Business is always about profit but when profits meet ethics, which one is more important? Of course ethics!
Recently, with the development of scientific technology and wild use of Internet, online review becomes a more important way for customers to get information. At the same time, all companies find the opportunity of marketing. Instead of TV advertisements and billboards on the streets, online review is more convenient and cheaper. For companies, the low-cost and effective way of advertising is a great choice to let people be more familiar with the brands. However, for customers, as online review becomes a platform of advertising, it’s hard to get and take apart useful information, and force people to spend more time searching for other results.
Internet makes life convenient. At the same time, because of some particularity of the Internet, here come some problems as well. For example, we can get lots of information through online review in a second, but we are not sure if the information is true or false. It is necessary to establish online ethical standard.
I totally agree with the statement that Google and UrbanSpoon are going to take some effect to help with fake online review. It will help people get useful information in a short time and keep a great order of the whole market. Although Google and UrbanSpoon may not deal with all fake review, they already help a lot. Apart from making people save time, the companies also create shared value as well. And I hope that more and more similar companies will join.
Picture from: http://www.southeasternbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ethics.jpg
Work cited
Megan Griffith-Greene,Marketplace investigation uncovers thriving industry behind fake online reviews, Nov 07, 2014<file:///Users/zhangjinyuan/Library/Safari/ReadingListArchives/CD7D1F50-7386-4795-966E-9A8E17AE9089/Page.webarchive>