TITLE: Backlash in China over WeChat’s targeted adverts

Article:
With paranoia growing around the world about the reach of targeted Facebook ads and Google’s big data, the opposite seems to be happening in China, where this week users of one social network are protesting against “discrimination” by information-gathering bots.

How some users but not others were chosen to view a BMW advertisement has generated a backlash on WeChat the hit chat app that boasts 468m users. But rather than privacy being their main concern, many complained of the humiliation of having their data mined, and then ignored.

“I’ve been refreshing over and over again but still no BMW ad . . . today my spirits are in the dumps,” said one WeChatter. “Do I not even qualify to see the BMW ads?”

The ad marks the first time Shenzhen-based internet giant Tencent has tried to make money from its app, which has had phenomenal success after launching in 2011. Targeted at specific users, according to Tencent, it was intended to demonstrate the awesome power of big data combined with social media.

On Sunday evening, WeChat’s users noticed one of three ads had popped up in their feeds. One group, which it later came to be presumed were the classiest, richest — and probably also the best-looking — was shown the BMW ad. Others got an ad from mobile phone company Vivo or — even worse — from Coca-Cola.

Rumblings of discontent appeared immediately. “Even Tencent has discovered that I can only afford Coke, and that I’ll never in my life drive a BMW,” complained one WeChat user whose handle is Charles III.

The Coca-Cola crowds began to refer to themselves jokingly as “Diao” (losers), while a lucky, high-status few gleefully posted screenshots of the BMW ad, which features the Chinese character for delight. According to news portal Yicai.com, the ads cost the German carmaker Rmb5m ($800,000). BMW declined to comment.

Theories abound as to what criteria were used to target the ads — some found that Apple IOS users received the most BMW ads, other rumours were that it was only sent to users aged 19-50 and in tier-one cities, or to those who had spent above a certain threshold in mobile payments. Most pernicious was the idea that the algorithm actually judged users on how good-looking and successful they were based on profile pictures and who they knew.

“I know some people who were genuinely wounded when they didn’t get the BMW ads,” said Xin Haiguang, a technology blogger who was not entirely convinced that WeChat even targeted users based on their data. “It could have been completely random.”

“But people want to believe these things, and no one will deny it,” he added. “It has traded on the Chinese status anxiety. People here actually like to know where they stand.”

While some felt they were being assigned to an inferior social caste, others were clearly poking fun at the whole spectacle, such as WeChat user Ball-dribbler Pikachu, who wrote: “I don’t even have room in my garage for another car anyways, but Tencent should not disrespect me like that!”

Other users complained that the problem was not that their private information had been ransacked by an impersonal algorithm looking to stick them on a bell curve of disposable income, rather it was that they thought WeChat’s software did not do a very good job — it actually was not Orwellian enough.

“I’m a nouveau riche in a top-tier city using an Apple 6 plus and I didn’t receive the BMW ads,” said another WeChatter, named Vashin. “So I’m going to buy a Mercedes.”