Social media marketing firm Gushcloud refutes blogger Xiaxue's accusations

Social media marketing company Gushcloud has responded to accusations by local blogger Xiaxue (pictured) that it engaged in questionable practices. -- PHOTO: ST FILE
Social media marketing company Gushcloud has responded to accusations by local blogger Xiaxue (pictured) that it engaged in questionable practices. -- PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Social media marketing company Gushcloud has responded to accusations by local blogger Xiaxue that it engaged in questionable practices.

In a lengthy blog post put up on Wednesday, Gushcloud's chief executive and co-founder Vincent Ha refuted each of the key points listed by Xiaxue that called his company's integrity into question.

Xiaxue, whose real name is Wendy Cheng, ran a blog post spanning close to 30 pages on Tuesday claiming to have an expose on Gushcloud, which represents a number of bloggers.

Her allegations concerned the company's earnings, its YouTube views and subscriptions, and its bloggers' page views.

Mr Ha rejected claims that his company made its bloggers mask advertisements as unpaid content.

He also posted several statistics and figures of some of its bloggers to rebut claims that their page view numbers were exaggerated and rebuffed allegations that it bought YouTube views.

Mr Ha however admitted that the "inflated" earnings of his company, as reported in a 2012 news article, was an "honest mistake" that he was not aware of previously.

Mr Ha wrote: "If there's anything to be guilty of, it's that I'm human to a fault."

He reiterated that all the allegations made against him and his company were untrue.

Mr Ha ended the post with "live and let live".

Speaking to The Straits Times, Mr Ha said that Gushcloud will not be pursuing the matter further. "It's the holiday season, and we have no intention of making this matter into more than it is," he said.

"At the end of the day, we just want to make peace."

mklee@sph.com.sg

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