Standardize the evaluation of short videos to avoid misleading consumers
2024-07-29
With the rapid development of China's short video industry, a large number of third-party evaluation videos produced by video bloggers have emerged. The evaluation covers various fields such as food, beauty, electronics, and hotels, covering almost all aspects of people's clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Due to the vivid display of product quality attributes and actual experience, third-party evaluation videos have gradually become an important channel for consumers to obtain product information and judge the quality of products. However, problems also arise. Some evaluation bloggers exaggerate the effectiveness of their products in order to attract attention and gain traffic, and some even publish false content that misleads or deceives consumers through the integration of business and testing and the use of business to support testing. Experts and readers call for improving the standardization and scientificity of third-party evaluation videos, making them more authoritative and providing more valuable references for consumers' purchasing choices. The evaluation level is uneven. Not long ago, Ms. Qin from Chengdu, Sichuan, bought a liquid foundation after watching the video of a beauty evaluation blogger with tens of millions of fans. The blogger in the video holds the makeup for 8 hours after using the product, and claims that this liquid foundation is not only waterproof and scratch proof, but also has a certain skin care effect. Ms. Ke Qin found that the effect of the product was vastly different from the video promotion after receiving it. After using the product, not only did I not have the effect described in the video, but it also caused skin discomfort. It was only through offline medical treatment that I was able to improve, "said Ms. Qin. In daily life, there are many consumers who have experienced the same situation as Ms. Qin. At present, the vast majority of third-party evaluation videos widely spread on the internet are bloggers who compare the quality, functionality, design, ingredients, cost-effectiveness, and other aspects of their products through their own evaluations or referencing professional testing results, analyzing research data. Although it has a stronger subjectivity compared to authoritative institutions, its impact on consumers cannot be underestimated. Data shows that nearly 80% of consumers watch third-party review videos before purchasing goods. However, in the evaluation video, some bloggers lack professional evaluation skills and even add personal preferences to the evaluation. This type of evaluation content often fails to provide consumers with accurate and objective product information. Some readers have also reported that some review videos use the method of "stealing beams and changing pillars" to mislead consumers. Mr. Zhang, a netizen from Changsha, Hunan, reported that he booked a hotel based on the recommendation of a blogger on a short video platform. However, after checking in, he found that the room facilities were outdated and did not match the description in the video. When Mr. Zhang tried to negotiate with the hotel to change the room type in the video, the staff told him, "This room type is a special room type specially designed for filming videos, and the decorations in the video have also been replaced." "This evaluation video has over 100000 likes and reviews on online platforms, and there should be many consumers like me who come here for it. Mr. Zhu from Beijing followed several car review bloggers before purchasing a car. Some bloggers, in order to highlight the superiority of a certain brand's vehicles, test multiple models together. Although these comparison models are of the same price, they are all old models that are about to be replaced. Moreover, the evaluation video clearly states the advantages and disadvantages of other models, but only briefly mentions the disadvantages of the brand's car models that it is promoting, mainly focusing on the advantages. "Mr. Zhu said that he watched a blogger's evaluation on a certain video and purchased one of their main promoted models, but after buying it, he found that" the advantages were not wrong, but the disadvantages were not mentioned, and he felt misled. All of these, some consumers use third-party testing as an objective decision-making reference before purchasing goods, which turns out to be promotional advertisements for certain products or traffic products of bloggers, causing many consumers to exclaim that "watching review videos is better than not watching them". In fact, third-party evaluation videos not only affect consumers, but also have an impact on businesses and the market environment. Some review videos mislead consumers and even intentionally defame certain products or companies with an irresponsible attitude, which not only increases consumers' decision-making costs and purchasing risks, but also has a negative impact on the brand and reputation of the company, and undermines the fair competition business environment, "said Pang Jun, an associate professor at Renmin University of China Business School. The lack of impartiality, objectivity, and scientificity has led to a low authority of evaluation videos. Currently, there are numerous third-party evaluation video accounts on the internet, and evaluation methods and standards are diverse. Factors such as insufficient evaluation ability, unscientific evaluation methods, and subjective evaluation positions have affected the credibility of evaluation results. Analysis shows that there are multiple reasons for the unfairness of third-party evaluations, some of which are due to a lack of objective standards. For example, whether a skincare product is effective or not depends not only on the product itself, but also on the user's skin type, usage time, and frequency, which can affect the evaluation results Pang Jun believes that these evaluation bloggers may not be intentional subjectively, but rather due to the lack of unified evaluation standards, resulting in a lack of authority in the evaluations. At the same time, unscientific evaluation methods can also reduce the credibility of evaluations. Some evaluation bloggers lack professional knowledge or skills, resulting in distorted evaluation results. Mr. Zhang, a reader from Yinchuan City, Ningxia, said, "Some evaluation videos may overlook certain important features of the product or have misunderstandings about its usage, leading to incorrect conclusions and misleading consumers." "Due to the low threshold, many unqualified personnel or teams also enter the third-party evaluation field. If these evaluation accounts themselves do not have professional capabilities, the objectivity and fairness of the evaluation cannot be discussed," said Li Xiaoman, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University. Some review bloggers exaggerate the advantages, conceal defects, and even maliciously defame other products in their videos, which are actually