Travel review website Mafengwo has come under fire after it was accused of copying users' comments from online travel operators or lifestyle services platforms by a we media on WeChat. 

The we media citing a data company called Hurui said 18 million out of 21 million comments about Mafengwo were plagiarized from industry competitors such as Ctrip and dianping.com. 

It said the data company sampled a third of the 1.16 million restaurants listed on Mafengwo, and found 7,454 copying accounts, each copying several thousand comments from websites such as Ctrip, Meituan, Agoda, Yelp and eLong. 

In total, 5.72 million comments in the catering area and 12.21 million comments in the hotel field were copied, accounting for 85 percent of all comments on Mafengwo's website, the we media said. 

It also said the number of comments on Mafengwo plummeted at weekends and users seemed to be more active during working hours rather than at meal times. 

Mafengwo said comments only account for 2.91 percent of its data, with the majority travel guides, tips, stories and Q&As in a statement released on Monday morning. 

The number of accounts involved in suspected fake comments was few and has been cleared, the travel review website said in the statement. 

Mafengwo clears 26,000 illegal ads and removes 15,000 illegal accounts from its website on average every week, it said, adding that the accusation was misleading and against the facts.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)