Tencent Gets USD2.9 Million in WeChat Click Farm Lawsuit
Zhang Yushuo
DATE:  Sep 22 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Tencent Gets USD2.9 Million in WeChat Click Farm Lawsuit Tencent Gets USD2.9 Million in WeChat Click Farm Lawsuit

(Yicai Global) Sept. 22 -- Tencent Holdings has successfully sued a click farm on its social messaging app WeChat to the tune of CNY20 million (USD2.9 million) for false advertising and unfair competition, the Chinese internet giant said on its WeChat account yesterday.

The defendant earned nearly CNY5 million in kickback payments by hiring WeChat users to drive up the number of clicks on articles, comments and votes on the app’s official accounts and mini programs in order to gain favor from advertisers. The practice, while relatively common, is banned by Chinese law.

The defendant has damaged the WeChat ecology, and its click farming services have harmed content creation and output, created a bad competitive atmosphere, impaired the interests of other legal operators and reduced WeChat data’s trustworthiness, the Shenzhen Immediate People’s Court ruled.

The defendant, which was not named, must post a statement on Tencent’s homepage to reduce the incident’s impact, the Shenzhen-based firm said.

Editor: Kim Taylor

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Keywords:   Tencent,Wechat,lawsuit