commercial advertisements disguised as reviews. A typical case released by the China Consumers Association shows that a blogger's work is mainly focused on anti-counterfeiting, using subjective user experience evaluation methods to compare whether the product efficacy is consistent with the promotional effect. In the evaluation of products such as food processors, floor cleaning solutions, and voice controlled lights, setting up e-commerce platform redirect links directly for products with good test results clearly belongs to advertising behavior. Some review videos also use false reviews or malicious editing to earn traffic with sensational titles or conclusions. Li Xiaoman believes that "currently, many online platforms are oriented towards traffic. Under this logic, third-party evaluations will become distorted due to excessive commercialization, and problems such as false editing and malicious defamation will be difficult to avoid." Moreover, some "business testing integrated" merchants intentionally smear other brands in the same industry through unfair competition, causing serious adverse effects on the reputation of other enterprises. In a case heard by the Suzhou Internet Court in Jiangsu Province, an evaluation blogger released a series of evaluation videos on a brand of latex mattresses, latex pillows and other products from May to August 2023. In its video, the brand is described using phrases such as' selling garbage and bringing garbage to consumers'. After investigation, it was found that the operator of the evaluation account was another mattress company. In the end, the court ruled that the evaluation account should publicly apologize and compensate the other party for their economic losses. It is difficult for third-party evaluations to achieve fairness and impartiality by solely pursuing traffic or aiming to suppress competitors. In March 2023, after investigating 350 third-party evaluation accounts on 12 Internet platforms, the China Consumer Association found that 93.1% of third-party evaluations were suspected of having evaluation standard problems; 55.7% of third-party evaluations are suspected of having issues such as "integrating business testing" and "using business to support testing"; 37.2% of consumers have reported quality issues with products purchased through watching third-party review videos; 35.7% of third-party evaluations are suspected of false evaluations. At present, third-party evaluations in China seem to have formed a certain scale in terms of quantity, but there are very few that are truly objective and fair. Even some top evaluation agencies have been criticized for their business models. If not guided, it will be difficult for this industry to develop in a healthy manner, and it may ultimately become just a form of internet celebrity marketing Pang Jun said. Strengthening management and standardization to make third-party evaluation more fair and transparent. According to the investigation report of China Consumers Association, the third-party evaluation market in China is currently in the early stage of development, with low entry barriers and scattered market participants. Only 23.4% of accounts have legal person backgrounds. So, how to regulate and guide a large number of scattered personal accounts? In fact, truly independent and professional third-party evaluations can not only help consumers improve the quality of their decisions, but also provide timely feedback to businesses on their user experience, providing decision-making basis for them to improve their products. The dissemination of evaluation videos through the Internet can also make good products get higher attention, which is conducive to shaping a good market environment. Therefore, how to guide and regulate it, promote its effective service to consumers and enterprises, safeguard consumer rights, and improve the quality of enterprise products is the demand of consumers and the need to maintain a good business environment. Zhang Yusheng, a reader from Luohe City, Henan Province, suggests developing scientific and unified evaluation standards to ensure that third-party evaluations have clear guidelines and avoid the "chaotic playing of the piano" situation in evaluation accounts. In fact, there are already places where attempts have been made. On March 12th of this year, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission released the "Guidelines for Third Party Evaluation Work" group standard, which clarifies the evaluation procedures for goods and services, and the evaluation methods should be based on standard methods as the preferred method, that is, scientifically and reasonably selecting norms, indicators or methods from international, national, local and other standardized documents that have been published. Readers also call for third-party evaluators to enhance their own abilities and qualities. Evaluators must uphold an objective and impartial stance, avoiding any direct or indirect interest relationship with the evaluated enterprise. The evaluation team should possess professional knowledge and skills in the relevant field, have a deep understanding of product characteristics, and ensure the professionalism and accuracy of the evaluation results. Evaluation videos should also publicly disclose the standards, methods, processes, and data sources of the evaluation, so that consumers and the public can clearly understand how the evaluation is conducted and enhance credibility, "said Wang Qi, a reader in Alshan City, Inner Mongolia. Pang Jun believes that "third-party evaluation needs to balance the relationship between independence and profitability. Third party evaluation must address the issue of business models, that is, how to achieve profitability without engaging in commercial interests with enterprises or consumers. By solving this problem, third-party evaluation will have the confidence to maintain authenticity, scientificity, and fairness." Online platforms should also take responsibility and not only pursue "traffic is king. Short video platforms need to strengthen their review and supervision. For example, they require third-party evaluation accounts to provide qualification certificates, disclose the basis for selecting evaluation standards, and make commitments that have no interest relationship with the companies related to the evaluated products. At the same time, they should open up channels for consumer complaints and reports, and impose punishment measures such as banning and closing illegal accounts after obtaining certificates, "said Pang Jun. Due to the current low entry threshold, certain measures should be taken to distinguish between official authoritative evaluations and spontaneous evaluations by the public Li Xiaoman proposed to classify evaluation videos on short video platforms through the setting of "tagging", such as dividing them into "third" categories
Edit：He Chuanning Responsible editor：Su Suiyue
Source：People's Daily
Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email：lwxsd@liaowanghn.com
Recommended Reading Change it 
Home
