China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

Baidu Scandal Brings Business Ethics to the Forefront

Chinese search engine Baidu is under scrutiny after the death of a 21-year-old cancer patient. Many netizens blame Baidu for offering advertised space to fraudulent doctors. At the core of the Baidu Scandal lies the question: to what extent is Baidu responsible for the health of Chinese netizens?

Published

9 years ago

May 3, 2016

Manya Koetse

China’s biggest search engine Baidu is under scrutiny after the death of a 21-year-old cancer patient who was allegedly given false hope for getting better because of Baidu’s paid search results. Many netizens blame Baidu for offering advertised space to fraudulent doctors. At the core of the online discussion lies the question: to what extent is Baidu responsible for the health of China’s netizens?

Wei Zexi (魏则西) was a 21-year old student suffering a rare form of cancer called synovial sarcoma. After several unsuccessful treatments, he turned to search engine Baidu. Through one of Baidu’s paid results, Wei found a treatment at the Beijing Armed Police Corps No. 2 Hospital (武警二院) he thought could help him. According to CRI News, his friends and family came up with the 200,000 RMB (31,000US$) for the treatment, that later turned out to be ineffective and highly contested. Wei Zexi has since passed away last month.

The Wei Zexi Incident

The matter became trending on Sina Weibo on May 2 under the hashtag of ‘The Wei Zexi Incident’ (#魏则西事件#), with thousands of netizens blaming Baidu for offering a platform to shady health care providers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the treatment that was advertised on Baidu was promoted as “the world’s most advanced”.

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The family of Wei Zexi is heartbroken after the student’s death. Chinese media posted multiple pictures of the day of Wei Zexi’s funeral.

Before Wei Zexi died, he posted his story on China’s popular Q&A website Zhihu on February 26. In his post, he strongly criticized the hospital that treated him, and also condemned Baidu for providing them a platform. The post attracted many reactions in late February, and resurged now that news of Wei’s death became trending.

Chinese news site The Paper spoke to Wei’s mother, who told them that Wei had not posted his critique to make money, but for the sake of warning others not to rely on Baidu for medical information.

Paid Search

Baidu (百度, literally meaning: ‘hundred times’) is China’s equivalent to Google – which is blocked in mainland China. Although there are multiple search engine services in China, such as Sogou or 360, Baidu is the market leader. Similar to Google’s ‘Adwords’, Baidu makes big money by offering different kinds of advertising, including so-called Paid Search.

For Paid Search, advertisers can choose keywords that potential customers may use to search the products or services they offer. Their ads are then displayed at the top of the ‘related search’ result lists.

When searching for ‘the flu’ on Baidu, for example, search results will include an ad for Vicks and different links to medical clinics selling medicine or providing treatment. In Wei’s case, when he searched for his rare type of cancer, he got different sites promoting the treatment at the Beijing hospital. Only when one takes a closer look it says in small characters that it concerns a link that is ‘promoted’ (Paid Search).

zhihu

It is different for Google Adwords, that has stricter policies about the promotion of healthcare and medicine on Google services:

googlehealthcare

Baidu’s social responsibility

This is the second time this year that Baidu is under scrutiny for its business ethics when it comes to advertising and medical information.

According to an online survey by Sina News, nearly half of China’s netizens (47.5%) think that Baidu should not allow medical care institutions to advertise on its search engine pages. 38.4% of the surveyees say that Baidu should inspect the quality of hospitals that appear in their search results. Only 2.8% of participants say that Baidu had no responsibility in the matter.

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Many Weibo netizens vent their frustrations about Baidu and hope for a return of Google to China: “If Google would come back to China, I would never use Baidu again,” one netizen says. Other commenters remark: “Compared to Baidu, I have more trust in Google,” and: “Let Google come back!”

There are also netizens who think it is unfair that Baidu gets all the blame for fraudulent hospitals. “Why is Baidu being targeted for something that our administration system should be responsible for?”

