In accordance with China’s National Consumer
Rights day on Monday, Sohu is hosting in
partnership with China Consumer News a month-long Web-based consumer
complaints desk called the “315 Consumer Rights Network.”
The 315 Web site was produced to encourage China’s consumers to report
false product claims and faulty merchandise to the appropriate government
officials via the Internet. The channel will only operate until the end of
March.
According to Sohu, one week into the month long promotion, more than 500
complaints have been filed by 315 Web site visitors.
The 315 Consumer Network includes details on consumer rights and
protection regulations, a consumer guide to file product complaints,
contact information for the Chinese Consumer Association and other
related groups, consumer complaint case studies, and Web-based platform for
filing product complaints.
“This cooperative effort by Sohu and China Consumer News is a bold
experiment,” said Sohu executive, Jian Feng Chen, “We are granting Chinas
2.1 million Web users
an opportunity to quickly and conveniently exercise their consumer
rights via the Internet.”
“The main purpose of this Web site is to
introduce the concept of consumer rights to a mass audience,” added Jian,
“Even after this promotion is over, everyday should be National Consumer
Rights
Day.”
Sohu is one China’s top portals and boasts at having over a half a million
page
views a day.
The portal was created by Internet Technologies China (ITC), a
Beijing-based Internet start-up originally backed by MIT professors and
scholars.
Sohu’s offices were earlier this year raided by Chinese security officials
because of an alleged inadvertent link to a pornographic site, local
Chinese language papers have reported.
Some sources have indicated that the Beijing authorities were in reality
not happy with Net guru and former Sohu partner Nicholas Negraponte’s
comments that encouraged “disrespect for authority” during a January visit
to Beijing – a trip sponsored by Sohu.
