Who can you trust in China? Not Shanghai Expat
By Rhodo Zeb. Filed in Uncategorized |Tags: china.realities, shanghai.life
Well, the fun with China Briefing is going to be ongoing, I am sure. It is just too juicy a story to stay away from.
But let’s move on to other topics, shall we? Like, say…[checking target list]…Shanghai Expat, and how they are not an objective source on any number of topics.
Shanghai Expat has become, I believe (I almost never go over there) one of the top spots for expats living in Shanghai and probably in surrounding regions. The site can be quite useful in some cases, say if you want to find out about what bands are playing this weekend. Although, now that I think about it, Smart Shanghai is doing that, and probably doing it better. Hmm, this is a bit of a problem.
In any case, for some types of information, you should be wary about trusting Shanghai Expat. I shall explain.
The site is controlled by a number of small business owners, and they use the site to promote their companies and trash the competition. What types of businesses? Mandarin schools, restaurants, bars, and so on. I am not an insider and do not have a full list. If anyone knows of any other industries that are represented, please do tell us in comments.
If a user has a bad experience in their establishments, and posts about it, that post will be deleted. At the same time, posters (likely the owners’ employees, but let’s just call them sock puppets) will post positive reviews of the owners’ services or establishments. Is it a shitty thing to do? Yes, of course it is. A person with some minimal integrity would not act in this way. Hell, a confident, committed owner of a business would not stoop to such a low tactic. But, I will let the reader judge for themselves whether these practices (which are long-standing) are acceptable or not.
Looking for a good restaurant? Looking for a Mandarin school? Don’t trust the info you find on Shanghaiexpat.com. You will not find objective information there. Plain as that. The owners decided long ago that the site was only there to enrich themselves by tricking people and tearing down their competitors. I would expect that they then charge a higher price than their competition, knowing that they have increased the perception of value of their services by comparison, but I am not sure about that and have no interest in researching it. I paid for my Mandarin classes a long time ago, and am no longer in the market for more.
Why I am posting about this? No, I am not a competitor. I just believe that information should be free and fair, and a message board that a large number of users make valuable by posting there should treat those users with a basic level of respect, instead of treating them like suckers and using them for personal enrichment.