Popular Taiwanese blogger HoneyQueen exposed
Blogging is huge in Taiwan! As I wrote already in one of my previous posts, almost every young Taiwanese has a blog or a Wretch account, where they post photos (and usually a lot of photos). So a nation of bloggers naturally produces few very popular bloggers, so called "blogger celebrities". Currently the most popular blogger in Taiwan is Benshee (aka flowermonkey 花猴), a twenty-something girl that writes about her life, makeup, clothes, travel and restaurants and has around 100.000 visitors a day! Yes! That's right: Hundred thousand a day. At this point I'd need about 6 months to reach that number and some bloggers would need years to have such traffic. And in Taiwan there's an unofficial rule, that a blogger earns the same amount of money per post as the number of their daily hits. For example, it's rumored that Benshee would currently get 100.000 NTD per post, if a company asked her to promote a product on her blog. That's around 2500 Euro per post (or around 3400USD). Imagine, she writes 5 posts and she can buy a new car with cash. This shows that blogging can be a big business in Taiwan and few are making some big bucks just by becoming popular.
But this post is not meant to write about Benshee, I want to tell you what has recently happened to one of her friends, who is also a popular blogger. Her nickname is HoneyQueen (林哈妮) and her blog has around 30.000 hits a day. That's of course a lot of traffic as well and gives her the chance to advertise various products by reviewing them and recommending them. And as the unwritten rule goes, she could well charge up to 30.000 NTD (which is around 750 Euro or 1000 USD) for a post. From what I heard, the things she recommended on her blog really sold well and some of her readers are (or were) real fans of her and would flood the shop or store she would write about on her blog. So it was a win-win situation for her and the company. But then something happened. She wrote a product review about a skin care product that supposedly removes pimples and she posted before and after photos. But one of her readers found out that she used a makeup foundation in her after photo to cover the pimple for the (nonexistent) effect.
The person who found that out, made an anonymous blog just to expose her and highlighted all the mistakes she made, you can see that here. For example: HoneyQueen claimed the before and after photos were 4 days apart, but the data proves that she first put make up on and took a photo and later used it as the after photo. Then she gradually removed the make up from the pimple and took more photos, which she used for the before photos. All photos were taken within few minutes, if the data is accurate. Also on both photos she's wearing the same clothes, her eyes look similarly red and her eye lashes also look the same way (if you zoom in the photos). After this was leaked, people started to check her older reviews and found out that she's done similar things in the past: Her credibility was instantly tarnished. Not only that, the Taiwanese mass media started to report the incident which lead to HoneyQueen's apology on her blog. However she only apologized for this latest incident and not for all the reviews she has faked in the past. From what I've heard, she's going on a hiatus until further notice. So far, no companies have claimed their money back, but at this point nobody is willing to promote their product on her blog, which is of course not surprising. What will happen with her blog in the future, we don't know, but these days, her traffic and popularity is constantly in decline (here's a Taiwanese blog rank). For now she's definitely lost her face and hopes that the media will quickly divert their attention to someone else.
And here's an irony: HoneyQueen herself once exposed a blogger, who did exactly the same thing by faking the effect of some diet medicine. I guess what goes around comes around.
What do you think about all this? Did you ever notice a blogger faked or exaggerated the effect of a product? How do you review products?
Update: Now even Benshee a.k.a. FlowerMonkey has apologized for not clearly explaining a photo of a product's effect and vowed to abide by much higher standards, when it comes to advertizing products on her blog. (We can only hope that will be the case...)
[A TV report on the incident][Photo: Source]
23 KAFKAESQUE COMMENTS:
Not really into product reviews but still, these bloggers should uphold the ethics of blogging and not to abuse it as a platform to fool potential customers. You have the right to earn money through blogging, but you gotta do this with integrity.
This aside, I hope I get 1% of her daily readers! 100,000 readers a day for a blogger that cheats. DAMN.
January 23, 2011 1:52 AM
Amazing how huge blogging is over there. A different world from ours.
