False popularity

 

Cartoon by Liu Zhiyong; Poem by Long Yuan

 

When WeChat was updated,
They found some sites’ traffic was inflated.
Actual and reported likes,
Were often unrelated.
Through acts of heinous deception,
They created a false perception.
To avoid dishonest practices,
Multiple parties should facilitate detection.
Because the situation is so complicated,
Monitoring should be thorough and well regulated.
Through laws and regulations,
New standards must be mandated. 

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An upgrade to the WeChat system in late September last year revealed that many of the platform’s public accounts are not as popular as they appear. Many accounts with articles that easily had more than 100,000 page views before the WeChat upgrade have lost much of their traffic. Some even saw traffic decline to only 10 percent of their previous views.

Tencent Technology cited one public account as an example: an article was posted at 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 28, the day of the upgrade, and by 10:30 a.m. the next day, it generated 600 clicks, whereas articles posted on the same account days before easily hit 20,000.

 

Data fraud
As WeChat operators admit, there is now a gray industry in which people can purchase page views and forwards. Basically, there are two ways to generate page views: user clicks and software. Since a simple click is quite straightforward, most of the time the task can be automated using software called bots.

However, it is hard for bots to generate likes and remarks, so professionals are often employed to do this work by hand. Because it creates a false impression of grassroots support, the practice is often called “astroturfing,” referring to a type of fake grass used in indoor stadiums.

On some e-commerce websites, hundreds of sellers provide astroturfing services offering to increase the number of clicks and subscribers on WeChat, and the transactions are astonishing. It is reported that 1,000 graphic page views cost 15 yuan, while 100 text page views cost 15 yuan and 100 forwards cost 40 yuan.

According to iiMedia Research, a data mining and marketing agency that deals with mobile Internet, profits for the services have skyrocketed in the last three years, from 4.5 billion yuan in 2013 to 37.8 billion yuan (about $5.5 billion) in 2016.

Newrank, a Big Data company that tracks new media and user-generated media, reported that about 60 percent of public accounts showed a decline of readership on Sept. 28. In the most extreme cases, 124 accounts saw traffic plunge by more than 80 percent. WeChat accounts that promote entertainment, brands and public relations as well as some We Media that forward advertisements are among the biggest buyers of fake clicks. In contrast, traditional media only saw a slight impact from the platform’s system upgrade.

Furthermore, it also showed that 80.6 percent of We Media operators paid to increase page views and, on average, they only have roughly 30.7 percent of claimed readership.

Page views are similar to ratings in the television business, and it is the most common performance indicator of online metrics for advertisers, which explains why some public accounts go out of their way to create an inflated image of their popularity. It is lucrative from the perspective of a cost-benefit analysis.

An article that generates more than 100,000 views can attract advertisers. In general, a piece of advertisement on the headline of such a public account will cost at least 30,000 yuan. The average is 50,000 yuan, and some can even cost 100,000 yuan (about $14,500) each.
 

 

However, according to iiMedia Research, 72.8 percent of readers have not heard of the astroturfing business, with only 10 percent reporting awareness of it. Without restraint, the credibility of information readers get will be at once affected while it will also cloud the judgment of advertisers.

In addition to inflated page views, some online retailers pay to increase sales, and app stores do the same with the number of downloads. Such practices threaten to erode consumer trust, endangering the Internet industry. Supposedly open and transparent, the Internet is colored by delusional bubbles because of these false clicks. 

 

Multiple governance
Now that the practice has been exposed, Internet users have begun to complain about the acts of deception, calling for supervision of the involved parties.

WeChat, as a new media platform, should take the lead in stepping up supervision, and it has promised to sharpen the technical means to ensure a true, just and fair platform.

However, it is pretty difficult to eradicate astroturfing through technological means because public account operators and astroturfing services will doubtlessly try other ways to get around the system block.

To say the least, the matter requires joint efforts from multiple parties.

First of all, public accounts should introduce a third party to monitor data. In fact, since the problem of fake clicks was exposed, 87.2 percent of advertisers have said that they will not buy ads on a page unless it has independent third-party verification of its traffic data.

In early October last year, GS Data, a Big Data company, released a tool that claims to be able to detect abnormalities on public accounts and identify astroturfing. Based mainly on historical data and data on Sept. 28, it will monitor 10 indicators, including headline reading rate, reading rate per piece and daily reading frequency to judge the likelihood that public accounts are using professional services or other means to exaggerate their popularity. By Oct. 11, some 98,700 public accounts were involved in testing.

In the meantime, Newrank, iiMedia Research and other third-party data agencies are also offering to carry out real-time monitoring and analysis and trace the source of the traffic.

Second, it is necessary to establish a new media monitoring organization or association that can set standards and rules for the industry as well as provide supervision. Related government bodies could certify data-monitoring tools and help responsible data-monitoring agencies gain more opportunities. In short, China’s Internet industry needs a transparent, objective, scientific data and statistics system formed by a group of qualified data-monitoring and evaluation agencies.

Last, the government should implement laws and regulations that punish misconduct and hold public account operators accountable for spreading false information, particularly those that cause significantly negative impact.

Buying page views is a form of commercial fraud. However, at present, those public accounts have yet to be held liable for their acts of bad faith. Simply shutting the accounts down on the part of WeChat platform does not answer such illegal acts. Therefore, it is crucial for the government to clarify or refine relevant laws and regulations to fight against the gray interest chain.

 

Social media ecosystem
Only when public account operators attract and keep users through formal and effective channels to enhance experience, can they truly gain long-term investment value.

The main difference between social media and traditional media lies in interaction. In the era of social media, people rely more on sharing rather than searching to get content. As a consequence, a piece of news is judged not only by its attractiveness to read and watch but also according to its potential to go viral, which is heavily dependent on reposts and shares.

If an article from one public account appears in “Moments,” WeChat’s equivalent of the Facebook news feed, the chances it is read repeatedly and forwarded largely increase, and such an article usually generates voluminous page views and likes.

According to WeChat Impact Report 2016, a document by Tencent Penguin Research that details the behavior of WeChat users, “Moments” are the main arena of mobile social interaction. As much as 80 percent said they were frequent users while 61.4 percent said they browse “Moments” every time they use the app.

It is safe to say that people have formed the habit of browsing “Moments,” so in order to reach a larger audience, public accounts spare no effort to encourage subscribers to forward information.

Compared to articles people read, articles that are meant to be reposted need to consider the reasons users do so. Public accounts should treat their users as disseminators, taking into account what users like to share with their friends. The answer is fairly straightforward: high-quality writing and graphics.

As Paul Lazarsfeld, an American scholar said, ultimately, there is no medium that touches people more than human interaction. In reality, recommendations from friends, family, or even acquaintances or colleagues are often quite influential and much more translatable into consumer behavior.

The WeChat platform and public accounts could apply diverse social media operations and commercial models to locate the potential value in the social chain, thus creating a benign circle of social media ecosystem.

 

Yu Jiaqi is from the Center for Social Governance and Public Policy Research at Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences.