decisive actions could significantly elevate its credibility. For instance, offering monetary rewards for reporting review manipulations could be a game-changer. I believe that Dianping’s people must have thought of this solution but the reason that they’re not taking too large a step is perhaps, the platform needs to take in consideration of the power and benefit for both side of the market, so as to balance the equilibrium between consumer satisfaction and business interests, which is as vital as it is fragile.