January 23, 2011 2:07 AM
@kyh: I think the problem is that most of these creams don't have a very clear effect, but if you get paid, you can't say that, right? So some of them fake it, some more, some less.. I'm close to that 1%, hehe :P
@hida.takayama: Yes.. Blogging is huge there, it's a nation of 23 million and almost all young people (from teen age on) are online and read blogs. Then it's no wonder, that the traffic is so big on some blogs.
January 23, 2011 2:10 AM
Wow, that's really big traffic! I think that here there are not so many bloggers interested in big traffic only to post adds on them and cash money! Nothing wrong with this but one has to respect some rules of ethics!
January 23, 2011 3:18 AM
@Traveling Hawk: I agree with your statement.
January 23, 2011 3:38 AM
I've only ever really bought products that were highly raved about by two youtube gurus that I trust (because I took a chance at one of their product reviews and it worked super well for me). Other than that I only trust my sisters opinions and I always double check reviews with sites like makeupalley if it's a beauty product I'm looking into. But products are products - what may work well for the majority of the population who's tried it, it might not work so well for an odd person here and there.
No, I don't pay attention to many blogs...blogging takes up so much time that I now only visit the bloggers who comment on my blog (as a follow up). So I don't notice if someone has faked a review or such...the few bloggers who follow me are reputable bloggers in my eyes and wouldn't do such a thing.
I review products with honesty. Why not?!
January 23, 2011 7:44 AM
Wow that's a bit of high drama righ there.
I wonder if us English bloggers in Taiwan will ever get a slice of the Taiwanese blogging culture pie.
Certainly there's the occasional minor crossover between Chinese and English Taiwan blogs but nothing mainstream I think. Unless of course something hits the media like HoneyQueen's story.
On one hand I see celebrities endorsing crap everywhere in Taiwan so I'm not surprised bloggers are (dishonestly) doing it too.
I have a hard time believing all the celebrities use all the products they promote over here.
Still, if you're able to do an honest and interesting review then why not?
Personally though I think you've really got to balance the content as realistically only young girls are going to be able to pull of a blog with nothing but reviews on it.
100,000 readers? There's a lot of lonely guys in Taiwan.
January 23, 2011 3:20 PM
Wow, nino how do you know all the update stuff form Taiwan blogger? You're more Taiwanese then me heheh. I don't konow how she going to be a blogger again after this.
January 23, 2011 4:34 PM
My late dad's favorite words to me ~信用是本錢. Money just cannot buy back the trust for honeyqueen. Oh she did to one blogger and now she got it back in return. Dont play play with the universal law. Sorry dunno how to 'spell' in Chinese its about shaving someone's head and eventually being shaved by others.
January 23, 2011 6:53 PM
@Karen: I think makeup is hard to fake, but products are a different thing. You're right, always better to check multiple sources, if possible. And not every product has the same effect on everyone that uses them, good point.
@OzSoapbox: I don't think English bloggers will be as popular as any of these top Taiwan bloggers, unless:
They write in Chinese, do or say something extraordinary (or controversial), are open to be exposed (and scrutinized) by the media. And they need a bit of a luck. The top bloggers are mostly 20 something women of the sort I'm describing in the article. Guys usually have high traffic in the geeky blogs group about computers, internet, gadgets. They can have the highest traffic, but they don't expose themselves, it's more about the content. Also guys who write gossip blogs with pics of hot women are popular and have high traffic, but that's about it. I let my gf translate my "Visit Taipei" post into Chinese and a celeb found it and linked to my post, I had over 200 Taiwanese readers on my blog non-stop for several hours (7500 visits that day). That's still my personal record and showed me how powerful the Taiwanese readership is. But I wrote that post for few months, it is an exceptional piece for a blog post. I can't imagine that simple stuff like "My friends went to eat ice cream" would give a foreigner such traffic, even if it's in Chinese. I've come across some foreigners writing in Chinese, but they don't update a lot, don't promote well and it's just text. Taiwanese like text and photos and something they can relate to. I think I'm gonna use this comment for a future blog post, your question gave me a lot to think about :)
@Sarah: Well, I have an insider, a spy.. by the name Lily, hehe.. When we chat online, I usually ask what's going on there in the media and she shares the stuff. Sometimes then I say: I wanna blog about it :)
@Bananazஇ: That's very well said. I think she'll still have many visitors on her blog, but she won't promote stuff, that could be faked ;)
January 23, 2011 8:11 PM
haha... totally busted...