Drop in stocks

For Baidu, the scandal is not over yet; its CEO will be summoned by Chinese authorities for further investigation of Baidu’s business ethics. The Baidu scandal has also affected the company’s stocks, that dropped almost 8 per cent after the incident.

baidu drop

For many netizens, the ‘Wei Zexi Incident’ has gone beyond Baidu, and is now about the limitations of China’s internet in general. As one netizen says: “People used to say, ‘we don’t need Google – we’ve got Baidu, we don’t need Facebook because we have Weibo, we don’t need YouTube, we’ve got Youku – it’s ok, it’s not like we could die for using China’s own internet!’ But apparently, we can die for using it.”

– By Manya Koetse
Follow @WhatsOnWeibo

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Featured image: by Weibo user Duanzi.

Related Topics:Baidu China Big Tech china business

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Manya Koetse

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to content, including the Weibo Watch newsletter, which provides deeper insights into the China trends that matter. More about Manya at manyakoetse.com or follow on X.

1 Comment

Rob

May 4, 2016 at 1:24 am

Baidu has issues; it is absolutely China-biased, and while the advert system may not be as strict, the same procedure would show up in the list of options and alternatives no matter what.

What Wei is not doing is taking responsible for his own short-comings, and what should be at the fore here is the lack of effective researching and critical thinking skills taught to students. I had to institute researching and citation as a course for my freshmen because it did not exist and no one taught it until maybe their 4th year; this is certainly lacking in education.

On top of this, many Chinese medical practices are questionable in general; there are doctors who promote C-sections even knowing that natural birth is preferred and has fewer complications because it is more profitable; other doctors are promoting a pharmacological solution to problems that do not need them because it is more profitable; doctors take bribes to arrange for treatments (a friend who severed his patellar ligament in Beijing had to pay 2000 RMB in gas cards to just to get into a hospital bed, even though he had insurance to cover all the expenses of the surgery and hospital stay). This to me is less an issue of Baidu and more an issue of a profit-driven, eminently corrupt, and generally ignorant medical system (and I say this as someone with a medical background who has had to use the system in Beijing both for myself and with friends).

Wei was foolish; where was his due diligence? Yes, I get that he was dying and looking for solutions, but how may solutions did he look for? Did he check this procedure with other doctors at other hospitals? Or, like many of my students, did he simply jump on the first answer he found and followed it through to its natural result?

If anything, this shows shortcomings in both medicine and education. Let’s stop pointing the finger at Baidu (it’s a shitty carpenter who blames his tools) and start pointing the finger where it belongs.

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China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

Wahaha and Jinmailang: the Bottled Water OEM Controversy

Published

1 month ago

May 16, 2025

Manya Koetse

What’s in your water? Would a water by any other name taste as good? That’s the main gist of the topic that’s been trending these days after Chinese consumers found out the Wahaha water they purchased was actually produced by Jinmailang, calling it an ‘OEM controversy’ (OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer).

Wahaha Group (娃哈哈集团) is one of the largest food and beverage producers in China. The brand is a beloved one—last year in March, when its founder and chairman Zong Qinghou (宗庆后) passed away, people collectively began buying Wahaha water to show sympathy for the brand and for Zong, who was seen as a patriotic and humble businessman.

Big bottle of Wahaha (meaning “laughing child”) water.

In fact, that movement to pay tribute to Wahaha got a bit out of hand and turned into a grassroots campaign to boycott another water brand: Nongfu Spring, a competitor whose founder, Chinese entrepreneur Zhong Shanshan (钟睒睒), was not considered as patriotic (read more here).

Now, a different kind of ‘controversy’ is unfolding around China’s famous bottled water brand, directly related to last year’s sales boom. Chinese netizens have posted videos and images claiming that the Wahaha purified water they bought was actually produced by Jinmailang (今麦郎)—as stated on the label.

Wahaha water, produced by Jinmailang (今麦郎).

Jinmailang is an entirely separate food enterprise group—mostly known for its noodles—based in Xingtai, Hebei, since 1994. Both Wahaha and Jinmailang produce purified water (纯净水).

The fact that Jinmailang was mentioned on Wahaha’s labels as the producer raised questions: why bother buying Wahaha at all? Consumers might as well buy Jinmailang directly instead of these relabeled bottles? Wahaha is generally more expensive than Jinmailang’s own Blue Label water.

Wahaha’s customer service soon responded, confirming that they had indeed outsourced some of their production to Jinmailang. However, that partnership was terminated in April of this year after certain batches of purified water products failed to pass factory sampling tests (#娃哈哈称已终止和今麦郎代工合作#).

