Temasek-backed Chinese travel site denies ‘copy data’ accusation

Mafengwo, a major travel social networking site (SNS) in China, on Monday denied an accusation it was “copying data from its competitors’ database,” saying the claim represents an organized attack.

“It’s a distorted accusation, and has been verified as an organized attack. We will take legal measures to protect our rights and interests,” the company said in a statement on its Sina Weibo account.

In a We-media article published on WeChat on Saturday, a writer named Ziquan and a data analysis team named Hurui data, said that Mafengwo has used numerous fake user comments, which are copied from competitors of the website, to lure clients.

“As a travel website depends on users’ comments, 18 million comments out of a total 21 million are fake ones copied from its competitors such as Dianping and Ctrip. Comments are the website’s core assets,” the article said.

The China Economic Daily commented on the issue on Sunday, saying if the allegation is verified, it (Mafengwo) breached the law.

Mafengwo, which means hornet's nest in Chinese, is an online community for Chinese tourists to share travel tips and shop for personalized travel products.

In the company’s statement, it said that fake comments only account for 2.91 percent of the total, and its platform barely has any fake or zombie accounts.

Mafengwo, whose market value is about 17.5 billion yuan ($2.5 billion), said that it will examine review loopholes in the operational process and make improvements.

Mafengwo announced last December that its investors include General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm; Ocean Link, a private equity firm focused on the fast-growing travel and tourism sector in China and Singaporebased investment company Temasek.