That sucks that she was not being very honest in her reviews. -__-;
I guess it shows you can only do it for so long until people find out.
Really interesting stuff you mentioned though. :P
I always like to learn more about what happening in the world of blogging! :P
I hope people can read your post and remember to be honest when they blog. :P
p.s. haha! Nice! did your Lily make you try the nose pore pack? :P
January 24, 2011 6:37 PM
@*~kAy~*: Yeah, busted big time. Honesty does pay off in the long term, but I guess it's not so good for business =.= No, we haven't tried yet, maybe when I'm back in Taiwan :P
January 24, 2011 6:50 PM
Hey Hun! Oh, nothing to clear up at all - I hope I didn't come off as rude in my response comment. I typed it out sort of half laughing to myself...I thought I should point that out to you :)
Yep, usually if a product (skincare say) doesn't work for me, I pass it onto one of my sisters and it usually works fabulous for them. So that's always nice to fall back on - that if I try a product and it doesn't work for me that I have someone who I can happily pass it onto and my sisters are always happy to get something off my hands for free LOL
How is your paperwork coming along for immigrating to Taiwan?
January 25, 2011 1:17 AM
Nino, I'm seriously glad she got exposed.. before she falsely promoted more products and wasted more people's money. It's a shock for me to hear these things, I guess because I really depend on other beauty bloggers for product recommendations and assume that they would only promote things they truly believe in. It's just the whole moral of how people should be honest!
Btw thanks for the well wishes :) You're totally right.. my immune system is really horrible right now. I also never thought I could get sick so soon.. a week after I just recovered from last time :(
January 25, 2011 3:52 AM
@Karen (Canada): No, it's fine, I took it lightly, don't worry. I'm very close to Taiwan, need few more weeks and I'm there :)
@Karen (USA): You're right. So one needs to be careful, I'm sure she's not the only one who did that. Even less famous or popular bloggers may do it, so just try to check multiple sources.
Really rooting for you. Get better soon, Karen :)
January 25, 2011 7:35 AM
wow... trust gone, credibility gone
January 26, 2011 12:11 AM
@Lily: The question is: For how long?
January 26, 2011 9:28 PM
The updated news is, honeyqueen's best blogger friend FlowerMoney (花猴) was suspicious for making fake reviews, too. Flowermonkey said those pics on those posts are just sample pictures, not showing the real effects after using the reviewed products. And she published a serious post for apologizing to make a bad model of blogger. She also said she would be careful and write reviews honestly, but she has closed her comments from that apologized post.
However, I think her trust was really gone...
January 28, 2011 6:02 PM
@LilyChen: I did update the post and mentioned it. Thanks for sharing :) Seems many bloggers did that. Now they need to be careful, or they will lose the trust... and money.
January 29, 2011 8:34 PM
Incredible surprise: A blog for promoting products has a fake review.
Okay, from today on I will stop reading blogs. Instead I will trust what the advertisements in the TV tell me.
To add some substance to my comment: Recent research has shown, people who are successful in money matters lie more often and are also more convincing liars, when compared to average people.
Feel free to draw your own conclusions....
January 31, 2011 8:49 PM
@Junjie: Hope that research didn't lie.
January 31, 2011 9:01 PM
I always want to know about blogger in Taiwan, but most of it always in Chinese.
Great that I found yours.
I am intended to improve my blog so it will be have more traffic, like yours.
May 16, 2011 8:02 PM
@Octa: Thanks for your comment. You can read my "About Young People of Taiwan" post, it's quite famous. You find it under "Uniquely Taiwan". I'm mentioning more Taiwanese bloggers there :)
Glad I inspired you to get more traffic.
May 16, 2011 9:04 PM
Post a Kafkaesque comment!