Customer service staff also stated that as long as Wahaha products are purchased through official channels, they comply with Wahaha’s quality standards and are safe to drink.

On May 16, Xinhua News published an interview with Fan Xianguo (范现国), the chairman of Jinmailang, about serving as an OEM for Wahaha. Without mentioning the termination of the partnership, Fan stated that last year, Wahaha’s bottled water sales suddenly soared, and that they began searching for companies that could support them during these peak times while adhering to their strict quality requirements – otherwise they would not be able to meet market demand.

Producing 1.2 billion bottles of water for Wahaha. Jinmailang’s xinua interview.

Jinmailang stepped in around June 2024, promising to support Wahaha’s production. During the peak season, they even prioritized Wahaha’s orders over their own. Over the course of a year, they produced 1.2 billion bottles of water for the company. Speaking about their own brand, Fan stated that they keep their prices as low as possible by minimizing their profits. One bottle of water only gives them 0.02 RMB ($0,0028) profit.

The interview seemed to cause a shift in online sentiments. Many netizens now praised Jinmailang for its response and for stepping in, viewing the cooperation as an example of domestic brands supporting one another.

Some suggested that Wahaha had betrayed Jinmailang by emphasizing the termination of their contract rather than acknowledging how the company had stepped in to help during a time of need.

At the same time, others applauded how Jinmailang turned the situation to its advantage by using it as an opportunity to promote its own brand.

“I’m switching to Jinmailang from now on, it’s way more cost-effective!” one comment read.

Especially since last year’s “water wars”, it’s clear that consumers’ choice of water is about more than quenching thirst alone — it’s also about which brand’s story resonates with them. As the peak season for bottled water is approaching, the OEM controversy comes at an especially unfortunate time for Wahaha. It’s Jinmailang that now seems to be having the last laugh in this OEM controversy.

By Manya Koetse

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China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

‘Lai Dou Lai Le’: IShowSpeed Debuts in Chinese Online Commercial

Published

1 month ago

May 8, 2025

Manya Koetse

🔥 A version of this story also appeared in the Weibo Watch newsletter. Subscribe to stay in the loop.

The China tour of American Youtube star IShowSpeed (Darren Watkins Jr.) is still echoing on Chinese social media—the hype hasn’t quieted down just yet, especially now that the popular livestreamer launched his very first Chinese commercial recently, just before the May Day holiday.

It’s an online commercial for China’s dairy giant Yili, and—in line with IShowSpeed’s high-energy livestream—it is entertainingly chaotic. Watkins himself posted the video on his Weibo account on April 30.

In China, Watkins is known as 甲亢哥 (Jiǎ Kàng Gē), which literally means “Hyperthyroidism Brother.” Hyperthyroidism is a condition where the thyroid is overactive, leading to symptoms like restlessness, a rapid heartbeat, and high energy levels. Due to Watkins’ fast-paced livestreams and his reputation for running, screaming, and jumping around, the nickname is a tongue-in-cheek reference that fits him well.

The commercial also suits him, as it is a bit of a rollercoaster. It begins like a typical celebrity endorsement, with Watkins promoting a dairy drink, but quickly shifts into a quirky narrative. In it, Watkins appears god-like, watching over people from a mountaintop and encouraging them to try new things. The ad then morphs into a music video before ending with some inspirational words from the YouTuber himself. Watch the commercial here.

The slogan used in the commercial is “lái dōu lái le” (来都来了), along with the English tagline “Enjoy milk, enjoy holiday.”

“Lái dōu lái le” (来都来了) is a simple phrase that basically means “You’re already here,” and implies a light-hearted “Why not?” to encourage people to go on and do something (since you’ve come this far), or try something new.

Dao Insights’ Yimin Wang explained it as having a positive and daring tone to try new things that you’d otherwise “wouldn’t, couldn’t, or even shouldn’t,” much like “YOLO” from the early 2010s (link).

On Xiaohongshu, typical responses to the commercial describe it as “creative” and “cute.” More notably, many users see it as proof of how successful Watkins’ tour in China has been. “He’s like a native celebrity in China now,” one commenter remarked.

By Manya Koetse

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